tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18086590.post116230383966890936..comments2023-12-23T05:12:55.809-05:00Comments on The Written Nerd: Halloween Link LunacyBook Nerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02896226559142059293noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18086590.post-1162563320152689542006-11-03T09:15:00.000-05:002006-11-03T09:15:00.000-05:00Hi Sophie,Thanks for weighing in. I have to agree...Hi Sophie,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for weighing in. I have to agree with GalleyCat (link here: http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/lecture_circuit/finally_a_fake_writer_we_can_admire_46499.asp) in admiring both your efforts and Rohan's. Keep on doing what you're doing -- we're all enjoying it!<BR/><BR/>(And he was a very charming and entertaining speaker on Halloween night, with earnest devotion to the music he loves. Our bookstore now has among the only signed copies of FUNERARY VIOLIN in the country -- I'll save one for you if you like.)Book Nerdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02896226559142059293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18086590.post-1162325816086471602006-10-31T15:16:00.000-05:002006-10-31T15:16:00.000-05:00Also the new Susanna Clarke book is out, that's ki...Also the new Susanna Clarke book is out, that's kinda Halloweeny.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18086590.post-1162339853696787772006-10-31T19:10:00.000-05:002006-10-31T19:10:00.000-05:00Jim Harris at Prairie Lights Books recently sent m...Jim Harris at Prairie Lights Books recently sent me an advance copy of AN INCOMPLETE HISTORY OF THE ART OF FUNERARY VIOLIN and I must take issue with his colleague Paul Ingram’s assessment that the book is a hoax. My belief is that the Rohan Kriwaczek hoax is itself a hoax. <BR/><BR/>Let me explain. I am the director of MuseumZeitraim Leipzig and a former curator at The Wassmann Foundation, Washington, D.C. Research and scholarship at both institutions confirms that the Leipzig composer Hugo Wassmann, brother of the renowned artist Johann Dieter Wassmann, was an active member of the Lutheran wing of Leipzig’s Guild of Funerary Violinists in the 1890s. Hugo’s ultimate falling out with the Guild came in 1901 over his efforts to introduce the saxophone to funerary rights, a practice that would eventually take hold in the city of New Orleans with great success, although not among Lutherans. Hugo was a former captain in the Prussian army and regularly composed military marches inclusive of the saxophone. <BR/><BR/>Here in Leipzig, the funerary violin has a long and crucial history, most often associated with Heironymous Gratchenfleiss. Gratchenfleiss’s extensive archives were in the care of Musikinstrumenten-Museum der Universität Leipzig, part of the Grassi Museum, but lost forever when the complex was gutted by fire in an Allied bombing raid on 3 December 1943. <BR/><BR/>The un-sourced (and poorly translated) letter Kriwaczek quotes referencing Gratchenfleiss, dated 14 September 1787 (pp 62-63), which he simply describes as “by an unknown man named Fredrik,” is in fact by the pen of Fredrik Wassmann, grandfather of Johann and Hugo, describing the funeral of their great-grandfather, a funeral Gratchenfleiss performed. An original copy of the letter is in the archives of The Wassmann Foundation. The liberties Kriwaczek takes with his facts would appear to be part of a larger narrative strategy to make it appear he has created a hoax, when he hasn’t. What a dull book it would have been otherwise.<BR/><BR/>Intriguing.<BR/><BR/>Tschüss,<BR/><BR/>Sophie Vogt<BR/>Director<BR/>MuseumZeitraum LeipzigSophie Vogthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02517715291227455648noreply@blogger.com