Calling the Spurious Attribution Society
  • incantuincantu
    Posts: 989
    I'm programming this piece for use on Palm Sunday, and I just can't bring myself to print that it was written by Praetorius, or at least by the Praetorius to whom it is attributed: here

    Anyone have an idea who the composer might be? Or (if I'm totally off here) can you confirm that this piece is generally considered to be authored by Praetorius? Let me say I can't stand it when people post questions on online forum when they could find the answer themselves in a library (or worse, on Google). But not knowing the original text, it seems I would have to go through the complete works and find a match to confirm the attribution, or (not having an idea of who might have composed it) go through the complete works of every other composer in order to refute it. I'm hoping someone will recorgnize the music as belonging to a different text. Cheers.
  • JDE
    Posts: 588
    Judging from the style of the piece, esp. considering the syrupy dynamics (you can practically hear the blue-haired swooping from note to note), I would guess this is the work of someone like Ravanello or another church composer of the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. I have no idea who the usual suspects would be except for Jean-Baptiste "The Other" Fauré. The link goes to his Wikipedia page.
  • JDE
    Posts: 588
    Okay, after looking at it again in daylight, I think it might even be Gounod.

    Bonne chance à la recherche!
  • incantuincantu
    Posts: 989
    Hmm, Gounod doesn't seem to be ashamed to put his own name on cheese like this. And I'm guessing the spurious attribution occured only when the editor supplied a new French text, long after the piece was written.
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