Infamous

Haha That was he first thing I thought about, when I read the title!

The ! Grrrrrr

I used to have an LP of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik that the sleeve note described as 'both enervating (sic) and spritely.'
I think hope they meant energising.

Poor old Mozart.

I have't seen infamous and famous misused, but I don't understand why cliched, biased and similar have now become 'cliche', bias etc.

I struggle to explain what has become what else in the way the terms are currently used, but in my head we can have 'a cliche' (so a noun, as there is an article/determiner), and something can be 'cliched', so the term has become an adjective (as in a description of something else).

How can it be ok to say 'this is cliche', instead of 'this is cliched?' or this is bias, instead of biased?

I am certain that I will have mixed up my terms (I am very stressed and tired just now for various reasons) but I hope the sense remains? If anyone can explain in simple terms I would be grateful.

My understanding is that infamous refers to the chaotic way the piece was written. I think there was a big upset going on between Mozart and his father which continued maliciously, the composition being the catalyst. (But I'd need to check the details).

Magenta8

I used to have an LP of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik that the sleeve note described as 'both enervating (sic) and spritely.'
I think hope they meant energising.

No, I find it enervating, irritating, repetitive and I absolutely hate it (also Beethoven’s Für Elise which if I never hear again will be too soon)

"What’s infamous about it?"

Well it was written in a rush for a particular event when Mozart had a lot of other things going on in his life and it was finished after the event, so perhaps Mozart wasn't very happy with it?

The same thing has happened to
Notorious
Which is widely used now instead of
well known or famous.

But then the prefix in doesn't always change the meaning of the word. Like you have flammable and inflammable, which are interchangeable and mean exactly the same thing. So there's a precedent.

There is a technical difference between flammable and inflammable under safety and hazardous materials regulations.
I can't now recall what it is and can't be bothered to look it up. It is true that they both alert to risk of fire.

I dont know which of the pieces it was, but I do know that the Horn concertos were written in bits and pieces, and that they were made for his friend to play. There were quite a lot of comments written in the margins, and I think that Mozart used quite a lot of scatalogical notes , so possibly that might be the reason it was seen as "infamous". There are many wonderful pieces of Mozart, and normally I hate the way that adverts take and misuse good music for their own purpose. But there is one Mozart horn concerto I can never hear without my brain adding the words, that the wonderful Flanders and Swann , made so popular. I can enjoy it from an orchestra, or with the f and s version. To see the young man tonight playing one of the horn concertos with his foot, as he was born without arms. It was very good amd you see how well he was able to use his foot.

Yes, quite probably, and technically speaking.
I guess it depends which word came first, and how then the alternative comes about. No doubt famous was a word before infamous cropped up.

I agree with madeleine. Just like Franz Kafka later wrote similar infamous chaotic works because of his hectic workload and his insomnia, (and in addition an authoritarian father on his back like Mozart).

I think therefore that infamous kind of refers to the state of mind of the composer. Scatalogical.

Yet Mozart didn't earn himself an infamous reputation for all that! Quite the opposite.

Do you really mean scatalogical ?
I know nothing about the music.
But that word has a very specific meaning and it's not chaotic or hectic.

Leck mich im Arsch springs to mind!
Mozart was the perfect gentleman with a crude side to him.

Though he'd probably laugh his head off at my trying to fathom him, all over a word. And it's time to let the dog out and go to bed! 🥱 😴

welbeck

Do you really mean scatalogical ?
I know nothing about the music.
But that word has a very specific meaning and it's not chaotic or hectic.

No such thing as a scatalogical musical note, so perhaps Madeleine is referring to the notes in the margin.

I think we better leave it there...