Overview

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

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Journalist and author, Francis Ravel Harvey was born at Homebush, New South Wales in 1930 and began his career as a cadet journalist on (the now extinct) Sun newspaper in 1947. In 1950 he worked for almost ten years as producer of the independent monthly music journal The Canon. He worked as a freelance journalist in the live theatre in Sydney, wrote scripts for the ABCs Tales of Many Lands, and founded his own monthly magazine Theatregoer. He was theatre critic for the Canberra Times in the 70s and published the first theatre yearbook for the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust (1959-60).He worked as an editor and writer for Horwitz Publications and Ure Smith, founding the first magazine in Australia on industrial design, Design Australia, for the Industrial Design Council of Australia, which was commended by the late Duke of Edinburgh. He edited various trade magazines for Horwitz in the bookselling, food and restaurant industries.Mr Harvey worked as a senior journalist with the departments of Health and Social Security in Canberra, editing the quarterly journal Health which he founded, and then transferred to Sydney as a Senior Project Officer for the Australia Council, editing the magazine Artforce, producing annual reports and advocating for the arts through lectures. He remained with the Australia Council for eight years, producing publications, exhibitions and seminars. From 1981 he spent ten years as head of the Information and Publications Unit at Macquarie University, from which he retired in 1991. In 2012 he published Traveller to Freedom the life of ex-priest Roger Pryke. Having recently completed Doppelgänger, he published an Audiobook Memories of an Orphan Boy in 2023. He holds a Masters in Literature and Public History at the University of Sydney and is a member of ASA.

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