Composers add another string to their bows


Professional composers are among many feeling the pinch as the credit crunch throws the world into turmoil. So, if composing is your job, it may be time to add a second string to your bow. Being a composer is a precarious profession at the best of times. So, it is hardly surprising that over the years many composers have had a second job to keep the wolf from the door. Many thanks go to a reader who told me about a database that lists the second professions of composers. Hardly surprisingly, like Richard Strauss above, conductor is by far the most popular second string, followed by pianist. But in these turbulent times it may be worth noting that the clery and nobility kept quite a few composers in manuscript paper over the years. Or, like Iannis Xenakis below, you could always train as an architect.


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Comments

Pliable said…
And yes, before anyone writes in, I know that Guillaume de Machaut was both a priest and author, Hildegard of Bingen was an Abbess and author, and Lord Berners was of the nobility and an author.

http://www.overgrownpath.com/2008/10/also-sprach-composer.html
4:33 pm
EWL said…
Or Ives. What about Mr. Insurance Ives?
8:31 pm
Anonymous said…
Rupert Bawden as well as being a composer and a former member of the London Concert is a former Lambeth and current Hackney councillor and certainly has been a paramedic for the London Ambulance Service
11:29 pm
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