The Strobach Syndrome: François-Joseph Fétis, Historical Fakes and the Early Music Revival

Abstract

Some pieces included by François-Joseph Fétis in his concerts historiques are now known to be “historical fakes”, which he composed himself and attributed to Emilio de’ Cavalieri, Heinrich Schütz, Alessandro Stradella and others. He even provided a spoof entry for his invented composer Jean Strobach in his Biographie universelle des musiciens. This paper traces the history of historical musical fakes from Fétis to Winfried Michel, arguing that they are uncovered because they go out of date like other cultural artefacts.

Keywords

• françois-joseph fétis
• jean strobach
• historical music fakes
• winfried michel
• invented documents