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I was looking up allonym, as a type of pen name, when I remembered George Bernard Shaw
wrote music criticism, under the pseudonym of "Cornetto di Basso". But I can't find any
confirmation on I;nternet. Can you?
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I finally found in encyclopedia that I had goofed. His pseudonym was "Corno di bassetto".
"Shaw was also music critic until 1876 of the London papers, The Hornet, The Star, and The World. Although he knew
a great deal about music, he confessed that he did not know as much as one would suppose from his articles but, as
he said, "in the kingdom of the deaf the one-eared is king" [Shaw, II, 808] and he never ceased using his position
of influence as music critic to encourage the public to demand better standards and the musicians to produce them.
As William Irvine states, "Shaw was by no means content to tell composers how to compose, musicians how to play,
stage managers how to produce, and audiences how to feel. He also told financiers of music how to venture and
manage, and the government how to legislate with reference to musical problems. In his critical pages the English,
a placid and political people, discovered with amazement that music was a burning political issue, and might at any
moment explode into social revolution". [Irvine, 324] He wrote under the pseudonym Corno di Bassetto as he felt
that he had no name worth signing: G.B.S. meant nothing to the public at the time and he chose Corno di Bassetto
because a) he felt it sounded like a European title and b) because nobody knew what a Corno di Bassetto actually
was. [Shaw, I, 30] He was later to say though that, "if I had ever heard a note of it [then] I should not have selected
it for a character which I intended to be sparkling. The devil himself could not make a basset horn sparkle". [Ibid.,
31] These subjective, trenchant and inimitably Shavian reviews reveal a portrait of musical life in London during
the late Victorian Era and beyond and were collected and published by the Shaw scholar Dan Lawrence in three
volumes in 1981 under the title Shaw's Music. "
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I have read, although I cannot remember where, that GBS gave an unfavorable review to Brahms German Requiem, but in later years changed his mind. I can't imagine what his objections were but would love to read that review!
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I actually have a volume of GBS' articles as Corno di Bassetto. They are readable, but not worth going out of your way for. You would expect him to get in a lot of bon mots, but he doesn't. It's obvious that he did know music pretty well but not from a technical standpoint. He didn't give really bad reviews to anyone. The style is chatty and fairly upbeat -- in fact sort of what you associate with a local newspaper which is out to boost the local people. He also had some favorites, like the de Reszky brothers.
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I couldn't find anything on "Cornetti di Basso", wwh, but I did find this: cornetti trombosis: disastrous entanglement of brass instruments that can occur when musicians are not careful exiting the stage.
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You, sir or madam, do NOT post enough here! ROFLKFIA. That was wonderful.
TEd
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Dear Wordminstrel: I ditto TEd's endorsement.
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Dear wofahulicodoc: One of those definitions is absolutely incorrect.
"
al capone: performing while standing on a neutered rooster. "
That is a machinegun obbligato added to 1812 Overture.
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From a friend of mine, a former Professor of Music at Tufts, upon reviewing that bannister link:
"... a Radcliffe girl, on a Music 1 exam way back in the '50's, gave the following definition:
BASSO OSTINATO: A mechanical contrivance worn by the Italian castrati. "
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Being musically ignoraant, among other ways, I searched for "basso obstinato". Perhaps others
may forgive me for posting:
Ground Bass(It. Basso ostinato,`obstinate bass')
Short thematic motif in bass which is constantly repeated with changing harmonies while
upper parts proceed and vary. Originated in Cantus firmus of choral mus. and became popular
in 17th cent., particularly in Eng., as a ground for variations in str. mus. Hence the no. of
`Divisions on a ground'. Examples exist by Byrd, Purcell, Frescobaldi, Carissimi, and Cavalli. See
Chaconne.
I wonder what that girl thought "castrati" were, And what kind of mechanical devices she had in mind.
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I suspect she was focusing on the high pitch of the voice, so that if there were any element of bass, even humorously, it must come from an something artificial...
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Wouldn't this lead to bass violins?
TEd
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Dear TEd: creating a Vatican soprano requires bass violins.
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Dear TEd: It was my uncle Sam Hunt who originated carrying tools of the trade
first in violin case, then in golf bag. He left me no souvenirs, Sob,sob!
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