# Introvert and Extrovert composers



## Guest (Mar 12, 2019)

It seems to me that lots of composers were introverts, with some even being rather anti-social. I would categorise their personalities like this:

Introverts: Beethoven, Schubert, Bach, Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Mendelssohn

Extroverts: Handel, Haydn, Vivaldi

Ambiverts (if there's such a thing): Mozart, Wagner


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I wonder how you are defining the terms (or how you link introversion to being anti-social). As you are talking about what we know about their personalities, rather than their music I wonder if you could say a little more about what traits are leading you to your conclusion ... and I wonder how any of it is reflected in their music? Introversion-extroversion is a continuum, I think, so it is certainly possible for some people to be in the mid-range.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

HSW said:


> It seems to me that lots of composers were introverts, with some even being rather anti-social. I would categorise their personalities like this:
> 
> Introverts: , Schubert,


I once saw an interview with Glenn Gould where he says that Schubert was "shy."


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

I think it's a way too generalized way of describing people, very present in today's popular psychology as well. A lot of Beethoven behaviour and creations would suggest a brusque personality, for example.


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## Felix Mendelssohn (Jan 18, 2019)

Alkan is the king of introverts.


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## Yornlig (Mar 4, 2019)

Enthusiast said:


> I wonder how you are defining the terms (or how you link introversion to being anti-social). As you are talking about what we know about their personalities, rather than their music I wonder if you could say a little more about what traits are leading you to your conclusion ... and I wonder how any of it is reflected in their music? Introversion-extroversion is a continuum, I think, so it is certainly possible for some people to be in the mid-range.


+1


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Rough approximations and definitions! Tomorrow's names could be entirely different.

Extroverts... more engaged with externals and outer circumstances; Introvert... more engaged with themselves and their inner life but they can still live an active life... however, no one falls strictly into one category or another.

Extroverts: Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Liszt, Johann Strauss, Debussy, Ravel, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, Prokofiev,
Introverts: Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Bruckner, Mahler, Rachmaninoff, Schoenberg, Shostakovich


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## Guest (Mar 12, 2019)

Enthusiast said:


> I wonder how you are defining the terms (or how you link introversion to being anti-social). As you are talking about what we know about their personalities, rather than their music I wonder if you could say a little more about what traits are leading you to your conclusion ... and I wonder how any of it is reflected in their music? Introversion-extroversion is a continuum, I think, so it is certainly possible for some people to be in the mid-range.


To clarify, I wasn't calling introverts anti-social. Of course introverts can be courteous and nice. I was pointing out the fact that some composers were at the extreme end of the spectrum.


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## Felix Mendelssohn (Jan 18, 2019)

From Cambridge Dictionary:
Introversion=the quality of being shy and quiet, and preferring to spend time alone rather than often being with other people;
Extroversion=the quality of being energetic and not shy, and enjoying being with other people

Who would be introverts according to this criteria?


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

De Falla perhaps can be put into the introvert camp on the basis of Stravinsky's comment that the Spanish composer was "as shy as an oyster", or words to that effect. While Ravel had friends and acquaintances, he too had a reserve about him that suggests introversion more than extroversion. Tchaikovsky writes in his diary of arriving in New York City, going to his hotel room, and weeping profusely, almost as if out of habit. Sensitive soul, probably of an introvert. Hugo Wolf became a serious nutter, so he probably falls into a different box entirely. Scriabin?


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## Felix Mendelssohn (Jan 18, 2019)

Larkenfield said:


> Extroverts: Ravel


Ravel was notoriously private and reserved.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

HSW said:


> It seems to me that lots of composers were introverts, with some even being rather anti-social. I would categorise their personalities like this:
> 
> Introverts: Beethoven, Schubert, Bach, Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Mendelssohn
> 
> ...


Why do you think Bach was introverted?


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

*Introverts*: Tchaikovsky (he enjoyed fame, but preferred to remain private), Myaskovsky, Ravel (definitely), Ives, Bax.
*Extroverts*: Bernstein, Chausson, Debussy, Vaughan-Williams.


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## Felix Mendelssohn (Jan 18, 2019)

Despite Chopin's intimate-sounding music, I don't think he was that introverted as a person. I'd put him in the ambivert category. As a child, he was outgoing and was reasonably popular among his peers. He became increasingly private as he matured, partly due to emotional trauma, but he still sought out Parisian social life (as long as the circumstances didn't give him too much pressure), and had wide connections.


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