The Resume

(June 24, 1901-September 3, 1974)
Born in Oakland, California
Composer and instrument creator
Compositions include 'Barstow,' 'US Highball,' 'Revelation in the Courthouse Park,' 'Delusion of the Fury,' 'Daphne of the Dunes' and 'And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell on Petaluma'
Instruments that he built include the monophone, the diamond marimba, the mazda marimba, cloud chamber bowls, cone gongs, the gourd tree and the zymo-xyl
Wrote 'Genesis of a Music' (1949)

Why he might be annoying:

He rode the rails as a hobo.
He threw out the twelve-tone scale, good enough for everyone from Bach to Gershwin, in favor of his own 43-note octave.
He called the traditional scale 'a wholly irrational, oppressive lid on musical expression.'
His 'The Bewitched' called for the musicians to play basketball during the performance.
He was John Cage's main competition for the tile of America's most eccentric composer.
His music is rarely performed, if only because few orchestras have a quadrangularis reversum lying around.

Why he might not be annoying:

His 43-tone scale was intended to reflect the musicality of speech.
William Butler Yeats was enthusiastic about his plans to compose an opera using the 43-tone scale based on Yeats' translation of 'Oedipus the King.'
He founded his own record label, Gate 5, to release his music.
The National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress selected 'US Highball' as a work of 'cultural, historical or aesthetic significance.' (2004)
Beck wrote a tribute song about him using his 43-tone scale.
He said, 'The extent to which an individual can resist being blindly led by tradition is a good measure of his vitality.'

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• Allegedly Gay Men
• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 40]
• Celebrities Born on the Same Date [June] (Ranked: 6241901)
• Guggenheim Fellowship Grant Recipients
• I Died in 1974 (Ranked: 73)
• I Was Homeless
• I'm Remembered in a Tribute Song
• Look at My Album Cover
• Opera Singers and Composers
• People who Have Similar Names on Am I Annoying (Ranked: 582)
• People with Tom, Dick or Harry in their Names
• Profiles 32251-32500 (Ranked: 32388)

Year In Review:

In 2023, Out of 96 Votes: 51.04% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 58.33% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 8 Votes: 62.50% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 60 Votes: 61.67% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 14 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 22 Votes: 72.73% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 7 Votes: 85.71% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 27 Votes: 81.48% Annoying
In 2014, Out of 35 Votes: 68.57% Annoying
In 2013, Out of 20 Votes: 65.00% Annoying
In 2012, Out of 105 Votes: 72.38% Annoying