Paul Natorp (1854-1924) Chamber music

[Alan Howe]

Primarily a philosopher, Natorp was apparently dissuaded from becoming a professional composer by no less than Brahms. This forthcoming 2-CD release contains inter alia his Violin Sonata, Cello Sonata and Piano Trio:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/der-philosoph-als-komponist/hnum/8327411

[Miles R.]

Probably a better composer than Nietzsche.

[eschiss1]

Erm... why do you say that? I do not praise Nietzsche as a musician by pointing out the (fairly obvious) fact that there have been many worse composers than he. (We just don't hear or see their music unless we really, really put in an effort, most of the time.)

[Miles R.]

I say that because (1) what I have heard of Nietzsche's compositions confirmed the unfavorable opinions that I had heard of them (and I listened to a bit of the Natorp on the JPC site and it sounded better than what I remember of Nietzsche's), and (2) no one [corrected] who, knowing something about Nietzsche, learns that another 19th-century German philosopher also composed music, can fail to think of the comparison. The only other philosophers who composed music that I know of are Theodor Adorno, none of whose music I have heard (or even heard of it being performed) and Roger Scruton (who included a quotation from one of his compositions in one of his books: short though it was, one could already discern the triteness).

[eschiss1]

I was basically saying - and I still maintain - that no matter how poor Nietzsche's music is, the amount of music poorer than his is, especially starting in the mid-19th century, practically speaking* infinite. Only hearing sound samples of Natorp's music without getting a sense of his command of structure and long-term instrumental control doesn't really answer good questions as to the quality of his music, anyway...

*especially in the 20th century- and I say this as one of the rare _fans_ of much of the best of 20th-century "modernism" in this group; doctoral-thesis music, so far as I know, generally is not in the category of good or even bearable, I gather... (there are some very, very very well-known exceptions, of course. Think "Prokofiev 1st piano concerto" or "Myaskovsky 1st symphony", or ...)