Casting the music aside for a moment (but not completely neglecting it) .. who are the composers who you identify with their personality/thoughts/lifestyle?

From what you have learnt and read about the lives of composers who have composed great music .. who would have been a good friend? Who do you greatly admire? Whose personality is similar to yours, or who lead a life similar to yours?

Personal thoughts are welcome, do not feel inhibited.

I have thought many times that I would have gotten along with Liszt better than just about any other composer. I attempted to read Alan Walker's biography but I really could not get into the mood to read such a large work. But considering that the man was always of such a kind and generous disposition, and of the immense emotional hardship that I am sure he faced, I could have learned a colossal amount of life and love from him.

I relate with Rachmaninoff as well, but I don't think we would have been very effective as friends. Certainly, I relate with his supreme self-doubt and melancholia, and I think he is one of the most beautiful people to ever exist, but I do not really think we could have been friends. I think I could have made friends with Scriabin, though.

-Colin

EDIT: I forgot, Ravel and I would have a grand old time as we are both atheists

Why are all my heroes dead!? Rzewski isn't going to make it much longer.

I would have loved to meet Clementi. He's
my pianistic idol, a no-nonsense, coin-on-the-
back-of-the-hand technician who had
solved piano playing in every technical
aspect. I regard him as the greatest
pianist who has ever lived, and his compositions
are first-rate in the technical demands
that they make on a player. Were he alive today
he would put every piano player to shame.
The problem of playing concerts from
memory he would have solved in a fortnight.
And any style: classical, jazz, rock,
country, popular, would be child's play
for him.

i've a very active imagination...

i take lessons from Bach and clean his house, sing in his choirs and walk the roads with him

Walk?

well, i'm not too sure up to now.

My teacher said i'm like Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. partly because I am playful, tend to be happy, simplistic but at the same time I can sometimes really bring out the emotions: sadness,frustration etc.At the same time my mood tends to swing alot.

if you ask me, I like all 3 just the same and greatly admire all 3.

another composer that I really love is Chopin: his music is so romantic and it really enables me to bring out the best emotion wise.

Debussy, I love for his playfulness, his colorful orchestration etc.

I'm closest to Chopin in temperament but Mozart and Liszt would be fun to party with. (And I'd like to give Beethoven a back rub.)

they didn't have cars back then

I find I have more in common with Chopin and Brahms, especially when it comes to relationships. But like someone said above, I would have loved to party with Liszt.

If Mozart was anything in real life like he was in the movie Amadeus, I would have probably felt like punching him in the face haha.

Let's see if anybody confesses to being like Schumann. Slightly nuts, and headed in the wrong direction. Or Scriabin. Or Tchaikovsky.

I think we should all hope to be like Mendelssohn. By all accounts, he was a happy camper. It shows in his music. Apparently the loss of his sister hurt him, but he was still very well adjusted.

I have no idea who I'm like.

Rossini, I'm sorry to say.

Don't worry, Yok. Rossini was a well-adjusted guy. Nothing to be ashamed of. He just finished composing at a pretty young age. He just didn't "grow." If he had, he might have turned into another Verdi. At least he knew enough to quit. If he had rewritten the same opera another 20 times, it might have gotten quite tiresome.

For what it's worth, I really like Rossini. I've played some of his songs with singers, and they are wonderful. Liszt absolutely captures the magic of these songs in his transcriptions, and they are not inordinately difficult.

Well, Chopin was bipolar, probably a bit claustrophobic and a severe asthmatic just as I am. Bach is another one that sounds like a petty well adjusted guy.

Whoa, Frycek. Here's hoping that you are just asthmatic, and not claustrophobic or bipolar. Not that asthma is a barrel of laughs.

The interesting thing about Bach is that he was so, well, uninteresting. A genius, but not really involved in much beyond what he apparently saw as his trade.

Haydn was probably very well adjusted as well. Legend has it that his wife was a total harridan (termagant, shrew, etc.), but if this bothered him it surely didn't manifest itself in his music.

All three.

As for Bach - well, there were 17 kids so he must've gotten some joy besides music - -

Beethoven speaks to me mostly, and Bach shows me the logic...

Hmmm, well, Liszt comes to mind right away as one of the very few of the sort of canonical composers I feel was really a thoroughly admirable person. On the other hand, I often identify with more of the outsider types like Alkan, Partch, Nancarrow, Berners, or Medtner (who seems funny to place as an outsider, given the relative conservatism of his music, but he was definitely not mainstream). Chabrier and Faure both seemed to be universally loved, so there might be something good in identifying with them. Some composers who impressed me very positively when I met them were Michael Tippett, Vincent Persichetti, and Lou Harrison; in different ways, they all seemed like wonderful people.

As for Bach - well, there were 17 kids so he must've gotten some joy besides music - [/b]

Indeed. As a young man he reportedly practiced on an old spinster spinet in the attic.


-Michael B.

And did you hear about the spinster who chased Bach around the church? She caught him by the organ.

Are the composer jokes done for now?
Colin, I hope someday you will read the Walker books. Time well spent.

But I agree with you about Liszt. Anytime a thread comes up about which composer one would love to have met, Liszt is number one with me. Always. The most overwhelming man in all of music.

That said, César Franck and Edward Elgar are the two composers in my life wherein their sound worlds completely mesh with my mentality, sound worlds I utterly inhabit. I dearly love many composers, but none -not even Bach, Mozart, Beethoven or Wagner- have that magic for me.

Elgar's emotional complexities far surpass "Empire" or "English countryside" bilge, and Franck: well maybe one needs to be an organist to really appreciate his profundities. Only Bach's organ works surpass Franck. Franck's two great piano triptychs -supreme music they are- really only point the way to the organ works. Even his (relatively) early Fantasy in C finds us in the most rarefied elements of the cosmos.

I identify[/b] with Franck. His was miserable with the politics at the Conservatoire de Paris, his married life was rather a disaster... he found his solace in the organ loft. His improvisations were admired by Liszt. As an on-and-off devout Anglican, I would rather chuck it all and devote my life to the Church. Sometimes that is where I am happiest.

Finally there is Benjamin Britten. He wrote brilliantly in all forms -Death in Venice is one of my favourite operas- but most of all, his loving contributions to the Anglican rite are very special for me. Yet ultimately Britten's personal demons, his courageous politics, his outstanding talent as pianist and conductor... these are what endear me to him. If there has been any composer I could say "I love you", it is Britten.

There are no composers close to me; I live on the West Coast of Canada!

Regards,

Oh, maybe a few Russians.

Heh, I currently reside in a country even further off than BruceD (or most PW members, I reckon).

My five favorite composers are Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and Schoenberg. I deeply identify with many aspects of all of them, whether it be their music or their personalities. But I sometimes wonder if I might get along with any of them. Hmm, Mozart might be a bit too fond of scatology for my taste, and Brahms too sarcastic. In terms of temperament and specific musical interests, I probably have most in common with Schoenberg, though we may be too alike that we get on each other's nerves! I think that, if I could get under his skin a little (and find a way around his deafness), I might thoroughly enjoy Beethoven's company. He can be a very boisterous, capricious, fun loving soul to friends and acquaintances on a good day. And if he's angry -- well, hopefully I could return the favour, since many have commented on my temper IRL.

Probably a mix between Debussy and Cage

Crikey, I pour my heart out re composers than mean so much to me and this is the level of discourse now?
Well neither Frycek nor BruceD have anything important to say here. Is it all that much of a joke?

Perhaps. I should have known better. You people have successfully graduated beyond youthful passions -good on ya- but cannot I have a few moments before age tells me that it ain't worth s*** to a tree?

Whew. Had to get that off my back!

Cheers...

originally posted by wdot:
I'm a little Schumann-like of personality - Florestan in summer and Eusebius in winter-time. I also dream of a husband that plays as superb as Clara....

The composer closest to me lives about half a mile from my house, but I still have not managed to make him write something for the piano

R

Jason, it seems we are on the same wavelength again! I have always thought Liszt would be the person I'd most like to meet. Bach is very important to me, but I've always thought I would be terrified to meet such a titan!

And then there's Franck, with whom I (like you) identify with... His music is tremendously important to me, and I feel quite simpatico with him as a person, based on what I know of his life. I understand very well why his students referred to him as 'Pater Seraphicus'. It is a shame that he is not better known to pianists - I guess he saved his most profound and passionate works for the organ, to the benefit of us organists. The more I study his works, the more I marvel at the genius of his compositional style.

Sorry, Jason. I believe a few posts above I confessed to being bipolar like Chopin. Surely that must count as some proof of sincerity. I could continue the parallels quite a bit further. For starters I'm in the early stages of the same type of cardiomyopathy killed him. For some of us the question may be so poignant that levity is the only defense.

Duude .. you think you poured your heart out with your last post!! Wait until Kathleen comes here and talks about Chopin.

Not to upset argerichfan anymore, I will gladly pour my heart out ..

For me it will settle on three composers: Bach, Liszt, Rachmaninoff.

Rachmaninoff.. who had high moralistic ideals.
As to his personality, he was warm with his relatives and his close friends, but somewhat cautious and conservative with strangers. I resemble this attitude but maybe somewhat more outgoing than he was.

Liszt.. who represents the eternal fight between the material and the spiritual.. and he triumphantly chose the spiritual in the end. Not to mention his giving and generous nature as proved by all the works he has done to charity.

Bach .. whose all his work in this life was made for the "the glory of God". So his concept about the goal of life closely resembles mine.

[Happy now argerichfan?]

Please, please. A good mate of mine is in the last stages of a "disease" and I totally understand. My apologies for insensitivity.