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A discission of Schubert

            Franz Schubert was one of the most successful and well-known composers of his time. In two separate attempts to determine his sexuality, Maynard Solomon and Rita Steblin use letters and other evidence to prove their separate outlooks on this topic. Solomon uses letters written by the composer and his friends to attempt to prove Schubert's homosexuality. Steblin, however dismisses his ideas and proceeds to attack and refute all of his opinions. It appears to me that Solomon represents the weaker side of the argument in that he more emotionally reacts to the situation whereas Steblin looks at it more rationally with solid proof. Because of the lack of specific evidence on the part of Maynard Solomon, it seems much more likely that, as Rita Steblin asserts, Schubert was not a homosexual, but is merely misunderstood by Solomon. .
             What seems to be Solomon's weakest argument is the claim that Schubert was homosexually connected with his circle of male friends. He takes specific words out of letters and claims them to be of a sexual connotation. He portrays Schubert as being a part of a sketchy homosexual subculture that flitted around Vienna and were sexually promiscuous with other men. Solomon uses the example "play on our own pipes" from one of the letters written between Schubert and his circle as having a sexual meaning (p.201). Steblin contradicts this very picky and specific instance with the argument that "play on our own pipes" most likely refers to the members of the group not being able to hear live music and having to whistle a tune for themselves (pp. 22-23). She clearly rebuts his absurd argument, which is lacking logic and rational thought.
             According to Solomon, Schubert was a homosexual, and this is largely based on his seemingly small number of relationships with women in which each relationship failed to result in marriage or offspring. The relationships that he refers to are with Therese Grob and Countess Karoline Esterhazy.


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