Alexander Wheelock Thayer

Alexander Wheelock Thayer in 1890

Alexander Wheelock Thayer (born October 22, 1817 in Natick , Massachusetts , † July 15, 1897 in Trieste ) was an American librarian, journalist, music writer and diplomat. He is known as the author of the authoritative contemporary biography of Ludwig van Beethoven .

Life

Alexander Wheelock Thayer began his professional career as a librarian at Harvard University . He began to devote himself to Beethoven research after reading the biography of Beethoven's Famulus Anton Schindler published in 1840 and encountering many errors and inconsistencies. In 1849 he traveled to Europe to take up his own research, which he initially financed with journalistic work.

In 1862 he joined the US diplomatic service, in 1865 he was appointed US consul in Trieste, an office which he held until 1882 and which secured the economic basis for his further research.

In the course of his research, Thayer met numerous contemporaries of Beethoven and was able to ask them personally about their memories, including Bettina von Arnim , Franz Grillparzer , Anselm Hüttenbrenner and Anton Felix Schindler.

Thayer's Beethoven biography remained unfinished. During Thayer's lifetime only the first three volumes of the German-language edition provided by Hermann Deiters appeared . The planned volumes 4 and 5 were published posthumously due to the preparatory work and materials left by Hugo Riemann . The first English-language edition was published in 1921 by Henry Edward Krehbiel ; a new edition was obtained in 1964 by Elliot Forbes .

Thayer's work on Beethoven set a milestone for the modern standards of biographical research in terms of reliability, research and analysis.

Other works by Thayer include a chronological index of Beethoven's works and a biography of Antonio Salieri .

Thayer died unmarried and bequeathed his valuable materials to his niece Susan Fox in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Little of it remains today.

Works

• Signor Masoni and other papers of the late J. Brown. A collection of musical short stories. Berlin 1862
• Chronological index of the works of Ludwig van Beethoven. Berlin 1865
• Ludwig van Beethoven's life. Edited from the original manuscript in German by Hermann Deiters. Using the materials left behind by the author, newly supplemented and edited by Hugo Riemann. 5 volumes. Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel 1866–1908
• Ludwig van Beethoven's life. Directmedia Publishing, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-89853-334-8 , CD-ROM
• A critical contribution to Beethoven literature, read aloud at the Schiller Club in Trieste. Weber, Berlin 1877
• Salieri: rival of Mozart , ed. By Theodore Albrecht, new, updated and enl. ed. Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City, Kansas City 1989, ISBN 0-932845-37-1

literature

• Luigi Bellofatto: Henry Krehbiel and his edition of Alexander W. Thayer's "Life of Beethoven" . In: Bonner Beethoven Studies , Volume 8 (2009), pp. 7–34
• Luigi Bellofatto, Owen Jander: A recently discovered portrait of Alexander Wheelock Thayer, painted by Margarete Auguste Fritze. In: The Beethoven journal No. 21 (2006), No. 2, pp. 10-15
• Luigi Bellofatto: Alexander Wheelock Thayer, biographe de Beethoven . In: Beethoven, la revue de l'Association Beethoven France. - 11.2009, pp. 110-115
• Grant W. Cook: AW Thayer, Dwight's “Diarist,” and Foreign Correspondent: Beethoven's Biographer as Choral Critic . In: The Choral Scholar , Volume 2, Number 1, pp. 2-16.
• Luigi Bellofatto: Alexander Wheelock Thayer. New sources on person and work . In: Bonner Beethoven Studies , Volume 5 (2006), pp. 7–69
• Luigi Bellofatto: Beethoven's last hours of life and the Schwarzspanierhaus. Some new findings from the estate of Alexander Wheelock Thayer . In: Bonner Beethoven Studies , Volume 6 (2007), pp. 7–32
• Henry N. Claman, Luigi D. Bellofatto: Vita: Alexander Wheelock Thayer. Brief life of Beethoven's biographer: 1817–1897. Harvard Magazine January – February 2007. ( online , accessed December 24, 2007)
• Thayer, Alexander Wheelock . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 15, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 622.

Web links

Commons : Alexander Wheelock Thayer  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Alexander Wheelock Thayer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by Alexander Wheelock Thayer at Zeno.org .
• Images in the library of the Beethoven House in Bonn
• Alexander Wheelock Thayer (a classical-music mystery tour in South Natick, Massachusetts) (Eng.)
• Alexander Wheelock Thayer in the Internet Archive