# Quirky



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Which composer had the quirkiest personality and melodies?

I'd probably say Mozart. Such a clever clever boy!


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## Philidor (11 mo ago)

Max Reger? Take his contrapuntual labyrinths ... string quartets op. 54 ...


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

No no, it's Satie. His piano works in particular.


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Malcom Arnold...................................


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Ives .


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Mozart


M. Haydn MH287/i : 



Mozart K.515/i : 




M. Haydn MH284/i : 



Mozart K.465/i :


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Captainnumber36 said:


> No no, it's Satie. His piano works in particular.


Another vote for Satie. Even his orchestral works are quirky, like the one he wrote for people _not_ to listen to.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Which composer had the quirkiest personality and melodies?


Azzolino Bernardino della Ciaja


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## SearsPoncho (Sep 23, 2020)

Poulenc. (Although he wasn't quirky all the time)

Martinu and Prokofiev when they were in full neo-classical mode.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

mikeh375 said:


> Malcom Arnold...................................


My first association as well. Also the young Shostakovich.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Swiss composer Frank Martin (1890-1974) has long struck me as having a "quirky" musical personae. But then, they say it takes one to know one.
















The first piece I ever heard by Martin was his Second Piano Concerto. The opening kettle drum flare, which out-Beethoven's Violin Concerto kettle drum opening "flare" told me I was in for something quirky. And it never let up, measure after measure. Fascinating stuff, really.






Now, whenever I turn to an unfamiliar work by Frank Martin, I expect the unexpected. And I am generally not surprised, at least by the unexpected. Martin's music is rather surprising all round.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I do not feel uncomfortable placing into nomination the French composer Jean Françaix (1912-1997) as "quirky". I don't know about his life or personality so much, but his music has always surprised me, in a quirky way:
















And ... if those three pieces don't convince you of any inherent quirkiness in music by Françaix, perhaps the following performance will help. Note the musicians' behavior as they settle into starting the work, which remains one of my favorite Françaix pieces.






Quirky, quirky, quirky. But also wonderful, lovely, and imaginative music.


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

The music of Berlioz, Prokofiev, Górecki and Stockhausen can be very eccentric in my opinion.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Rued Langgaard. The symphonies are quirky beyond description. I don't know if the Da Capo complete set is still available, but if it is - grab it. You won't be disappointed.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

mbhaub said:


> Rued Langgaard. The symphonies are quirky beyond description.


I remember this video of his first symphony. I thought the thumbnail image was unforgettable;


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Die Wahrheit der Natur, Ein Singspiel MH 118 (1769)




(Nimm von mir Aglaien hin)


hammeredklavier said:


> Btw, speaking of Idomeneo, look at this harmonic similarity:
> Nimm von mir Aglaien hin
> 
> 
> ...






(Alexander und Philotas)




(Fähnium-Marche)




(Der Trutzerl war a wackara Hund)

the harmonies at 1:22-




(Fürsten! Euch geht dieses an)


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

hammeredklavier said:


> (Nimm von mir Aglaien hin)


^2:05 - notice these "shocks" with use of harmony and dynamics.

1:33




(MH367/iv)

3:42




(MH412/i)


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## Nawdry (Dec 27, 2020)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Which composer had the quirkiest personality and melodies?


Certainly, Igor Stravinsky comes to mind. I think of rather "quirky" melodies (definitely at the time of their premiers) such as in _The Rite of Spring_ and the Dumbarton Oaks concerto.

In his personal life, I'd also call him somewhat quirky, especially since he vacillated between bourgeois liberalism and fascism, warmly admired Mussolini, possibly flirted with anti-semitism, then swung back to embrace liberalism in the USA after World War 2. His politics aside, other aspects of his personal life, whereby he seemed to mix with France's artistic avant-garde as well as the Russian Orthodox church, and to stray from his wife to seduce a married woman, seem a bit unconventional.

Whatever ... his music on the whole is among my favorites.


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## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

Satie and Scriabin, hands down. (edit) ...oh, and George Antheil. And Sorabji. It's hard to pick just one out of that quirkiness quartet, so I guess it isn't so hands down.


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