Author: Guy Warrack
Published: 1947
Non-fiction, 823 DOYL
There is, among fans of Sherlock Holmes, a literary game of sorts in which Holmes & Watson are treated as real people & the Canon stories are therefore used as evidence in which clues about their lives may be discovered. Apparently, this is referred to as playing the Game & this is the second book I've read which does just that (the first being "Sherlock Holmes: Fact or Fiction?" TS Blakeney, 1932.)
NB: To a certain extent, this review also plays the Game.
After discovering a small cache of these Holmesian Game books in the library stack, I was drawn to this book specifically because of the use of the word "music" in the title. After all, it is as hard to separate the image of Sherlock Holmes from his violin as it is from his deerstalker or pipe (and has more justification for being in the image in the first place than the deerstalker ever did!) & I've never before seen anything written about Holmes & music together.
I did enjoy playing the Game along with the author, looking through the Canon stories to find references to music & then using them to try to deduce Holmes' personality. However, I cannot agree with the author's conclusion that, while he enjoys music, Holmes lacks musical taste, knowledge and skill with the violin.
Firstly, I'm not even going to address the issue of taste as taste is personal & if Warrack doesn't enjoy Wagner, Sarasate & Paganini then that's his problem (oh, & in which case he's an idiot in my opinion!)
Secondly, with regards to Holmes' musical ability, Watson writes:
"My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a
very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit"
The Red-Headed League (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes)
Warrack suggests that there is not enough evidence in the Canon stories to support Watson's claim here that Holmes is a talented performer & composer. I object to this on the basis that there are several instances in which Watson describes Holmes creating his own pieces (A Study in Scarlet, for example). Watson's evidence here is first-hand, he lives with Holmes, he listens to him play (at all hours of the day & night, apparently) & should therefore know how good his friend is. Warrack counters this by suggesting that Watson's own knowledge of music is so limited that he is impressed by Holmes' playing & composing only because it is superior to his own. I have two objections to this, the first being that Watson knows enough about music to be able to recognise, as well as name, several pieces & their composers - which suggests that he has, at least, some knowledge of classical music (A Study in Scarlet.) Secondly, as an [extremely] amature violinst, I can personally guarantee that a badly played violin is immediately identifiable to everyone - no matter how limited their musical knowledge is!
Lastly, Warrack's main objection to Holmes' having any knowledge of music is due to this statement Watson makes:
"Holmes lost himself in a monograph which he had undertaken upon the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus"
The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans (His Last Bow)
Warrack's problem with this sentence is two-fold: First, he doubts that Holmes had the time and/or opportunity to have ever heard any of Lassus' motets. The second problem is with the use of the words "motets" & "polyphonic" in the same sentence, as motets are, by definition, polyphonic. The argument therefore being that if Holmes knew what he was talking about he would not have used the two words together. I feel that both of these arguments are weak, to say the least. Holmes could have come across Lassus' work in any one of a hundered different scenarios, just because he was, apparently, quite busy being a consulting detective in 1895 does not mean that he did not pursue other activities too. Also, just because Watson says "the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus" does not mean that Holmes used those exact words. It is possible that when Holmes used the word motet, Watson asked for an explaination of the word and in his explaination Holmes used the word polyphonic, which Watson later put together as "Polyphonic Motets of Lassus" without realising his mistake.
My review of this book turned into a bit more of an essay than I meant it to & is nearly as long as the book itself (a mere 56 pages.) But, what is my overall opinion of the book? Well, firstly I would not recommend this book to anyone who is not very familiar with the Canon Holmes stories - it would be very dull reading otherwise. Besides that, & my objections to the author's conclusions, I did actually enjoy reading the book & found it fun to pretend for a while that I was reading about real people & real instances. I also had fun coming up with objections to the Warrack's conclusions, so all in all it was well worth me reading this book!
Finished reading: 05/05/2012
