Thayer's Beethoven

enlightened ideals of individual freedom and the the unity of mankind have long appealed to American sensibilities, but few of us realize that an American wrote the first objective documentary biography of the composer. Alexander Wheelock Thayer's work laid the foundation for modern Beethoven research, and his publication remains the standard biography of Beethoven in any language more than a hundred years after the appearance of the first volume. Though Thayer wrote his text in English, the first editions appeared in German translations. Not until 1921 did an English version of the biography become available. A. W. Thayer (1817-1897), a native of Massachusetts, graduated in 1843 from Harvard University, where he studied law and worked as an assistant librarian. He satisfied his musical curiosity by exploring materials in the Harvard Library's music collection and by attending concerts.1 During Thayer's student years, the Boston Academy of Music and the Boston Handel and Haydn Society increasingly included music in their programs.2 Occasionally his music faced harsh critics, but others responded favorably to the music's revolutionary spirit of artistic individualism. J.S. Dwight, champion of music and influential writer of the time, wrote in 1854 that Beethoven's is the music of this age; it gives voice to the imprisoned soul and aspiration of this age. Spiritually and essentially, it can be better comprehended by unmusical Americans in Boston now, than it could in Vienna when it was born. It was prophetic of the great world-movement that now stirs so many hearts.3 Though first drawn to the music, Thayer later became interested in discovering the truth about the man. In the 1840s, the principal resource for learning about life was the biography by Anton Schindler, occasional friend and companion from the 1820s. Schindler prevarications and destructions of important Beethoven documents are now infamous. Thayer had read Moscheles' English translation of Schindler's biography (the English and American editions both appeared in 1841). Other biographical accounts by contemporaries that were available at the time, such as those by Ferdinand Ries and Franz Wegeler, conflicted on many points with Schindler's publication. In contrast to these biographers, Thayer gathered the documentary evidence necessary for an accurate record of life. These sources - letters, sketches, and conversation books, as well as court records and contemporary publications - were scattered in libraries and private hands all over Europe. Thayer also realized the urgent need to locate and interview friends, pupils, colleagues, and acquaintances before they died.4 To carry out his plan, he traveled to Europe three times - in 1848, 1854, and to stay permanently in 1857. Thayer's dedicated labors eventually resulted in a detailed chronology of activities through 1816. Partly because he was firmly established in Trieste, Italy, in the 1860s and could not travel to oversee an English edition, Thayer decided to publish his manuscript in Germany. He chose Hermann Deiters (1833-1907), an associate from Bonn, to act as editor and translator. Owing to its monumental length, the 1316-page German translation of Thayer's biography was issued serially in 3 volumes, which appeared in 1866, 1872, and 1879. Publication of the first documentary biography of Beethoven, with its emphasis on fact rather than rhetoric, inspired other researchers to action. The new biography captivated readers not only because of the new light that it shed on life, but also because of Thayer's scientific method. Henry Krehbiel's grandiose assessment of Thayer's influence is perhaps only slightly exaggerated: [Thayer] opened up a hundred avenues of research, pointed out a hundred subjects for special study. At once collectors of autographs brought forth their treasures, old men opened up the books of their memories, librarians gave eager searchers access to their shelves, churches produced their archives, and the hieroglyphic sketches which had been scattered all over Europe were deciphered by scholars and yielded up chronological information of inestimable value. …