There is no more clichéd image of the brilliant yet socially awkward composer than that of reclusive genius. But while Beethoven may have been an eccentric misanthrope who enjoyed his solitary walks in the country, he still had his drinking buddies. And while Mahler liked to lock himself up every summer in a tiny “composing hut”, most of the time he was very much the feted – and sometimes pilloried – music director about town. No, if you’re looking for composers who really thrived on social distancing, here are ten who managed to make their mark despite long periods buried away in isolation. Oh, and here’s a playlist to listen to while you’re reading!
Leo Ornstein
Born in Ukraine in 1895, Lev (Leo) Ornstein was a child prodigy whose parents emigrated to the U.S. in 1906. Emerging as a noted, if conventional recitalist, Ornstein soon transformed into a composer of a radically different kind of music. As an avant-garde Futurist-cum-Modernist who invented the tone cluster, he appeared to revel in a brutal, dissonant sound world that shocked the critics. “I never thought I should live to hear...
It’s inaccurate to say that Hildegard was isolated. Her position was analogous to a modern school principal or Master of a university college. As head of her organisation, she had to engage with all visitors (who might be passing travellers, pilgrims, or relatives of her nuns), be responsible for practical aspects such as provisioning of food, and be an amateur psychologist; and, as you rightly point out, she was elected to that position by her peers. We know from her writings that she acted as a medic for not only her nuns but also the villagers. She wrote to political leaders and the Pope, which demonstrates that she both was actively interested in worldly matters and felt that her opinion was valid, and would be valuable to the movers and shakers of her time. Arguably her musical composition was also for a practical purpose, to fulfill the nuns’ required liturgical performances. The surprising thing is that she found time to compose in addition to her day job, which would have been hard enough to perform given her incapacitating migraines.