Inventing Claude Debussy.

There is a subtle temptation which leads a man on from mere disinterested craftsmanship, through a positive delight in his own virtuosity, to the exquisite private satisfaction of deceiving the elect.

--Hugh Trevor-Roper, A Hidden Life

The exposure of de Ternant began in 1947 with a letter to the editor of Music & Letters:

 
   Some years ago, when I was working on my books on Debussy, I was in 
   correspondence with Andrew de Ternant. He had published articles in The 
   Musical Times telling most interesting and minutely detailed stories about 
   Debussy. 

The author was the eminent French musicologist Leon Vallas (1879-1956), an early ...