Musical hoax

A musical hoax (also musical forgery and musical mystification) is a piece of music composed by an individual who intentionally misattributes it to someone else.

Ascribed to historical figures

Henri Casadesus
- Viola Concerto in B minor by "George Frideric Handel"
- Viola Concerto in C minor by "Johann Christian Bach"
- Viola Concerto in D major by "Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach"
- Violin Concerto in D major by "Luigi Boccherini"
Marius Casadesus
- Adélaïde Concerto by "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart"
Samuel Dushkin
- Grave for violin and orchestra by "Johann Georg Benda"
- Sicilienne for strings and clavier by "Maria Theresia von Paradis"
François-Joseph Fétis
- Lute Concerto by "Valentin Strobel"
- "Pietà, Signore!" (a.k.a. "Se i miei sospiri") by "Alessandro Stradella"
Remo Giazotto
- Adagio in G minor by "Tomaso Albinoni"
Mikhail Goldstein
- Albumblatt (Листок из Альбома) by "Alexander Glazunov"
- Impromptu (Экспромт) by "Mily Balakirev"
- Viola Concerto in C major by "Ivan Khandoshkin"
Arthur Hutchings
- "New works" by "Paul Hindemith", using the rhythms and dynamics of a Beethoven piano sonata with nonsensically wrong notes.
Fritz Kreisler
- Allegretto by "Luigi Boccherini"
- Andantino by "Giovanni Battista Martini"
- Aubade Provençale by "Louis Couperin"
- Chanson Louis XIII and Pavane by "Louis Couperin"
- La Chasse (Caprice) by "Jean Baptiste Cartier"
- Grave by "Wilhelm Friedemann Bach"
- Menuett by "Nicola Porpora"
- Praeludium and Allegro by "Gaetano Pugnani"
- La Précieuse by "Louis Couperin"
- Preghiera by "Giovanni Battista Martini"
- Scherzo by "Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf"
- Sicilienne and Rigaudon by "François Francoeur"
- Study on a Choral by "Johann Stamitz"
- Tempo di Minuetto by "Gaetano Pugnani"
- Variations on a Theme by Corelli by "Giuseppe Tartini"
- Violin Concerto in C major by "Antonio Vivaldi"
- Alt-Wiener Tanzweisen by "Joseph Lanner"
Winfried Michel
- Six "lost" keyboard sonatas by "Joseph Haydn," "Hob. XVI:2a–e and 2g"
Édouard Nanny
- Double Bass Concerto in A major by "Domenico Dragonetti"
Siegfried Ochs
- Dank sei Dir, Herr by "George Frideric Handel"
Alessandro Parisotti
- "Se tu m'ami" by "Giovanni Battista Pergolesi"
Manuel Ponce
- Suite in A minor by "Sylvius Leopold Weiss"
- Preamble & Gavotte by "Alessandro Scarlatti"
David Popper
- Cello Concerto No. 5 in C major, Hob. VIIb:5 by "Joseph Haydn"
Vladimir Vavilov
- Ave Maria by Anonymous; The piece later received an unrelated misattribution to Giulio Caccini.
- Elegy for guitar by "Mikhail Vysotsky"
- Canzona and Dance and several Ricercars for lute by "Francesco Canova da Milano"
- Pavane and Gallarde for lute by "Vincenzo Galilei"
- Mazurka in C minor for guitar by "Andrei Sychra"
- Nocturne in C minor for guitar by "Vassily Sarenko"
- Ricercar for lute by "Niccolo Nigrino"
- Chaconne for lute by "Hans Neusidler"
- Pasturelle for lute by "Jean-Antoine de Baïf"
- Gavotte for lute by "Denis Gaultier"

Ascribed to non-existent or purported historical individuals

Hans Keller and Susan Bradshaw
- Mobile for Tape and Percussion (1961) by "Piotr Zak"
Mikhail Goldstein
- Symphony No. 21 by "Mykola Ovsianiko-Kulikovsky"
Winfried Michel
- Chamber music by "Giovanni Paolo Simonetti"
- Chamber music by "Giovanni Paolo Tomesini"
Roman Turovsky-Savchuk
- Works for baroque lute by "Johann Joachim Sautscheck", "Gotthold Ephraim Sautscheck", "Konradin Aemilius Sautscheck", et al.
- Works for renaissance lute by "Ioannes Leopolita" and "Jacobus Olevsiensis"
Rohan Kriwaczek
- Works for solo violin, ascribed to various fictional English "funeral violinists".

References

↑ Dan Hill. "Musical Crimes: Forgery, Deceit, and Socio-Hermeneutics". Archived from the original on September 18, 2008. Retrieved February 28, 2013.
↑ Lebermann, Walter (1967). "Apokryph, Plagiat, Korruptel oder Falsifikat?". Die Musikforschung. 20 (4): 413–25, at 422.
↑ Christian Speck and Stanley Sadie, Boccherini,(Ridolfo)Luigi, Grove Music https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.03337
↑ Reece, Frederick (2025). Forgery in Musical Composition: Aesthetics, History, and the Canon. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 100–103. ISBN 9780197618301. Einstein, Alfred (1945). Mozart: His Character, His Work. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 278. Webster, Paul (16 July 1977). "Mozart's First Concerto Was a Fiddle". Guardian. p. 1.
↑ Lebermann W. Apokryph, "Plagiat, Korruptel oder Falsifikat?" Musikforschung 20 (1967): 413–25.
↑ Hibberd, Sarah. "Murder in the Cathedral? Stradella, Musical Power, and Performing the Past in 1830s Paris". Music & Letters. 87 (4): 554–63.
1 2 Reece, Frederick (2021). "Baroque Forgeries and the Public Imagination". In Jenkins, J. Daniel (ed.). Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780197551585.
↑ Arthur Hutchings, "Personal View: 2. Du Côté de chez Zak", Musical Times 102, no. 1424 (October 1961): 623–24. Citation on p. 623.
↑ Reece, Frederick (2025). Forgery in Musical Composition: Aesthetics, History, and the Canon. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 78–118. ISBN 9780197618301. "Kreisler Reveals 'Classics' as Own; Fooled Music Critics for 30 Years; Composed Works Ascribed to Vivaldi, Couperin and Porpora to Avoid Using His Name Too Often at His Recitals -- Manuscript Hunt Exposed Hoax, He Cables From Vienna". The New York Times. 8 February 1935. pp. 1, 26. Retrieved 27 October 2024.
↑ Reece, Frederick (2025). Forgery in Musical Composition: Aesthetics, History, and the Canon. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 164–200. ISBN 9780197618301. Reece, Frederick (2018). "Composing Authority in Six Forged Haydn Sonatas". Journal of Musicology. 35 (1): 104–43.
↑ Rodney Slatford, "Review: Domenico Dragonetti in England (1794-1846): The Career of a Double Bass Virtuoso" Music & Letters 80, no. 2 (May 1999): 297–99
↑ Duarte, John W. (1970). "Weiss—Fiction and Fact". BMG: Banjo, Mandolin, Guitar. 67 (785): 386–87. Frary, Peter Kun (1987). "Ponce's Baroque Pastiches for Guitar". Soundboard. 14 (3): 159–63.
↑ Andrew Porter, "Zak's 'Mobile'", The Musical Times 123, no. 1671 (May 1982): 319.
↑ Reece, Frederick (2025). Forgery in Musical Composition: Aesthetics, History, and the Canon. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 184. ISBN 9780197618301.
↑ "Кажется, это не Бах: краткая история музыкальных мистификаций". Нож. 26 August 2018.
↑ "INTERVISTA".
↑ "British Author Espies a Funerary Violin Vacuum and So Fills It". The New York Times. 4 October 2006.

External links

Service, Tom (12 August 2015). "Don't believe your ears: the best classical music hoaxes". The Guardian.
Hebblethwaite, Phil (5 November 2024). "What are you Haydn? The Hoaxers who fooled the Classical Music World". The Guaridan.

[1] Dan Hill. "Musical Crimes: Forgery, Deceit, and Socio-Hermeneutics". Archived from the original on September 18, 2008. Retrieved February 28, 2013.

[2] Lebermann, Walter (1967). "Apokryph, Plagiat, Korruptel oder Falsifikat?". Die Musikforschung. 20 (4): 413–25, at 422.

[3] Christian Speck and Stanley Sadie, Boccherini,(Ridolfo)Luigi, Grove Music https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.03337

[4] Reece, Frederick (2025). Forgery in Musical Composition: Aesthetics, History, and the Canon. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 100–103. ISBN 9780197618301. Einstein, Alfred (1945). Mozart: His Character, His Work. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 278. Webster, Paul (16 July 1977). "Mozart's First Concerto Was a Fiddle". Guardian. p. 1.

[5] Lebermann W. Apokryph, "Plagiat, Korruptel oder Falsifikat?" Musikforschung 20 (1967): 413–25.

[6] Hibberd, Sarah. "Murder in the Cathedral? Stradella, Musical Power, and Performing the Past in 1830s Paris". Music & Letters. 87 (4): 554–63.

[:0-7] 1 2 Reece, Frederick (2021). "Baroque Forgeries and the Public Imagination". In Jenkins, J. Daniel (ed.). Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780197551585.

[8] Arthur Hutchings, "Personal View: 2. Du Côté de chez Zak", Musical Times 102, no. 1424 (October 1961): 623–24. Citation on p. 623.

[9] Reece, Frederick (2025). Forgery in Musical Composition: Aesthetics, History, and the Canon. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 78–118. ISBN 9780197618301. "Kreisler Reveals 'Classics' as Own; Fooled Music Critics for 30 Years; Composed Works Ascribed to Vivaldi, Couperin and Porpora to Avoid Using His Name Too Often at His Recitals -- Manuscript Hunt Exposed Hoax, He Cables From Vienna". The New York Times. 8 February 1935. pp. 1, 26. Retrieved 27 October 2024.

[10] Reece, Frederick (2025). Forgery in Musical Composition: Aesthetics, History, and the Canon. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 164–200. ISBN 9780197618301. Reece, Frederick (2018). "Composing Authority in Six Forged Haydn Sonatas". Journal of Musicology. 35 (1): 104–43.

[11] Rodney Slatford, "Review: Domenico Dragonetti in England (1794-1846): The Career of a Double Bass Virtuoso" Music & Letters 80, no. 2 (May 1999): 297–99

[12] Duarte, John W. (1970). "Weiss—Fiction and Fact". BMG: Banjo, Mandolin, Guitar. 67 (785): 386–87. Frary, Peter Kun (1987). "Ponce's Baroque Pastiches for Guitar". Soundboard. 14 (3): 159–63.

[13] Andrew Porter, "Zak's 'Mobile'", The Musical Times 123, no. 1671 (May 1982): 319.

[14] Reece, Frederick (2025). Forgery in Musical Composition: Aesthetics, History, and the Canon. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 184. ISBN 9780197618301.

[15] "Кажется, это не Бах: краткая история музыкальных мистификаций". Нож. 26 August 2018.

[16] "INTERVISTA".

[17] "British Author Espies a Funerary Violin Vacuum and So Fills It". The New York Times. 4 October 2006.