Musical hoax

A musical hoax (also musical forgery and musical mystification) is a piece of music composed by an individual or group who intentionally misattribute it to someone else.^[1]

Musical hoaxes ascribed to historical figures

Henri Casadesus

• Viola Concerto in B minor by "George Frideric Handel"
• Viola Concerto in C minor by "Johann Christian Bach"
• Viola Concerto in D major by "Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach"

Marius Casadesus

• Adélaïde Concerto by "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart"

Samuel Dushkin

• Grave for violin and orchestra by "Johann Georg Benda"^[2]

François-Joseph Fétis

• Lute Concerto by "Valentin Strobel"

Remo Giazotto

• Adagio in G minor by "Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni"

Mikhail Goldstein

• Albumblatt (Листок из Альбома) by "Alexander Glazunov"
• Impromptu (Экспромт) by "Mily Balakirev"
• Viola Concerto in C major by "Ivan Khandoshkin"

(see also below)

Arthur Hutchings

• "New works" by "Paul Hindemith", in fact the rhythms and dynamics of a Beethoven piano sonata with nonsensically wrong notes.^[3]

Fritz Kreisler^[4]

• Allegretto by "Luigi Boccherini"
• Andantino by "Giovanni Battista Martini"
• Aubade Provençale by "Louis Couperin"
• Chanson Louis XIII and Pavane by "Louis Couperin"
• La Chasse (Caprice) by "Jean Baptiste Cartier"
• Grave by "Wilhelm Friedemann Bach"
• Menuett by "Nicola Porpora"
• Praeludium and Allegro by "Gaetano Pugnani"
• La Précieuse by "Louis Couperin"
• Preghiera by "Giovanni Battista Martini"
• Scherzo by "Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf"
• Sicilienne and Rigaudon by "François Francoeur"
• Study on a Choral by "Johann Stamitz"
• Tempo di Minuetto by "Gaetano Pugnani"
• Variations on a Theme by Corelli by "Giuseppe Tartini"
• Violin Concerto in C major by "Antonio Vivaldi"

Winfried Michel

• Lost keyboard sonatas by "Joseph Haydn"

Édouard Nanny^[5]

• Double Bass Concerto in A major by "Domenico Dragonetti"

Alessandro Parisotti

• "Se tu m'ami" by "Giovanni Battista Pergolesi"

Manuel Ponce

• Suite in A minor by "Sylvius Leopold Weiss"
• Preamble & Gavotte by "Alessandro Scarlatti"

Vladimir Vavilov

• Ave Maria by Anonymous; The piece later received an unrelated misattribution to Giulio Caccini.
• Elegy for guitar by "Mikhail Vyssotsky"
• Canzona for lute by "Francesco Canova da Milano"
• Mazurka in C minor for guitar by "Andrei Sychra"
• Nocturne in C minor for guitar by "Vassily Sarenko"
• Ricercar by "Niccolo Nigrino"

Ascribed to non-existent or purported historical individuals

• Hans Keller and Susan Bradshaw
  • Mobile for Tape and Percussion (1961) by Piotr Zak"^[6]
• Mikhail Goldstein
  • Symphony No. 21 by "Mykola Ovsianiko-Kulikovsky"
• Winfried Michel
  • Chamber music by "Giovanni Paolo Simonetti"
• Roman Turovsky-Savchuk
  • Works for baroque lute by Johann Joachim Sautscheck, Gotthold Ephraim Sautscheck, Konradin Aemilius Sautscheck, et al.^[7]
  • Works for renaissance lute by Ioannes Leopolita and Jacobus Olevsiensis"
• Rohan Kriwaczek
  • Works for solo violin, ascribed to various fictional English "funeral violinists".^[8]

References

1. Dan Hill. "Musical Crimes: Forgery, Deceit, and Socio-Hermeneutics". Archived from the original on September 18, 2008. Retrieved February 28, 2013.
2. Lebermann W. Apokryph, "Plagiat, Korruptel oder Falsifikat?" Musikforschung 20 (1967): 413–25.
3. Arthur Hutchings, "Personal View: 2. Du Côté de chez Zak", Musical Times 102, no. 1424 (October 1961): 623–24. Citation on p. 623.
4. Library of Congress Fritz Kreisler Collection
5. Rodney Slatford, "Review: Domenico Dragonetti in England (1794-1846): The Career of a Double Bass Virtuoso" Music & Letters 80, no. 2 (May 1999): 297–99
6. Andrew Porter, "Zak's 'Mobile'", The Musical Times 123, no. 1671 (May 1982): 319.
7. http://polyhymnion.org/swv/intervista.html
8. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/books/04viol.html