# Composers whose main instrument was NOT a keyboard instrument?



## Forsooth (Apr 17, 2018)

Seems like lots (almost all?) composers embraced a keyboard instrument as their gateway into performance and composition. Who are some composers who did not follow this trajectory? (Note: If there is a pre-existing thread, please direct me to it. - Thanks!  )

Here are the ones I can think of (because I like their work):

Heitor Villa-Lobos
Frank Bridge
Louis Spohr


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Hindemith was predominately a violist I believe. Sibelius a violinist. I don't know if it was his main instrument, but Carl Maria von Weber was considered a skilled guitarist.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

From the Wikipedia page on Berlioz:

"He never studied the piano, and throughout his life played haltingly at best.[6] He later contended that this was an advantage because it "saved me from the tyranny of keyboard habits, so dangerous to thought, and from the lure of conventional harmonies"."


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Niccolo Paganini was a guitarist and violinist






Luigi Boccherini, a cellist






Neither had decent skills in keyboard instruments, as far as I know.


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## Forsooth (Apr 17, 2018)

flamencosketches said:


> Hindemith was predominately a violist I believe. Sibelius a violinist. I don't know if it was his main instrument, but Carl Maria von Weber was considered a skilled guitarist.


Thanks. I was just reading about von Weber (interesting that his father apparently pulled the "von" out of thin air). He was also a virtuoso pianist, so that was probably his 'main' instrument. Yep, you're right about Sibelius.


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## Forsooth (Apr 17, 2018)

hammeredklavier said:


> Niccolo Paganini was a guitarist and violinist
> 
> Luigi Boccherini, a cellist
> 
> Neither had decent skills in keyboard instruments, as far as I know.


Interesting, I did not know this. Thanks!


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## Forsooth (Apr 17, 2018)

BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist said:


> From the Wikipedia page on Berlioz:
> 
> "He never studied the piano, and throughout his life played haltingly at best.[6] He later contended that this was an advantage because it "saved me from the tyranny of keyboard habits, so dangerous to thought, and from the lure of conventional harmonies"."


Thanks. Makes me like him more.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf was mainly a violinist


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Gunther Schuller was a horn player. Grazyna Bacewicz was a violinist. Penderecki was also a violinist, but became a composer before becoming accomplished.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

PDQ Bach played only the kazoo, and not well.


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## Forsooth (Apr 17, 2018)

KenOC said:


> PDQ Bach played only the kazoo, and not well.


 At least he followed his dream.


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## Common Listener (Apr 6, 2019)

I think Corelli, Albinoni, Vivaldi and many more (some of whom have already been mentioned) were all violinists. It would probably narrow the field better if you excluded both violin and keyboard.

-- Well, and of course Tartini and Locatelli. Basically 99% of the Italian Baroque.


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## Forsooth (Apr 17, 2018)

Common Listener said:


> I think Corelli, Albinoni, Vivaldi and many more (some of whom have already been mentioned) were all violinists. It would probably narrow the field better if you excluded both violin and keyboard.
> 
> -- Well, and of course Tartini and Locatelli. Basically 99% of the Italian Baroque.


Yes, thank you! I did not think about that. I edited the body of the original post but could not alter the title. :tiphat:


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## Schoenberg (Oct 15, 2018)

Elgar, although he was able to play the piano I'm fairly sure was primarily a violinist.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Bernhard Crusell was a clarinettist.

Unsurprisingly, Vieuxtemps was a violinist.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Schoenberg: cello
Zappa: guitar
Ferneyhough: flute


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Schoenberg said:


> Elgar, although he was able to play the piano I'm fairly sure was primarily a violinist.


Elgar's father ran a music shop which enable the budding musician to learn many instruments. Besides violin, he played some piano and organ, but also bassoon and trombone! In fact, at the Royal College of Music in London there's a small museum and you can see his trombone.

Kalinnikov - bassoon.
Khachaturiun - double bass. Dvorak - viola


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

Paul Hindemith - he was a violist, although he did compose a fair amount of music for piano.


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## Buxtehude (Jun 14, 2018)

Gustav Holst played trombone to earn money.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

Sibelius learned piano as a youngster but was a violinist. Here's a nice item on it:

http://www.sibelius.fi/english/erikoisaiheet/ihmisena/ihm_02.htm


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

William Walton. No instrument other than vocal training.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Borodin was a cellist.
And Holst was a trombonist.


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## Common Listener (Apr 6, 2019)

Abel played viola da gamba.


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## Room2201974 (Jan 23, 2018)

Machaut was a vocalist
Dowland was a lutenist (and most likely a spy)


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Astor Piazolla: bandonion
Milton Babbitt: saxophone
Sibelius: himself


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

eugeneonagain said:


> William Walton. No instrument other than vocal training.


As a boy Walton learned piano and violin, but he never mastered either of them. He also took up the organ, perhaps under his father's tutelage at St. John's. He learned piano from a local teacher, with the help of a volume called 'Smallwood's Piano Tutor'. Walton took violin lessons from a local teacher but later commented, "I could never organize my fingers properly and it sounded so awful", although he believed the lessons had provided valuable ear training. Walton continued to study the piano and violin at Christ Church. His instructor in the piano was Basil Charles Allchin, the Assistant Organist at Christ Church and Walton soon earned a piano prize in the school and served temporarily as chapel organist.


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## Forsooth (Apr 17, 2018)

millionrainbows said:


> Sibelius: himself


At least his instrument was always at hand.


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## Forsooth (Apr 17, 2018)

Thanks, everyone, for the input!! :tiphat:

Here are the composers cited, listed by order of birth. I did some research on each one, and a few of the suggested composers were bi-instrumental (or multi-instrumental). That is, perhaps these composers focused on, say, the violin, but they were also substantially trained at the piano. Those I listed below the first compilation.

(Would love to know of other composers unskilled at the piano, particularly after the classical period.  )

*COMPOSERS NOT SKILLED AT THE PIANO*
Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739-1799) violin
Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) cello
Bernhard Crusell (1775-1838) clarinet
Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840) violin and guitar
Louis Spohr (1784-1859) violin
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) flageolet
Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) violin
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) violin
Vasily Kalinnikov (1866-1901) bassoon, timpani, violin
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) violin
Frank Bridge (1879-1941) violin
Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) cello, guitar and clarinet
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) violin
William Walton (1902-1983) voice (he studied piano & violin for a short period as a child)
Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978) cello
Milton Babbitt (1916-2011) violin, clarinet, saxophone
Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) bandoneon
Gunther Schuller (1925-2015) French horn, flute
Krzysztof Penderecki (1933- ) violin
Frank Zappa (1940-1993) drums, guitar

*OTHER COMPOSERS (with explanations)*
Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) was described as a "brilliant pianist," and was also considered a skilled guitarist
Alexander Borodin (1833-1887) - Borodin was a cellist. At age 9, "he also played the flute, piano, violoncello and violin. At age 13, Alexander had a friend in Mikhail Shchiglev, a music teacher with whom he performed arrangements for four hands, specifically, music by Beethoven, Haydn and Mendelssohn."
Gustav Holst (1874-1934) "...was taught to play the piano and the violin; he enjoyed the former but hated the latter. At the age of twelve he took up the trombone at Adolph's (his father's) suggestion, thinking that playing a brass instrument might improve his asthma." Also, "In November 1891 Holst gave what was perhaps his first public performance as a pianist; he and his father played the Brahms Hungarian Dances at a concert in Cheltenham." Later, he played the trombone professionally for a while.
Brian Ferneyhough (1943- ) His parents were music teachers and he "...played piano all the time growing up" but focused on trumpet
Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969) was a violin professional, but was considered as almost equally virtuosic at the piano
Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934) focused on the violin, but received extensive training at the piano. "By the age of eight, Elgar was taking piano and violin lessons, and his father, who tuned the pianos at many grand houses in Worcestershire, would sometimes take him along, giving him the chance to display his skill to important local figures."


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## Rubens (Nov 5, 2017)

Sarasate
Honegger
Milhaud
Kreisler
Vieuxtemps
Xenakis


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## Rubens (Nov 5, 2017)

+
Lully
Marais
Sylvius Leopold Weiss


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## Moroteuthis (Apr 21, 2018)

Berlioz was a guitarist, and I suspect that would have been his primary writing tool.


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## Forsooth (Apr 17, 2018)

Rubens said:


> Sarasate
> Honegger
> Milhaud
> Kreisler
> ...


Thanks!  @wkasimer also mentioned Vieuxtemps previously and I forgot to include him. But I will be updating the list.


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