This character, a Bard 8, Arcane Duelist 2 (WOTC web pages), Sublime Chord 1 (CAr), Seeker of Song 1 (CAr), Spellsinger 3 (RoF), will seem like a Min Maxed character to you.
Let me give you the story.
He is a fey'ri raised by an elven high mage who trained him to be a bard instead of following his sorcerous inclinations to try to channel his power to a cause which would be less distructive. While he was adventuring, he was taught sword play by a number of characters, which he learned to combine with his magic (hence the ArD). Discovering that he could use his magical talents in other ways, he became obsessed discovering more secrets. Thus he discoverd the way of the Sublime Chord (which I made several Spellcraft, Knowledge Arcana checks, and had to spend sessions RPing it out with various mages). Upon realizing the relation of music to magic, he began to search for the origins (annother quest which the DM created when I came up with the idea). He then discovered Primal Music and became a Seeker of the Song. Upon returning home, his "father" presented him with an anchient elven songbook. This taught him the secrets of combining music with more advanced arcana. He became a Spellsinger (which combined SbC and SoS effectively).

This "build" was created with coperation with the DM and while very optomized, it has a long and well developed story wich focused on RP. Would you consider this built around classes or optimization?