Webber's Paranoia

Andrew Lloyd Webber is a very interesting person and a unique composer. He is so considerate and careful about his music that at times his fear of being blamed for the lack of originality may even get paranoid. He is known to have been permanently asking the restaurant staff to turn off the background. The explanation? He was afraid of being charged with music plagiarism. Some say that he also asks his driver to turn off the radio, for the very same reason.

Maybe that is why Andrew’s compositions do sound very original and unique. To take only the famous multi-award winning musical “Phantom of the Opera”, that has been seen by 130 million people in 145 cities in 27 countries. “All I Ask of You” is one of the most loved songs in it. It appears in Act I of the musical when the heroine escapes to the roof to talk with her friend who promises to love her and guard from the Phantom.

Friedrich Nietzsche the composer

We all know him as a prominent philosopher and philologist but hardly would anyone mention Friedrich Nietzsche as a… composer or pianist. However, he was one, and a quite enthusiastic one. His experience as a musician preceded his engagement as a thinker and undoubtedly influenced his philosophy in one way or another. Nietzsche actually moved in well-known composers’ circles and such outstanding music figures as Gustav Mahler, Frederick Delius and Richard Strauss were influenced by Nietzsche’s philosophical thinking which was reflected in some of their music pieces. Nietzsche’s own works were not at all popular during his lifetime but a couple of albums were published later on, “In the Moonlight on the Plains”, “Hymnus an das Leben”, “There Goes a Brook” being among some of the published works. Free from conservatory strictness, today Nietzsche-composer’s music is considered as improvising and fascinating in its own manner.