Klarinet Archive - Posting 000508.txt from 2005/08

From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Forgeries (was Orchetral sexism)
Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 17:53:05 -0400

It is impossible for me to know Southern Music company's motive
in selling the work as a Mozart composition. I don't think there
is malice and, in any case, they are naive in their belief about
the authority of the work. They are not in the business of
authenticating allegations of authority and authorship. They
believe what they are told.

In 1936, Albert J. Andraud, English horn player with the
Cincinnati SO, published this work under the title "Cassation" as
"an original composition by Mozart discovered in 1906." I have
no idea what went through Andraud's head, or where he got this
quartet for clarinet, oboe, horn, and bassoon, or why it took
from 1906 until 1936 to publish the work the "newly discovered
work."

He may not have been malicious either. But when you are a
publisher and someone brings a work to you for publication, it is
safe to say that your interest is much more peaked when the
seller tells you it is a newly discovered Mozart composition.

Whatever Andraud's motivation, that is what happened, and I
cannot supply his state of mind, or where he got the piece, or
anything.

When Andrau died, Southern music bought his "Wind Instrument
Music Library" and continued to publish it with one minor change.
They authors are now said to be "Mozart/Andraud." I suppose that
this means that Mozart wrote it and Andraud did something,
perhaps edit it. There is no explanation in the publication.
It's just there. It is kind of like a band arrangement of Brahms
1 by Joe Schnutz. It will read "Brahms/Schnutz," though in the
Cassation, there is not claim of this being an arrangements. It
is said to be "an original composition."

When the 6th edition of the Kochel catalog came out in the mid
1960s, the work was briefly addressed and placed in an appendix
reserved for doubtful and spurious compositions, where it is to
this day. Its authenticity was dismissed with the statment,
"This work has nothing to do with Mozart."

I believe (but really don't know) that someone found a source for
the composition and that is that.

When in the late 1960s I wrote an article for the Instrumentalist
about the 10 worst composiitons in the Clarinetist's repertoire,
I included the Cassation Quartet, and made some very negative
comments about it. I received an unfriendly letter from the
President of Southern Music, which told me that the work had to
be genuine Mozart because it had been recorded by wind players
from the Philadelphia orchestra, namely Gigliotti, Mason Jones,
John De Lancie, and Sol Schoenbach. This, in the opinion of the
SMC President established the authenticity of the work beyond
question because "these men would know if the composition was or
was not by Mozart." (This is my recollection of what was written,
not an exact quotation.)

In effect, it was presumed that anything recorded by these men
had to be authentic or else they would not record it. That's an
interesting idea.

I wrote back and told the president that if he presented any
authoritative document supporting the authenticity of the work, I
would publicly apologize for my remarks. But if he could not do
this, then my comments stood.

That was the end of that. I never heard from him again. But I
use that work as an example of how things get into the Mozart
repertoire, and despite hard evidence that speaks against their
authenticity, they never get out.

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Adam Michlin [mailto:amichlin@-----.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 2:12 PM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: [kl] Forgeries (was Orchetral sexism)

I am curious, the use of the word "forgery" has (to me, at least)
the
connotation of someone creating something to intentionally
defraud (as in
your book). Is this Quartet an attempt to defraud or just one of
the many
wishful thinking anonymous compositions?

I would definitely attribute anything Southern Music Company did
to
ignorance before malice. Well, perhaps more appropriately apathy,
they just
don't seem to care to know the truth and, I suppose, this allows
them to
profit from passing on misinformation. I think this is different
than
forgery and would be interested to know if there is a true
forgery in the
history of this piece (and, alas, have no access to BBC4).

-Adam

PS: A rhetorical question, would you really want to be paid in
British
Pizzas? I guess it can't be much worse than what passes for pizza
in
California, though!

At 07:53 AM 8/31/2005 -0700, dnleeson wrote:
>For the British members of the klarinet list, I am going to be
on
>BBC in an interview about Mozart forgiers. It is not about my
>book, but about real forgeries of compositions attributed to
>Mozart. The show will be on BBC4 on either Oct. 20 at 11:30 am.
>And one of the many works that I will indentify as a forgery is
>the Cassation Quartet as published by Southern Music company of
>San Antonio.
>
>Does BBC pay in pizzas?

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