# The most overweight Classical Composer!



## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

To celebrate my very first thread  (I just passed 1000): The Heaviest classical composer, which was actually about musically heavy composers, which everyone misinterpreted. I bring you the Fattest composer, who do you think it is?


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Max Reger, who died 100 years ago this past May of health problems likely resulting from his weight,* seems like a good candidate:










But then there's Morton Feldman:










* Another possible explanation is that Milton Babbitt was born the previous day. Reger didn't want to live in a world where he wasn't the composer most frequently accused of academicism, and so decided to leave.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Domenico Scarlatti was said to have grown so stout he could no longer reach the keyboard. This was related by my music history professor, who was about the same size as the Volkswagen bug he somehow got into and out of.


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

Woodduck said:


> Domenico Scarlatti was said to have grown so stout he could no longer reach the keyboard. This was related by my music history professor, who was about the same size as the Volkswagen bug he somehow got into and out of.


Jeepers......


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Woodduck said:


> Domenico Scarlatti was said to have grown so stout he could no longer reach the keyboard. This was related by my music history professor, who was about the same size as the Volkswagen bug he somehow got into and out of.


A page that calls the myth into question (the one about Scarlatti, not your professor):

http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Other/Scarlatti-Gen1.htm


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Vaughan Williams was pretty hefty in his later years.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Gross story's , not sure if I wanna know .


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

GreenMamba said:


> A page that calls the myth into question (the one about Scarlatti, not your professor):
> 
> http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Other/Scarlatti-Gen1.htm


Well, Ok. I'll just go on pretending it's true.


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## Rosie (Jul 4, 2016)

Haha this thread funny I don't like fat people not attractive but If they compose pretty music they ok though


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

Rossini is a good candidate.


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

Strange Magic said:


> Vaughan Williams was pretty hefty in his later years.


Yet somehow stayed a chick magnet


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## Hildadam Bingor (May 7, 2016)

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/04/02/article-1166656-043DC2D5000005DC-763_468x614.jpg

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...mposer-Handel-binge-eater-swallowed-lead.html


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## bioluminescentsquid (Jul 22, 2016)

I've heard a oft-repeated tale that the Cellist Servais was so fat that he had difficulties holding his similarly obese Strad (Being one of the only three large pattern Stradivari Cellos - nay, bass violins - that survived without having their dimensions reduced.) between his knees as was customary to the Baroque, classical, and even early romantic period, and thus invented the adjustable endpin.

Judge for yourself:









*Not that there's any problem being fat 

I've always pitied 17th Century baroque Cellists who had to deal with their oversized instruments (wound string wasn't invented then yet, necessitating larger instruments) _sans_ endpin. Makes one wonder wether this was the reason they appreciated Gambas more...


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Oliver Knussen was never particularly svelte but he seems to have enjoyed the pies too much once he got to a certain age..


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Among living composers I think Leif Segerstam is a good candidate:


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

Handel was a bulky man with an equally bulky appetite.










Contemporary illustration of Handel, caricatured as a pig:










Bach doesn't count as overweight because he's pregnant. (Jk)


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Living in America as I do, these folks are a tad on the emaciated side. Give 'em a sandwich!

We took care of King David during his American tour.


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

Sloe said:


> Among living composers I think Leif Segerstam is a good candidate:


You beat me too it, I've only heard one of his 300 symphonies. His weight did cross my mind when I came across his Tedtalk video. But with a talking voice like his, he could be Gandalf! :lol:


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

Abraham Lincoln said:


> Handel was a bulky man with an equally bulky appetite.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Oh yes that guy, didn't he compose music or something? :lol:

Johanna Bach pregnant with Felix Mendelssohn's baby. 
Fanny Mendelssohn pregnant with Xenakiboy's baby, we finally done it honey!!


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Handel was obese as his statue in Westminster Abbey shows,


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

Sloe said:


> Among living composers I think Leif Segerstam is a good candidate:


So Santa is real after all!


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

Another picture of dear old tubby Handel for your viewing pleasure:


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

Abraham Lincoln said:


> Another picture of dear old tubby Handel for your viewing pleasure:


Not quite as pleasing to the eye as dear Felix or Fanny is it?


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

Xenakiboy said:


> Not quite as pleasing to the eye as dear Felix or Fanny is it?


But neither of them are overweight enough...


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Xenakiboy said:


> You beat me too it, I've only heard one of his 300 symphonies. His weight did cross my mind when I came across his Tedtalk video. But with a talking voice like his, he could be Gandalf! :lol:


Rossini composed lots of operas in a short time, Segerstam have in a short time composed lots of symphonies.
Also Max Reger was a productive composer. Maybe sitting down most of the time to write down all the music and too little exercise made them obese.

This was Segerstam when he was young and composed less music:


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## Suganthan (Jan 18, 2016)

Not Rossini? 


I didn't had 15 words, now I have it I guess.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Sloe said:


> Rossini composed lots of operas in a short time, Segerstam have in a short time composed lots of symphonies.
> Also Max Reger was a productive composer. Maybe sitting down most of the time to write down all the music and too little exercise made them obese.
> 
> This was Segerstam when he was young and composed less music:


I wonder who will be still famous lest say 100 years from now.


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

Pugg said:


> I wonder who will be still famous lest say 100 years from now.


Reger and Segerstam


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

Sloe said:


> This was Segerstam when he was young and composed less music:


There's no resemblance....


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## Medtnaculus (May 13, 2015)

milhaud was quite large


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

_Stop!_ *whimpers*










_Fine.............................................................................._

Fun fact, (older) Glazunov referred to himself sometimes as "heavy artillery" not just as a joke but because he really meant it... it was hard to get him to go places. 

There are actually a number of stories and other things I could tell... because of course I would know. Some humorous too...


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

Medtnaculus said:


> milhaud was quite large


Oh yes, there's gotta be more fat composers???


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Medtnaculus said:


> milhaud was quite large


Yes, at least two of Les Six all on his own...


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