# Do you associate a composer's personality with his own music??



## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

Let's take different examples..

*Beethoven*

In Beethoven's music, you could hear the struggle of an artist to compose these masterpieces. Especially, in the late quartets and the 9th symphony, Beethoven elevates the triumph of human struggle in the highest form. This mirrors Beethoven's struggle with his own deafness. As a person, you could hear Beethoven imbuing his works with his ''own''.

*Bruckner*

Bruckner is problematic. Very different from Beethoven. Bruckner composed very large scale works, that he is often labeled as a ''Wagnerian symphonist''.

But Bruckner as the ''man'' and as the ''composer'' is different. Bruckner is religious, timid and humble, unlike Wagner or Wolf. If you would first listen to Bruckner's 8th, you would think that the composer is bombastic and larger than life. But it's different.

*Do you associate a composer's personality with his own music?*

or his music with his personality.

If so, who are these composers and why? If not, why do you think so..

I hope it would make an interesting discussion.


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## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

Forgot to mention Liszt. A show off personality, who composed piano works with great difficulty to show his virtousity in the instrument..


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## brianwalker (Dec 9, 2011)

No.

Mahler and Strauss had completely different personalities. 
Bruckner was a Wagnerian, so was Hugo Wolf, they couldn't be more different. 
Ravel was a anti-Drefyusard, Debussy was a Dreyfusard.

Mozart was unhappy in his life, in his letter he details how he often feels nothing inside.

_I do judge people by their favorite composers/compositions though, yeah.
_
Not to mention that for a single composer his works run through the entire gamut of human emotions. Is Wagner of Parsifal the same Wagner of Tristan or Tannhauser? etc.

Personalities rarely change, but St. Matthew's Passion is not at all like the WTC.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

peeyaj said:


> ...
> *Do you associate a composer's personality with his own music?*
> 
> or his music with his personality.


Yes, all the time. I do like a composer to tell me through his music eg. what's going on in his life. The autobiographical element. I vastly prefer that to a composer hiding behind a mask. I can still enjoy those composers who separate themselves from their music a bit or a lot, or to some degree, though (Stravinsky was like that, so was R. Strauss, both generally speaking, they did have some more autobiographical works).



> ...
> If so, who are these composers and why? If not, why do you think so..
> 
> ...


YOu mention* Beethoven*, and he is a favourite composer of mine, partly for this reason. He doesn't hide himself, and he speaks to his times, eg. the politics of revolutionary Europe (eg. the_ Eroica _symphony &_ Fidelio_, esp.).

*Janacek, Berg, Shostakovich *are three others, but there are many more.

A recent "re-discovery" has been *Michael Tippett*, whose music puts across the landscape of the place of his childhood, Suffolk, as well as many diverse influences, from Beethoven & Stravinsky, to jazz & blues, psychology, Elizabethan dance music, Renaissance choral music, and so on. He was a committed pacifist during WW2, refused to do wartime duties, which landed him in prison for a while. He also penned, at this time, the oratorio _A Child of our Time_, which reflects on the persecution of the Jews then in Europe, a work modelled on J.S. Bach's and Handel's choral legacy, incorporating things as diverse as Negro Spirituals. Interesting man he was, Mr. Tippett.

This thread below I explained more in depth what I mean, in my opening post of that thread -

http://www.talkclassical.com/14101-music-strong-autobiographical-element.html


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

It depends on the composer. Satie's music is eccentric just like his personality, but in the case of other composers, their personality might not show in their music.


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## Clementine (Nov 18, 2011)

Certainly, and I think it's impossible to separate themselves from their music; it's one in the same. But I also think it takes a good deal of getting to know their output before you can come to an informed decision about their character- humans are complex, they can't express everything in one piece of music. 

Someone mentioned Mozart as being detached, but I disagree. There is plenty of sorrow in Mozart's music, you just have to look for it (PC #20, Violin Sonata in E Minor, Piano Sonata in C Minor). Mozart wasn't upfront about feelings in his music, and I would hazard a guess that he wasn't all that upfront in real life. But the more you get to know his music the more he reveals about himself.


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## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

My answer is No in general. See here.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

I don't, and I don't think it's useful either.

I think descriptions of composers' personalities can fit the music they write as well as they can fit to astrological signs. In other words, if you squeeze things just a little, they'll look about right, but it doesn't really mean anything because anything could work. If Beethoven had a completely different personality, you could probably somehow read his music in that manner too.


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## ohesperides (Jan 20, 2012)

I generally don't do this either - except when it comes to Chopin. A sickly, gentle piano virtuoso who had a lifetime of tragic romantic and political experiences that became the subject of many of his compositions? A quiet and soft man who (as evidenced by his posthumously discovered journal) possessed emotions running the range between pure love and furious outrage? I realize I'm sounding over dramatic, but of all composers I feel like Chopin's music is the one that most embodies the composer's likeness. (This embarrassing paragraph can also be explained by the fact that I have the word's hugest crush on Chopin... and his hands )


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

I do this all the time, with each and every composer. Sometimes there's a problem, a discrepancy, but then it's just a puzzle for me to solve. For example, I have solved the Bruckner problem completely. I now don't see any discrepancy between Bruckner the man and Bruckner the composer. Of course these solutions require a bit of imagination, but I've never been afraid to use mine, even if and when it contradicts reality.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

No, I honestly don't really care about a composers personality regarding their music...at all really.


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