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Posted by B. Aguirre on February 22, 2007, 8:33 pm, in reply to "Re: Hatto? Ha!" I have been curious as to why no one has said that they actually had face to face contact with JH in the period since 1976; all of her interviews that I have heard of were over the telephone or in correspondence. (To me this sounds more like agoraphobia than cancer.) The correspondence, according to Mr. Howell was produced on a laser printer using a handwriting font and even the signature was a facsimile produced on the printer. To my mind, this would call the authorship of her letters into question and I think it would be of great interest if Mr. Howell and any others who have substantial amounts of correspondence from both JH and WB-C would submit it for computer content analysis. Computer content analysis is a very effective tool for identifying authorship; it was used to identify an "anonymous" author in the 1990s (Joe Klein, author of the anonymously published book Primary Colors) and proved extremely accurate. If the letters of JH and WB-C are written by the same person, computer content analysis will show this and it will prove to be very helpful in understanding the nature of this fraud and who was most involved in it. If JH had kept a journal or diary, it and her annotated scores could explain how the author of the correspondence, if not JH, could have such accurate knowledge of events in her life as well as insights into how she thought about the music while being so unfamiliar with more recent events, and so clearly misunderstanding various comments in Mr. Howell's correspondence about music and criticism. If it is true that Joyce Hatto withdrew from the concert stage as the response to a criticism of her appearance, not her talent, would it not be more likely that she would become more reclusive with the advancement of her disease rather than being inspired to reached out to the largely male critical music establishment she blamed for the premature demise of her performing career? That she did take it upon herself to initiate correspondence with critics troubles me. I am also troubled by the critics who now try to explain the fraud as being the work of a man trying to convince his beloved (slightly or completely) "dotty", wife that she really was the stellar pianist and musician in her dying days. To me this is strange, almost magical reasoning -- true love justifies fraud and hoax! The amoral act of the hoaxer is rarely motivated by unselfish emotions, but rather is the result of narcissistic reasoning. More likely, he did this in order to supplement his income in the face of the expenses his terminally ill wife incurred. Why not use her good name, either with or without her knowledge and connivance, to restore to him that which her illness had robbed him of. Had the hoax gone undiscovered, he would at the very least have derived a very nice annuity for years after her death. As the keeper of her flame, he would also gain a position in the music world of respect and influence. Clearly, WB-C was not above inflating (and manufacturing) his wife's accomplishments to the world, and manipulating the situation for his personal benefit. If the hoax was purely for the benefit of his wife, then why bother to continue it after her death? One would think the relief of not having to engage in deceptions would have been overwhelming for anyone who created the recordings for unselfish reasons. Instead, WB-C had already shown his intention to continue it with the recordings he announced she had "completed" before her death which he planned to publish in the future. Obviously, only he could derive benefit at that point. Now it is important that the hoax is completely explained. I not interested in assigning blame to any critics who couldn't have known they were being duped. I want to be able to sort out the truth about her life as an ovarian cancer survivor because it is as important to me as a woman as the correct attribution of these dubious recordings is to me as a music lover. Whether or not she proves to be the pianist on some of the recordings or none of the recordings will matter very little years from now compared to the importance of such a long term survival of ovarian cancer.
68.175.122.142
I have been reading all of the pieces about JH with great interest as I only escaped buying her recordings because of the high price, and the difficulty of obtaining them in the United States. I was fascinated by the idea that a woman so beset by physical adversity should have transformed her life into such triumph through music. Of course, with the revelations of fraud I have come to question her medical history as well. That she may have eventually died after a battle with ovarian cancer is possible, but to have had ovarian ca that was diagnosed as terminal (medical jargon for inoperable and not treatable) for over 30 years continuously is not very likely.
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