Virginia Knight wrote:

>The minor English composer Pearsall (composer of the partsong 'Lay a
>Garland' and of a popular arrangement of 'In dulci jubilo' for 8 part
>choir) added a 'de' before his surname to make it more impressive.  I'm
>not sure that this fooled anyone though.

As Hendrik Willem van Loon wrote in *The Arts*

    "As many of the aristocrats of the end of the Rococo period
    happened to be men of taste and discrimination, and as all of
    them were more or less tinged with a touch of the dangerous
    Rousseau doctrines about 'equality,' Beethoven had an easier
    time of it than those who came after him.  Besides, absurd
    though it may seem to modern ears, that 'van' made it a little
    easier to associatge with him than with plain Herr Mozart.  The
    'van' meant the same thing it means in my own name--just exactly
    nothing.  Bur it could be abbreviated into a single small 'v.'
    A symphony by Ludwig v. Beethoven looked much more imposing
    than one by plain Johann Kuhnau.  As you may remember, even
    poor Sebastian Bach had not been able to escape from the illusion
    that the title of a 'royal court *Kapellmeister*' would help
    him in his struggles with the town counselors and church
    authorities of Leipzig."

Walter Meyer