In the article “Taboo and Biographical Innovation: Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert”, Maynard Solomon addresses the lack of taboo information in biographical literature. After seducing his audience through the logos of his abundant document references and the gossipy content of the information being exposed, Solomon goes on to attempt a psycho-cultural analysis of why it is that “taboo” information has generally been omitted from biographical work.
The first six pages of the article are Solomon’s attempt to prove that Leopold Mozart was a liar, Schubert was a homosexual, and that Beethoven wrote secret love letters to a married woman. By the end of the first six pages, I felt as if I were reading a nerdy gossip column; I could almost picture the author as a hunched back man searching through sepia-colored pages trying to dig up some dirt and destroy the reputation of musicians so highly respected. The beginning of the article seemed to me, mildly entertaining but mostly insignificant information written in a pretentious and condescending tone.
After this disappointing introduction, the second section on page 13 was a relief. In the rest of the article, Solomon explained why the information seemed relevant to him and hypothesized on why this type of information may have been omitted from biographical literature for so long. His perspective on why society chooses to omit or ignore information that is considered taboo because of how it may taint other information or reputations was captivating and interesting. Because the article was published in American Imago- a scholarly journal of psychoanalysis founded by Freud and Hanns Sachs- Solomon seems aware of the fact that it is geared toward an audience interested in psychology; but because of this, the article seems irrelevant for the musicologist or general listener. The article is a study of why society avoids certain subjects due to the potential harm the information could cause; but the subjects being analyzed may as well have been Howard Zinn, Brittney Spears, and the voice actor for Winnie the Poo. The part of the article that was interesting and well articulated was the part in which Solomon exposed his ideas of how biographers and even researchers trying to uncover a story- such as Max Unger and Wolfgang Amadeus Thomas-San-Galli (p11)- are discouraged to uncover intimate facts and expose them or continue their research because of the possible repercussions. Solomon proceeds to describe the biographer as “seizing the role of omnipotent observer, critic, and moral arbiter” and continues discussing the dilemma: is the biographer respecting the subjects’ intimacy or withholding information?
Throughout this article, Solomon takes on a psychoanalytic tone; and knowing his background as a music producer and musicologist I found the question skipping through my mind: is he qualified to be making such statements about societies take on taboos? After finishing the article though, I concluded that Solomon did an eloquent job and displaying a few taboos that were hidden from the public of some important musical figures and analyzing the hypothetical causes of why this information may have been omitted. The article was well written, well presented and my initial irritation dissipated into a feeling of pensive social consideration.
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