# Composers whose music did not match their personalities



## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I just posted the thread "Artists whose image or lyrics do not match their music" in the non-classical section: http://www.talkclassical.com/29108-artists-whos-music-does.html#post557859

So I wanted to do a classical music version of this thread too. So who are some composers whose music and personality don't seem to match up?

The first one that came to my mind was Richard Strauss. You'd think the person who wrote "Salome" and "Elektra" would have a few screws loose (in an awesome, composer sort of way of course), but apparently Strauss was a pretty even headed guy and in composing those two operas was probably just trying to ride the German psychological expressionism train while it was still a thing. I've heard he could even sound a bit dis-passionate about music sometimes.


----------



## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

Bruckner strikes me as an obvious example. His symphonies are huge and bombastic, yet the personality is shy and humble.

I also think of Elgar. Some of his music has a very "typically British" "stiff-upper-lip" quality to it, e.g. Pomp & Circumstance or Symphony #1. I think this stems from Elgar's desire to be socially accepted amongst the English elites, despite his humble background. But Elgar also suffered from Bipolar Disorder and is often described in biographies as being very solitary and mournful. There are of course some pieces which reflect this darker side to his personality, but they aren't necessarily the best known ones.

Possibly Franck as well? I think he is responsible for some of the most beautifully expressive music of the Romantic period, but his personality is described as that of a pedantic pedagogue. (But I know some people would suggest that Franck's music is every bit as pedantic as the man himself).


----------



## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

I thnk in the long run most composer's music very much matches their personalities (and I'm really unsure how it could ever be otherwise -- unless they were opportunistically following fashion in order to make money.). There's a reason Strauss didn't follow up Salome and Elektra, and that's because it really wasn't in him to keep going in that direction. It's hard to create against type, and one has be really willful to be able to do it. And I think the majority of composers who sublimated their natural inclinations to commercialism were by and large not great composers.


----------



## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

......................


----------



## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Tchaikovsky. His music is so disturbed and mournful, yet we know that Tchaikovsky himself was gay.


----------



## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

Plenty of composers who were not themselves religious wrote religious music of note. Vaughan Williams and Janáček were both atheists, for example.


----------



## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

I think Bruckner's music is grand and has a large scale, but it's not like it doesn't fit with his personality. Remember, artists mostly have a very well-formed and intense inner life, and their outer personalities are nothing to go by in that case. That is why, you will always find composers who made sad music in happy times and happy music in sad times. Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann. Music making is also a departure from reality for composers.


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Glazunov in his photographs looks like the most gloomy, lethargic Russian ever (he sometimes was as a person too), and yet he wrote the most dazzling and lovable scherzos! How did he have it in him to compose such supremely optimistic and energetic stuff?? Well, he actually was a very kind, even warm man, just very reserved.


----------



## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

I think it's a bit funny how Boulez the composer is quite experimental and radical while Boulez the conductor is straight-laced and rather literal-minded.


----------



## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

violadude said:


> I just posted the thread "Artists whose image or lyrics do not match their music" in the non-classical section: http://www.talkclassical.com/29108-artists-whos-music-does.html#post557859
> 
> So I wanted to do a classical music version of this thread too. So who are some composers whose music and personality don't seem to match up?
> 
> The first one that came to my mind was Richard Strauss. You'd think the person who wrote "Salome" and "Elektra" would have a few screws loose (in an awesome, composer sort of way of course), but apparently Strauss was a pretty even headed guy and in composing those two operas was probably just trying to ride the German psychological expressionism train while it was still a thing. I've heard he could even sound a bit dis-passionate about music sometimes.


I love the idea of Strauss as the comfortable Bavarian family man for whom music is a roll-your-sleeves-up profession which is quite gratifyng and he happens to be rather good at but, really, the whole thing is a bit of a chore because he'd rather be playing cards and smoking cigars and having fun. Didn't Strauss even talk about composing "as a cow gives milk"? I especially love the idea of him feeling like he needed to relieve himself of the excessive burden of writing further Salomes and Elektras and relaxing with Rosenkavalier (although I, for one, would have been happier had he continued in that intense vein)

Faure was a likeable ladies' man apparently, which doesn't really match his rather lovely but modest and introverted music


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

dgee said:


> ...because he'd rather be playing cards and smoking cigars and having fun.


According to some of his musicians, Strauss's wife kept him on very short rations and he compelled his subordinates to play cards with him to get spending money. He regularly fleeced them. Some have left rather unflattering comments behind...


----------



## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Perhaps Verdi. By most accounts he was a good man, but his opera's aren't.


----------



## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

...if you need to reinstall the operating system on your adding machine.
Call Gustav


----------



## Forte (Jul 26, 2013)

ahammel said:


> Plenty of composers who were not themselves religious wrote religious music of note. Vaughan Williams and Janáček were both atheists, for example.


Brahms was also an agnostic and wrote chorale preludes based on Lutheran hymns.

I think it's hard to match Bach's music to what we know about his personality, unless he was secretly a perfect space alien.


----------



## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

John Cage apparently had a very genial personality, not necessarily the stereotype of an Avant Garde composer. He certainly wasn't a 'bomb thrower' like young Boulez.


----------



## Feathers (Feb 18, 2013)

Although I know too little about Liszt to conclude whether his music matches his true personality, I think that there is so much of his music that doesn't match his stereotypical personality. But I suppose that's more of a matter of being misunderstood by the public than a case of mismatching music and personality.


----------



## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

GreenMamba said:


> John Cage apparently had a very genial personality, not necessarily the stereotype of an Avant Garde composer. He certainly wasn't a 'bomb thrower' like young Boulez.


I don't think Cage's music is ungenial. On the contrary, he seems rather playful and optimistic to me.

Everything is music! There's music everywhere!


----------



## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Wagner 7 ways till Sunday. The wolf who dazzled red-riding hood.


----------

