Programs · Episode

Composers’ Lives: Should we care?

Aired: Monday, March 26, 2018 @ 9:00 am
Hosted by Miles Hoffman

Here’s a question: “should we really care about the personal lives of the composer’s we admire?” When we don’t know anything about their lives we certainly don’t care.

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Here’s a question: “should we really care about the personal lives of the composer’s we admire?” When we don’t know anything about their lives we certainly don’t care. How many of us know a great deal about Monteverdi or Palestrina, or even Bach or Beethoven? What we care about is the music. But still we’re curious, especially about composers whose works have meant a great deal to us, a work that has enriched our lives. Through their music they seem to have been able to understand our hearts and souls, and so even when they’re long dead we still have a slightly strange, but very human need, to be close to these peoples—to feel some sort of personal relationship and perhaps even to thank them. We also often hope to even gain insights into the music itself: the how and why of it. But that is a tricky business, especially because inner-motivation is often only related to specific life experiences in ways that are either very tangled or completely hidden.

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