The Ongoing Struggle for Fairness in Mozart Research
I am grateful to this Beethoven forum for having several times in the past entertained at some length the idea that the official record of Mozart and Haydn's career is heavily loaded with false assumptions about what they did or did not compose - this centering mainly on the career of the little known Kapellmeister of Bonn, Andrea Luchesi.
It's not my wish to open further debate on this issue here although I do want to record the fact that a recent thread on Mozart Forum has again raised the issue. 'Did Lucchesi write many works of Mozart'. That question was of course shot down as ridiculous by leading Mozarteans (in their time honoured dismissive fashion).
No, in fairness, I would simply like to quote the editors of the most recent edition of the online Wikipedia encyclopaedia on this long-running issue. After a great deal of correspondence (from both sides) on this matter they have posted the following notice on the 'Luchesi controversy' -
'' As far as this encyclopedia's editors have been able to determine, there has been NO EFFORT BY OTHER SCHOLARS TO CONFIRM OR REFUTE TABOGA'S CLAIMS REGARDING AUTHORSHIP. For instance, they are not discussed in the New Grove's article on Luchesis, NOR HAVE THEY BEEN ASSESSED IN ANY BIOGRAPHICAL WORK ON HAYDN, MOZART OR BEETHOVEN'. (Capitals my own for emphasis)
That is the considered view of those encylopaedia editors. (Note that they took the time to fairly give a statement on it). This helps a lot because it shows publicly and for the first time from a neutral perspective that Mozart scholarship is unwilling over years to study for itself the many sorts of evidence that are supportive of Taboga's theory (including contemporary references, manuscipts, watermarks, and a whole range of other circumstantial and other facts) and it surely proves also that until now these same Mozarteans have acted only as 'scarecrows' in dogmatically repeating that they and their views are right on this issue and others wrong.
There is in fact no counter to the argument that Haydn and Mozart in particular were regularly supplied music composed by others to further their status. It is surely clear that these Mozart 'experts' have no intention of doing research of the kind that Professor Taboga and others have done on this subject. That is now publicly demonstrated. And thefore, let the editors of Wikipedia be congratulated (and moderators/members of this Beethoven forum too) for having been open minded in reacting to these views in an area of research where close mindedness is the general rule.
As regards works freely available on this issue these include -
* G.Taboga, A case of damnatio personae - Andrea Luchesi, and his role in the birth of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven myths, Episteme No. 4, September 2001 [E] (Previously published in: Quaderni del Dipartimento di Matematica Statistica, Informatica ed Applicazioni, Serie Miscellanea, Anno 2000 No. 4 – University of Bergamo, under the title: Andrea Luchesi, misunderstood genius between Riccati and Beethoven)
* G. Taboga, A. Luchesi, Maestro di cappella del principato di Colonia a Bonn, Restauri di Marca n.3 (special issue), Villorba/Treviso April 1993 [I]
* G. Taboga, L'assassinio di Mozart, Lucca 1997 [I]
* C. Valder-Knechtges: Die Kirchenmusik Andrea Luchesis (1741-1801): Studien zu Leben und Werk des letzten kurkölnischen Hofkapellmeisters (Berlin, 1983) [G], with first catalogue of Luchesi’s sacred works.
* C. Valder-Knechtges: Andrea Luchesi: Verzeichnis der Instrumentalwerke, Mitteilungen der Arbeitsgemeinschaft für rheinische Musikgeschichte, lxxvi (1989) [G]
* C. Valder-Knechtges: Ein Jahrhundert der Musik in Bonn, Bonn als kurkölnische Haupt- und Residenzstadt: 1597-1794, Geschichte der Stadt Bonn, iii (Bonn, 1989), pages 471-515 [G]
* C. Valder-Knechtges: Andrea Luchesi: ein Italiener im Umkreis des jungen Beethoven, Bonner Geschichtsblätter, xl (1990), pages 29-56 [G]
* L.della Croce: (Italian translation of the paper Der junge Beethoven und “sein" Kapellmeister Andrea Luchesi at the 1999 Beethoven congress at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin), Rassegna Musicale Italiana, anno IV No.15 July/September 1999 pages 13-16.
* Fausto Torrefranca: Le origini italiane del romanticismo musicale, Torino 1930, pages 557-558 [I]
* T.A.Henseler: Andrea Luchesi, der letzte bonner Kapellmeister zur Zeit des jungen Beethovens, Bonner Geschichtsblätter, Bonn 1937, pages 225-364 [G]
*'Works Falsely Attributed to Haydn and Mozart' (G.Taboga - in new English version by R.E.Newman - 2005).
With thanks
[This message has been edited by robert newman (edited 08-19-2006).]
It's not my wish to open further debate on this issue here although I do want to record the fact that a recent thread on Mozart Forum has again raised the issue. 'Did Lucchesi write many works of Mozart'. That question was of course shot down as ridiculous by leading Mozarteans (in their time honoured dismissive fashion).
No, in fairness, I would simply like to quote the editors of the most recent edition of the online Wikipedia encyclopaedia on this long-running issue. After a great deal of correspondence (from both sides) on this matter they have posted the following notice on the 'Luchesi controversy' -
'' As far as this encyclopedia's editors have been able to determine, there has been NO EFFORT BY OTHER SCHOLARS TO CONFIRM OR REFUTE TABOGA'S CLAIMS REGARDING AUTHORSHIP. For instance, they are not discussed in the New Grove's article on Luchesis, NOR HAVE THEY BEEN ASSESSED IN ANY BIOGRAPHICAL WORK ON HAYDN, MOZART OR BEETHOVEN'. (Capitals my own for emphasis)
That is the considered view of those encylopaedia editors. (Note that they took the time to fairly give a statement on it). This helps a lot because it shows publicly and for the first time from a neutral perspective that Mozart scholarship is unwilling over years to study for itself the many sorts of evidence that are supportive of Taboga's theory (including contemporary references, manuscipts, watermarks, and a whole range of other circumstantial and other facts) and it surely proves also that until now these same Mozarteans have acted only as 'scarecrows' in dogmatically repeating that they and their views are right on this issue and others wrong.
There is in fact no counter to the argument that Haydn and Mozart in particular were regularly supplied music composed by others to further their status. It is surely clear that these Mozart 'experts' have no intention of doing research of the kind that Professor Taboga and others have done on this subject. That is now publicly demonstrated. And thefore, let the editors of Wikipedia be congratulated (and moderators/members of this Beethoven forum too) for having been open minded in reacting to these views in an area of research where close mindedness is the general rule.
As regards works freely available on this issue these include -
* G.Taboga, A case of damnatio personae - Andrea Luchesi, and his role in the birth of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven myths, Episteme No. 4, September 2001 [E] (Previously published in: Quaderni del Dipartimento di Matematica Statistica, Informatica ed Applicazioni, Serie Miscellanea, Anno 2000 No. 4 – University of Bergamo, under the title: Andrea Luchesi, misunderstood genius between Riccati and Beethoven)
* G. Taboga, A. Luchesi, Maestro di cappella del principato di Colonia a Bonn, Restauri di Marca n.3 (special issue), Villorba/Treviso April 1993 [I]
* G. Taboga, L'assassinio di Mozart, Lucca 1997 [I]
* C. Valder-Knechtges: Die Kirchenmusik Andrea Luchesis (1741-1801): Studien zu Leben und Werk des letzten kurkölnischen Hofkapellmeisters (Berlin, 1983) [G], with first catalogue of Luchesi’s sacred works.
* C. Valder-Knechtges: Andrea Luchesi: Verzeichnis der Instrumentalwerke, Mitteilungen der Arbeitsgemeinschaft für rheinische Musikgeschichte, lxxvi (1989) [G]
* C. Valder-Knechtges: Ein Jahrhundert der Musik in Bonn, Bonn als kurkölnische Haupt- und Residenzstadt: 1597-1794, Geschichte der Stadt Bonn, iii (Bonn, 1989), pages 471-515 [G]
* C. Valder-Knechtges: Andrea Luchesi: ein Italiener im Umkreis des jungen Beethoven, Bonner Geschichtsblätter, xl (1990), pages 29-56 [G]
* L.della Croce: (Italian translation of the paper Der junge Beethoven und “sein" Kapellmeister Andrea Luchesi at the 1999 Beethoven congress at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin), Rassegna Musicale Italiana, anno IV No.15 July/September 1999 pages 13-16.
* Fausto Torrefranca: Le origini italiane del romanticismo musicale, Torino 1930, pages 557-558 [I]
* T.A.Henseler: Andrea Luchesi, der letzte bonner Kapellmeister zur Zeit des jungen Beethovens, Bonner Geschichtsblätter, Bonn 1937, pages 225-364 [G]
*'Works Falsely Attributed to Haydn and Mozart' (G.Taboga - in new English version by R.E.Newman - 2005).
With thanks
[This message has been edited by robert newman (edited 08-19-2006).]
Comment