Spelling of Composers' Names

[Mark]

Is there a musical "Style Manual" that gives guidance on the (American) spelling of composer's names?

It seems that there are many spellings used and although sometimes one spelling seems to be predominant, I'd like a respectable source to refer to when spelling names.

As an example: Tchaikovsky, Tschaikovsky, Tschaikowsky, etc. And, I didn't even start to deal with the Pyotr vs. Peter thing.

[DonShirer]

Since there is no English equivalent for the Cyrillic alphabet ch/tch sound that begins his last name, and Russion pronounciation does vary a bit with origin, as does our language, it is no wonder we don't know exactly how to transliterate his name. The Library of Congress seems to prefer
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, but I have occasionally seen it spelled Chaikovsky (or worse). My Russian teacher (lo those many years ago) seemed to prefer Tschaikovsky as I recall.

I wonder how the composer himself wrote it when he corresponded in French? Americans don't seem to have much trouble with French composer's names, but the eastern bloc gives us fits. (I can spell
Dohnanyi, but I have a hard time pronouncing it!)

Here are some interesting variations from a trombonist's web site:
> Russian: Þçæèì°îèƒæ (sorry, the character set didn't copy)
> English: Tchaikovsky
> German: Tschaikowsky
> French: Tchaikovsky
> Polish: Czajkowski
> Dutch: Tsjaikovski

Don Shirer
Westbrook, CT

[prototypedenNIS]

US library of Congress has him listed as something like Chaikovsky

What about Schoenberg (Schönberg)

And there's the asian languages, Li, Lee, etc...

gotta love diversity!

[finnbogi]

Here are some interesting variations from a trombonist's web site:
> Russian: Þçæèì°îèƒæ (sorry, the character set didn't copy)
> English: Tchaikovsky
> German: Tschaikowsky
> French: Tchaikovsky
> Polish: Czajkowski
> Dutch: Tsjaikovski

Icelandic: Tsjajkovskíj

According to most English transliteration tables for Russian, Пётр Ильич ЧайковÑ

[Mark]

If in doubt, I use the spelling given in the New Grove's "Dictionary of Music and Musicians" - the definitive music dictionary in the English language. That gives the spelling as Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky.

I had thought abour using the Grove dictionary or the Daniels book.

Also, I'm thinking my intial post wasn't clear. I was not asking specifically about Tchaikovsky, but about composers' names in general. Tchaikovsky was just an example of the multiple spellings floating around.

[Rick Denney]

What about Schoenberg (Schönberg)

It is customary for those who do not have an umlaut on their keyboard to use a following "e". Thus, Voigtlaender, Schoenberg, Boehm, and so on, when writing in English.

As for languages written with few letters that look like our Latin alphabet, it's mostly a matter of the language and pronunciation rules of the transliterator. Thus, that canyon in northeaster Arizona is called Canyon de Chelly because the name of it was first written down in French. The proper modern transliteration for that name, using accepted ways of spelling Navaho (which is a spoken-only language) is "Tsegi". "Chelly" is a French approximation of the sound of the word when spoken by a Navajo. This is why many Russian words appear with various transliterations. You have to look at the pronunciation rules of the transliterator's native language to understand the pronunciation he was trying to approximate. That explains why transliterations vary so much from one language to the next.

Rick "who has an umlaut but who can never remember where it is" Denney

[ahowle]

One commonly mispelled composer would definitely be Händel... In English we tend to just write "Handel," however without the umlaut "Haendel" is how it should be spelled.

I also get annoyed when people write "Tannhauser." It should be "Tannhäuser" or "Tannhaeuser."

[Chuck(G)]

One commonly mispelled composer would definitely be Händel... In English we tend to just write "Handel," however without the umlaut "Haendel" is how it should be spelled.

I also get annoyed when people write "Tannhauser." It should be "Tannhäuser" or "Tannhaeuser."

Well, the problem was that GFH became a public figure in England--and his name was spelled "Handel" there--and particularly on the 1767 first published edition of the "Messiah".

Burney wrote about "Mr. Handel" and GFH even spelled his name "Handel" in his last will and testament (there's a photo on the web of it).

So, you can go with the echte deutsch spelling, or just learn to roll with it like Mr. Handel/Händel did.