Alexander Wheelock Thayer

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 best known as the author of the relevant contemporary biography of Ludwig van Beethoven.

Life

Alexander Wheelock Thayer began his career as a librarian at Harvard University. Of Beethoven research, he began to devote after he had read the 1840 published biography of Beethoven famulus Anton Schindler was and came across many errors and inconsistencies. In 1849 he traveled to Europe to take up his own research he funded initially with journalistic work. In 1862 he entered the diplomatic service of the United States, a, 1865, he was appointed U.S. Consul in Trieste, an office which he held until 1882, and secured the economic base for its further research.

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

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

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

Further work Thayers include, inter alia, a chronological list of Beethoven's works and a biography of Antonio Salieri.

Thayer died unmarried and bequeathed his valuable materials of his niece Susan Fox in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Of these, only little remains today.

Works

  • Signor Masoni and other papers of the late J. Brown. A collection of musical short stories. Berlin 1862
  • Chronological list of works by Ludwig van Beethoven. Berlin 1865
  • Ludwig van Beethoven's life. Based on the original German manuscript edited by Hermann Deiters. With use of the materials left behind by the author newly added and edited by Hugo Riemann. 5 volumes. Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel 1866-1908
  • Ludwig van Beethoven's life. Direct Media Publishing, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-89853-334-8, CD -ROM
  • A critical contribution to the Beethoven literature, read in Schillerverein to 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
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