# Descendants



## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Does anyone know if there are any descendants of well known composers alive today? It would be interesting to know.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

There are some who share the sacred blood of not one but _two_ composers...

Aramis once wrote a beautiful and crazy post about spilling _that_ blood to a chalice and guarding it as a sacred knight until a true chosen one would appear to claim the right of the blood...


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

I am a direct descendant of the great 12th century composer Billy Ray Cyrus.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Gustav Mahler has a living descendant named Marina.










Wagner's living progeny are almost infamous.










Schoenberg has living children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren....

The lines of Mozart and (I think?) Bach died out in the 19th century. Many composers were bachelors or didn't have children for some other reason (Beethoven, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky).


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## Guest (Nov 28, 2015)

Gabriel Prokofiev is a living composer, for one.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Gyorgy Ligeti's son Lukas is a brilliant musician in his own right: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lukas_Ligeti


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

isorhythm said:


> Gyorgy Ligeti's son Lukas is a brilliant musician in his own right: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lukas_Ligeti


Lukas is pretty talented but definitely not on his father's level.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Peter (b. 1925), son of Béla Bartok - allegedly still alive and living in the US (Florida?). Helped to provide a new edition of his father's incomplete Viola Concerto.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Don't know if descendants alive today, but Rachmaninoff had several children.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Morimur said:


> Lukas is pretty talented but definitely not on his father's level.


No, but who is?


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Markus Stockhausen (b.1957), son of Karlheinz Stockhausen.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Maxim Shostakovich - the son and a well known conductor
Dmitri Shostakovich - the grandson and a pianist


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

I remember reading that Beethoven's last living relative died in WWI in the trenches..


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

I keep reading the thread title as "Decandents".


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## motoboy (May 19, 2008)

I have heard Beyonce is a distant cousin of Mahler. No...seriously.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Strange Magic said:


> Don't know if descendants alive today, but Rachmaninoff had several children.


He has, they are involved in a dispute with Russian authorities about the possible transfer of his remains.

BTW, plenty of composer´s families "alive and well" here in my own country, but their names will appear pretty local to foreigners.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

motoboy said:


> I have heard Beyonce is a distant cousin of Mahler. No...seriously.


How dare you?!
*************


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## motoboy (May 19, 2008)

Morimur said:


> How dare you?!
> *************


It comes from Norman Lebrecht:

http://bibliolore.org/2011/10/19/mahler-and-beyonce/


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

motoboy said:


> I have heard Beyonce is a distant cousin of Mahler. No...seriously.


True, but not a descendant.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

It's incredible that I didn't know this. It is now my favorite fact in the world.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Something tells me Mahler would not be so thrilled.

Tee-hee!


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Carl Nielsen have living descendets in America. But not in Denmark.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Vincent D'Indy's descendants still live in his château:
http://www.chateau-des-faugs.fr/les-lieux.html


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Figleaf said:


> Vincent D'Indy's descendants still live in his château:
> http://www.chateau-des-faugs.fr/les-lieux.html


How can I meet these people?


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

joen_cph said:


> [Rachmaninoff's] descendents are involved in a dispute with Russian authorities about the possible transfer of his remains.


I think I read that Russia wants him "back." They should have thought of that before they expropriated the estates and businesses of "the bourgeoisie" and drove them to emigrate to freer countries. Rachmaninoff chose America and raised his family here. He is buried in a cemetery in New York with his wife and one of his daughters.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> I think I read that Russia wants him "back." They should have thought of that before they expropriated the estates and businesses of "the bourgeoisie" and drove them to emigrate to freer countries. Rachmaninoff chose America and raised his family here. He is buried in a cemetery in New York with his wife and one of his daughters.


Rachmanninov belonged to the aristocracy so he was above the bourgeoisie.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Sloe said:


> Rachmanninov belonged to the aristocracy so he was above the bourgeoisie.


Ah. An even more shameful crime to the Soviets.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> How can I meet these people?


I bet they give guided tours.

Speaking of which, I wonder what happened to the Torre del Lago tour guide who was thought to be a descendent of Puccini, via an extramarital relationship. The composer was going to be exhumed to allow a DNA test to take place- it was in the news- but I don't remember the outcome.

http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/31st-january-1998/20/puccini-turned-in-his-grave


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Figleaf said:


> I bet they give guided tours.
> 
> Speaking of which, I wonder what happened to the Torre del Lago tour guide who was thought to be a descendent of Puccini, via an extramarital relationship. The composer was going to be exhumed to allow a DNA test to take place- it was in the news- but I don't remember the outcome.
> 
> http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/31st-january-1998/20/puccini-turned-in-his-grave


Tour, schmour! I want to live there!

Do the D'Indys take in elderly musicians?


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> Tour, schmour! I want to live there!
> 
> Do the D'Indys take in elderly musicians?


Ha ha, be prepared to get to the back of a very long queue if they do! Although personally, I could probably settle for a more modest gaff like Josephine Baker's Château des Milandes, or the one down the road from there where La Dame Blanche is set.


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## gardibolt (May 22, 2015)

Fugue Meister said:


> I remember reading that Beethoven's last living relative died in WWI in the trenches..


It's not entirely clear whether the Beethovens have completely died out. Nephew Karl's son Ludwig emigrated with his family to the United States in 1871 (under the name "Louis van Hoven"), and they had six children. Four died in childhood or without having any children. Two of the six are unaccounted for, and may have lived, married and had descendants, or (probably more likely) may have died without leaving a trace.

See:
http://www.lvbeethoven.com/Famille/FamilyTreeKarl.html#Karl

I do find it interesting that young Ludwig was apparently embarrassed by the family name and tried to disguise it.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

The Italian actress Asia Argento is Alfredo Cassella´s great granddaughter.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I have it on fairly good authority that descendants of Muzio Clementi still live in nearby Evesham or thereabouts, where he settled a couple of years before his death in 1832.


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## Lyricus (Dec 11, 2015)

The Mendelssohn family is alive and well, including descendants from Fanny Mendelssohn: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendelssohn_family


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