Discussion on Fugue

[dll927]

Which sort of ties in with the fact that the record companies claim classical music is only a very small percentage of their sales. Why? Because "business" overcame thinking.

Once compact discs came out, the record companies all shot themselves in the foot by "re-mastering" and re-issuing just about every version of recorded music they could find in their vaults. Before long, there were 50 recordings of Beethoven's Ninth, 53 of Tchaikovski's First (piano concerto), 47 of Beethoven's only (violin concerto) and 45 of his other Fifth ("Emperor" piano concerto), etc. etc. Luckily, as opposed to vinyl records, CDs have a tendency to last a while. Result, fewer and fewer sales.

I have little background in "music history", although I could probably compete pretty well with some of the "experts" simply from what I've learned reading brochures packed with recordings. Unless, as you say, most of that is invention. Soometimes we are left wondering just what to believe.

[Robert Newman]

No doubt 'civilization' (as its usually defined) can hardly exist without creating and sustaining myths which correspond to and relate favourably to those who first created them and who defend them. These myths are zealously defended. They become in a very real sense orthodoxy and an integral part of our culture. They almost define us as a society. Big business gets involved. And of course there's the tourist industy, the chocolate industry and goodness knows what else.

Not long ago I was in conversation with a person (a highly qualified musicologist) on the subject of Mozart and the modern music industry. He admitted that, for example, the first 25 'Mozart' symphonies (so-called) lack a shred of evidence of any kind of being composed by Mozart (as do the first half dozen piano concertos and dozens of other works recorded and performed in his name) ! And said that the great orchestras and conductors are well aware of it. This conversation was only part of a long exchange on the overall subject of Mozart's career and the actual documentary/historical evidence. And since the subject is so huge we decided to first discuss Mozart's childhood and youth, agreeing to focus first on that period. Well, he readily admitted the exaggerations and falsehoods in this case are very real and always have been - that such things really can be proved. That they're buried in published books (despite still being little known publicly). That it wasn't necessary to show him things he was already aware of, etc. And even agreed they're able to be shown by all kinds of evidence. But it didn't stop him insisting the basic Mozart story is true. In reply to which I asked, 'But what is it, then, that is 'true' about it' ?

At this point he looked at his watch, told me he was in a hurry, and disappeared. (LOL).

I certainly don't want to give the impression that the biographies of all great composers have been fabricated. Not at all. But one can say with certainty that the origins of the so-called 'First Viennese School' (consisting of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven) are hugely falsified, inaccurate in many ways and are based on accounts which systematically mislead us. That the careers of both were massively fabricated and depended to a huge extent on the constant supply to them of music they never wrote.

Take for example the period 1750 to 1800. In Germany and Austria at that time there were literally hundreds of Italian and Bohemian musicians about which we hardly hear anything. The Italians had, of course, introduced much of the music known there. Many were in senior posts as Kapellmeisters and teachers etc. Vienna was searching for its own native 'geniuses'. And they finally found them, in Haydn and Mozart. As for how this was done, well, that's another story. In the case of Mozart it was wholesale, systematic, and consisted of blatantly suppressing the musical achievements of various others. Any composer whose music was 'Mozartean' (e.g. Vanhal, Myslivececk, to name just a few) were party to it. Vienna became the 'city of music' through such things. Through compliant publishers and propagandists. An audacious story. But true all the same.

I started looking at this subject in detail around 20 years or so ago with plan to write and publish a highly controversial biography. Discovering later that several people are already doing the same. You'd laugh at the situations it has thrown up.

But yes, in general terms, notes on musical recordings are accurate.

Well, none of this stops a lot of this music being great, for sure. But the story of it remains largely untold.

Regards