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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:

Geremia
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  • Nietzsche of course :) – Joseph Weissman Apr 23 '19 at 22:15
  • @JosephWeissman Wow, I didn't know that. Apparently [he composed some piano works](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYBwNcTeY7M), too. – Geremia Apr 23 '19 at 22:41
  • Karl Popper composed some music. – user207421 Apr 24 '19 at 05:13
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    Do you really allow list-questions here? – pipe Apr 24 '19 at 09:55
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    @pipe This site can unfortunately be quite lax with soft questions. – curiousdannii Apr 24 '19 at 12:52
  • @curiousdannii Yeah, it's puzzling because both OP and the people who gladly answer the question all have pretty high reputation leading me to believe that it's accepted. I have no idea how one would accept the "best" answer here. Or maybe it's just that people are too slow casting close votes. – pipe Apr 24 '19 at 13:52
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    eh it's a fun question. –  Apr 24 '19 at 17:51
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    By 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 '19 at 07:26
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    @another_name Yep. A lot of questions are fun. Some will fit the Stack Exchange format. This one does not. – pipe Apr 25 '19 at 08:13

2 Answers2

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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.

A selection of Adorno string quartets on YouTube

nwr
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    Did not know about Adorno! – Conifold Apr 23 '19 at 22:58
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    @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. – nwr Apr 23 '19 at 23:03
  • You might also add that Wagner was a composer who was a bit of a (racist) philosopher: https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/62076/philosophers-who-were-composers – Ben Hocking Apr 24 '19 at 01:50
  • @BenHocking Wagner is an interesting suggestion, but perhaps more as a great composer who suffered a cranky dotage. – nwr Apr 24 '19 at 02:59
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    @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 '19 at 12:19
  • how derogatorily do you mean that @PhilipKlöcking ? his music criticism i thought was fairly well regarded considering how trenchant he was about stravinsky. i had copies of his music, but am no musician –  Apr 24 '19 at 17:50
  • i'm not even sure what people could be getting from adorno if they dispose of his aesthetics. a lot of nonsense about marx –  Apr 24 '19 at 17:56
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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

Frank Hubeny
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