The Japanese composer once lauded as a modern Beethoven for his ability to compose music despite being deaf has admitted to being a fraud.

Mamoru Samuragochi confessed that he has been using another composer to write music attributed to him since 1996.

According to reports, Samuragochi had been suffering from a condition that resulted in degenerative hearing loss since the age of 17 with complete hearing loss coming at 35. That would put total hearing loss happening around 1999. Prior to this week’s confession, Samuragochi attributed his ability to compose to his “absolute pitch.”

Samuragochi rose to fame in the 1990s as a video game music composer for the Resident Evil franchise. His most famous works was Hiroshima Symphony No 1 which was completed in 2003, or four years after losing his hearing. That symphony went on to become the unofficial anthem for survivors of the 2011 tsunami.

While Samuragochi has not named his ghostwriter, Takashi Niigaki, composer and instructor at the Toho Gakuen School of Music, has stepped forward to say that he has been writing Samuragochi’s music for the last 18 years.

The irony of this revelation is that for a horror game like Resident Evil, you would think that using a ghostwriter would be a good thing.

Source: The Japan Times, BBC News