Joyce Maier wrote: >Walter Meyer wondered: > >>How out of date can a biography of Beethoven (who died in 1827 after >>having lived a relatively open life), which was revised in 1967, be? ... > >Surprisingly quite a lot and not only about his life, but -actually much >more important- also about the music. See, for instance, the fact that >shortly it finally turned out that WoO.16, in Cooper's famous compendium >of 1990 (BTW, nice and instructive book about Beethoven, though not a >biography) still listed as a Beethoven composition, is not by Beethoven >(as far as I know the composer is unknown). I replied to Margaret's response to my question before I read Joyce's. What was WoO 16? A work for solo instrument? Ensemble? Voice? >But also concerning the life there's still uncertainty about various >important problems, like the riddle of the Immortal Beloved. Some of us might not consider the answer to that riddle so important! >To this day the identity of the woman is unknown. Oh yes, many >fascinating hypotheses and speculations, but nobody who is able to prove >beyond any doubt one of those theories, not even Solomon. Only a few >months ago a completely new hypothesis for a completely new candidate >popped up. It was published in The Beethoven Journal. So, at least in that regard, Thayer-Forbes' biography need not be considered dated. Walter Meyer