Alexander Wheelock Thayer (October 22, 1817 – July 15, 1897) was an American librarian and journalist who became the author of the first scholarly biography of
Ludwig van Beethoven, still after many updatings regarded as a standard work of reference on the composer.
Life
In the winter of 1838–39 he was a teacher at the Westfield School in
Dedham, Massachusetts
Dedham ( ) is a town in and the county seat of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 25,364 at the 2020 census. It is located on Boston's southwest border. On the northwest it is bordered by Needham, on the southwest b ...
.
Originally a
librarian at
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class ...
, Thayer became aware of many discrepancies in the biography of Beethoven by
Anton Schindler, Beethoven's sometime
amanuensis
An amanuensis () is a person employed to write or type what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another, and also refers to a person who signs a document on behalf of another under the latter's authority. In one example Eric Fenby ...
, which had first appeared in 1840. (Schindler's reliability has since been extensively discussed by later scholars). In 1849 Thayer sailed for Europe to undertake his own researches, learning German and collecting information. Supporting himself by journalism and after many privations, he was eventually appointed US
Consul in Trieste, where he was able to pursue his labours. The first edition of the biography, (in German), in three volumes, covering Beethoven's life to 1816, appeared between 1866 and 1879. The work was completed by Thayer's German colleague
Hermann Deiters and, after Deiters's death, by
Hugo Riemann
Karl Wilhelm Julius Hugo Riemann (18 July 1849 – 10 July 1919) was a German musicologist and composer who was among the founders of modern musicology. The leading European music scholar of his time, he was active and influential as both a musi ...
, who created the posthumously published volumes No. 4 (1907) and No. 5 (1908) from Thayer's notes, covering the years 1817 to Beethoven's death in 1827.
Thayer's work on Beethoven set a benchmark for modern standards of accuracy, research and analysis in biography.
In 1865 Thayer wrote:
I fight for no theories and cherish no prejudices; my sole point of view is the truth.
Henry Krehbiel
Henry Edward Krehbiel (10 March 1854 – 20 March 1923) was an American music critic and musicologist who was the chief music critic of ''The New York Tribune'' for more than forty years. Along with his contemporaries Richard Aldrich, Henry The ...
, who created the first English edition of the biography in 1921, wrote of Thayer in 1917:
His industry, zeal, keen power of analysis, candor and fair-mindedness won the confidence of all with whom he came into contact except the literary charlatans whose romances he was bent on destroying in the interest of the verities of history.
Krehbiel also penned his own volume four which was published posthumously in 1925.
The most recent version of the biography is revised and edited by
Elliot Forbes.
Bibliography
* Thayer, A. W., rev and ed. Elliot Forbes. ''Thayer's Life of Beethoven.'' (2 vols.) Princeton: Princeton University Press.
See also
*
Thayer family
References
Sources
*''Thayer's Life of Beethoven'', rev. and ed. Elliot Forbes.
*''Thayer, Alexander Wheelock'' in
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...
*
External links
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Thayer's Beethoven biographySome interesting photos about Thayer (PowerPoint file)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thayer, Alexander Wheelock
American biographers
American librarians
1817 births
1897 deaths
Beethoven scholars
Educators from Dedham, Massachusetts
19th-century musicologists