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Post by franzridesagain on Mar 30, 2008 21:55:05 GMT -8
You learn something new every day. Albinoni's famous Adagio is not by Albinoni at all, but at best based on a surviving bass line and melody of 6 bars by the composer. (At worst, a complete fabrication.) The offender was one Italian musicologist, Remo Giazzoto (sp?), a biographer of Albinoni. Whatever the truth of the matter, if he did compose it - nice work! (But I gather all the true Albinoni fans scoff at the romantic nature of the piece.) And I only came across this because earlier today I decided to look up where in his career Albinoni composed it. And it turns out he in all likelihood didn't do anything of the sort. This article refers to the hoax: www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A648362
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Post by Armin on Mar 30, 2008 22:56:24 GMT -8
That's not so much a hoax as quite a common business practice in the days. Other examples:
Suessmayr, Mozart's student, finished writing up quite a few works of his master, most notoriously the 1st French horn concerto, which has been discovered in it's original form in the late 1980's.
Rossetti, a fairly good composer, used to sign his manuscripts with the name of Joseph Haydn, who was much more established at the time. It gave the works more credibility and attention.
I kind of prefer it this way than the other way round, where people put their name on other people's work - without naming anybody here. In a way the piece was by Albinoni, as he was a very structred composer, so probably more than 80% of the whole piece was laid out in those 6 bars.
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Post by Michael Arlidge on Mar 31, 2008 0:06:00 GMT -8
Suessmayr, Mozart's student, finished writing up quite a few works of his master Didn't a whole bunch of people finish off his Requiem after he died as well? I read somewhere that Mozart's wife secretly had others complete the work, in order to have it passed off as Mozart's own, and thus enable the wife to obtain the balance of payment from the bloke who commissioned the work.
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Post by franzridesagain on Mar 31, 2008 1:38:53 GMT -8
I kind of prefer it this way than the other way round, where people put their name on other people's work - without naming anybody here. In a way the piece was by Albinoni, as he was a very structred composer, so probably more than 80% of the whole piece was laid out in those 6 bars. Certainly it turned out well for the Albinoni legacy, which probably appreciated the subsequent fame! I do think something like 'Adagio in G on a fragment by Albinoni' would have done justice both ways though.
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Post by Armin on Mar 31, 2008 3:31:22 GMT -8
It never would have survived that way.
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Post by franzridesagain on Mar 31, 2008 14:51:40 GMT -8
I know. That's the beauty of it. This is definitely the lie that did us all good.
Now that I think about the piece, I wonder why I never marvelled at how romantic the violin solo was for a composer of Vivaldi's era. It really would have been ahead of what we understand to be 'its time'.
Would it hurt to retitle the piece now, I wonder?
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Post by Armin on Mar 31, 2008 15:47:36 GMT -8
Can't see why not. It has been done with quite some other material. I guess it's up to the Albinoni scholars to make a decision. Then again, it's maybe not in their immediate interest to do so... ;D
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Post by Carlton the Barbarian on Mar 31, 2008 16:28:00 GMT -8
You learn something new every day. Albinoni's famous Adagio is not by Albinoni at all, but at best based on a surviving bass line and melody of 6 bars by the composer. (At worst, a complete fabrication.) The offender was one Italian musicologist, Remo Giazzoto (sp?), a biographer of Albinoni. Whatever the truth of the matter, if he did compose it - nice work! (But I gather all the true Albinoni fans scoff at the romantic nature of the piece.) I learned this the first time I heard it. The lp description stated that his biographer, or someone like that, had found an fragment of the peice and reconstructed it. So, I wouldn't call it a host at all
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Post by franzridesagain on Mar 31, 2008 17:45:35 GMT -8
I believe when it came out the proportion of Albinoni to Giozotto was overstated. The fact that no copy of the original work on which it was based survives means that it's still not a certainty that even those six bars are authentic. So it's a possible hoax, which is why I came across it in an article devoted to other musical hoaxes.
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jorgen
Scoring Assistant
Posts: 194
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Post by jorgen on Apr 3, 2008 13:47:40 GMT -8
It is said that Brahm´s "Variations on a theme by Haydn" were not based on a theme by Haydn, but on other composer´s theme. I feel truly relieved that not only I was cheated, but also was Brahms ;D
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Joe Irvin
Conductor
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Post by Joe Irvin on Apr 3, 2008 15:21:39 GMT -8
Music publishers of the day used to put out works under the name of a more famous composer in order to sell more copies. It happened quite a lot. I also remember sever famous treatises on music written by "Odo," who was actually dead by that time...they don't know the real author's name, so they call him "Pseudo-Odo." And all I can think of is Deep Space Nine...
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Post by Jens Dietrich on Apr 3, 2008 15:37:13 GMT -8
Music publishers of the day used to put out works under the name of a more famous composer in order to sell more copies. It happened quite a lot. I also remember sever famous treatises on music written by "Odo," who was actually dead by that time...they don't know the real author's name, so they call him "Pseudo-Odo." And all I can think of is Deep Space Nine... Pseudo-Odo would be an awesome name for a band.
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Joe Irvin
Conductor
(I'm the one in the middle)
Posts: 815
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Post by Joe Irvin on Apr 3, 2008 21:53:09 GMT -8
Indeed it would!
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jorgen
Scoring Assistant
Posts: 194
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Post by jorgen on Apr 4, 2008 11:30:43 GMT -8
Indeed!! "Pseudo-Odo(ripherous). The first group in ages that doesn´t completely stink". Great group.
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