# A different desert island question



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Haven’t done this for a while. You’re going to a desert island for five years. Not a bad place, good food, etc. But you can take only one iPod with a 12-hour capacity. Solar chargers are available, but you’ll be stuck with those 12 hours of music for five years.

Question: What big-name composer (no obscurities please) will NOT be represented on your iPod? Who will get chopped first?

One answer per post please, and only one post per day. I’ll be keeping score!


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Handel. Easy as can be.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

With only 12 hours, and a need to cover 1,000 years of music, I'd probably end up losing several of the "big names", but the most likely to face the chop is Brahms.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Benjamin Britten, I suppose, if he's big enough.


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## Guest (Jul 28, 2017)

Wagner .


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Mozart for sure


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

Mahler. He wouldn't even be considered for my short list.


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## helenora (Sep 13, 2015)

Animal the Drummer said:


> Mahler. He wouldn't even be considered for my short list.


surprisingly for myself I comply with you about Mahler.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Animal the Drummer said:


> Mahler. He wouldn't even be considered for my short list.


Mahler here also. I'm just not the audience for whom Mahler composed, and never have been. Sorry, Gustav, not your fault!


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Do I have to have an IPod? I much prefer the record player version. 12 hours equate to 15 LPs? 

I can definitely live without Mozart.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Mahler straight away


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## Tallisman (May 7, 2017)

Handel for me. If I want Baroque I'll go with a couple of hours of Bach's best. 

Sub-question: if you had to split your 12 hours between these three composers, how would they be represented in terms of hours?: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven. Beethoven 4/12, Mozart 3/12, Bach 5/12 would be my ratio I think


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Bach 10/12, Mozart 1/12 (Clarinet concerto, Piano concerto 20), Beethoven 1/12 (Sym 6, one of the late quartets).


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Haydn..........


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## Omicron9 (Oct 13, 2016)

Mozart, no question.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

It would have to be Elgar


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## Holden4th (Jul 14, 2017)

Anyone who writes what I call atonal crap.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Half Varese half Zappa 6 hour each


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Half Varese half Zappa 6 hour each


But you love Varese and Zappa, so that wouldn't work.....


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Varese, Xenakis would be high on my list.


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Pugg said:


> Varese, Xenakis would be high on my list.


How did I know that? 

:lol:


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

It's ok, I won't hold it against you


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## chesapeake bay (Aug 3, 2015)

I'd leave out Tchaikovsky


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

ST4 said:


> How did I know that?
> 
> :lol:





ST4 said:


> It's ok, I won't hold it against you


You can do multi quote, very easy .


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

ST4 said:


> But you love Varese and Zappa, so that wouldn't work.....


Hey yeah, you can tell I didn't read the question


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Schubert, of course!! So damn easy!!!

The last thing I need on Devil's Island is rhythmic tediousness!

That hot desert island? I'd rather have Sherbert than Schubert!!!


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Really it would be Beethoven (Bettina has him covered in something and I dont want to go there) and Elgar


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Chopped from our iPods so far:

Mahler - 4
Mozart - 3
Handel - 2
Beethoven - 1
Brahms - 1
Britten - 1
Elgar - 1
Haydn - 1
Schubert - 1
Tchaikovsky - 1
Wagner - 1


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Strange Magic said:


> Mahler here also. I'm just not the audience for whom Mahler composed, and never have been. Sorry, Gustav, not your fault!


Mahler for me too. I thought I would be the only one who excluded Mahler...I'm glad that I'm not alone! Mahlerian indifference loves company.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Really it would be Beethoven (Bettina has him covered in something and I dont want to go there) and Elgar


Will you take Beethoven if I promise to wash him off? :lol:


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Bach, I can do without Baroque, it's my least favorite era.


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## Omicron9 (Oct 13, 2016)

KenOC said:


> Chopped from our iPods so far:
> 
> Mahler - 4
> Mozart - 3
> ...


"That's some nice chopping, boys."


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Close call between Bach, Haydn or Beethoven. Let's go for Bach for the chop! Of course 12 hours of playing time means no Rheingold in my Ring Cycle! Aargh!


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Holden4th said:


> Anyone who writes what I call atonal crap.


A better more adult response would have been, for example, the Second Viennese School. Or maybe the Darmstadt School. Such a response most of us would have accepted.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I will gleefully omit Webern -- and his buddies too, but we're only allowed to name one each day!


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## silentio (Nov 10, 2014)

Liszt.

Though I will miss his Faust Symphony and Dante Sonata.


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## Tallisman (May 7, 2017)

hpowders said:


> *Schubert, of course!!* So damn easy!!!
> 
> The last thing I need on Devil's Island is rhythmic *tediousness*!


1) HOW?!

2) *tedium (?)


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## Tallisman (May 7, 2017)

Pugg said:


> Varese, Xenakis would be high on my list.


Something tells me that wasn't a gut-wrenching sacrifice


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Ifr I llo at my current iPod (I don't know how many hours of music) there are a lot of big name composers who didnt make my list.


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## Star (May 27, 2017)

I don't count the atonal lads as big names so for me Wagner would go. Plenty of good opera I could enjoy without him.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

MarkW said:


> Ifr I llo at my current iPod (I don't know how many hours of music) there are a lot of big name composers who didnt make my list.


The downside of the OP's question is that this holds for all of us. Twelve hours of music implies say 24 composers max (unless you really want to go for snippets). So dozens of big names to be left out anyway.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Tchaikovsky...............


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Probably Wagner simply due to his greatest works (Tristan and Isolde & The Ring) taking up too much/more than all of the space on that IPod. And I'm all about the complete experience -- not much of a highlights listener. Gotta cut somewhere


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## R3PL4Y (Jan 21, 2016)

Definitely Mozart


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Bettina said:


> Will you take Beethoven if I promise to wash him off? :lol:


I slightly used and washed out beethoven........ hmmmm does he dip dry........

Nah I'll pass


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## wolkaaa (Feb 12, 2017)

Probably Schubert.


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

Undoubtedly Beethoven because I'm so familiar with such a large proportion of his works already, I kind of have him playing on an 'internal iPod' anyway.

Stuck on a Desert Island away from all the things that stop me from listening to music I'd really want to give Brahms, with whom I have an uneasy relationship, a go.



KenOC said:


> I will gleefully omit Webern -- and his buddies too, but we're only allowed to name one each day!


No-one has an excuse to choose Webern. Excluding him would free up so little space!


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

Richard Wagner.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

With only 12 hours, I'd have to give up more than 1 major composer, but since I'm forced to name just one: Haydn. Haven't listened to anything by him for years and haven't really missed it.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

TurnaboutVox said:


> No-one has an excuse to choose Webern. Excluding him would free up so little space!


I will happily give up Webern if only to make room for two or three Beethoven closing cadences -- dominant, tonic, dominant, tonic, dominant, tonic, dominant, tonic, dominant, tonic, dominant, tonic...and so forth!


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

One post per day, right? Arrivederci Verdi.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

No room for Vivaldi on my ipod


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

I could last for 5 years with 12 hours of music of obscure composers.
Hell I could do 5 years with only non-classical music.
Or maybe, without music at all.  Living on the edge!


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Where we stand. I ain't gonna count no more.

Mahler - 4
Mozart - 4
Wagner - 4
Bach - 2
Beethoven - 2
Handel - 2
Haydn - 2
Schubert - 2
Tchaikovsky - 2
Brahms - 1
Britten - 1
Elgar - 1
Liszt - 1
Verdi - 1
Vivaldi - 1
Webern - 1


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

Bach would get blocked...out.


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## JAS (Mar 6, 2013)

KenOC said:


> 12 hours of music for five years.


I don't think that I would be at all happy with only the same 12 hours (roughly 12 CDs) for five years. Pretty much anything might become tedious in that context.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Too many choices....

First one to leap to mind is Handel. Don't need him, never have, wouldn't miss a single piece.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

This question is impossible for me to answer with just one choice, since I don't like much of anything composed before about 1910.

That would leave almost all the big name composers off of my 12 hours.


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## Oldhoosierdude (May 29, 2016)

I wouldn't take an ipod.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Bye bye Beethoven.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Olivier Messiaen gets the boot .


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## Timothy (Jul 19, 2017)

I refuse to answer, for any music is a blessing if I am trapped on an island about to die


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

I can do without Liszt.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Frederic Chopin


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## Guest (Jul 30, 2017)

Timothy said:


> I refuse to answer, for any music is a blessing if I am trapped on an island about to die


I don't think the OP mentioned death so you can afford to be choosy.


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## Timothy (Jul 19, 2017)

MacLeod said:


> I don't think the OP mentioned death so you can afford to be choosy.


If I am not about to die, then why bother picking? I will be back in my home with music I much prefer within hours/weeks/months


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

Mahler would be an easy choice for me.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Timothy said:


> If I am not about to die, then why bother picking? I will be back in my home with music I much prefer within hours/weeks/months


The situation (as I understand it) is that you'll be stuck on the island for five years, but you'll have no problem surviving because of running water and fruits and fish and stuff like that...it's not literally a desert, it's just a deserted island.


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

....wrong thread....


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## T Son of Ander (Aug 25, 2015)

Definitely no Brahms.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Tallisman said:


> Handel for me. If I want Baroque I'll go with a couple of hours of Bach's best.
> 
> Sub-question: if you had to split your 12 hours between these three composers, how would they be represented in terms of hours?: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven. Beethoven 4/12, Mozart 3/12, Bach 5/12 would be my ratio I think


For me, Beethoven 12/12, Mozart 0/12, Bach 0/12.

Definitely including Fidelio, Symphonies 3,5,6, and 9, Missa Solemnis, and Choral Fantasia.

But to answer the OP, it is going to be 12 hours of opera and there will definitely be some Handel.


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

I haven't wanted to listen to Liszt in years so I'm sure I can do without him for five.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Today Boulez gets the boot .


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Today Bach gets the foot


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Today classical music gets the boot


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Farewell Haydn...............


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

I love how Ken successfully created a bashing thread that pretends not to be a bashing thread :lol:


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Still counting I guess.

Mahler - 5
Bach - 4
Mozart - 4
Wagner - 4
Beethoven - 3
Handel - 3
Haydn - 3
Liszt - 3
Brahms - 2
Schubert - 2
Tchaikovsky - 2
Boulez - 1
Britten - 1
Chopin - 1
Elgar - 1
Messiaen - 1
Verdi - 1
Vivaldi - 1
Webern - 1

As Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau says, "I bash no one; I bash everyone!"


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

ST4 said:


> I love how Ken successfully created a bashing thread that pretends not to be a bashing thread :lol:


I don't think this is a bashing thread. Taken my own choices as examples, I kicked out two composers who are among my extended favourites (say 11-20 in a ranking), Beethoven and Haydn, because others would get my preference for a 12 hour compilation.


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

ST4 said:


> Mozart for sure


Well to be honest, even that Mozart isn't among any of my favorites (despite liking quite a few of his works), I would still prefer his music if I was trapped on an island vs nothing, even if it was that dreadful "Eine kleine Nachtmusik"


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Actually the best idea for a desert island is to take a composer's body of work that you've never heard before.

Therefore, I probably wouldn't take Xenakis, Stravinsky, Webern, Beethoven, Mahler, Bach, etc for that reason (this is not a vote, btw). Think about it, why would you listen to stuff you've already listened to millions of times before vs something that is new and unlistened to you?


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

ST4 said:


> Actually the best idea for a desert island is to take a composer's body of work that you've never heard before.
> 
> Therefore, I probably wouldn't take Xenakis, Stravinsky, Webern, Beethoven, Mahler, Bach, etc for that reason (this is not a vote, btw). Think about it, why would you listen to stuff you've already listened to millions of times before vs something that is new and unlistened to you?


How about your Verdi/ Puccini journey......


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Pugg said:


> How about your Verdi/ Puccini journey......


Yep, it's going pretty well. I've been getting to know Don Carlo and La Rondine quite a bit (alongside the renaissance music I am currently worshiping). Both quite good immersions in romantic opera (and both having very different aesthetics to Wagner, Berlioz etc), I'm enjoying it! :tiphat:


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## Guest (Jul 31, 2017)

ST4 said:


> Think about it, why would you listen to stuff you've already listened to millions of times before vs something that is new and unlistened to you?


Because you're in the mood for the familiar and not the unfamiliar?


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

Today's chop goes to Boulez.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Sofia Goebaidoelina flies out the window , like now.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

No more Bartok.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Bettinahoven gone today


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

The kid that plays piano down the street from me gets the boot today, I could do without that


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

No to Liszt today.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Wagner is gone today


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Wagner is here. Wagner is always here. And when you least expect it...


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Not on my Island he is not


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Say goodbye to uncle Bill today


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Glass gets my boot .


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## Fantod (Feb 10, 2014)

Has to be Mozart


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Liszt did not make the list either.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Liszt is on my Chopin' list for choppin'.

Liszt - 6
Mahler - 5
Wagner - 5
Bach - 4
Mozart - 4
Beethoven - 3
Handel - 3
Haydn - 3
Boulez - 2
Brahms - 2
Schubert - 2
Tchaikovsky - 2
Bartok - 1
Britten - 1
Chopin - 1
Elgar - 1
Glass - 1
Gubaidulina - 1
Messiaen - 1
Verdi - 1
Vivaldi - 1
Webern - 1


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

Mahler.

This is the first time I have seen so many people who confess to not liking Mahler. Where have you been my brothers? :devil:

Liszt - 6
Mahler - 6
Wagner - 5
Bach - 4
Mozart - 4
Beethoven - 3
Handel - 3
Haydn - 3
Boulez - 2
Brahms - 2
Schubert - 2
Tchaikovsky - 2
Bartok - 1
Britten - 1
Chopin - 1
Elgar - 1
Glass - 1
Gubaidulina - 1
Messiaen - 1
Verdi - 1
Vivaldi - 1
Webern - 1


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Fantod said:


> Has to be Mozart


Most intriguing first post I ever saw on this site, anyway, welcome to Talk Classical.


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## Tallisman (May 7, 2017)

KenOC said:


> Where we stand. I ain't gonna count no more.
> 
> *Mahler - 4*
> *Mozart - 4
> ...


Imbeciles.........


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Having previously ditched Handel, I now give the Black Spot to .... Verdi.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Good to see Cage has avoioded the chop


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Pugg said:


> Glass gets my boot .


Stone gets my boot today, Plastic tomorrow


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Good to see Cage has avoioded the chop


Till now that is, sorry, he's getting the boot .


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Pugg said:


> Till now that is, sorry, he's getting the boot .


Wagner deleted, glad you see it the same way


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Wagner is never deleted. He may pile up the points, but he is with us. He is always with us. The proverbial bad penny...


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Trees and greenhouse gasses get the boot today


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

And Wagner is gone as well. Another favourite who did not make the final cut.


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Men's skinny jeans get the boot today


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Olli Mustonen, gets the boot, good piano player so I say, stick to the day job.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

In what universe is Olli Mustonen a big-name composer?


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Puccini won't make it either. Not enough time on the iPod for opera.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Art Rock said:


> Puccini won't make it either. Not enough time on the iPod for opera.


That's because operas are too long. And, as Debussy says, there's always too much singing.

De Falla could fit a perfectly good opera onto one side of an LP. Why can't all the others do that?


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