New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-03-13
NoHDs LIFE OF BEETHOVEN.
A PRETENTIoUS BIOGRAPHY.
fr,,sT ApTgCIFI

10 maze come valuable addition to the literature Vi
the subject on which it treats known 10 ho"
public; and, if that subjectbe one OF genera III
terest to lead the way 10 its translation lhele
are cases. however IN which the popularity OF a
subject Is such as to secure wide crcuiaIion "
any book bearing upon it, however pad IL may u
Here the reviewer writes by way OF warning. lnelo
is great truth in the old saying; lie VIII traIe'
a league while Truth is putting on his boots" so
n history or biography may do incalculaDle damage
20 the cause of truth by leaving false impressions
that reain long after the book itself has sunk into
ner;ted oblivion. Those long-forgOtten volumes,
Woods History of John Adams's ADMINISTRATOR
and IngersoIps "History OF tho War Oh lol-'
are cases r point for an American reader. blog-
raphies of Jefferson Davis and Lee, written from an
extreme Southern point of view would ehect Ht'io
mischief in the United States-where there are 100
MANY antdotes for the poison-Out scattered ~
translatiOns broadcast through Europe they hiiti'
exert a malign influence upon the cause Vi "i'0
and constitutional repuOlicanlsm 1Or generations
For the reader of n translation naturally takes IL
for granted that.no one would perform Ine l'o"i
upon an unworthy book nor unless its statements
we're Trustworthy and accepted as such at home.
All tho American public know of Herr Nohls
hook il that it is q work of three volumes IN Ger
man upon subject of very great interest-the Lie
of the great composer Beethoven. OF It's reputation
and standing in Germany they knO" mourning
they have seen nothing of the criticisms WHICH ~
has evoked and know as yet no reason why ~
should not be accepted rs profound GERMAN "o'h'
and why it's narrative should not DC taken as "no
of historic accuracy. 1t is both amusing anu pro-
yoking TO mark the effect which the ShoTC Piil"So
. t,anslated from the German produces upon an
English or American reader-it is like the Chlteo
states STAMP to the Green6ackerit changes rags 10
cold He who has long lived in Germany, ana
carefullv and stuuiousy observed its current 1T
o,ature hest knows its true greatness. And TIC
alone can know its other phase-its stupendous
ona,kery. No more pretentous book has appeared
nj ate wears than Herr Professor Ludwig Nohl
Beethoven" and the question arises: Is IL th7
work of a thorough trustworthy and JudiclouS III
yestigator or of literary hackF If the former
translation of it is cOmmendable aud meritorious;
If the latter, a translation, made III gOod laiIh'
proves its author ignorant OF current German
musical literature, and therefore unit Tor tue
task We declare freely our opinion that
Herr Nohl's book is a very bad one and to sup
mort it. shall first cite from leading German critics
sufficient TO show that we do not stand alone add
inc then examples of its errors false assumptions
and absurd conclusions not many in number hut
>amue for the purpose of justifying the unanimous
opinion of competent judges
Nohl's first volume appeared in Vienna IN lS64.
The 1igemeine Musk ZeitsnG of Leipzig reviewed 1t
in October i'll an article remarkable for ITS knOw-
edge of the subject, with Keen rldlcue anu bitlhg
satire We have space for but few and short clta-
lions: " Herr Nohl has been giving the public Tor
some wears past, IN variety of publications, evil
lcnce of his existence. In rapid succession have
appeared lS60l Mozart, II Contributor 10 the
Aesthetics of Music and The Soul of Music :;
l1aG2) The Magic Flute; CsG3 Mozart Ibis
.,l in, No Of lp
last volume of this journal land, We may interpo-
late. was shown to be shameless plagiarism of
DITTO Jabn's great work.. Whoever has looked
throurh-or actually read-these writings, to him
the vocation of Herr NOh to become the biographer
of Beethoven must appear on double grounds IN
the highest degree doubtful" One OF these grounds
is Nohrs absolute dependence upon previous
writer's which is fnlly illustrated. One passage We
uanslate promising that the second tltlo OF TINS
arst volume is " Be4thOveh'a YOUTH and that the
critic is speaking of NobPs critical list OF former
writer's Oh Beethoven" lie says:
Nohl is very wrong here, to pass bv 2 work winch
throughout the vuluDle-as he admits lator aud to
much greater extent than he conics6es-has Deen ~
great and Important service Ia HIM. IT Is an article
on BeetLovcn's youth which appeared IN the
BRUSSELS Eccae I,FtdHiiue vol. w. y. !, 1861, ana
nj which Nohl SAYS Up. 3Gll =" 1t is written not
without know ledge of the subject, anu Anew errors
excepted, is throughout trustworthy. Inc afll-
u. .
originally English published IN the Boston dUdh"c
Wohth!y 1855 No ~, and its author no other Tran
a. w. Thayef
In fact. Nohls volume ends at the point where
the article with the same title in The 1aaHtc
pnds and is really very little more in its geographic
elements than that article somewhat expanded by
giving i'm tun passages from We eler and other
earlier writer's which had beer condensed by
Thayer. and inserting document or two which
some one had sent him. There is extremely little
original matter. and Us to the few errors" OF me
d.lanito article-far more numerous than he had
discovered-we have failed to lind one corrected by
him. The magazine article, then, was not expanded
into a volume by additions to the history ct Beet
hoven and his family not ut all; but BY JuhcIous
padding Thus, the first two chapters are, thc one
ON the Lower Rhincland which, tine 1ilgeme'ae
Musk Zettung assures us, is stolen IRON Nlscher
Esthetik, THAT authors picture OF the old Ger
man character being here simply localized; the
other. entitled "Anccn Regime being in like
manner conveyed from Johannes Schcrr. In
1874 Macmillan Franz. Youngest son of Maria
Theresa succeeded to the Electorate OF Cologne.
This gives NOhl opportunity for two thick pieces OF
padding-thc one, an entire chapter on Max drawn
mainly from biography by Seida and Landes-
berg; tho other, q chapter on music IN Austria.
Upon this the reviewer thus speaks:
So now, on page 49, begins geoeraphNCl dis
uuieitiou on the Danube and vienna; the iOAlneS
OF that city from the time of the Romans are re-
counted; the intellectual Importance which 1T ac-
oured under Maria Theresa urged, and ut last he
comes to discourse of the noble development OF
music there The explanation of this development
is found in the lively eXcitable temperament OF the
Viennese; naive Sensuality and the lveliest IN;
acinatOn were the atmosphere OF that clty-and
this is the wood ont OF which man carves inc beau
tjful" saws Herr NOhl. Now, according to him. the
question why Just Austria should be prominent 5
such musical centr. has never been adequately
answered.; he finds the cause in the mingling OF
German and Otiental elements! This leads MIN To
a delineatiOn of Slayism. partly his Owl. the rest
stolen IRON MOrtZ Hartmauu's " lletman and nc
arrives at the conclusion that the Slav is in himself
unproductive. hut that the mixture Of Slavic and
German blood gives prOductlveness OF the highest
quality. As illustrations he notes the critical