Composer Mispronounciation

[Eros Philia Agape]

beat- hoe - ven

moe -zz -art  

[xxSeikoxx]

HAHA! I WAS RIGHT My friends kept pronouncing it as 'beet-hoven' and even ganged up on me forcing me to say 'beet-hoven' oh yea i wish i can 'beet' them up twisted *dork for classical music* biggrin Anyways i'm guilty of the chopin one, no wonder my piano friend was confused when i asked her if she can play one of chopins pieces. eek  

[Surfingpichu]

I always said POO-Lahnk. Most people I know do too, so I'm guessing that's what it is.

With Tchaikowski's full name, I always pronounced his middle name like "Ill-yick".  

[DieF1228]

xxSeikoxx

HAHA! I WAS RIGHT My friends kept pronouncing it as 'beet-hoven' and even ganged up on me forcing me to say 'beet-hoven' oh yea i wish i can 'beet' them up twisted *dork for classical music* biggrin Anyways i'm guilty of the chopin one, no wonder my piano friend was confused when i asked her if she can play one of chopins pieces. eek

Haha! My friend would make fun of me whenever I would say I'm playing Chopin. He would always say, "Choppin'? That sounds a little dangerous...".
Oh, and I totally understand the whole 'Beet-hoven' thing. Except my little brother would always say it to where it sounded like 'b***h-oven'...How he can find 'b***h' in 'Beethoven', I do not know...O.o  

[suki owl]

SymphonieEspagnole

Lord Eydvar

Lacrimosa Apotheosis

Are you sure D; some people, even native argentinians disagree whether or not its Gi-nastera or Hi-nastera Dx stupid danzas argentinas x_x

Oh he's Argentinain? I was going by the Name since i hadn't heard of him. If it was an Italian name it would be Gi-nastera but with him being Argentinian i would say Hi-nastera is almost certain. I actually know a couple of Argentinians and when speaking G's are more commonly pronounced with an H.

Well, according to Wikipedia, Ginastera himself liked to pronounce his name "Jeenahstera", which was how it was pronounced in Catalan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginastera

I've only ever heard his name pronounced "Hi-nastera" so I'd have to agree with Avianne-chan.  

[Eziana Altaire]

Show-panh (short a, like 'pan', silent n, nasally)=Chopin

Poo lanc=Poulenc

Chai cough ski=Tchaikovsky

Vore jak=Dvorak, soft j, everyone, including myself, pronounces it as "D'vore jak" but according to fluent czech speakers at my school, that's incorrect.

I don't get this beethoven argument, it's "bay toe ven" no 'th' sound....

The anglophone way of saying Strauss is Strowse. ow like "out".

Moatzart=obvious

More later when I'm not too busy razz  

[Eziana Altaire]

Deb you say=Debussy
---but it's hard to express the correct french pronunciation, the "u" is pronounced as if you make a small circle opening with your lips as if saying "oo" but then you say "ee", so the "you" isn't really a strong 'y' sound, rather the anglophone equivalent.
---my french professors have also varied between "say" and "see", or some odd point in between for the last syllable.
---the accent is either on the first or the last syllable, I've heard it both ways with francophone pronunciation.

Mahler=Mahler. lolz.

Wit ik 'ker=Eric Whitacre, accent on the 'ker'

Muss (as if the u had an umlaut) sorg ski=Mussorgsky, pretty straight forward

Ress 'pee gee=Respighi, hard 'g' accent on pee. Ha.

'Yan a check=Janacek

Pro 'coffee ev=Prokofiev

Vahg ner=Wagner

List=Liszt

Shosta 'koe vitch=Shostakovich, simple  

[Naioka]

svalur

i know a TON of people that pronounce wagner wrong
and i'm like "NO, THAT'S WRONG!" and they're like "no it's not that's obviously a w"

*facepalm*

DUDE!~ I know ! I have never heard anyone other than my 93 year-old grandpa pronounce it correctly. How about Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns? I know it's on the list, people NEVER say it right.

 

[Naioka]

Eziana Altaire

Deb you say=Debussy
---but it's hard to express the correct french pronunciation, the "u" is pronounced as if you make a small circle opening with your lips as if saying "oo" but then you say "ee", so the "you" isn't really a strong 'y' sound, rather the anglophone equivalent.
---my french professors have also varied between "say" and "see", or some odd point in between for the last syllable.
---the accent is either on the first or the last syllable, I've heard it both ways with francophone pronunciation.

Mahler=Mahler. lolz.

Wit ik 'ker=Eric Whitacre, accent on the 'ker'

Muss (as if the u had an umlaut) sorg ski=Mussorgsky, pretty straight forward

Ress 'pee gee=Respighi, hard 'g' accent on pee. Ha.

'Yan a check=Janacek

Pro 'coffee ev=Prokofiev

Vahg ner=Wagner

List=Liszt

Shosta 'koe vitch=Shostakovich, simple

Thank you for Pro coffee ev. I will use that. Also, THIS is the correct way to say Wagner ≡.♥≡

 

[Naioka]

An Unknown Kunoichi

Anyone able to say Tchaikovsky's full name? xD I always skip his middle name. ~.~

ill-yee-ch, actually the yee is a yi. So like, ill-yitch

 

[Kea of doom]

Vafrous Coyote

Wagner's probably the most famous one from a mispronunciation standpoint. I don't want to know how many times I've heard that name pronounced like an English name instead of its proper German pronunciation.

One of my composition professors likes to tell a story about how he did a presentation on Wagner (like a dog wags his tail) in high school and nobody bothered to correct him. When he figured it out in college he was crazy embarrassed XD

Actually, I think the one that I've noticed most recently is Poulenc - French diction rules say it should be closer to poo-lahnk, but it is actually poo-lehnk. The more ya know, I guess! My voice teacher had to correct me on that one, I'm not ashamed >.<

I've seen a gazillion weird pronunciations of Saint-Saëns, as well. I forgive them, it's a toughy. But it's still pretty funny.

Strauss is an interesting one. I switch between the "English" pronunciation and German, but I don't seem to do it consistently, so that's kinda bad.

Also my fiancé and I get into regular (joking) arguments about the whole Handel/Händel thing... I mean, realistically, I think Handel, but I suppose you could make a good case for his earlier works in German-speaking countries which should be Händel. Hmm. Too much effort for me!

But yeah. I'm a singer, I study diction for a living. So I get all sorts of a**l about different names and pronunciations. But, I figure, if I can figure out what you're talking about, I don't care!  

[bloombees]

I love horrendously butchering composers' names just for the fun of it. My favorite (that I haven't seen here yet) is "Beeth-Oven." After a bit it starts to sound like "beef-oven." Also, Choppin' and Brayms are favorites of mine. Curiously, though, I find it more satisfying to correctly pronounce Ralph Vaughan-Williams. Also, addressing composers as though we're on a first-name basis is really enjoyable. But that's a bit off-topic. #mybad sweatdrop