Can you discern a persons nature from the genre of classical music they like ?

[SKYIO]

Can you ?

Nature/personality/character/temperament etc
Even if its just a few similar traits its still a connection and so interests me.

[Todd]

No.

[Karl Henning]

No.

Agreed.

[Christo]

Agreed.

+1

[Florestan]

Absolutely not and I strongly doubt anyone can.

[Jo498]

Very often I cannot even tell what other classical music someone likes if I know some of his/her preferences. E.g. somewhat simplified: some people love opera, except Wagner, others love only Wagner as far as opera goes, other love all kinds of opera, so if one dis/likes "Tosca" it is impossible to predict if s/he loves or hates "Tristan".
Even more surprising are favorite books or non-classical music etc. Some people even like superhero comic books or japanese cartoons or whatever (things I would not touch with a ten foot long pole and I would usually not expect a friend of classical music to like).

[Mirror Image]

No, you can't. It would be impossible.

[mc ukrneal]

Why not? The question is very broad. Maybe there are some characteristics that are common to certain types of music. It may also depend just how specific you get, but it is an interesting question.

[bluemooze]

Why not? The question is very broad. Maybe there are some characteristics that are common to certain types of music. It may also depend just how specific you get, but it is an interesting question.

It's a high school level question; not fit for adult discussion.

[Ken B]

Watch any movie with a villain. The villain listens to classical music. The crueler he is the more string he likes string quartets.

[Karl Henning]

Watch any movie with a villain. The villain listens to classical music.

Waldo Lydecker!

[asin]B00008LDNZ[/asin]

Dr Stegman operates with Beethoven playing out of the OR loudspeakers!

[asin]B00000F3SB[/asin]

[Florestan]

Why not? The question is very broad. Maybe there are some characteristics that are common to certain types of music. It may also depend just how specific you get, but it is an interesting question.

If I told you that a guy played Schubert and Chopin at quite a profficient level, what would be your assessment of his character?.

[mc ukrneal]

Watch any movie with a villain. The villain listens to classical music. The crueler he is the more string he likes string quartets.

See! And isn't the villain usually far more interesting than the hero?!?!

[Ken B]

Why not? The question is very broad. Maybe there are some characteristics that are common to certain types of music. It may also depend just how specific you get, but it is an interesting question.

I am going to leap to Neal's defence here. I don't think it impossible that there can be connections between personality factors, especially as measured on some standardized tests, and tastes. Obviously if there were a strong and obvious correlation we would know it (and the La Mer fan club would probably all be arrested!!) but I for one can't discount some broad tendencies, as Neal observes about how specificity matters.

[mc ukrneal]

If I told you that a guy played Schubert and Chopin at quite a profficient level, what would be your assessment of his character?.

Depends - is he Romanian?

All I am saying is that there may be more there than a simple dismissal of the question. A lot of things in life seem random until you dig deeper. Some turn out to be random, others not. It doesn't seem unreasonable that there could be some commonalities. Or it could be a different type of response, for example, some sort of brain activity common to certain music. If the brain can react to colors, it can react to other things. Maybe this is too general, but still seems like this type of thing could be linked to one's character/nature/behavior/etc. That it could be doesn't mean it is, but neither does it mean we know it isn't.

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

Watch any movie with a villain. The villain listens to classical music. The crueler he is the more string he likes string quartets.

Strings attached, eh?  I thought the villain's preference was lieder - I'm thinking of several things actually, but notably an exciting Avengers episode (Avengers as in Steed and Mrs. Peel) from the 60s.

Seriously, there's a large body of literature on this and related topics.  See New Grove "Psychology of Music," for intro and bibliography and the interesting Wiki article : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_of_music_preference    The issues attendant on the topic are extraordinarily complex - among some of the researchers' findings is that, often, listeners' music preference is determined, or influenced, by how one wants to be perceived.   

I once had a Board member who, on discovering we shared a passion for classical music, asked me who my favorite composers were.  Ravel, Poulenc, Debussy...I ventured off the top o' my head..."Oh, dear! he exclaimed, "You're left o' center!"  His? (predictably?  : LvB and Wolfie. 

[mc ukrneal]

Strings attached, eh?  I thought the villain's preference was lieder - I'm thinking of several things actually, but notably an exciting Avengers episode (Avengers as in Steed and Mrs. Peel) from the 60s.

Seriously, there's a large body of literature on this and related topics.  See New Grove "Psychology of Music," for intro and bibliography and the interesting Wiki article : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_of_music_preference    The issues attendant on the topic are extraordinarily complex - among some of the researchers' findings is that, often, listeners' music preference is determined, or influenced, by how one wants to be perceived.   

I once had a Board member who, on discovering we shared a passion for classical music, asked me who my favorite composers were.  Ravel, Poulenc, Debussy...I ventured off the top o' my head..."Oh, dear! he exclaimed, "You're left o' center!"  His? (predictably?  : LvB and Wolfie. 

Huh, who knew! I guess the answer is yes after all. Thanks for the link!

[Todd]

Perhaps someone can answer this: How many of these studies relied and rely on small groups of college students or college age young people as test subjects in Western or at least wealthy nations? 

I randomly clicked "A Do Re Mi Encore" (83 undergraduates) and then "What Do Music Preferences Reveal About Personality?" (422 Germans between the ages of 21-26) and then "Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas; Gomà-i-Freixanet, Montserrat; Furnham, Adrian; Muro, Anna" (245 university students).  I see a predictable pattern in the test subjects and methodology.  Is there any scientific evidence that shows that comparatively privileged college students in wealthier areas constitute a representative sample of humanity?

[Jo498]

The point is hardly to get a representative sample from humanity. You need a sample exposed to a broad spectrum of musical genres and styles and this is much more likely with educated Westerners.

But I fully agree that the methodological problems are huge (and often not recognized by these authors.)

I have looked over some similar psychology papers a few years ago. I do not think they show very much. It starts with having "genres" informed by the music industry's label. So basically you have like a half dozen or a dozen genres from contemporary popular music and then you have "classical". "classical" usually includes Andrea Bocelli and similar stuff and sometimes also film scores. In any case "classical" would be one big blob and it would not be distinguished if one listens only to Baroque and detests Wagner or if someone listens only to Bach and Stockhausen. Even someone with one Bocelli and one "best of classics" or "Chopin for Candlelight Dinners" records would count as a classical listener in those studies. They might not be worthless for psychologists but they are basically worthless if one is interested in fine-grained preferences within a genre.

[Todd]

The point is hardly to get a representative sample from humanity. You need a sample exposed to a broad spectrum of musical genres and styles and this is much more likely with educated Westerners.

I raise the question because even in the Wikipedia link there is mention of one the observed relationships not holding in Malaysia.  I didn't dig deep, but I would guess that the students/subjects would be comprised mostly of comparatively elite Malaysians, with a smattering of other subjects.  Out of curiosity, assuming that studies in Eastern schools likewise rely excessively on students, how did you determine that university students in non-Western countries are far less likely to be exposed to a broad spectrum of styles and genres, including Western music?  I don't know about entrance requirements in Eastern universities.  Are they as lax as in the US, for instance?

Even in the context of Western countries, the studies are so structurally exclusive as to be of dubious value, at best.  And as you point out, there's the problem of determining what constitutes classical music.