# Does such an artist/work of art exist?



## skim1124 (Mar 6, 2019)

Just thinking out loud a question I've had for a long time. The members at TC obviously value the musical artist (whether composer or performer), but of course there are other artists, whether it's in painting, sculpting, writing, photography, acting, directing, dancing, furniture making, etc. I don't know if TC members value the musical artist more than other types of artists, but that's a different topic.

The topic for this thread: I've always thought that one definition of a great artist is one who could create a work that'd encompass many arts. A simple example would be someone who writes both the libretto and the music for an opera, or the poetry and the music for lieders. I can doubly appreciate someone who can write an excellent libretto/poem as well as an excellent opera/lieder, simply because it's going to be even more rare than someone who can only write well or someone who can only compose well. (Here, it'd help to think of Bo Jackson's excellence in both football and baseball, rather than Michael Jordan's excellence in basketball but mediocrity in baseball.)

Thinking more broadly, I'm wondering if an artist has tried to create every aspect or at least multiple aspects of a creative work. I come from a literary background, so I've wondered if anyone has not just written a novel, but if the character is admiring a painting in a drawing room, for example, the writer has also drawn the painting. Or if some song is running through a character's mind, the writer has also written the song. And so on, potentially involving other arts (e.g. choreographing a dance at a dance recital scene). I would consider such an artist extra great and that combined work of art extra great for the sheer ambition/talent/vision required. 

I suppose that what I'm describing is something like an (uber)-Renaissance Man, but my guess is that the historical economy of being an artist and the limitations of technology could be reasons why such an all-encompassing work of art hasn't been attempted yet. But maybe I'm wrong. Are you aware of an artist that creates at multiple levels? Certainly, technology is such that now a multi-media work of art is possible. 

And who in the musical world comes close to possessing such a breadth of creative talent?

I would love to see such a work of art attempted and to admire the creative spirit/talents behind it--even as I appreciate a "mere" composer or "mere" pianist.


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Michael Tippet wrote words for 'A Child of Our Time', his 3rd Symphony and the librettos for some of his Operas.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

ETA: just realized you are looking for diverse talents combined in one work. I'll just leave the post here.

Schoenberg was not only a groundbreaking composer, but also a very talented painter. He painted for instance one of the most famous images of Alban Berg (link).


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

*Richard Wagner*, librettist and composer. He is probably the greatest example of that, not that there were many composers who wrote both libretto and music.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

mikeh375 said:


> Michael Tippet wrote words for 'A Child of Our Time', his 3rd Symphony and the librettos for some of his Operas.


... and the results are generally said to be rather embarrassing!

On the OP, I think I would tend to be a little sceptical of a "jack of all trades" but I acknowledge that if someone could produce truly great painting, poetry and music then that would be worth great praise. But, as it is, in music the composers who could do really great work in multiple genres (piano music, orchestral music, symphonies/sonatas and more poetic forms, quartet music, other chamber music, songs, operas and ballets) are quite a rarity without their branching out into non-musical art forms.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Wagner was the most famous but several other composers wrote their libretti (or even more frequently edited/arranged texts or wrote shorter lyrics for songs). In the middle ages and early modernity it was very common to set one's own lyrics to music.
Mendelssohn was also a pretty good amateur painter but this was not directly connected to some work of music.

The closest in more recent times (i.e. not the Renaissance) is maybe someone like Charlie Chaplin. In some of his films he directed, had written the book, played the main role and wrote the music.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

Leonard Bernstein was a great conductor, a fine composer, an accomplished pianist, and a great teacher. 

Someone mentioned Arnold Schoenberg who was a great composer and a fine Expressionist painter, but he was also a good teacher.

Yehudi Menuhin was one of the greatest concert violinists of his times, also a violist, later a conductor, as well as a writer, and he was also into yoga.

John Cage was very well rounded, he composed music, but also involved himself in visual arts, and movies. Cage was a chess enthusiast and also a Mycologist (mushroom enthusiast). I was once taking a summer course at a local state college and at the same time there was a mushroom convention, and I spoke to some of the attendees and they said that Cage did more than any other famous person to promote the cause of Mycology. 

There have been many composers were interested and accomplished at chess: Prokofiev, the above mentioned Cage, but no one rose to the level of François-André Danican Philidor who, if an organized international chess had existed at the time, probably would have been the world champion. To me Philidor is a champion of the little guy because he advocated for the pawns as the "soul of chess". Up until then, pawns were sacrificed at will to open lines, but Philidor demonstrated that pawn structure and pawns working together could create powerful lines of defense.

The Philidor Defense is named after the composer:

1. P-e4 P-e5
2. N-f3 P-d6

It blocks in the bishop at f8 for a while but is still playable.


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Enthusiast said:


> ... and the results are generally said to be rather embarrassing!
> 
> On the OP, I think I would tend to be a little sceptical of a "jack of all trades" but I acknowledge that if someone could produce truly great painting, poetry and music then that would be worth great praise. But, as it is, in music the composers who could do really great work in multiple genres (piano music, orchestral music, symphonies/sonatas and more poetic forms, quartet music, other chamber music, songs, operas and ballets) are quite a rarity without their branching out into non-musical art forms.


'Child' packs quite a powerful emotional punch imo, as does the 3rd Symphony. Yeah, I believe the operas didn't fair as well from a literary pov but they do have artistic credibility.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

^ Don't get me wrong, I love Tippett and I agree Child of Our Time is well written. But his operas and pieces like Songs for Dov ... if only he could have found a collaborator.

Meanwhile, I am mindful of Fredrik Ullén, a fine pianist but also a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

The answers to your questions are all over the map. As mentioned, Wagner wrote all of his libretti. Tippett wrote some wonderful texts and some that were horribly cockamamie. Meredith Wilson wrote book, lyrics, and music for The Music Man. Some visual artists did good stage design (Robert Indiana, Edward Gorey), some writers did both good poetry and good prose (Hardy), some composers painted pretty well -- but generally you can tell what an artist's forte is.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

I would add Berlioz - an excellent writer.


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