Where there any popular composers with ADD?

or any popular composers with ADHD? :P

no.

oh, and you're fired.

Oh, I'm sure there are famous composers with ADD. Just as there are probably famous composers out there with bi-polar disorder, diabetes, shizophrenia, etc. The real question is, why do you want to know?

what was this thread about? That was some great bread pudding I had this morning...

probably, mental disorders seem to go hand in hand with artistry sometimes...lol

just look for composers that seem to change their musical focus often or have a tendency to be unreliable and you have good candidates.

don't know why, but the first image in my mind was the characterization of Mozart in the movie Amadeus, lol.

i second mozart...i think

Since composing takes such intense concentration I doubt it. If anything, having ADD would not be in the composer's favor at all. This thread has no purpose.

I'm sure lots had mental disorders, but I agree with gms5287 that ADD would probably be very untypical. Writing good music when you can't focus, can't really organise a greater piece, and don't have much attention to detail seems unlikely.

Other disorders, sure. Schumann comes to mind first of course, but also many other composers suffered from depression or shizophrenia. And Stockhausen thought he was from Sirius. Crazy!

I've been composing music for several years now, and have ADHD. If I start to lose concentration, I'll either work on a new piece, or take a quick break. It's really not much of a hinderance.

Since composing takes such intense concentration I doubt it. If anything, having ADD would not be in the composer's favor at all. This thread has no purpose.

I disagree. A person with ADHD is fully capable of composing. I can speak from experience since I have ADHD myself and I don't think it's ever hindered my ability to write music. I've written about 70 pieces of music in the last year and I can safely say that about half of them don't completly suck. :P

In fact, I think a fair portion of our members here at YC "suffer" from Attention Deficit Disorder. Just looks at how popular some of the threads are in the off-topic forum.

But then again...I do have over 200 pieces of unfinished music that I've accumulated in the last year alone and I usually don't spend anymore than 10 hours on a particular piece.

ADD is just another way of saying 'they can't get down to work' or 'they refuse to do as they are told' and ADHD says something similar.

Then again, I have ADD myself.

ADD is just another way of saying 'they can't get down to work' or 'they refuse to do as they are told' and ADHD says something similar.

Then again, I have ADD myself.

I'm still tempted to put the marking "Tempo di comatose" on a slow movement, just to see YC's reactions.

Poulenc! I can't believe noone suggested Poulenc.

I'm not completely sure, but he's a good candidate. He jumps from idea to idea as if he wants to shake off something..It's like his legs are vigorously vibrating as he's composing. :toothygrin:

IN other words, Everybody likes people with ADD. My friend has ADD and he's a really good composer. He says ADD helps him be smart.

IN other words, Everybody likes people with ADD. My friend has ADD and he's a really good composer. He says ADD helps him be smart.

Huh, I agree with that, even the generalization that everyone likes people with ADD. I think there is some logical/ mathematic facility that has a symbiotic relationship with "ADD" - for some reason it seems as if lots of the mathematically inclined kids at my school possess it to some degree. Everybody likes people with ADD, because their lack of penetrating, holistic thought makes them innocent, as opposed to...

OCD Wagnerians - the people in which there is no logic. For some reason we are the most hated wherever we go and whatever we do. OCD can be a really unusual and hard condition to have, but I doubt there is any other pathology that opens the potential for illogical thought as a whole.

Though this has nothing to do with ADD, since someone did mentioned bi-polar, according to my psychology textbook, Handel was mildly bi-polar. That is why he was able to compose Messiah in two weeks. Usually someone who is in the maniac state of bi-polar tends to have more creativity than usual.

Well, seeings as most psychologists would diagnose about 99% of the population with ADD, I'm gonna go ahead and say yes, simply because of probability. There are one, maybe two people that have ever been born that didn't have ADD.

I think ADD, like any quote-unquote "disability", is something any professional could learn to deal with. I know of several very influential jazz artists who've overcome extreme obstacles - blindness, schizophrenia, osteogenesis imperfecta... If one is serious about making music, you'll develop around anything that might hold you back.

...

well, I'm completely crazy, does that count?

Most of us are, to some degree on another ;)