# Literary gaffes



## Marsilius (Jun 13, 2015)

I don't suppose there's any reason why we should assume that a fondness for literature - or an inclination to write fiction - would predispose someone towards classical music. Even so, I would have thought that a publisher's editor, or a proof reader, or someone else along the production line might have picked up a basic error like this one that I came across in a recently published (and very enjoyable) novel:

"Then she made herself some toast and black tea, put a Bach symphony on the record player and twiddled the dials of her radio until she found the BBC..." [Jane Thynne "A war of flowers", 2014.]

Has anyone encountered any other such musical boo-boos in literature?


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Maybe it wasn't J.S. Bach.


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## Guest (Jul 20, 2015)

The proofreader was a big C.P.E. fan.

What I'm wondering about is putting music on the record player and then twiddling the dials of the radio to find the BBC....

But yeah, I hope there are other gaffes people know about. I'm sure I've seen one or two in the past, but my memory isn't what were we talking about?


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## Marsilius (Jun 13, 2015)

I hadn't thought of that - but if one refers to another of the Bachs it's usual to add the specific initials isn't it? "Bach" on its own usually refers to J.S., I think.

Re. twiddling the dials on a radio, the novel is set in pre-war Berlin and the heroine is disguising her radio listening from possible Gestapo eavesdroppers by putting the Bach "symphony" on the gramophone at the same time.


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## Guest (Jul 20, 2015)

Yeah, I was thinking more of playing the record player and the radio at the same time.

And it's true about J.S., but you must allow us our little jokes, you know.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

There's a decent chance the author has never even heard of any Bach but J.S.

It's a TV show, not literature, but I always recall a scene from Frasier where the brothers argue over what key Bartok's Concerto was in. Not sure which concerto they meant -- for Orchestra?


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## Marsilius (Jun 13, 2015)

Moving beyond literature as the previous poster did, there's a scene in the 1940s Joan Crawford film "Humoresque", a tale of an aspiring violinist played by John Garfield, where she's asked whether she enjoys classical music and utters a completely meaningless reply which I seem to recall as "Some symphonies... most concertos..."


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I enjoy Peter Lovesey's detective novels, and I liked this one too - but when I read it was bemused by the repeated assertion that 'intonation' was so difficult for a string quartet. It spoke about it as if it was one of the higher techniques, and that this was an erudite piece of musical jargon, but surely being in tune is pretty basic?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/enter...ba92fc-9098-11e2-9abd-e4c5c9dc5e90_story.html


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I don't recall many from literature, but in other media there was a film from the 50s with Cornell Wilde as Chopin called "A Song to Remember." No singing was involved.

In an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation a string quartet infamously makes a Vulcan cry by playing the slow movement of Brahms Sextet No. 1.


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## Guest (Jul 20, 2015)

This made me laugh out loud, Weston.

But then I started thinking (in my case almost always a mistake), maybe he was that two of players were missing? Where is the other violist and the other cellist, _where?_ (Sniff.)


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Sarek, Spock's father, is crying because he has Bendii syndrome - but it's said to be a *Mozart* concert, so did the Brahms get in by mistake...?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708769/


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Ingélou said:


> Sarek, Spock's father, is crying because he has Bendii syndrome - but it's said to be a *Mozart* concert, so did the Brahms get in by mistake...?
> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708769/


So_ that_ must be the mysterious role of the "Gaffer"we see in the end credits.

(Actually it's an extremely moving moment regardless.)


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I would like to know who first penned the expression "reached a crescendo." :scold:

If that person is still living, I wish them a lingering _morendo_, with plenty of time to regret not having consulted Grove's.


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## PierreN (Aug 4, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> I would like to know who first penned the expression "reached a crescendo." :scold:


You shouldn't be too harsh. Whoever it was who wrote that, maybe it was just a temporary diminuendo in his/her writing career.


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## PierreN (Aug 4, 2013)

Weston said:


> In an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation a string quartet infamously makes a Vulcan cry by playing the slow movement of Brahms Sextet No. 1.


This may have been a conditioned response owing to his having been chopping onions the last few times he had heard it.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

PierreN said:


> You shouldn't be too harsh. Whoever it was who wrote that, maybe it was just a temporary diminuendo in his/her writing career.


Maybe...But he/she seems to have taught writing courses all over the world.


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## breakup (Jul 8, 2015)

You really don't expect script writers to be knowledgeable about classical music, or anything else for that matter. I once heard it said that all writers are liers, that's why their work is called fiction.


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## PierreN (Aug 4, 2013)

breakup said:


> You really don't expect script writers to be knowledgeable about classical music, or anything else for that matter. I once heard it said that all writers are liers, that's why their work is called fiction.


It's also possible that some of those writers may have read some libretti from famous operas and decided to fight back against the musical world.


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## motoboy (May 19, 2008)

I can't recall any music gaffes but cringe everytime someone writes about "releasing the safety catch on their Glock service revolver."
And being in aviation, I get tickled everytime an author insists on writing "chopper" everytime they mean "helicopter" and "the pilot warmed up the rotors on the chopper"...What does that even mean?


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## PierreN (Aug 4, 2013)

motoboy said:


> And being in aviation, I get tickled everytime an author insists on writing "chopper" everytime they mean "helicopter" and "the pilot warmed up the rotors on the chopper"...What does that even mean?


In order to warm up the chopper's rotors, you must first release the rotors's safety catch, and then you must perform the first movement of Stockhausen's string quartet.


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## breakup (Jul 8, 2015)

motoboy said:


> I can't recall any music gaffes but cringe everytime someone writes about "releasing the safety catch on their Glock service revolver."
> And being in aviation, I get tickled everytime an author insists on writing "chopper" everytime they mean "helicopter" and "*the pilot warmed up the rotors on the chopper"...What does that even mean?*


Maybe the "Pilot" was actually a Chef?


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## Ice Dragon (Jun 20, 2018)

I read a historical novel recently in which two characters wax poetic about their shared love for Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier...in the 1890s. Oops. And was a recent book, so there was no excuse for not looking up the premiere date online.


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## Mister Meow (10 mo ago)

Ice Dragon said:


> I read a historical novel recently in which two characters wax poetic about their shared love for Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier...in the 1890s. Oops. And was a recent book, so there was no excuse for not looking up the premiere date online.


It wasn't a mistake; it was just an _anachronism_.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I recall a segment of _Law & Order_: _Criminal Intent_ in which fine actor Vincent D'Onofrio, who for 10 years played character Robert Goren, a kind of a savant-detective, one who seemed to have encyclopedic knowledge of everything and anyone, during an investigation of, I think, a symphony conductor, noted a record album or score by the composer Krzysztof Penderecki and pronounced the last name (the only part of the name provided in the script) in clear syllables: Pen-der-eck-ee. My own Polish isn't so good either, but I would have suspected this particular detective to have made a better stab at pronouncing the name. Especially because in the context of the scene he apparently had prior knowledge of this particular composer.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

It is one thing to think up a savant character, and another to be smart enough to make a believable case for it. However, I think missing Penderets-ki is a rather mild error, compared to the standard mangling of far easier French or German names very common in anything anglophone


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

I recall coming across a surprising error recently, but for the life of me, I can’t recall where.

I know that when Ian McEwan wrote about music in _The Children Act, _he checked with Angela Hewitt.

I also know that when Elaine Stritch was learning the Sondheim song _The Ladies Who Lunch_, she thought the line, “Perhaps a piece of Mahler’s,” referred to pastry.


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