| |
|
|
|
|
|
C. Whitaker-Wilson:
Franz Schubert: Man and Composer,
1st edition William Reeves, London and Charles Scribner’s
Sons, New York:1928
|
There have been plenty of
bad books written about Schubert, but you would have to go a long
way to find a worse one than this. First appearances (the British
and American editions are very similar) are not too bad - the book
is 264pp, 6" by 8" bound in red boards (the American
edition being dimpled and embossed) with the title in gold. The
dustwrapper and title page proudly announces this as "The
centenary biography" (which it certainly wasn't), and we get
sight of the frontispiece - an unpleasant brown on cream
reproduction of a poor drawing of Schubert by Ruby Margaret
Whitemore, who was also guilty of providing the other illustrations,
which are just a bad.
|
It was positioned as a straight life
(not works) of Schubert, and was slammed by the critics, with every
justification. It is full of inventions and embroidery around the
facts, but also with huge omissions (e.g. no mention of Bauernfeld
or Schwind), for which there would have been plenty of space were it
not for the habit of wandering off on a tangent. Whitaker-Wilson
also had the nerve to set one of the impromptus to words, and
include it as a new song (price two shillings available from the
publisher)!
|
One chapter laments the
decline of the Schubert family, and claims that Ignaz Stuppock is
the only surviving grandchild of Ferdinand Schubert, which shows the
quality of the research put into the book - in his
Schubert: A
Documentary Biography, Otto Erich Deutsch comments that in
1928 there were about 150 descendants of Schubert’s brothers
and sisters alive.
|
The review in the
contemporary Musical Times was by Richard Capell (who’s
Schubert’s Songs
was published in the same year) and pulled no punches (it starts "Mr.
Whitaker-Wilson's book is naive and disarming", refers to W-W’s
"ineptitudes", criticises his lack of quoted sources and
asks whether "modern biography is a mere guesswork").
Whitaker-Wilson was then stupid enough to write indignant letters to
the editor: "... Had your reviewer read every English and
German biography of Schubert which the British Museum contains,
together with much matter of very recent source - as I had done
before I began to write - he might have been in my position and have
been able to speak with authority; as it is he merely questions that
of which he has no knowledge. Unfortunately, this is the sort of
thing which authors who are authorities upon their subjects have to
endure from critics who are not." Capell’s polite, but
still very critical reply brought forth a further response which was
printed by the editor together with his views: "the book is bad"
… "we call it deplorable", ending with "an
author … must take adverse criticism as well; and when (as in
this instance) he is unable to prove his reviewer to be wrong in any
statement of fact, he will be well advised to refrain from arguing
with his critic, and, above all, from calling him incompetent,
tasteless, and imbecile."
|
It is hard to recommend this book to
other than serious collectors (though many may want a copy to keep
next to their Schwammerl!).
(Un)Fortunately it is not easy to find a copy - I can only recall
seeing a couple advertised in the last few years, and I would say
that £15-20 is a fair price from a specialist music dealer,
though I have seen it for £25 or so.
|
© Richard Morris September 1998 |
|
