Jeffrey Noonan
Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:43:05 -0700
See Charles Cudworth, "Ye Olde Spuriosity Shoppe, or Put in the Anhang" in Notes 12 (1954-55).
The program notes to a recent Naxos recording of Ponce's solo guitar music recounts this episode. Segovia was merely trying to keep up with the other international virtuosi of the day (Landowska, among others ), who were unearthing and performing old, obscure masterpieces--sometimes actual historical pieces, sometimes new compositions. I'm not entirely sure Segovia every acknowledged the hoax while Ponce was still alive.
jeff----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Arthur Ness" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Paul Pleijsier" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: "Lute Net" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Friday, September 26, 2008 12:47 PM Subject: [LUTE] Re: Respighi
Arthur, I'm curious about the "lutenist who may not be named" as well. Trustworthy as this fellow probably is, there have been bigger hoaxes before so we have to remain sceptical until the lutenist's name comes out or there is some verifiable publication. The Segovia/Ponce frauds for example didn't happen so long ago as to be unthinkable today. For those who might not know, Andres Segovia and Manuel Ponce conspired to pass off Ponce's original guitar compositions as the work of past masters. These included "transciptions" of piano pieces (sic) by Allesandro Scarlatti, a Suite in A minor by Weiss, and the Sonata Classica by Sor - all entirely the work of Ponce. While today it seems incredible that anyone could be fooled for a minute (Ponce was a mediocre composer at best) these sham works were recorded and published in the 1950's under the baroque composers' names. Since these pieces were vouched for by such giants in the field, they got passed around and accepted as part of the repertoire. For years, Segovia and Ponce fooled audiences, critics and musicologists. John Williams' Wigmore Hall debut included the "Scarlatti" and "Weiss" pieces. Heitor Villa-Lobos tried to argue that the "Weiss" was so good that it must in fact be by J.S. Bach(!). When the master guitarist and respected composer were finally discovered, they claimed it had all been just a little joke. Ha-ha. I believe that all of these pieces are still in print under Ponce's name. Chris --- Arthur Ness <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Pleijsier" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>To: "Arthur Ness" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "Lute Net" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Friday, September 26, 2008 3:19 AM Subject: Re: [LUTE] Re: Respighi | As a total outsider in this matter, I just wonder why the Italian | "living and breathing" "master lutenist" is unnamed as of yet. | Paul Pleijsier ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Dear Paul, I was told the name of the lutenist by several persons at the Francesco conference in 1997, but I did not recognize the name and subsequently forgot who it is. And I've never considered it so important that I'd seek out the name from my colleagues in Italy, or from Thomas Schall. The way the name was mentioned casually, the lutenist was a "household name" to those participating in the discussions. It was ten years ago. I never expected it would be so controversial. And the controversy is due solely to ugly comments by Matanya Ophee and now Eugene <what's his name?>. They are demanding information to which they are not necessarily entitled. and seem to think they will get the information by suggesting that we are liars, and by using other unkind epithets ("looth fairies"), and by characterizing the lutenist as a "phantom." But I don't have the information they seek, and under the circumstances, wouldn't tell them even if I knew. The re-discovery of the manuscript was hot news at the conference. And several different persons told me about it. Sort of, breathlessly uttered, "Did _you_ hear . . ." And I did have an extended discussion about the discovery with at least one leading Italian lute scholar, who thought he was on the track of the person who purchased the manuscript shortly after Chilesotti's death in 1916. He named a famous Italian composer/musicologist (but not Respighi) who resided in northern Italy, not far from Chilesotti. Possibly it may be his family who still owns the manuscript. But that's just a guess, particularly because the manuscript seems never to have appeared on the auction or antiquarian markets, which are closely monitored by some of us. In 1997, noone told me the identity of the owner of the manuscript (it is possible noone knew)--information I surely would have tucked away for future reference in my 37-column article on the sources of lute music in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. It was well-known that my revisions for the next edition were then in progress. That is probably the reason why so many people told me about the manuscript. When a new manuscript is discovered, I usually hear about it within a very short while. Two persons on this list have given me additional information privately about the Chilesotti manuscripts (plural). The present owner of the Codice Lauten-Buch manuscript may have been known to a "mentor" of one reader here, but the mentor is now deceased. The important matter is that Dinko Fabris (a leading Italian lute scholar, and an expert on the biography and works of Chilesotti) was able to determine that the manuscript was not destroyed in a fire. =====AJN (Boston, Mass.)===== To get on or off this list see list information athttp://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html