Walter Meyer had written:

>>Has anybody else heard of (Blind Tom)? Is he genuine? Is this a hoax? (He
>>is referred to by some as an idiot savant.) Have only I not heard of him
>>before?

Larry Blaine answered:

>There is a brief summary of his career in H.C. Schonberg's book The Great
>Pianists. Schonberg thinks he was more idiot than savant.

Thomas Green Wiggind Bethune (b.  Columbus Ga.  3-24-1849, d.  Hoboken,
NJ 6-13-1908) was certainly no hoax and was a major figure in America's
musical life after the Civil War.  The legend has it that Tom could play
back any music note for note even if he had heard it only once.  His career
was brilliant and international in scope- unfotunately most of the money he
made ended up with the family which had enslaved him and his mother (who
had benn his piano teacher; she died was he was five.)

To date there is only one major account of Blind Tom's activities, and it
is yet incomplete- Dr.  Geneva Southall's "Blind Tom:  The Post Civil War
Enslavement of a Black Musical Genius".  The first two volumes (of three)
chronichling his life on a year-by -year basis have been published
privately.  Address, and I have no idea if it's still valid, would be
Challenge Productions, PO Box 9624, Minneapolis, MN 55440.  Dr.  Southall's
books are sprawling in scope and contain a maddening amount of incidental
data, but they shed a great deal of light on Tom.  In the opening of the
first volume she takes the Schonberg anecdote head on, and the "idiot
savant" story, it seems, was born more of diffident rtesearch rather than
truth.  Tom was a hugely successful concert artist who toured well into the
1890s.  Schonberg's comment that "nothing more is heard of him after 1866"
is quite false, but newer editions of "The Great Pianists" fail to carrect
this error.

Tom' repretoire consisted of some 7000 pieces, but only nine original
compositions are listed in Aaron Horne's "Keyboard Music of Black
Composers" (Greenwood Press, 1992).  Among these, Tom's "The Battle of
Manassas" may be found in a modern edition "Piano Music in 19th Century
America" (Hinshaw Music, 1975.) It is a highly interesting piece which
makes use of tone clusters and folk material in a typically "American"
style.  It appears that Blind Tom, despite his 1908 death date, was
never able to make recordings or piano rolls.  Nonetheless, it would be
advantageous for American music history if his cause was finally served
in some responsible fashion.  However, I'm not holding my breath for that
to take place anytime soon.

Uncle Dave Lewis
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