Unfortunate namesakes.....

[DaveHarries]

Hi all,

 

I thought this quote might amuse:

 

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At the time of the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1980 my mother used gleefully to herself as 'the wrong Lady Diana'. Here is a letter from a far more unfortunate namesake, the wrong Franz Schubert (1768 - 1824), a composer of church music at the court of Saxony. It was addressed to Messrs Breitkopf and Härtel, the Leipzig music publishers, who had inadvertently returned to him the right Franz Schubert's manuscript of Erlkönig:

 

 

Dresden, 18 April 1817

 

Dear Friend,

 

[.....] I must also inform you that some ten days ago I received your esteemed letter with which you enclosed the manuscript of Goethe's Erlkönig, alleged to have been set by me. With the greatest astonishment I beg to assure you that I never composed this cantata. I shall retain it in my possession in order to find out if possible who was so ill-mannered as to send you such trash; and who is the fellow who has taken my name in vain [.....]

 

Your most obliged friend and brother

 

Franz Schubert

His Majesty's Composer of Sacred Music

 

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(Quoted in "Still More Christmas Crackers, 1990 - 1999" by John Julius Norwich, 2000)

 

 

Anyone else know of any similarly funny mess-ups?

 

Dave

[Simon Walker]

James Hugh Reginald Dixon - organist of the RC Cathedral in Lancaster in the middle of the 20th Century was often confused with the famous Blackpool organist known by same last two names - sometimes in the press.

[MusingMuso]

I burst out laughing when I read this, because it brought back a moment I had long forgotten, when I spent a whole week in the company of James Hugh Reginald Dixon during an IAO congress. I was 15 at the time, and he must have been about 90: I'm not sure of his exact dates, but recall that he died in 1975 and was possibly born in 1878 (?) or thereabouts. It was utterly extraordinary that across a mere 75 years of age difference, two "soul mates" met, and for the entire week, we laughed and giggled like, (as Percy Whitlock described Dr Dixon), "naughty schoolboys at a party."

 

Sitting on the coach journeying to Wales, someone commented that he could see the sea, whereupon Dr Dixon started to move just his left leg about, and playing an imaginary "air organ" (are there any other types?), he started to hum the tune, (complete with tremulant), to "Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside."

 

I know that I have mentioned previously the extraordinary black & white photograph of he and I together, which appeared on the front page of the LIverpool Echo, and of which I have a much treasured copy. If ever a photograph captured a character, this one does, and "JH" sits there complete with his trade-mark gold earrings, the ever present Havanna cigar and those magical, twinkling eyes full of mirth.

 

MM

[Nigel Allcoat]

I am sure I've been engaged under false pretenses as so many say how they enjoy listening to Radio 2 when asking for an autograph.

[Paul Morley]

I should point out that I have never written for the NME, nor have i ever appeared on late-night TV expressing my views on popular culture. However, my grandfather was called Thomas

[Robert Bowles]

At a well known Cathedral during the 1970s one of the Residentiary Canons had the same name as the then Prime Minister, Harold Wilson. Confusion was avoided by adding, sotto voce, the tag "not iscariot" whenever the the Canon was referred to.

A few years later the Dean and one of the Residentiary Canons had the same name - Alan Webster. The "not iscariot" tag couldn't really be used, since which of them was "not iscariot" was a matter of opinion. Confusion was avoided by allocating to Canon Webster the nickname "Auntie".

Then there was Canon Ball - no problem really, provided the glottal stop between the two words was properly articulated.

[davidh]

A Benedictine monk is correctly addressed as "Brother Joe Bloggs OSB". So confusion at the monastery when an envelope arrived, marked "Private and Confidential" and addressed to "Brother OSB"!

[wolsey]

Roy Massey would always refer to the former Dean of Hereford (The Very Revd. Robert Willis) as 'Father Willis'.

[wolsey]

Sir George Martin and Sir George Martin. One of them was organist of St Paul's Cathedral and arranged Elgar's Imperial March for organ; the other produced records and arranged the music for Eleanor Rigby for double-string quartet.

[Barry Oakley]

A Benedictine monk is correctly addressed as "Brother Joe Bloggs OSB". So confusion at the monastery when an envelope arrived, marked "Private and Confidential" and addressed to "Brother OSB"!

 

As the majority of Benedictine monks are also ordained priests they are correctly addressed as, Rev'd DOM (name) OSB. In the case of an unordained Benedictine monk they are addressed as DOM (name) OSB. These are correct in terms of written communication. In terms of verbal addreses it is, respectively, Father and Brother. Just to clarify.

[Contrabombarde]

I have the same name as a retired Anglican bishop and have not infrequently been confused with him, differing in spelling in just one letter. A few years ago after a lifetime of mistaken identity I finally summoned the courage to meet him and it transpired that we probably were distantly related, since we have an unusual surname and his love of geneology (tracing his ancestry right back to the Doomsday Book) showed several family members with my varient of the spelling and a general tendency to come from the same part of the country as my family.