Which temperament is your music? (and you)

You may be familiar with the four main psychological temperaments, phlegmatic, sanguine, melancholic, and choleric. Have you tried to apply them to yourself, and your music as a composer?

Don't worry about the parenthesis too much:

Phlegmatic = Relaxed (also noted to have ignorance)

Sanguine = Happy (noted to have imperfection)

Melancholic = Sad (noted to hold truth through conflict)

Choleric = Angry (noted to be critical)

What if you were to apply one or two of those to yourself, or what you prefer to compose... What would you chose? Then tell why you would chose that and why it fits with your compositional style, or at least try to reason it out a bit.

You can have blends, like mainly relaxed with a touch of sad, would be called Phlegmatic/Melancholic. These blends match up with theoretical personality types. Give it a shot.

My music:

It's hard to deduce most of my pieces to happy or sad, though many of them are indeed a bit sadder, yet lively. Lively can either mean sanguine or choleric, and I'd have a hard time choosing either one, so I will have to say my music is overall:

Melancholy.

Going by your descriptions, I would say primarily Choleric, with the secondary definitions of Sanguine and Phlegmatic.

Interesting, if highly limited, way of describing music. Maybe a bit more understanding of the fluids of the body would make it easier to categorize. Maybe not.

I once took quite a large test in one of my classes, and I ended up with almost a perfect four-way split, although I had slightly more in the melancholic and choleric departments.

My music tends to reflect my mood about things - in that way I guess it's really reflective. It tends to lead towards melancholy I think, although phlegmatic also plays a bit of a role. In all honesty, I think there's everything except sanguine in there, although melancholy holds the primary spot. I'd have to go with that.

~Christian

Going by your descriptions, I would say primarily Choleric, with the secondary definitions of Sanguine and Phlegmatic.

Interesting, if highly limited, way of describing music. Maybe a bit more understanding of the fluids of the body would make it easier to categorize. Maybe not.

You are right. It is very limited, but fun to acknowledge in any case.

I'm definitely Phlegmatic. It feels like I always put the same instructions at the beginning of my scores :). MAybe Sanguine or Melancholic sometimes, but very little of what I write is ever angry, and when it is, its usually in a humorous way.

Did you by any chance get these words from Paul Hindemith's Theme and Four Variations? I love that piece! Each variation really transforms the emotional impact of the theme.

As for my music, it's probably a mix between Phlegmatic and Melancholic most of the time.

I'm always Choleric in my pieces. Depending on what they describe, they either lean towards Melancholic or Sanguine.

I'm all of the above in my music, depending on the piece. I plan on writing a symphony one day based on those four moods. Of course, there are more than just four moods, but those are really a great form to a large body of music. :)

Your definitions are highly limited... you've only used the negative qualities of each supposed personality type.

logic of language - paradoxical and paralogical as a river running through the city streets

logic of emotion - anti-psychologist, primitive as a barbarian beast child philosopher

logic of structure - post-structuralist, aleatoric realist as nature which forgot its law

logic of sound - deeply chemical, physical (material), as a paint

My personality is Melancholic/Sanguine. Conflicted, but mostly on the depressive side. Sounds about right.

My music is almost entirely Sanguine. I have likened it to cheering myself up with bright, optimistic musical thoughts.

This reminds me of my sister - she is always splitting people into personality groups

Interesting thread - I am melancholy-phlegmatic and my music would probably be mostly melancholy with a little choleric

melancholy for me.

Did you by any chance get these words from Paul Hindemith's Theme and Four Variations? I love that piece! Each variation really transforms the emotional impact of the theme.

I actually just saw this. You're talking about The Four Temperaments (ballet) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They're from Personality Plus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, i'd assume. Or maybe Four Temperaments - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

However, the words and personalities are based earlier than that, into the Ancient era as the 4 humors of the body. See: Humorism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia