# Composers/musicians who have spent time in jail



## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

...including just arrests.

I'm sure there's a thread about this already, but why not rehash the whole thing?

As I recall, Gesualdo basically got away with murder. But Bach spent some weeks in prison after a dispute with a patron, and I once read that Beethoven was thrown into a cell when police mistook him for a vagrant. He was not amused. 

Any others?


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

Olivier Messiaen - composed the magnificent 'Quartet for the End of Time' whilst incarcerated - the story is well-known but you can read more here https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/aug/07/olivier-messiaen-steven-osborne-beyond-time-and-space


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

brianvds said:


> ...including just arrests.
> 
> I'm sure there's a thread about this already, but why not rehash the whole thing?
> 
> ...


Have wondered about this myself!


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

*JS Bach* spent 30 days in prison in 1717 for reneging on his contract with the Duke of Sachsen-Weimar to take up a new position in Köthen.

*Beethoven* was arrested and briefly imprisoned in 1820 for vagrancy (the police mistook the scruffy, dirty composer for a tramp).

*Henry Cowell* spent four years in jail from 1936 for having sex with an adult of the same gender. In 1936 Cowell became the first person ever successfully charged under California's section 288a, which mandated a prison sentence of up to 15 years for any act of "oral copulation."

*Erik Satie* spent a week in jail after being arrested during a fight during the premiere of his ballet _Parade_ in 1917.

*Franz Schubert* spent a very brief time (probably only hours) in 1820 for "insulting and opprobrious language" towards the police after they arrested his friend during a protest against the Austrian government.

*Dame Ethel Smyth* was one of the more than 100 English suffragists arrested in 1912 and served two months in prison for allegedly throwing rocks at the window of a politician's home.

*Igor Stravinsky* was very nearly arrested in January 1944 for making an 'illegal' arrangement of _The Star-Spangled Banner_. It is illegal to make an arrangement of the American National Anthem with out permission (which Stravinsky overlooked).

*Michael Tippett* was jailed for 3 months in 1943 for being a conscientious objector and refusing to carry out any duties to help the war effort.


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## Retrograde Inversion (Nov 27, 2016)

Headphone Hermit said:


> Olivier Messiaen - composed the magnificent 'Quartet for the End of Time' whilst incarcerated - the story is well-known but you can read more here https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/aug/07/olivier-messiaen-steven-osborne-beyond-time-and-space


One of the most inspiring musical stories of the last century. There are, however, certain exaggerations, including some probably originating with the composer, that have morphed into a mythology about the work's premiere. The audience surely didn't number in the thousands, and it seems very unlikely that the cello only had three strings. Of course, none of that diminishes the work itself in any way.

One thing I've often wondered about, though. The ensemble Messiaen found himself with, although unusual at the time, is actually rather fortuitously well balanced. What would the composer have done if he'd instead had a tubist, a xylophonist and an accordionist?


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## sloth (Jul 12, 2013)

Ludovico Einaudi (not yet unfortunately  )


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## Razumovskymas (Sep 20, 2016)

Carl Maria von Weber was arrested and put in prison together with his father because his father stole money by means of some ill business affairs. Although Carl was innocent the king put him to prison and bannished afterwards because he was sick of the two von Webers and their affairs, Carl was also in great financial debt at the time.

Apart from that, Carl had a fairly "rock n roll" kind of life in his young adulthood mainly concisting of "women and booze"


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Not exactly jail, but Nicolas Gombert was sentenced to hard labor in the galleys. Somehow he managed to composed despite all those blisters on his hands from rowing.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Messiaen was not sent to jail per se, but was captured during WW2 and a prisoner of war . This is where he wrote his famous "Quartet for the end of Time ". He played the piano , and three other prisoners played the violin, cello and clarinet , which inspired him to write the piece .


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Alexander Mosolov, composer of _The Iron Foundry_, was sent to the Gulag in 1937 for "counter-revolutionary activities," though the charges may have had more to do with hooliganism. He served eight months.

Moishe Weinberg was imprisoned briefly in 1953 in the aftermath of the "doctors' plot" against Stalin, for no apparent reason except that he was Jewish. Stalin died very soon and Weinberg was released.

BTW a correction: Henry Cowell was imprisoned for having sex with a 17-year old boy, not an adult.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Robert King, early music specialist and conductor, was in prison for activities with under-age boys. He's on the streets now, conducting and recording.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Frank Zappa busted on an obscenity charge for a "lewd" recording after his studio was raided by police.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

superhorn said:


> Messiaen was not sent to jail per se, but was captured during WW2 and a prisoner of war . This is where he wrote his famous "Quartet for the end of Time ". He played the piano , and three other prisoners played the violin, cello and clarinet , which inspired him to write the piece .


I have long wondered what on earth his fellow POWs would have made of the piece. Or was it a special section of well-cultured POWs?



KenOC said:


> Alexander Mosolov, composer of _The Iron Foundry_, was sent to the Gulag in 1937 for "counter-revolutionary activities," though the charges may have had more to do with hooliganism. He served eight months.
> 
> Moishe Weinberg was imprisoned briefly in 1953 in the aftermath of the "doctors' plot" against Stalin, for no apparent reason except that he was Jewish. Stalin died very soon and Weinberg was released.
> 
> BTW a correction: Henry Cowell was imprisoned for having sex with a 17-year old boy, not an adult.


I wonder if 17 wasn't considered adult at the time. Either way, I would guess the charges probably had more to do with homophobia than anything else.

I would also guess that the Soviet Union, especially under Stalin, would give us our richest source of imprisoned and executed composers and musicians. As I understand it, Shostakovich barely escaped being sent to the Gulag.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Soviet interrogator: Have you ever been in prison?

Prokofiev: Yes, yours. 

(because the interrogation happened in a prison)



His ex-wife was sent to Siberia though, but lived.... truly awful to happen to her...


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

brianvds said:


> I wonder if 17 wasn't considered adult at the time. Either way, I would guess the charges probably had more to do with homophobia than anything else.
> 
> I would also guess that the Soviet Union, especially under Stalin, would give us our richest source of imprisoned and executed composers and musicians. As I understand it, Shostakovich barely escaped being sent to the Gulag.


Here's a short article about Cowell's conviction.

http://www.almanacnews.com/morgue/1998/1998_08_05.gstopn05.html

Other than the cases of Mosolov and Weinberg, I have found no other instances of Soviet composers being sent to prison. Perhaps somebody else has.


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## satoru (May 29, 2014)

In addition to the episode Delicious Manager listed, J.S. Bach briefly jailed for fighting and punching the opponent in a street fight, if my memory serves me right.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

sloth said:


> Ludovico Einaudi (not yet unfortunately  )


For crimes against music, no doubt.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

satoru said:


> J.S. Bach briefly jailed for fighting and punching the opponent in a street fight, *if my memory serves me right*.


Just how old ARE you, satoru?


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## msr13 (Jan 7, 2017)

While he didn't go to jail, Carlo Gesauldo killed his wife and her lover brutally in 1590. But the court said he was innocent given the circumstances.


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

Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801) was imprisoned c. 1799 in Naples by the pro-Bourbons for his Republican sympathies. He was then banished after his prison sentence was commuted and died soon afterwards in Venice.


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