# Wrongly attributed...



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Wondering idly whether Vivaldi had written Mass settings, I came across this music - and found that it was 'wrongly attributed' to Vivaldi. A lot of comments on the link say that listeners find the music boring, but I 'quite like' it - which probably means it isn't by Vivaldi, as he usually blows me away.






It's suggested by one poster that the music may have been written by Johann Caspar Klement, a Bavarian, but I can't find any further information, or any discussion on who actually did write it.

I was wondering if anyone knows more of this wrongly-attributed work? And also whether you know more 'wrongly-attributed' works. Once they're known not to be by 'the master', does their popularity plummet? Or does the whole question only interest nit-pickers?


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Curiously, *wrong attributions* have stood me in good stead. When I was working through Suzuki Book 2 four years ago I really liked number 10, a Gavotte, 'by Lully'. I thought I'd try to listen to other works by this composer, then new to me, and fell deeply in love with his music after finding a YouTube rendition of selected pieces by Jordi Savall and L'Orchestre du Roi Soleil:





When I got the Hadley Johnson book on the background to the Suzuki pieces, however, I discovered that the attribution to Lully came about through Jean-Baptiste's greedy monopoly of all music published. The gavotte was probably by Marin Marais instead.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

The Vivaldi may be an honest mistake by Pincherle now corrected in the Ryom-Verzeichnis catalogue. A much more dubious one is "Albinoni's" Adagio in G minor which has little to do with Albinoni and seems to be a modern composition.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Taggart said:


> The Vivaldi may be an honest mistake by Pincherle now corrected in the Ryom-Verzeichnis catalogue. A much more dubious one is "Albinoni's" Adagio in G minor which has little to do with Albinoni and seems to be a modern composition.


I see a reason for this - a modern composer wants to do something neo-baroque but didn't dare do so under his own name. A pity he couldn't go in for the Losh-Atkinson Competition which has only recently come into existence!

http://www.talkclassical.com/28167-music-competition.html?highlight=


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

I don't think there's any case of a _really_ popular work that has been misattributed, so I'm not sure if your "plummeted" would be appropriate. Well, I suppose there's "Albinoni's Adagio"; if everyone suddenly started referring to it as "Giazotto's Adagio" confusion would ensue and his royalties might take a hit.

It would appear that having a work incorrectly attributed to a well-known composer helps increase the attention it gets. Why, just today I discovered that a not-insignificant number of people will automatically like a Bach work, even if said work is entirely fictional! So I think it's quite possible that a work by, say, Telemann might get more praise if it were incorrectly thought to be by Bach (Bach's cantatas BWV 160 and 189 are now attributed to Telemann and Georg Melchior Hoffmann, respectively).

Wikipedia lists 9 recordings of Friedrich Witt's "Jena" Symphony; would there have been that many if it had never been incorrectly attributed to Beethoven?


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

What about all the superb pieces by Kreisler - that he attributed to various composers?


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Michael Haydn's Symphony # 25 in G which was attributed to Mozart as his Symphony # 37. Only the intro was written by Mozart.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

WRONGLY attributed to Vivaldi? Enough to set American Public Classical Radio into panic mode!!


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## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

Nice thread. For many years the lovely "Concerti armonici" were wrongly atributted to Pergolesi. Since 1980 it is accepted that they were composed by count Unico von Wassenaer.






The slow movements are specially haunting and engaging. (And really doesn's sound as any of Pergolesi I've heard.)

Here's the story of this misatribution.
http://www.baroquemusic.org/bqxwassenaer.html


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

^^^^ Thanks - that's a really interesting story. 

PS I'm listening to your video now & enjoying it very much. Taggart remembered that one of the pieces (No. 1) was played at a recent Norwich Baroque concert - but only because you said so! :tiphat:


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Well, there's Pergolesi, most of the music attributed to him up to the mid-20th century, was in fact not by him at all (including practically all of the music recast by Stravinsky in "Pulcinella").


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

In the BWV catalogue there are many works wrongly attributed to Bach. These works were found with Bach pieces because he was studying them/performing them.


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

Brahms' _Variations on a Theme by Haydn_ was definitely written by Brahms, but the theme that it is based on was almost certainly not written by either Joseph or Michael Haydn.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

"Beethoven's" Adieu to the piano. It's a lovely little piece written probably some time in the romantic period by an unknown composer with Beethoven's name added to promote sales.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

JC Bach's cello concerto (quite a popular piece) was actually written by an uncle of pianist Robert Casadesus. It is still programmed as a piece by JC Bach!

Some claim, on technical grounds, that Bach's celebrated Toccata & Fugue in D minor is actually by somebody else. But no likely names have been put forward.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

ArtMusic said:


> In the BWV catalogue there are many works wrongly attributed to Bach. These works were found with Bach pieces because he was studying them/performing them.


I red this several times to :tiphat:


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

KenOC said:


> JC Bach's cello concerto (quite a popular piece) was actually written by an uncle of pianist Robert Casadesus. It is still programmed as a piece by JC Bach!


There's a "Handel" Viola Concerto by Casadesus as well.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

violadude said:


> There's a "Handel" Viola Concerto by Casadesus as well.


At one time I was so heavily into baroque I could accurately tell the composers apart fairly easily on a blind hearing. It's a little harder now, but I think I would have guessed Telemann for this. It just doesn't feel like Handel to me.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I have enjoyed listening to the links & video - the pieces are pleasant, though there's a sort of *unsubtle* feel to them. I suppose that's why suspicion was aroused - but what with a composer's juvenilia & works written in ill health or dotage, or works churned out to pay the rent, and the occasional experimental piece that doesn't seem to fit into its time, it must be very difficult to decide definitively.

There's a complicating factor that a musicologist can make his name by casting doubt on authenticity.

Logic suggests that some pieces by great composers are still wrongly attributed, and that some of the wrong attributions were written by the original name on the sheet, or not written by the new suspect for authorship.

:tiphat: It is a fascinating subject, and it's been fab to get all these replies - of course, I'm hoping for more. It's an education.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Some of the most popular works with debated authenticity are _Für Elise _ and - as already mentioned - the _Toccata & Fugue BWV565

_https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Für_Elise
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toccata_and_Fugue_in_D_minor,_BWV_565

but a wrong attribution hasn´t been proved decisively.

Beethoven´s _Jena Symphony _has been quite stubbornly marketed on certain recordings such as the Russian one below, though in reality it is by Friedrich Witt









https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jena_Symphony

"_Rachmaninov´s 5th Piano Concerto_" was also marketed with a claimed attribution gone too far, for sure:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/rachmaninoff-warenberg-piano-concerto-no-5-mw0001946774

Mozart´s "_Odense Symphony_" was launched locally with enthusiasm and a world premiere recording, but then disproved:









https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony,_K._16a_(Mozart)


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## kartikeys (Mar 16, 2013)

I am aware lots of Pergolesi is wrongly attributed...
and the albinoni adagio issue then.


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## majlis (Jul 24, 2005)

"Mozart" Adelaide violin concerto was an other joke by Marius Casadesus. Ma, si non e vero, e bene trovato. It's a lovely piece.


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