"So, I suggest VN has somehow foreseen not only the future
accusation of plagiarism, but also your message to the List in which you
mention a gypsy tune "stolen" by Beethoven."
Dear
Alexey,
I congratulated Michael Maar on making a discovery. I do not
know if Nabokov read the von Lichberg story, nor have I read it -- as you know
it hasn't been re-published and I don't read German anyhow.
My argument
is simply that this deserves to be followed up. Why is this so dreadfully
upsetting?
You did not read my note very closely. I never said Walter
Starkie was my professor (he wasn't) and I never said that Beethoven "stole"
anything. Walter Starkie did his research and established that Beethoven
frequented a pub in Vienna where gypsies provided the musical entertainment, and
that therefore Beethoven certainly could have heard the tune.
I am
fascinated by such sources (for lack of a better word), and I find that they
throw light on the ability of creative genius to transform dross into gold. Most
of the examples I am aware of are musical and I am fascinated by them.
Tschaikovsky re-worked (just barely) a melody by Offenbach to create the famous
Sleeping Beauty waltz. If I were a musicologist I would find this a delightful
riddle to solve: Did Tschaikovsky realize he did it or not?
There is no
shame cast either by Michael Maar or myself by this interest.
Carolyn
p.s. You and I disagree on one thing certainly: I do not
confuse Vladimir Nabokov with God.