At 10:46 AM +0100 1/12/07, dc wrote:
John Howell écrit:
In the very good Arts & Entertainment Mozart
biography, someone (it may have been Robert
Marshall) played a little minuet that's
supposed to be the earliest piece by Wolfie and
said that whenever he played it for anyone and
asked them to identify it, they hazarded that
it might be something from a late opera but had
no question but that it was by Mozart. Sort of
puts the "early music was childish" argument in
perspective.
Really? As everyone knows, Mozart's earliest pieces are by Leopold.
Actually everyone does NOT know that, although
some of them were certainly notated by Leopold,
just as someone's music today might be notated by
Finale. This has also come up in discussions of
Bach's cello suites, of which the only extant
autograph is in Anna's hand, so she must have
composed them, right?!
But then, why are there so many attribution
problems if "anyone" can identify Mozart so
easily? Instead of having scholars spend so much
time on studying the papers, the manuscript, the
style, the handwriting, etc., why not have your
fellow simply play the music for "anyone"? The
above anecdote is typical of ignorant people
taking pride in their ignorance.
I'd hardly call Bob Marshall, a rather
distinguished musicologist, or the other highly
experienced musicians in that bio "ignorant
people taking pride in their ignorance." Of
course the example is anecdotal. So??
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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