# Composers with monickers?



## oogabooha (Nov 22, 2011)

In the most recent century, popular music made it normal for non-notated artists to have monickers associated with their name, as opposed to just using their full name like composers did in the past.

Has this an art in itself? I feel that many people put too much into their aesthetic, but have there ever been composers that decided to not publish/write music under their given name? The first one that comes to mind is Moondog, but I'm sure there are many more that I'm missing.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Well, Leon Dudley is better known as Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji. It's a start, and certainly a more impressive name.

Some people just want to dress up a bit. Albert William Ketèlbey was born Ketelbey, but evidently needed the accent to write his faux-exotic pieces.

And of course Philip Arnold Heseltine, of Capriol Suite fame, thought it would be better if he were known as Peter Warlock.

Is this a British thing? Maybe not. It's well known that Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was born as Frank Gertz in Colorado Springs and moved to Russia in 1913 to study at the Petrograd Conservatory.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

When your career is about to get real, you're good at what you do, look a certain way, and your name is Archibald Alexander Leach. you might have an easier entree toward a well-received debut if your name were instead, say, Cary Grant.

Philip Arnold Heseltine was a very conflicted man, coming from a family where his father strictly forbade his son from becoming a musician. Heseltine was a bit more than allegedly bisexualm and not at all comfortable about that. 

He took the pen name, as composer, of Peter Warlock ("stone witch"), and at the same time his works were being premiered, was a paid professional music critic under his birth name who relentlessly tore apart and panned 'Warlock's' works in those revues written as 'Heseltine.' Rather special case, that one :-/

The one-name phenomena was sometimes spontaneously awarded by a critic or the public, often to Divas within the classical arena, as well as actresses. "Callas" / "The Divine Sarah" I'm sure people too, often referred to the famous composers Beethoven, Mozart, Liszt, etc as we do today, by only their last name....

The one-name pseudonym though is mostly a pop musician phenomenon. 

In equity theater, if another actor is known by your name, whether they took it as a pseudonym or not, you must choose another as an equity member. That union does not allow two of any actors working under the same name - an interesting notion, I'm sure thought of as both 'reputation' and 'job' protection!

With the hyper publicity in place in our society, many share a fairly common name, first and last, with one or more celebrities in various professional arenas, say, a film star, a rock musician, and perhaps a professional sports player. (My given name has two such matches!)

American composers John Coolidge Adams and John Luther Adams could be confused. Nearly the same generation, John C. Adams made a public name first, so is known as John Adams, John Luther Adams using his middle name to not be mistaken for the first (and still better known) composer.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Vladimir Dukelsky was a classical composer who composed popular songs too with the more famous name of Vernon Duke.


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