# Composer Anecdotes



## TwoFourPianist (Mar 28, 2013)

For a moment let's set aside the music of the great composers, and instead focus on some of their more funny or interesting traits. Do you know any stories, habits or interesting facts about any composers? Leave them here!

Here's a few to start you off:

Brahms was a famously un-kept man. He often wore baggy clothing with patches and holes. One concert he was forced to use his tie as a belt to prevent his trousers from falling down.

Handel had awful table manners and would grumble to himself in German.

After hearing Allegri's 'Miserere' for the first time, young Mozart was so moved he went home and wrote the entire thing down, note-for-note, from memory.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I suspect a lot of stories we hear about composers are apocryphal, like the bit about Beethoven shaking his fist at a lightning bolt right before he expired. I wonder if the story of his coutning out 60 beans to make a cup of coffee is true. That would be a stout cup!


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Mahler was incredibly absent-minded. Once, sitting out on the terrace of a rather upscale cafe with his sister for a coffee, he dumped out a glass of water over the edge, only to be horrified when he learned that there was a person underneath. He apologized profusely. A few minutes later, he asked his sister to pour him another glass of water, whereupon the whole incident was repeated. Everyone laughed, but his sister was so embarrassed that they never went there again.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Are there any composer antidotes ? You know, for the ones whose music you can't stand ?


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

superhorn said:


> Are there any composer antidotes ? You know, for the ones whose music you can't stand ?


There's a psychological condition, similar to Stockholm Syndrome, where you act irrationally and actually grow to love the music you hate.

It's called Stockhausen Syndrome...


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## TwoFourPianist (Mar 28, 2013)

This makes me sad... The mind of a great genius is often tormented.


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## Norse (May 10, 2010)

Apparently Brahms was once caught trying to smuggle a stocking full of his favorite mix of tobacco. He loved cigars but hated paying the import tax and was somewhat naive about how well the customs agents would search his luggage.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

I posted such an anecdote here http://www.talkclassical.com/24667-agree-disagree-what-great.html#post439933


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

The best anecdote remains of course the one about Sibelius getting himself in a fist fight in Vienna, between Brahms and Bruckner fans - and he sided with the latter group!

The second best anecdote is that about Hugo Wolf, having heard _Parsifal_, just sat on a park bench for days, staring absent-mindedly. Or was it like that? That's how I remember it...

Then there's the one where Berlioz decided to shoot someone, while wearing a costume of some sort... was it a female dress or something? Dang, I should remember these better. But then again, who needs facts when you've got a great story?

Then there's all the great one-liners and quips... A symphony must be like the world, like collecting the pieces from a mosaic of Heaven, but not with too many notes in it, all looking like someone smeared the partiture of _Tristan und Isolde_ with water - if that's music, I don't know any more what music is - it's like the plagues of Egypt, music for the inhabitants of Hell; one single cymbal clash is better than all of it, I must tell you how I dislike it all, Beethoven is nonsense (and he composed his 7th symphony drunk on beer, I hear).


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## Trout (Apr 11, 2011)

Rossini was a great composer and procrastinator. I read once that he composed what is considered his finest opera, "The Barber of Seville," in just 12 days. He would often spend the last few hours before the premiere of his operas to finish the overture. For the overture to "The Thieving Magpie," Rossini was actually locked in the theater attic on the day of the premiere and instructed to compose the overture and drop the completed pages out the window to be gathered and transcribed. Similarly, he was also incredibly lazy as he normally composed lying down in his bed. When he dropped pages of his music on the floor, he would often _rewrite them just so he would not have to move_.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Here's an anecdote about Brahms, who began cat bagging after Antonin Dvorak gave him a "Bohemian sparrow slaying bow," apparently a crossbow. Brahms used to take aim from his apartment window in Vienna. Said Richard Wagner: "After spearing the poor brutes, he reeled them in to his room after the manner of a trout-fisher. Then he eagerly listened to the expiring groans of his victims and carefully jotted down in his notebook their ante mortem remarks." According to Wagner, he worked these sounds into his chamber music.

This story is disputed by a modern Brahms apologist, though.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2001/apr/12/highereducation.arts


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Mahlerian said:


> Mahler was incredibly absent-minded. . .


I once heard a story about a friend visiting Mahler in one of his composing shacks. When he stopped to admire the view of the nearby hills or mountains, Mahler is reported to have waived his hand saying, "I've already composed those away." If this is true, what might he have meant by that? It sounds a bit nihilistic -- which of course is often a good thing in music.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Weston said:


> I once heard a story about a friend visiting Mahler in one of his composing shacks. When he stopped to admire the view of the nearby hills or mountains, Mahler is reported to have waived his hand saying, "I've already composed those away." If this is true, what might he have meant by that? It sounds a bit nihilistic -- which of course is often a good thing in music.


Ah, this was in reference to his third symphony, the first movement of which contains rough chorales that were apparently inspired by the landscape around him. (The friend was conductor Bruno Walter, I think.)


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I know plenty to do with Shostakovich and Glazunov. 

One of them goes like this...

It was Shostakovich's birthday. He was turning 16 or something around that. Whenever it was, it was before his father died. Glazunov was invited to his home. He was beloved of both Shostakovich and his older sister, and felt honored with his attendance.
On the occasion, Shostakovich's sister took out their family's vodka bottle, reserved for such special occasions. They knew about Glazunov's weakness, but did it anyway, to be kind to him. So they thought.
The family began toasts of shots. A round of them are all for Shostakovich (note, Glazunov wasn't the only guest, there were others). Glazunov is last though, and he takes some time before speaking up:
"To the young and talented Dmitri Dmitriyevich. May he be a composer of many symphonies."
Shostakovich had barely written a movement of a possible symphony at this time... what a prophecy!
Anyhow, Shostakovich was super happy to have Glazunov at his house, and while the family continued giving toasts, he wanted to keep up in shots with Glazunov. Shostakovich's father nodded to Glazunov for one toast: "To the man who wrote Scheherezade!" Shostakovich thought this odd, since Glazunov didn't compose that, but Glazunov assented to the toast, after all, it would mean another glass. Likely it was just a toast to the then-deceased Rimsky-Korsakov, who only Glazunov knew personally in that company.
But in the end, it didn't take long before Shostakovich was starting to feel sick. His sister noticed that his face was positively green, and told him to lie down. Unfortunately, the young Shostakovich ended up lying down in another room with an ice pack on his head all the rest of the evening.

Oops, sorry about that, Mitya...

:lol:


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## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

*Sad Anecdote*

_"He once called on [Benedikt] Randhartinger and asked him for the loan of fifteen florins to pay the rent of his lodgings, in order to avoid being turned out. Randhartinger at once gave him the necessary sum, and they both went to the proprietor and paid the fifteen florins. As they passed the "Graben", the street where the music publisher Diabelli had his shop, Schubert said: "Dear Benedictus, I would repay you at once if these people here could pay me for my songs; they have a great many of my compositions, but every time I ask for money they always say they had too much outlay and too little income from my songs. I called twelve times at Diabelli's, but I have not yet received one penny; but I shall never give them a song again."

He sold Diabelli the copyright of twelve volumes of his songs for 800 florins; while on one single song, the "Wanderer", Diabelli is said to have made a profit of no less than 36,000 florins."_

*Another One*

_"There were Schubert evenings where the wine flowed generously, when the good Vogl sang all those lovely Lieder and poor Franz Schubert had to accompany him endlessly so that his short and fat fingers would hardly obey him any longer. It was even worse for him at our social entertainments, only Würstelbälle (hot dog parties) in those frugal times, but with no lack of charming ladies and girls. Here our 'Bertl', as Schubert was familiarly called by his friends, was made to play again and again, his latest waltz until the endless cotillion was finished and the small, corpulent and freely perspiring little man could finally take a rest and eat his modest dinner. Small wonder that sometimes he fled and some 'Schubertiads' had to take place without Schubert."

Eduard von Bauernfeld1 (Austrian Playwright)_


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Kieran said:


> There's a psychological condition, similar to Stockholm Syndrome, where you act irrationally and actually grow to love the music you hate.
> 
> It's called Stockhausen Syndrome...


This explains a lot for me..........................................................

Would it therefore help me that.......... instead of trying to listen to Mozart, I should trying to listen to Trazom! That is Mozart played backwards. Its irrational but then I might like it!:tiphat:


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## Guest (Apr 3, 2013)

Kieran said:


> There's a psychological condition, similar to Stockholm Syndrome, where you act irrationally and actually grow to love the music you hate.
> 
> It's called Stockhausen Syndrome...


Funny!! Not to be confused with the similarly identified ****hausen Syndrome!! (Cough). I think there's a special category for this in the DSM-V!!! It's the one where the characteristics resemble Stockhausen Syndrome but they are more subtle and disturbing - the person actually composes music inspired by Stockhausen and the newer composer has 'ideas of reference' about its validity and importance. It's actually a very treatable pathology - you ignore it and it goes away.:lol:


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> This explains a lot for me..........................................................
> 
> Would it therefore help me that.......... instead of trying to listen to Mozart, I should trying to listen to Trazom! That is Mozart played backwards. Its irrational but then I might like it!:tiphat:


It sounds great coming from all directions!


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> That is Mozart played backwards. Its irrational but then I might like it!:tiphat:


I have it on great authority from the local Mozart expert that playing the Requiem backwards will invoke the powers of evil to be and that it can only be counteracted by listening standing on Your head... 

/ptr


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

^ Good suggestions guys I'll let you know who it goes............

Sound like a might a séance or exorcism after thou


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Reminds one of :

If you play Satanist music backwards, do you get hymns?

What do you get if you play New Age music backwards?

New Age music


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Taggart said:


> Reminds one of :
> 
> If you play Satanist music backwards, do you get hymns?
> 
> ...


See, new age music is good no matter how you play it


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Brahms was an "un-kept man"? I've heard of kept women, but not of a kept man . But now that there are so many cougars, some older women I suppose have kept men . There is no evidence that Brahms was ever a kept man . No cougar would want him in his later years anyway. But he was pretty good looking in his youth .


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## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

I recently watched a documentary about Wagner in which they said he was very fond of clothes, that he had a seperate room in his home, the walls all covered with pink fabric, with mirrors on the ceiling, just for dressing. They said he also liked to order expensive women's undergarments from Paris. Now, they didn't actually say that he also wore them, but that was kind of implied.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Wagner had extrmely sensitive skin and suffered from shingles for much of his life, an extrmely painful condition, so he needed very comfortable silk underwear .


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

superhorn said:


> Brahms was an "un-kept man"? I've heard of kept women, but not of a kept man . But now that there are so many cougars, some older women I suppose have kept men . There is no evidence that Brahms was ever a kept man . No cougar would want him in his later years anyway. But he was pretty good looking in his youth .


He had plenty of girlfriends but never married - maybe because his heart was given to Clara Schumann when he was a young man & though he 'fell in love' again, he never found anyone to supplant her. (Aaahhh!)


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> See, new age music is good no matter how you play it


No, it has no direction, so I ask:

How does it feel 
To be on your own 
With no direction home 
Like a complete unknown 
Like a rolling stone?

:angel:


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

I've posted this here before, but the absolute best composer anecdote is the story of J.S. Bach vs. the Nanny-goat Bassoonist.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Taggart said:


> No, it has no direction, so I ask:
> 
> How does it feel
> To be on your own
> ...


In reply I quote from Chuck Berry:

"Just let me hear some of that
Rock And Roll Music,
Any old way you choose it; 
I've got no kick againt modern jazz,
Unless they try to play it too darn fast;
And change the beauty of the melody,
Until they sounded like a symphony, 
Don't care to hear 'em play a tango,
I'm in the mood to dig a mambo;
It's way to early for a congo,"

See contemporary WIG symphony is just jazz speeded up!

Now mambo, now where talking:tiphat:


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Ingenue said:


> He had plenty of girlfriends but never married - maybe because his heart was given to Clara Schumann when he was a young man & though he 'fell in love' again, he never found anyone to supplant her. (Aaahhh!)


I don't blame him. How many women composers/genius musicians do you find nowadays that also have good looks, kind hearts, etc. ?


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> I don't blame him. How many women composers/genius *musicians* do you find nowadays that also have *good looks, kind hearts*, etc. ?


...
*cough*

Oh sorry, i didn't notice the women word at the phrase at first, darn you dyslexia.


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## ProudSquire (Nov 30, 2011)

Here's one 



> The nickname "Jupiter" was famous enough from mid-19th century onward that the following story is told about Johannes Brahms (in Robert Haven Schauffler's The Unknown Brahms):
> 
> How many readers, bearing in mind that the first three Brahms symphonies were in C (minor), D, and F - will instantly appreciate the following jest? On the appearance of the Fourth symphony, in E (minor), young Robert Kahn remarked to the Master (Brahms): "Your next three must all be in A."
> 
> ...


TPS


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> In reply I quote from Chuck Berry:
> 
> See contemporary WIG symphony is just jazz speeded up!
> 
> Now mambo, now where talking:tiphat:


Hmm - no they just pinch WIG Music

[video]http://www.myspace.com/video/501523/emerson-lake-palmer-blue-rondo-a-la-turk-live-clip/832851 [/video]


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

"Who is your favourite composer?" he (Scriabin) asked with the condescending smile of the great master who knows the answer. When I answered without hesitation, "Brahms", he banged his fist on the table. "What, what?" he screamed. "How can you like this terrible composer and me at the same time? When I was your age I was a Chopinist, later I became a Wagnerite, but now I can only be a Scriabinist!" And, quite enraged, he took his hat and ran out of the café, leaving me stunned by this scene and with the bill to pay.

- Arthur Rubinstein, My Young Years


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

DeepR said:


> "Who is your favourite composer?" he (Scriabin) asked with the condescending smile of the great master who knows the answer. When I answered without hesitation, "Brahms", he banged his fist on the table. "What, what?" he screamed. "How can you like this terrible composer and me at the same time? When I was your age I was a Chopinist, later I became a Wagnerite, but now I can only be a Scriabinist!" And, quite enraged, he took his haut and ran out of the café, leaving me stunned by this scene and with the bill to pay.
> 
> - Arthur Rubinstein, My Young Years


The worst part is having to pay the bill!


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## JCarmel (Feb 3, 2013)

I prefer this Rondo a la Turk, myself...Taggart?!


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

One time Varese was sidewalk superintending at a construction site, listening closely to the sounds of the heavy equipment, and was nearly run over by a steamroller.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

GGluek said:


> One time Varese was sidewalk superintending at a construction site, listening closely to the sounds of the heavy equipment, and was nearly run over by a steamroller.


Could have given a whole new meaning to Varese's last movement.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Taggart said:


> Could have given a whole new meaning to Varese's last movement.


Now that would be way too modern a concept for a WIG composer.

mmm Steam roller over piano could make an interesting composition, don't you think!


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

JCarmel said:


> I prefer this Rondo a la Turk, myself...Taggart?!


Now was that Jazz speeded up or just double Johnny b Goode................

WiG version of forementioned song!! (listener warning- this is really bad)


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