# Do ugly composes produce better music?



## Gondur (May 17, 2014)

Does their ugly countenance give them the impulsion to compose music that is better than it...? Music from attractive composers is superficial to my discerning ear while music from ugly composes seems to please in many ways. I wonder if their pieces cleansed them of their ugliness?


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## Mister Man (Feb 3, 2014)

I find this idea a little corny.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

No


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

I think that the real question is do angry&grumpy looking composers produce better music.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Ugly composers certainly produce good music -









but so do good-looking ones, even the ones who 'know it'.









And there are so many whose portraits we don't have in any case.

So really, I think it doesn't matter.


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## Guest (May 19, 2014)

Unsuk Chin is a cutie


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

"Do ugly composers produce better music?"

No. Though some here would like us to believe that better composers produce ugly music. :devil:


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Nonsense, pure and _simple / simplistic_ nonsense.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Wow! Are we getting THAT desperate for thread topics?


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## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

No, though many of them were short. I can see the BBC posting a study on this now "It appears that midgetness correlates highly with musical genius. Whatever DNA strands responsible for stunting physical growth also result in heightened musical creativity. And we base these claims on absolutely nothing!"


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

hpowders said:


> Wow! Are we getting THAT desperate for thread topics?


Well we can always go back to the good'ol " Tonality vs Atonality" , " Bach Vs Mozart Vs Beethoven" and " Baroque Vs Classical vs Romantic Vs Modern classical music" threads.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

jani said:


> Well we can always go back to the good'ol " Tonality vs Atonality" , " Bach Vs Mozart Vs Beethoven" and " Baroque Vs Classical vs Romantic Vs Modern classical music" threads.


I suggest, "Why is Handel a total waste of time?" We haven't done that one yet.


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## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

This is kind of a loaded question. I would put it in the same catagory as "Do ugly writers write better stories?" or "Do ugly painters paint better paintings?". My answer: I don't think so, at least concerning physical attractiveness.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

jani said:


> Well we can always go back to the good'ol " Tonality vs Atonality" , " Bach Vs Mozart Vs Beethoven" and " Baroque Vs Classical vs Romantic Vs Modern classical music" threads.


No! No! Not that! As we were saying, do ugly composers produce better music?

I could ask anyone from the typical population and I would get "What's a composer?"


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## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

Hmm:

Case #1: 



Case #2: 




Conclusion: Not enough data to compute. Need larger sample size.


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

KenOC said:


> I suggest, "Why is Handel a total waste of time?" We haven't done that one yet.


Who is that Handel guy anyway, oh wait didn't he write the hit called "Viva la vida"?


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

A physiognomy thread? Really?


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Most great composers are unattractive because most people are unattractive.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

GreenMamba said:


> Most great composers are unattractive because most people are unattractive.


Speak for yourself. :lol:


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

KenOC said:


> "Do ugly composers produce better music?"
> 
> No. Though some here would like us to believe that better composers produce ugly music. :devil:


Like Luigi and his brutally ugly Große Fuge?


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Maybe composers tending towards difficult personality types or behaviours might produce better music. I often think that, regardless of appearance. A lot maybe to do with culture in the past, that male macho thing, you can't show any emotion except control and anger, etc. Look at this list of composers considered great in terms of their relative contributions to music:

Lully
Beethoven
Mahler
Wagner
Debussy
Boulez

Then you got some who weren't as bad as those but still had various personality traits that where not exactly endearing:

Brahms (his lashing tongue)
Bartok (distanced and aloof)
Scriabin (biggest Messiah complex apart from Wagner)

The you got at least one who was really disturbed, likely psychopathic: Gesualdo.

But then again, some of the greats where by all accounts pretty okay chaps, or fairly reasonable in their dealings with others (sometimes going out of their way to help others, or at least not stirring things up too much) :

Kodaly
Corelli
Haydn
Rachmaninov
Dvorak
Vaughan Williams

None of these lists are meant to be exhaustive. The more I look at it, its hard to generalise about composers. They're people just like us, whether they had good looks or not.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Crudblud said:


> A physiognomy thread? Really?


....Phrenology is next!







.........:lol:...:lol:...:lol:


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

aleazk said:


> Like Luigi and his brutally ugly Große Fuge?


That is _ugly and great_ to you, boy!


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

aleazk said:


> Like Luigi and his brutally ugly Große Fuge?


The Grosse Fuge ugly??? I use its dulcet tones as a lullaby. And in the morning, my alarm clock plays the finale of the Hammer, so I can wake up gently. 

Actually, I guess the beginning of the last movement could work for this...


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

KenOC said:


> The Grosse Fuge ugly??? I use its dulcet tones as a lullaby. And in the morning, my alarm clock plays the finale of the Hammer, so I can wake up gently.
> 
> Actually, I guess the beginning of the last movement could work for this...


Chuck Norris indeed approves the use of that fugue as alarm clock


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## Pysmythe (May 11, 2014)

KenOC said:


> The Grosse Fuge ugly??? I use its dulcet tones as a lullaby. And in the morning, my alarm clock plays the finale of the Hammer, so I can wake up gently.
> 
> Actually, I guess the beginning of the last movement could work for this...


"Dulcet tones"?! You're... you're not a machine-gun, are you? (jk, I also love that piece.)


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

jani said:


> Well we can always go back to the good'ol " Tonality vs Atonality" , " Bach Vs Mozart Vs Beethoven" and " Baroque Vs Classical vs Romantic Vs Modern classical music" threads.


Or how about "Do the most humourless people make the best critics?"


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Ugly composers produce better music? Time to bring 'sexy' back...

View attachment 42296


Go ahead, click me.... you know you want to.


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## Guest (May 20, 2014)

GreenMamba said:


> Most great composers are unattractive because most people are unattractive.


Only in the mind, the ugliest part of the body


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

KenOC said:


> The Grosse Fuge ugly???


All though I think their opinions were somewhat exaggerated, I think Gould and Ravel were largely correct about Beethoven.

Now as far as the Grosse Fuge is concerned I'm sure some experts will disagree, but to me if it looks, smells and sounds like s*it, its probably s*it. :devil:

(and yes the *Gross*e Fuge even smells bad)


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

Do ugly ducklings become swans


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## Polyphemus (Nov 2, 2011)

KenOC said:


> I suggest, "Why is Handel a total waste of time?" We haven't done that one yet.


I cant quite get a handle on that.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Bach in the day, that was a telling question, mon.


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

This answer should suffice.


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

What about ugly on the inside such as the big W


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## Alydon (May 16, 2012)

Only great composers produce better music as great business people produce more money.


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

This threads made me laugh so bad!!!! :lol:


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Dumb, isn't it?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

hpowders said:


> Dumb, isn't it?


Dumb indeed. It would have been more meaningful by far to ask: Do short composers produce better music? :tiphat:


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I have got into the habit of giving my fiddle teacher his fee in a small envelope decorated with a composer's portrait & he has to guess who it is. More than once he has commented on what a big nose the baroque composer has. Which leads me to believe that outstanding music is produced by men with outstanding noses.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

KenOC said:


> Dumb indeed. It would have been more meaningful by far to ask: Do short composers produce better music? :tiphat:


You may not believe me, but several weeks ago, perhaps it was a fortnight, that exact thread title came to me in a dream. I never posted it because it failed my pithiness test of exceeding five words per thread title.

I believe the premise to be true. All the great composers were relatively short in height and as far as my research takes me, not one player within the last 53 years in the National Basketball Association has produced a meaningfully serious classical music composition, either tonal or atonal for our aural delight.


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Liszt was quite handsome though.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Liszt was a Legend in his own mind.


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## albrecht (May 29, 2014)

I think one person's appearance is not directly related to his/her capabilities to produce good music. But, good looks may be a good motivation of producing such


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Please, Higher Power. I beg you. Make it stop!!


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