# Liszt became a Cleric, anyone else?



## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

I had no idea that Liszt became a cleric later in life. Many of his later portraits he is wearing some kind of collar.

This book, Liszt's Final Decade has a chapter on it:

https://books.google.com/books?id=n...CAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=liszt was a cleric&f=false

Any other composers go this route?


----------



## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

When Vivaldi wasn’t composing the same concerto 400 
times, according to Igor Stravinsky, he was a priest.


----------



## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

There were many, some famous but most are forgotten. Here are some of the better known:

Gaspar Fernandes
Tomás Luis de Victoria 
Gregorio Allegri 
Gaspar Sanz 
Agostini Steffani
Juan Cabanilles
Maurizio Cazzati
Stefano Landi
Monteverdi
Antonio Cesti


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Antonio Francisco Javier José Soler Ramos


----------



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart's librettist, was an ordained priest, but did not appear to take his celibacy vows too seriously!


----------



## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

What about any who became a fighter, magic user or thief?


----------



## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Bwv 1080 said:


> What about any who became a fighter, magic user or thief?


Don't forget to include 'murderer'.


----------



## Razumovskymas (Sep 20, 2016)

I think quite some Italian baroque librettists where clerical.

Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili wrote the libretto of Händels "Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno"

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


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

DavidA said:


> Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart's librettist, was an ordained priest, but did not appear to take his celibacy vows too seriously!


A masterpiece of understatement! Wiki sez,



> While priest of the church of San Luca, he took a mistress, with whom he had two children. At his 1779 trial, where he was charged with "public concubinage" and "abduction of a respectable woman", it was alleged that he had been living in a brothel and organizing the entertainments there. He was found guilty and banished for fifteen years from Venice.


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Bwv 1080 said:


> What about any who became a fighter, magic user or thief?


Matthew Locke. The first sign that we have that shows he was a troublemaker is a graffiti he carved into the organ screen of Exeter cathedral in 1638, he was 16. Shortly after he was done for fighting in the church. . .


----------



## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Bwv 1080 said:


> What about any who became a fighter, magic user or thief?


Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-George was sometimes called 'Le Mozart Noir'. He was not only a champion fencer, but an able boxer who made a study of the 'sweet science'. An ardent abolitionist, Saint-George's activism drew the ire from many in the slave trade, who attempted to silence him with violence-attempts which were thwarted by the Chevalier's considerable martial prowess. One account reads as follows: 'Early in July [1789], walking home from Greenwich, a man armed with a pistol demanded his purse. The Chevalier disarmed the man… but when four more rogues hidden until then attacked him, he put them all out of commission. M. de Saint Georges received only some contusions which did not keep him from going on that night to play music in the company of friends.'

The unfortunate Philip Heseltine, 'a tall, deliberately satanic figure in flapping cloak and big black hat' was an aficionado of the occult and ritual magic.

As to which composer was a thief I'll quote the knowing Stravinsky: "Good composers borrow, Great ones steal,"


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Philip Heseltine, better known as Peter Warlock, was thoughtful enough to write his epitaph in advance:

​


> Here lies Warlock the composer
> Who lived next door to Munn the grocer.
> He died of drink and copulation,
> A sad discredit to the nation.​


​


----------



## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

I want to hear this Saint-George's music now, that's a badass story.


----------



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

I think Berlioz was once accused of being a Presbyterian.


----------

