Doppelganger

The Australian musician Franz Holford, who died in 1994, and whose birth and background have remained a mystery to the musical world, was variously described throughout his professional lifetime as German, German/English and German/Australian; said to have been born in Heidelberg in 1907 of a father who, he claimed at different times to different people, was either a surgeon and private consultant to Kaiser Wilhelm, or was the conductor Felix Weingartner.

Claiming to be a piano pupil of the French master Alfred Cortot, of Edwin Fischer and Robert Teichmüller, he was hailed by certain Australian musicologists as a musician who 'mixed in Europe with some of the finest musicians of his time'.

The title 'Doctor' used by Franz Holford from 1940 until the end of his life was undoubtedly self-conferred. The closest he ever came to achieving a doctorate was a negotiation (which failed) for an honorary degree from Melbourne University through the efforts of his friend and colleague Sir Bernard Heinze.

In an Australian era famous for its 'cultural cringe', Franz Holford experienced the full weight of an expectation prevalent at the time, that it was obligatory for a musician in Australia either to be European or at least to have studied abroad, and to have the relevant professional qualifications. To study abroad is an expectation which unfortunately still drives many young Australian musicians overseas. Holford's solution to the problem was simply to adopt a false persona and title and carry off the deception by the sheer weight of his own charismatic personality. Such a feat would nowadays be very difficult, if not impossible to achieve.

In fact, the man who deceived some of the most eminent musicians, musicologists and scholars both in Australia and overseas for so long - was not European born and educated, but was thoroughly Australian being born and raised in Petersham, Sydney, the illegitimate grandson of a humble horse-collar and saddle maker. It was a dark shadow which hung over his life and a secret he carried to his grave.

The raison d'être for this book is that the myths which Franz Holford promulgated during his lifetime have begun to take more tangible form since he died. In 2001 a scholarly monogram was published by the Centre for Studies in Australian Music, University of Melbourne entitled A Franz Holford Miscellany: including his Middle See compiled and edited by Jennifer Hill and Kerry Murphy. This was followed by a major article in the Music Teacher Magazine3 entitled simply '27' by Phillip Wilcher, who also wrote a book about Franz Holford, entitled Soft voices die, and James Murdoch, founder of the Australian Music Centre4 compiled an impressive obituary in The Australian newspaper.

'Official' biographies of him are filed in the library of the Australian Music Centre in Sydney, and a large collection of papers and manuscripts exist in the National Library Canberra and in The State Library of NSW. A growing number of entries exist on the internet, many of which are filled with misinformation about Franz Holford's life, and they often present - to say the least - a fanciful depiction of the man.

I have now written a fuller account of this extraordinary man from a different and very personal viewpoint. It is not intended as an exposé, a hagiography, nor to denigrate the memory of a musician who inspired and influenced a generation of Australian musicians and lovers of the arts. It is a memoir of a person who in many ways lived a double life - who engaged in fantasies which heavily influenced his own life and the lives of many around him.

- Francis Ravel Harvey, Sydney 2024