How does music reflect a composer's personality?

Something I always wondered:

How does your music reflect your personality, or the way you think, live etc.

Do you write differently when in a different mood? Does happiness mean "happy" music or anger mean "angry" music?

Also, knowing about composer's personality or experience through extra-musical sources, (for example Shostakovitch) , how much

do you think these real life experiences shape and mold their compositional output.

Could someone in suburban American write something with the same conviction as DS's 4th for example?

I think my music reflects how I view music, at least.

To be honest, I don't think it does. All too often have I heard music that implies one thing, and then the composer/songwriter is completely different in real life. And to be honest, I don't think I've ever written a piece of music that adequately embodies the entirety of my personality. I doubt I'll ever be good enough of a composer to do so.

I think my music reflects how I view music, at least.

Ditto.

I think this thread is a lot better than the various atonal/tonal debate threads. Personally, I think music DOES reflect the personality and tastes of the composer.

A good example, for me, was in a post of orchestral music of mine on here. While there were problems with the orchestration itself, a person commented on my use of scalar material as melodic accent. Taste wise, I find scalar material to be VERY interesting and rich in a melodic context (I love busy music - my mind moves fast). This person was different, he didn't find it interesting at all. I think that's a very good example of the sort of thing your talking about here.

As for writing piece in moods, well, yes - I think a composers mood does effect portions of the composition BUT not the entire piece. Look at Beethoven, for instance, the man was considered to be a tragic, angry soul - yet, he composed the beautiful 6th symphony (a repetitive, joyful tribute to nature).

I think that what defines one's personality is the choices one makes. And thus, every choice you make about a piece of music (even the choice to write music itself) is a reflection of your personality in one way or the other.

When I was younger, my music would have the opposite mood that I was in; if I was happy, it would be solemn - if I was depressed, it would be manic and light.

Now I just write what I want to convey to the listener, regardless of how I personally feel. Though admittedly, all music reflects the composer in some way... if it's personal music (that is to say, if it's music you're writing for yourself, and not some product you're being paid to write).

manic depression is touching my soul

After my last concert someone told me "If music reflects on the composer's personality, you belong in an insane asylum" (he said he meant that as a compliment though :P), and another person I know quite well got scared of me. I'm quite harmless and relatively normal though, I assure you! So I don't hope or think one can directly read anything about the personality of a composer through her or his music. That doesn't mean the personality doesn't play a very important role for the music you write. Composing, at least for me, is always a very personal thing and has to do with questions I ask myself, and, as Ferkungamabooboo said, the way I think about music.

No doubt I would write different music if I was a different person, with a different background, with different experiences, different convictions and a different neurosis. I don't think anybody would deny that.

But it's just not as simple as "happy people write happy music".

But it's just not as simple as "happy people write happy music".

of course, because happy people may not be happy with being happy. or happy people may be pretending being happy. or being happy is not personal or subjective property at all.

i really cannot see how personality (brain history and certain activity) would not play a role in human's musical output.

Even in modern music, where the idea of 'happy music' is blurred, a composers work is still reflective of his personality. I think a good example of that is int he chamber musics of both Shostakovitch and Bartok. The string quartets of both composers are very intimate and give great insight into them respectively.

Now I just write what I want to convey to the listener, regardless of how I personally feel. Though admittedly, all music reflects the composer in some way...

Too true. If the composer has any sense of identity, than the personality shines through, no matter what the intent behind the music is.

No doubt I would write different music if I was a different person, with a different background, with different experiences, different convictions and a different neurosis. I don't think anybody would deny that.

But it's just not as simple as "happy people write happy music".

Exactly, just like happy people can paint sad pictures, or write mysteries, or make horror films... We can create what we will - personality however, has nothing to do with happiness, or the lack thereof.

i really cannot see how personality (brain history and certain activity) would not play a role in human's musical output.

I think that a person's personality plays an important role in the way that he(or she, of course) thinks about music. For example, one personality might create music that is somewhat straightforward and technical, because to that person, music is more of an intellectual thing, while another could be more attention seeking/bombastic and another could be overly romantic and write emotional music.

These are just silly examples, and i do not mean to say that it is possible to analyze a person's personality or view of music from their music. However, I do think that knowing both the composer and the composition you might be able to see where some things come from.

I think that a person's personality plays an important role in the way that he(or she, of course) thinks about music. For example, one personality might create music that is somewhat straightforward and technical, because to that person, music is more of an intellectual thing, while another could be more attention seeking/bombastic and another could be overly romantic and write emotional music.

These are just silly examples, and i do not mean to say that it is possible to analyze a person's personality or view of music from their music. However, I do think that knowing both the composer and the composition you might be able to see where some things come from.

pretty obvious :)

I was just in a masterclass with Bright Sheng and he said the American saying "you are what you eat" as a representation of musical personality. I feel your personality drives not only what you write, but also what you listen to. What you listen to then has a big part on what you write. You can write sad music if you are sad or happy if you are happy, based on short-termed emotions, but thats superficial. If you are talking about the hidden pain locked into the music of such as Shostakovitch, a lot of that comes from his personality, but wouldn't be as expressible if not for what he listened to.

Well your music can come across as gloomy/melancholic if you're that type of person. Otherwise you can force personality into your music in an "I want to write something happy this time" manner. (just example)

I've noticed that the music I make isn't very optimistic, and I only realise it afterwards. Although the theme/concept I base it all around these days isn't very happy (World War II, oppression etc)

Otherwise I've clinical depression so I guess that can come across in my music.

Your put out what sounds 'appealing' to you, based on your taste at that time

I think that a person's personality plays an important role in the way that he(or she, of course) thinks about music. For example, one personality might create music that is somewhat straightforward and technical, because to that person, music is more of an intellectual thing, while another could be more attention seeking/bombastic and another could be overly romantic and write emotional music.

These are just silly examples, and i do not mean to say that it is possible to analyze a person's personality or view of music from their music. However, I do think that knowing both the composer and the composition you might be able to see where some things come from.

uhh.. i just realised that i missed the NOT in the passage i quoted

Michael's "you are what you eat" hypothesis is very enlightening.

When writing music, you're focusing your mind on developing musical ideas -- that requires you to use many different faculties at the same time: imagination, emotion, pattern-recognition, technical/computational, etc. For the technical stuff it's just training/practice, but the rest has to come from past experience in those areas...which means all the music you've ever listened to, your past emotional experiences, etc.

From original post: 'Could someone in suburban American write something with the same conviction as DS's 4th for example?'

I'd say no. Without the same horrific experiences, like being enemies with Josef Stalin for decades, your musical mind just won't be able to 'take you there', and if you try to force it, people who *have* been there will be able to tell.

Personally, I don't think so at all. Not even does the fact that somebody lives in suburban America say nothing about his personality, how he feels, what he has experienced (tragic things also can happen on a very small scale), but also does none of these things necessarily prevent anybody from writing any kind of music. There are so many reasons for writing music, and more reasons for writing a particular music, that you can't just sum it up under the "suffering poet" catchword. Certainly, people with different backgrounds may tend to write different music, but this says nothing about all the parameters that influence this, or what you are able to do. And frankly, if people didn't know Shostakovich lived in the Soviet Union, but thought he'd lived in suburban America, they wouldn't suddenly go "That's impossible!", they just might reason differently when "interpreting" his music.

And frankly, if people didn't know Shostakovich lived in the Soviet Union, but thought he'd lived in suburban America, they wouldn't suddenly go "That's impossible!", they just might reason differently when "interpreting" his music.

The "suffering artist" is just a bull**** concept for people enamored of wooly concepts.

Here you're getting into questions of the abstraction of instrumental music.

It's fair to say William Burroughs couldn't have written Naked Lunch if he hadn't been addicted to heroin. But that's the written word, which is very specific. Music is different, it's capable of an incredible variety of interpretations.

But still, it has to come from somewhere, and it's filtered through your personality and past experience in the process of writing. If you're a precocious, joyous young Mozart, you're almost certainly not ready to write the Requiem Mass.

What are you babbling about?

Mozart wrote his Eine Kleine Nachmusik after his father died, and he wrote the Great Mass in C minor for his wedding. Are you familiar with the two works? \:blink:/

And I assume precocious and joyous young 31-year-old Mozart wasn't ready to finish his own Requiem, but 25-year old Sussmayer was.. :x

Well, maybe he hated his father and his wife. :P

haha :P maybe... we'll never find out.. :(

or maybe none of these mozart works are in any sense joyfull/serious...