| From the Manhattan, Kansas Mercury
Date: December 31, 2005 Page: d2 |
| Was this composer a WWI German spy?
Dissertation Most Deadly. By Elizabeth A. Seitz. New York: iUniverse Inc. l96 pps. |
| Christopher BannerContributing Writer |
| Musicologists are a harmless lot – the stamp collectors of the music world. So, when Boston doctoral student Leigh Maxwell starts running into serious difficulty gathering materials for her dissertation on Spanish composer Enrique Dadi (1877-1949), she wonders what is going on. Two previous Dadi scholars have died violent deaths under mysterious circumstances and one just plain disappeared without a trace. People, from whom she would have expected ready help, take a long time returning phone calls or replying to letters, and offer little or no help when they do.
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| At one point, she considers giving up on Dadi and doing a more conventional, “safe” project on Beethoven. Her boyfriend, Jorge, encourages this, telling her that having the degree is more important than the dissertation subject, for, after all, there are few jobs for musicologists, and she will probably end up a librarian somewhere anyway. But, Leigh won’t quit. She comes home from work to find her apartment has been burglarized, but only her computer, notes, and other research material are taken, and nothing else. She finally hears from the research library in Madrid, inviting her to come, but the day before she leaves, a fire of mysterious origin destroys the section containing Dadi’s materials. She arrives and works as best as she can among the cinders. That night, she receives an anonymous phone call, warning her to give it up before she is hurt. All of this happens before page 25. But I Leigh still won’t quit. Her Spanish host is assaulted in the dark in the museum. Her research travels take her to Germany, where a helpful librarian is beaten and robbed, and her cousin-hostess is killed by a hit-and-run car which apparently intended to get Leigh. Why should anyone, except possibly a musicologist, even care about the life and works of a composer who has been dead 50 years, mach less care enough to kill to keep some secret from getting out? In the mid-section of the book, we learn something of the crafts of musical composition in the early 20th century, and of musicology in the early 21st century. We learn that Dadi, in addition to being a composer, also stole music wholesale from other composers, was a philanderer, and was a spy for the Germans during World War I. Some of his incomprehensible 12-tone “compositions” turn out to be nothing more than coded message to German General Staff. Leigh goes to Puerto Rico where Dadi retired and eventually died. It is also where one of the three previous Dadi researchers was killed. Dadi’s son, a Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church is not at all forthcoming about his father, and Dadi’s daughter tries to be of some help but limited in what she can do by her brother. Leigh, the Energizer Bunny of musicology, just keeps going and going, trying to finish her dissertation. By the time the tale is told, we see the effects of blind ambition on the lives of people over the space of nearly a century and the juxtaposition of the survival needs of institutions and of individuals. People who would enjoy reading Dissertation Most Deadly include music students and musicologists, of course, but, also, readers of mystery, travel and 20th century history and, of course, the general reader. The book suffers from a common stylistic trait of today, for it uses words of one and two syllables, and sentences of about fifteen words length, but its vivid place descriptions make it enjoyable. This is a self-published book. While vanity presses have long existed, the computer has made self-publishing even more common. The economic needs of main line publishers have kept many interesting and worthy authors from getting their first books published, and readers are, thereby, deprived of freshness and variety by being given a constant stream of safe, mainline writing. Mainline publishing is sort of like travelling only on the Interstate highways and eating in the plastic restaurants near the exits: You have spent some time doing something, but have not experienced the real world, and are not truly satisfied. It is more interesting to drive the less traveled roads and eat in the main street cafes and restaurants with the natives instead whenever possible. Give Seitz and other self-published authors a look. Some are good and some are not, but at least you get a bit of variety. Christopher Banner has a Master’s degree in musicology, and is a Manhattan resident. |
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© The Manhattan Mercury |