Stephen E. Bacher writes:

>Others mentioned Xenakis, Babbitt and a handful of other names.
>
>I don't know about Philidor, but if this list so far is representative,
>it doesn't do much to counter an impression that chess-obsessed musicians
>are excessively mathematical and impersonal.  That may be an unfair rap
>on Schoenberg, who is far more emotive than many of his contemporaries,
>but Xenakis and Braxton (an avant-garde jazz composer given to using
>incomprehensible diagrams in place of track titles and who has often been
>accused of non-swingingness and excessive intellectuality) certainly
>contribute to that potential view.

I think there's a misunderstanding here.  The composers listed were
*either* chess-players *or* mathematicians.  It's not really surprising
that the ones who were mathematicians were excessively mathematical, is it?

IMO, the best-known composer who played chess was Prokofiev.  Does anyone
think of Prokofiev's music as excessively mathematical or impersonal? And
the best-known chess-player who also composed was certainly Philidor.  I'm
not familiar with Philidor's music - I once heard a Philidor opera on the
radio, and found it dull, but since I'm not all that keen either on opera
or on the post-baroque but pre-classical period, that was only to be
expected - but again, it's hardly mathematical or impersonal.

Peter Varley
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