Myths about Composers

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Might be fun to gather as many as possible in one thread 

Here are a couple to start with:

1. JS Bach's music was totally obscure and neglected until Mendelssohn discovered and promoted it.

2. Mahler's music was totally obscure and neglected until Bernstein discovered and promoted it.

[Renfield]

3. Beethoven was completely deaf by the time he composed his late works.

[Florestan]

4. [You name him] is the greatest composer of all time.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

5. Shostakovich was a Communist hack who followed the party line. (old myth)

6. Shostakovich was a closet dissident who constantly encoded subsersive anti-government meanings in his work. (new myth)

[Florestan]

6. Shostakovich was a closet dissident who constantly encoded subsersive anti-government meanings in his work. (new myth)

That's actually true: Damn Stalinist Communist Hacks! 

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

That's actually true: Damn Stalinist Communist Hacks! 

Wow I hadn't thought of that!  Be sure to inform Solomon Volkov (if he hasn't figured it out already)

[Diletante]

Schoenberg:

• Invented atonality
• Is the cause music "degenerated"
• Composed nothing of importance

[DavidRoss]

That's actually true: Damn Stalinist Communist Hacks! 

Schoenberg invented modern music

[Josquin des Prez]

 

Schoenberg invented modern music

Mahler invented modern music. Schoenberg killed it. It was a short lived affair.

[DavidRoss]

Mahler invented modern music. Schoenberg killed it. It was a short lived affair.

You're right.  This is a myth.  (Or would be if it were a common misconception.)

[Christo]

10. Central Europeans (Germans a.o.) composed in a `universal' idiom; Russian, Spanish and e.g. British composers are merely `nationalists', composing in national styles. 

[Lethevich]

11. Tchaikovsky was killed for being gay.

[not edward]

12. Shostakovich was the Last Great Composer.

[The Six]

I remember reading on this board years ago that Saint Saens would travel to Africa for adventures with little boys. Someone actually said that. Myth?

[karlhenning]

12. Shostakovich was the Last Great Composer.

(* pounds the table *)

[ChamberNut]

I remember reading on this board years ago that Saint Saens would travel to Africa for adventures with little boys. Someone actually said that. Myth?

I came across that too on the board.

[Lethevich]

I remember reading on this board years ago that Saint Saens would travel to Africa for adventures with little boys. Someone actually said that. Myth?

That one was true, although unsurprisingly, people aren't to keen to bother writing much about it. His Wikipedia article, for example, avoids such mentions. One source here:

One danger of real contacts with North Africa was illustrated by Camille Saint-Saëns, Fauré's teacher, who was plagued by blackmailing letters from North African men he paid, apparently too little, for sex. Saint-Saëns received a series of such letters, like one in 1893 from a young Algierian named Victor Dumesnil: "Maybe there are pederasts of your kind in Paris whom you support with bits of bread, but it won't be the same with me.... You're a liar, a thief, and a pederast." Ravel would avoid this kind of experience, common at the time.

Edit: If the link doesn't work (which it didn't for me, second time around), try this

[ChamberNut]

13.  Richard Wagner was the cause of World War II and the killing of millions of innocent people.

See, it's even the evil, unlucky number 13?

[DavidRoss]

I remember reading on this board years ago that Saint Saens would travel to Africa for adventures with little boys. Someone actually said that. Myth?

Nope...truth.  And adventures is quite a euphemism.  He was devoted to sexual tourism in north Africa where he diddled little boys.  (This makes me feel more than a little squeamish about enjoying his lovely piano piece, Africa.)  There's a famous story about him once having been accused of being a homosexual, which he denied, saying that he was not a homosexual but a pederast.

[DavidRoss]

13.  Richard Wagner was the cause of World War II and the killing of millions of innocent people.

Absurd, of course.  However, there is one widely believed myth about Wagner:  that he was a great composer.