Classical Music Anagrams

Galen has done an anagram study of notable names in classical music and they are divided into three sections: 1) Famous composers, 2) famous musicians, singers & conductors and 3) movie composers. Galen has only scratched the surface and you can expect this page to grow extensively in the future.

Pictured above in order: Glenn Gould, Hilary Hahn, Luciano Pavarotti, Maria Callas, Yo-Yo Ma

Famous composers

Béla Bartók = Broke tabla
A tabla is a small hand drum of India.

Ludwig Van Beethoven = Began with unevolved
An interesting, interpretable anagram in a hard name.

Hector Berlioz = Cozier brothel
Galen was about to give up on this name when he found this humorous anagram.

Anton Bruckner = Rock an R 'n B tune

Frédéric Chopin = Periodic French
= Prince hid force
Born in Poland, he moved to France in 1831.

Claude Debussy = Ably seduced us

Gabriel Fauré = Beguiler afar

Edvard Grieg = Drive dagger

Joseph Haydn = He's a phony DJ

Charles Ives = Evil crashes

Franz Liszt = Snazz flirt
Not a bad find for a name that looks unlikely to produce an anagram. 'Snazz' can be a slang shortening of snazzy and will not be found in most dictionaries. Considering Franz's reputation, the anagram is fitting.
                                            
Claudio Monteverdi
I loved court maiden
I'd outlived Cremona
Tour amid old Venice
Need viol amid court
Monteverdi's name is miraculous in producing uncanny anagrams. Each one merits a description:
1) He fell in love with a court singer named Claudia Cattaneo and married her in 1599.
2) He was born in Cremona but eventually moved.
3) In 1613, he moved to Venice to continue his career.
4) He had been employed as a court violist in Mantua.

Modest Mussorgsky = Muse God's sky storm

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
 = Violin, purge a despairing Italian
He may have despaired in the 1570's during which he lost his wife, two sons and a brother to three separate outbreaks of the plague.
     
Sergei Prokofiev = I spoke of griever

Sergei Rachmaninoff = Harmonic fife’s range
A very musical anagram!

Gioacchino Rossini = Ciao! Choir is in song
                             = I sing coos in a choir
        
Richard Strauss = Crush a Strad, sir?
A Strad, short for Stradivarius can be worth millions. There are Stradivarius cellos and violas also.

Igor Stravinsky = Striking savior

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky = The picky choir’s vital key.

Guiseppe Verdi = Dip pure vegies
A healthy snacker

Antonio Vivaldi = Valid in ovation
                         = Violin avoidant
Violin avoidant is classified as an atonymous anagram or an antigram.

Musicians/Singers
Galen has only recently started to address this category and very few names are done.

Violin

Salvatore Accardo = Act over a sad carol

Yehudi Menuhin = Hey, I hum in nude
Very awkward letters to work with but Galen finds a nice humorous anagram and it's musical to boot.

Anne-Sophie Mutter
Minuet note phrase
Prometheans unite
Painter Monet's hue
Pure notes in Mehta
Poem's tune in heart

There are many more anagrams that Galen has found for Anne-Sophie. There is a page devoted entirely to her:
Anne-Sophie Mutter Anagrams

Niccolo Paganini = No logic in a panic

Isaac Stern = Sectarians
                    = Cartesians
Two one-worder's for Isaac!

Sopranos

Ghena Dimitrova = The roaming diva
Nice one for the Bulgarian singer.

Emma Eames = See me, mama!

Renée Fleming = Feel inner gem
Renée performed at President Obama's inaugural celebration.

Mirella Freni = Real firm line

Angela Gheorghiu = Go hail huge range

Edita Gruberová = Be our great diva
Perfect!

Eva Marton = Rave to man

Nelly Miricioiu = O, milieu in lyric

Anna Moffo = Fan of moan
Anna turned down Hollywood to study opera singing.

Birgit Nilsson = To ring in bliss

Adelina Patti = I adapt in tale
Verdi called this 19th century soprano the greatest vocalist he ever heard.

Katia Ricciarelli = Like critical aria

Renata Scotto = Tears to canto

Beverly Sills = Silvery bells

Renata Tebaldi = End battle aria
                        = Attained blare
                          = I bared a talent
                         = Arab diletante

Eva Turner = True raven

Astrid Varnay = Diva ran stray


Tenors

Roberto Alagna
Got an able roar
Abet oral organ
Barrage no alto
Not bad, all 3 anagrams reference vocals. #2 could be interpreted as taking care of one's vocal cords.

Mario Ancona = Ocarina moan
An unflattering, albeit funny one for Mario. An ocarina is a simple wind instrument.

Carlo Bergonzi = Long cozier bar
                        = Coloring zebra

Andrea Bocelli = Be lead in carol
                        = A cad rebellion
                        = I end caballero

Enrico Caruso = Saucier croon

Franco Corelli = Call iron force
Corelli had a great influence on Andrea Bocelli.

Alfredo Kraus = Fear dark soul
A rather intense one for Alfredo.

Mario del Monaco = O, a melodic Roman
Close, he was born in Florence, Italy.

Plácido Domingo = I'd palm good coin
Born in 1941, the Spanish tenor is still going strong. He has had more opera roles than any other tenor.

Beniamino Gigli = I'm in a big legion

Mario Lanza = Amazon lair

Antonio Paoli = Toil on a piano

Luciano Pavarotti
Put vocal into aria
I, apt in a vocal tour
A rap vocal tuition

Tito Schipa = A stoic pith

Conductors will be added later as well as many more instrumentalists and singers.

Movie composers

Alexandre Desplat = Extend all parades
Galen has heard Desplat's Golden Compass score countless times.

Patrick Doyle = It played rock

Danny Elfman = Flamed nanny
A wacky anagram for the composer who scores most of Tim Burton's films.

Jerry Goldsmith = Joys led Mr. Right
Jerry's list of music credits is vast and includes the Star Trek: The Next Generation theme.

Harry Gregson-Williams = Rashly growling armies
The first two Narnia movies are among his credits.

Nicholas Hooper
Hear Chopin solo
Help a choir soon
Oh, nice harp solo
Three excellent musical anagrams for Nicolas. He scored the fifth and sixth Harry Potter films. Galen was disappointed to learn that he has opted out of the seventh installment.

James Horner = Jar men's hero
= Raj horsemen
He scored the two biggest box office successes of all time, Titanic and Avatar. Field of Dreams, Braveheart and Apollo 13 are among his others.

Henry Mancini = Nicer in a hymn

Rachel Portman = Oral parchment
Rachel, the lone female in this list, won the Best Musical or Comedy score Oscar in 1996 for Emma.

Howard Shore - Dr. Who's a hero

Vangelis = Leavings
Perhaps the score to Chariots of Fire is the most recognized work of Vangelis.

John Williams = I’m on Jaws hill
The prolific John Williams is perhaps the best known of movie composers. His anagram isn't very sensible but he did compose the score for Jaws.