# Composers Messiah Complex (a parody!)



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Many of our favourite (and perhaps not so favourite) composers are ripe for a send up in this department. They thought they where God, the Messiah, prophets of things to come (whether their dreams came true or not), immortal, all that stuff. Or on the other hand they worshipped God (or several 'Gods' & not only of the sacred kind - money, women, fame, etc.).

So do give us your send ups of composers with a M.C. (Messiah Complex).

I'll give three of my own -

*Handel:*
_I am not the Messiah but I composed it._

*Wagner:*
_I am not the Messiah, but a Germanic pagan god (note lowercase!)...and btw, can you lend me some money, I'm a bit broke_...

*Scriabin:*
_I am the Sacred Deity (a fancy Theosophical word for God) currently composing the end of the world. Hang on, I didn't finish it and I died...so maybe it won't happen and I'm not God after all?..._

*Give us your own. Either composers who thought they where God or worshipped their God/s.*

Ripe for exploitation are: Beethoven, Schoenberg, Boulez...& many others...I'll leave it up to you guys...


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Joachim Raff- I'm not certain if I'm a musical Messiah but I will proceed as though I am in thinking that my daughter and her grandchildren will be able to live lavishly off of the royalties of my music.

Although he wasn't a composer per se:
John Lennon-I don't need to have a parody made of me, I actually said it myself, "We are bigger than Jesus," although the modification that should be made is to change that "we are" to an "I am."


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

clavichorder said:


> John Lennon... change that "we are" to an "I am."


Oops, belay that last, make it "I was."

And Schoenberg: "I am not God, but neither is He. He should be so presumptuous, inventing music all wrong."


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Scriabin was the only one of the three composers you mention who was pretty much psychologically certifiable as having a 'Messianic Complex.' His belief his (not completed) mysterium would end the universe being a bold manifestation of same. (perhaps we are fortunate he did not complete it?) 

Right after the first performance of Scriabin's 'Le Poème du Feu,' Rimsky-Korsakov, one of the members of the invitation only audience, said, "He is half-mad!" I reckon, with Scriabin at that point on the time-line of his life, that ole Nicolai was right on 

Raff, mentioned in another post, 'went mad,' as well.
RETRACTED: I recall reading it from something written by a colleague who is 'reliable' but in matters of scholarship, of which I have no real inclination (diligent research / verified sources = thesis / paper / monograph, etc.) ... that ain't enough. 

Wagner was infamous for being an autocratic egomanic who would not brook any opinion which controverted his. That may be warped, but I've met many such like in the person of John / Jane Q. average person -- often alcoholic, I have to add -- who manifests exactly the same, "You are either with me or against me." sort of behavior. Nothing very special there, there being at least one on every block in every town in the world, the vast majority of them having nothing to do with 'art'.

As per the others, I think you are mistaking zeal or an aggregate egotism for a Messianic psychological / pathological disorder. You know, that zeal where you think you are SO on the correct path that all the world should, of course, naturally, be following you?

Haven't you been around any 'creatives?' Most of them, especially if young, are 'proclaiming' "what is what," "this is the way." etc. just about every other day. Part and parcel of making up your own manifesto to distance yourself from the burden of the older heroes you worship / hate 

When Russian Tanks were rolling in to occupy Hungary, it was young people, 20 years old or thereabouts, who had belts of Molotov cocktails they ignited, then threw themselves under the the rolling tanks. Almost all death and damage was incurred by those suicidal idealists, not the tanks with the Russians in them. The rest of the Hungarians thought to live another day: such is youthful zeal.

From Hindemith's somewhat valuable treatise on harmony, we can deduce he was self-convinced he had fully proved tonality supreme, and moreover, that his particular take on the weights and measures of harmonic function was 'the only way to write.' There is a very imperious tone to some of that text - a complete turn-off to the young musician studying who hopes to make their own kind of noise. He was also, in his old age, increasingly embittered, not understanding why the world did not consider him the best living composer. That is not Messianic, but just pathetic.

And as populist-plank as it seems to me you are or wish to be, there are times when a such as G.F. Handel produces the enormous work called the Messiah in a space of two weeks -- sometimes pirating his own music, but all from memory and at a desk -- and us mere mortals can only think he is some sort of messianic megalomanic? Sheesh how tiny.

Some really are more talented, skilled, brighter, better, than others - to such an extreme that they are light years apart from the norm. Not everyone is equal, another very currently unpopular truth. There is no effective exercise which can take the most flawed of genius and 'cut them down to our size,' even if the goal is to make us more comfortable with their freakish gifts and talent.

It is easy enough to imagine the feeling of near complete isolation if you were in the shoes of a Handel, Mozart, etc. Sometimes they recognized it about themselves, and too true to self to be falsely humble (which is anything but truly modest and more like just plain arrogant) they merely stated the truth about themselves.

So have your sport, sport. But maybe let me know when we're targeting Howard Shore's unbelievably unimaginative and trite and 'epic' 'classical' LOTR score -- I may want in at that point


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Relax PetrB, this is just a parody, which I put in the title on purpose.

I actually like Scriabin and Handel but not Wagner. So I wasn't just sending up composers who I don't like. Its just for fun.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Some more -

*Pierre Boulez*
_When I was young I was a prophet to 'the future' of music, but that didn't become true so now I'm just an old fart_.

*Elliott Carter*
_I am (like Rasputin) immortal. 103 going on 500_.

*Philip Glass*
_I was the prophet and deliverer of Minimalism [Repeat ad nauseum]._


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

PetrB said:


> Raff, mentioned in another post, 'went mad,' as well.


Raff went mad? I didn't know that. Maybe he just got mad? Some more on this will be welcome.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

KenOC said:


> Raff went mad? I didn't know that. Maybe he just got mad? Some more on this will be welcome.


I'll have to retract that: I do recall reading it from something written by a colleague who is 'reliable,' but in matters of scholarship, of which I have no real inclination (diligent research / verified sources = thesis / paper / monograph) ... that ain't enough.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Sid James said:


> Relax PetrB, this is just a parody, which I put in the title on purpose.
> 
> I actually like Scriabin and Handel but not Wagner. So I wasn't just sending up composers who I don't like. Its just for fun.


I kinda get it, but it still seems like an exercise to pare down the big guys to the smaller guys level of comfort... I guess a highly successful hack who composes a really dreadful and forgettable film score _is already a parody_, so we leave those alone?


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

PetrB said:


> I kinda get it, but it still seems like an exercise to pare down the big guys to the smaller guys level of comfort... I guess a highly successful hack who composes a really dreadful and forgettable film score _is already a parody_, so we leave those alone?


Man, it seems you have as much a preoccupation with Howard Shore as I do with Pierre Boulez.

Anyway, forget this thread. Its just that this is the way I see things. Its a bit irreverent and cheeky. But people don't have to play this game if they don't want to. I'm regretting doing this, I thought it would be good for some laughs.

Don't worry, forget it, honestly.


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

*Howard Shore*
With my hairy toed companions we will walk into the dark regions of Bayreuth and cast the dreaded ring of power into the consuming flames (but not before scraping off little bits and saving them for ourselves).

*John Williams*
I am the chosen one, prophesied to bring balance to classical music. I will unite the Jedi of highbrow and the populist Sith, even if I have to slaughter them all and take their powers. Then I shall rule music, only then will you appreciate the true power of orchestrated film scores.

Sorry best I could do.


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

PetrB said:


> Scriabin was the only one of the three composers you mention who was pretty much psychologically certifiable as having a 'Messianic Complex.' His belief his (not completed) mysterium would end the universe being a bold manifestation of same. (perhaps we are fortunate he did not complete it?)
> 
> Right after the first performance of Scriabin's 'Le Poème du Feu,' Rimsky-Korsakov, one of the members of the invitation only audience, said, "He is half-mad!" I reckon, with Scriabin at that point on the time-line of his life, that ole Nicolai was right on
> 
> ...


The funny thing is, Bach was, IMO, just as much and more of a prodigious mind, and yet he was a gracious individual, not all that full of himself. Probably partly because he didn't have as much notoriety, but he had more to brag about. Let's see, Handel was a big cosmopolitan success who wrote a whole bunch of great music and managed to create a masterpiece in two weeks. That's great. Now try mastering absolutely every Baroque form. Try writing der kunst der fuge. Didn't think so. Not everyone can look at the fugue, and create not just an exemplary but masterful example of every type. And I'd like to see these megolomaniacs write hundreds upon hundreds of cantatas. Mr. "Sacred Deity" had trouble composing enough music to fill up a couple of days. Bach composed that kind of volume of music with regularity. Of course, there's Telemann, Graupner, Vivaldi, Soler, Scarlatti, and the like as well, who composed huge amounts of great music without becoming full of themselves. Methinks it's some of that garbage philosophy that came afterwards, hehe. Theosophy, really? That's rich. If you guys are familiar with theosophists, you might agree.

As for another composer that might fit the parody bill-

Boulez: I lead you all away from the tyrannical forms of the past and into the exciting tyrannical forms of the future. Come hither, minions! Take my sacred literature and memorize it!


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