Who are some famous philosophers who also composed music?
I can think of one example: Boethius, one of the first music theorists / acousticians and author of Consolation of Philosophy; he composed:
9
-
4Do you really allow list-questions here? – pipe Apr 24 at 9:55
-
1@pipe This site can unfortunately be quite lax with soft questions. – curiousdannii Apr 24 at 12:52
-
2eh it's a fun question. – another_name Apr 24 at 17:51
-
1By the word 'composer' do you refer to an inventor of only music, or also to the words (songwriter)? I don't see that we have evidence that Boethius composed music. The music seems to have been added to his poems later. – Ram Tobolski Apr 25 at 7:26
-
1@another_name Yep. A lot of questions are fun. Some will fit the Stack Exchange format. This one does not. – pipe Apr 25 at 8:13
8
In addition to Nietzsche:
Rousseau wrote both the music and libretto for an opera - Le Devin du Village.
Rousseau - Le Devin du Village on YouTube
Adorno was a classically trained pianist, studied composition with Berg in Vienna, and wrote piano music and a number of string quartets.
-
1
-
1@Conifold He fell under the spell of Schoenberg to compose music very much of the time. I occasionally listen to Schoenberg, Berg, or Webern when I'm doing the dishes. Seriously. It works really well. – Nick R Apr 23 at 23:03
-
You might also add that Wagner was a composer who was a bit of a (racist) philosopher: philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/62076/… – Ben Hocking Apr 24 at 1:50
-
@BenHocking Wagner is an interesting suggestion, but perhaps more as a great composer who suffered a cranky dotage. – Nick R Apr 24 at 2:59
-
1@Conifold: He tried to apply rational aesthetics via twelve-tone music. He even tried to be a critic of contemporary music. To be fair, I deem his music and aesthetic writings to be quite...erratic and special. – Philip Klöcking♦ Apr 24 at 12:19
3
Gabriel Marcel according to Brendan Sweetman composed music:
He also developed a keen interest in classical music and composed a number of pieces.
However, I could not find a list of these compositions.
Thanks to @sand1 from comments: "La Biblitheque Nationale Francaise list has a section for him as Compositeur(54) data.bnf.fr/fr/11914394/gabriel_marcel"
Sweetman, B. "Gabriel Marcel". Retrieved April 23, 2019 from Britannica https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gabriel-Honore-Marcel
-
1La Biblitheque Nationale Francaise list has a section for him as Compositeur(54) data.bnf.fr/fr/11914394/gabriel_marcel – sand1 Apr 24 at 12:14
-
