Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 14 Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Musicians — A Reader’s Guide

Anecdote as Biography

Hubbard rarely lets facts stand without embellishment. In the Wagner chapter, he quotes a letter in which Wagner frets over Tristan und Isolde and Lohengrin, then immediately pivots to a story about Wagner's stepfather, Ludwig Geyer, an actor who married the widow and pooled their poverty. The transition is abrupt, but it reveals Hubbard's method: he uses a personal letter to establish emotional stakes, then shifts to a sentimental origin story. Similarly, the Handel section includes a tale of a musician who, disgusted with his own tuning, kicks a hole in a bass-viol and chases players offstage. Hubbard presents this as a “moving tale” invented as an excuse for bad music, yet he retells it with relish. The effect is that each composer becomes a protagonist in a series of vivid, sometimes dubious, episodes.

Moralizing Through Music

Hubbard consistently turns biographical details into lessons about character. Wagner's mother refusing to give up her children for adoption is framed as a “fine spirit” that wins an actor's admiration. The stepfather is praised as “patient, loving and loyal.” In the Handel section, Hubbard digresses into a discussion of Rosa Bonheur's painting of battling stallions and Landseer's stag, using them as metaphors for the composer's solitary greatness. He writes that “the Divine Right of a King, if he be a King, has its root in truth,” applying this to Handel's command of the musical scene. These moral asides are typical: Hubbard is less interested in the music than in what the composer's life says about perseverance, rivalry, and integrity. The reader should expect editorial commentary woven into every sketch.

Theatrical Prose and Direct Address

Hubbard's style is conversational and occasionally confrontational. He addresses the reader directly: “There is trouble for you—ye silken, perfumed throng, who nibble cheese-straws…” This rhetorical flourish appears in the Wagner chapter, contrasting the widow's hardship with the imagined frivolity of his audience. In the Handel section, he mentions reading a book by Madame Columbier about Sarah Bernhardt, then confesses it made him want to see Bernhardt play “no matter what the cost.” Such personal asides break the biographical frame and remind the reader that Hubbard is a personality in his own right. The prose is full of exclamation points, rhetorical questions, and sudden shifts in tone—from sentimental to sarcastic. This makes the book feel less like a reference work and more like a series of lively lectures.

Readers approaching this volume should expect a highly personal, opinionated tour through the lives of twelve composers. Hubbard's evidence is often anecdotal, his judgments blunt, and his digressions frequent. The value lies not in factual accuracy but in the vivid, sometimes eccentric, portrait of each figure as a human being struggling with ambition, poverty, and rivalry. Treat each sketch as an essay in character, not a biography.

Hubbard’s sketches reminded me of evenings spent poring over old biographies, where the composer’s staircase or study felt more alive than any symphony. That same hush returns with Mozart : The story of a little boy and his sister who gave concerts — Text and Context, a book that once made me pause, thinking about how childhood rooms hold their music differently.