startling, awful peal of thunder, the dying man on the actual page where the reference occurs. suddenly raised his head', but omits to point out Short-title references are also frequently irritating, its extraordinary significance: if the report is accur- since one sometimes has to wade through over a ate, Beethoven's very last act was to respond to hundred previous notes to find the full title; the sound, thus proving that he never became com- addition of a phrase such as 'see note 26' after each pletely deaf. Similarly, Gibbs quotes Grillparzer's short title would greatly help. Perhaps these fea- recollection that he heard the news of Beethoven's tures could be improved for the next composer death while writing his funeral oration and was so 'and his World'. overwhelmed that he 'could not complete the BARRY COOPER oration as weightily as I had begun it'. Gibbs does not, however, proceed to examine the oration Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ml/article/82/3/463/1053376 by guest on 24 September 2021 itself to suggest what point Grillparzer might have The Life of Schubert. By Christopher Gibbs. pp. xiv. reached at the crucial moment. This point can, I 'Musical Lives'. (Cambridge University Press, believe, be tentatively identified. After the phrase 2000, £30/£10.95. ISBN 0-521-59426-X/- 'thus will he live for all time', the earliest version, 59412-6.) transmitted by Gerhard von Breuning, seems dis- tinctly weak, and this final section concludes with The centenary of Schubert's death in 1928 the words: 'Recall the memory of today, the marked a watershed in his reception history. memory of him who achieved such great things Willi Kahl recorded an increase of nearly 1,200 and was beyond reproach.' When the oration was publications in that year alone, increasing the total printed in the newspapers this section was revised count since the composer's death by more than 50 and appears much stronger (it was revised still per cent (Verzeichnis des Schrifttums Uber Franz further for the Collected Works). Here it concludes: Schubert 1828-1928, Regensburg, 1938). The 'Remember this hour and think: we were there bicentenary of Schubert's birth in 1997 was no when they buried him, and when he died, we less important, and marked a substantial reassess- wept.' (All three versions of the passage are given ment and consolidation even more significant than in my edition of Johann Aloys Schlosser's biog- the impressive statistical explosion of analytical raphy, recently published in English as Beethoven: and biographical studies issued throughout the the First Biography [1827], trans. Reinhard G. intervening years. (Ernst Hilmar and Werner Bod- Pauly, Portland, 1996, pp. 117-18, 180-81). Thus endorff have offered the most recent attempt to Grillparzer's recollection seems to be confirmed by update Kahl's bibliography: 'Bausteine zu einer internal evidence. Gibbs also mentions the many neuen Schubert-Bibliographie vornehmlich der inconsistencies in the various reports of the funeral, Schriften von 1929 bis 2000', in Schubert durch die but might have spent more time accounting for the Brille, xxv (June 2000), 95-302.) discrepancies and deducing what probably hap- Christopher Gibbs's Life of Schubert offers the pened in reality. Nevertheless, the material pre- best available biography of Schubert for the gen- sented here provides much scope for further eral reader. For more than a century, the popular investigation. perception of Schubert's life and music has been In the remaining six essays, Reinhold Brink- obscured by myth and fantasy, but Gibbs here mann attempts to relate passages in the 'Eroica' penetrates generations of misrepresentation, bring- Symphony to contemporaneous perceptions of the ing a thoughtful scholarly rigour to the relatively nature of time; Lewis Lockwood addresses once slender biographical evidence that has survived. more the question of heroism in Beethoven's His extensive research into the composer's music music; Glenn Stanley offers some thoughts on and his experience as co-ordinator of The Schuber- analysing the first movement of the Piano Sonata tiade at the T in New York combine in a well- Op. 109; Alessandra Comini adapts some material informed commentary whose style and eloquence about visual images of Beethoven from her book will appeal to a wide readership. The Changing Image of Beethoven (New York, 1987); The first chapter provides a useful 'location Sanna Pederson examines notions of masculinity shot', using three visual representations of the that have been perceived in Beethoven's music; composer to establish the foundation for the sub- and Leon Botstein discusses Beethoven's sub- sequent discussion. Ferdinand Georg Wald- sequent popularity in the light of debates about muller's 1827 portrait of Schubert with friends the meaning of his instrumental music. fixes the intimate nature of the composer's musical The layout of the notes is inconvenient, since persona, while Schwind's famous sepia drawing of they are placed at the end of each essay, rather 1865 of a Schubertiade in Joseph von Spaun's than together at the end of the book or, better still, drawing-room identifies the composition of 463 Schubert's circle of friends. Julius Schmidt's oil This volume is of particular value in dispelling painting of a fictional Schubertiade (produced for the myths that have spoilt countless similar Schu- the 1897 Schubert centenary) reflects the deeply bert biographies. For instance, while many com- ingrained kitsch image Schubert had acquired mentaries see Schubert's operatic efforts in terms since his death. The refinement of the artistic of failure, Gibbs understands such enterprises as medium between these three images—from marking his debut as a public composer. Else- sketch to drawing (a version of this picture in oils where, he explains that while Schubert did experi- remains unfinished) and ultimately to oil paint- ence mixed fortunes with music publishers, he also ing—is emblematic of the firmly distorted public saw a good deal of his music into print. Indeed, his perception that has coloured Schubert's reputa- popularity was apparent from, among other things, tion. Diabelli's numerous arrangements of his songs. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ml/article/82/3/463/1053376 by guest on 24 September 2021 Gibbs's discussion of Schubert's early life is Gibbs's discussion is richly nourished through- likewise tempered with refreshing coolness, offer- out by his neat incorporation of the latest research ing a balanced account of the early signs of the by Maynard Solomon (on Schubert's alleged composer's genius and the influences and domes- homosexuality), Rita Steblin (on the Unsinns- tic music-making that shaped his musical back- gesellschaft) and Elizabeth Norman McKay (on ground. At the same time, Gibbs introduces Schubert's cyclothymia). After acknowledging various issues such as Schubert's relationships McKay's theories concerning the medical basis with women and the intensity and nature of his for Schubert's violent mood swings, Gibbs offers compositional output. Schubert's love for Therese persuasive conjecture on the patterns of the Grob has long been seen as a source of disappoint- composer's output. Of the unfinished composi- ment, his hopes of marriage frustrated by his tions conceived during the so-called years of crisis inability to satisfy the requirements of the marriage (1818-23) he writes: 'Remarkably . many of consent law on the grounds of insufficient financial Schubert's torsos from these years are among his resources. But, as Gibbs points out, Therese her- masterpieces; they often point to the future, not self never mentioned a romance with Schubert, only of his own compositional path, but of Roman- although she 'cherished the songs [the composer] tic music more generally' (p. 86). Due emphasis is gave her for the rest of her life' (p. 39). Moreover, also given to the persistence of the binary opposi- 'none of Schubert's brothers or friends married so tions in Schubert's life and in his music, exacer- early in life (Schubert had just turned nineteen and bated by the onset of his illness in 1823. By Therese was seventeen); in fact late marriages were positioning issues such as the composer's heavy far more common' (p. 51). drinking and melancholia in the context of his Schubert's image as Liederfiirst ('Prince of Song') musical output, Gibbs illuminates the volcanic lies in his success as a song composer, which eruptions that disturb the lyrical flow in many of brought him early and lasting fame, but it also the instrumental and chamber works from 1824 obscured his efforts in larger forms. The turning- onwards. point came in the 1820s as his music found its way He accurately identifies the letter Schubert into print, invigorated—as Gibbs is quick to point wrote to Kupelwieser on 31 March 1824 as the out—by his changed circumstances, living away most telling of the composer's verbal documents, from home with no employment besides that of a and his penetrating analysis of its text in Chapter 6 professional composer. In the author's words: reveals vital clues about the final phase of 'recognizing this direction and determination has Schubert's life. Young as Schubert was, this letter's been obscured not only by the patronizing image importance as a declaration of his new creative of a natural composer, but also by the fact that so path points to the emergence of a 'late style', much of Schubert's music is grouped together notably through the cluster of self-quotations in without regard to the circumstances of its genesis the string quartets in A minor and D minor and or the degree of his compositional maturity at the the Octet.