# What composer/composers would you like to hang out with and why?



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Haydn, Mozart and Rossini for me.
Seem like fun, interesting guys.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Beethoven, John Adams, Mahler, and Webern. Would be cool to get those guys in the same room.


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

I would like to hang out with Bartók. I don't know why.


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

On the "New posts" page, this thread shows up truncated at "What composer/composers would you like to hang" and I was worried for a moment.

I'd like to hang out with Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, actually.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Brahms, Nono, Henze, and Feldman would be among my choices.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Mahler & Bruckner so that I could find out what they intended with their last works (10th & 9th symphonies respectively) and Sibelius to learn about his 8th.


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

Copland, Bernstein, Griffes


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## Guest (Feb 26, 2015)

Partch, Vivier, Feldman... folks like that.


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

Haydn, Bach, RVW.
For a moment, seeing the thread title shortened in "new posts", I thought you wanted to hang Haydn, Mozart and Rossini


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

I would like to be Liszt's wingman.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

In the forum listings, this thread is listed as "Which composers would you like to hang".
Some times listening to Phillip Glass makes me want to put the recording in a landfill,but I never considered actually attacking the Composer...


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Beethoven-so we can spend a delightful evening trading sarcastic witticisms, pithy and to the point.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

hpowders said:


> Beethoven-so we can spend a delightful evening trading sarcastic witticisms, pithy and to the point.


Beethoven can be very pithy. "What? What? What?"


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I would have encountered him pre-Heiligenstadt Testament, when he would have been in a better mood.


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## Dave Whitmore (Oct 3, 2014)

Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Brahms. Maybe Mozart as long as he doesn't go off on those fart gags he's apparently famous for enjoying.


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## Marilyn (Jan 26, 2013)

Mahler and Tchaikovsky


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Kopachris said:


> On the "New posts" page, this thread shows up truncated at "What composer/composers would you like to hang" and I was worried for a moment.


My first thought was Gesualdo.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I would love to hang out with the 18th century folks, wearing wigs, breeches, embroidery coats etc. Fashion was cool back then. Hang out with Bach family, the Mozarts, Haydn, Handel, Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Telemann, Rameau, Beethoven, whoever cares to come along. And some ladies too.


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

I'd quite like to hang out with Roxanna Panufnik. 
Because!


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## Piwikiwi (Apr 1, 2011)

Stravinsky, Milhaud, Lili Boulanger, Poulenc, Messiaen, Ravel, Debussy, Tailleferre.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Meeting your heros isn't always a good idea.


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## Gaspard de la Nuit (Oct 20, 2014)

I would hang out with John Williams, the film composer, because I doubt I could relate to people from other eras very well, and he's my favorite living composer. 

I actually kinda did once, we were both at the same Philadelphia Orchestra concert; it was an all-baroque/ classical concert ( strange that I was even there), and he waved to Charles Dutoit, who waved back.


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## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

Gluck: decency, dignity, gentility... his persistence on what he believes in... 

Sibelius: pure soul maturity, I would learn a lot of things from him, not only about the music, but life, man and nature...


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I'd like to meet Elgar just to tell him that he supported a crap football team.

But seriously...I would unhesitatingly choose Bernstein, because I could just sit in rapt silence while he talked enthusiastically and passionately about the music of Mahler, Copland etc. and then his own career and the great musicians he's worked with. 

And maybe Satie, as long as he promised me that he wouldn't get hammered on absinthe.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Alec Wilder, because he's not only one of my very favorite composers but he was also a wonderful person and especially in his last years he seemed so lonely and I'd like to say him how much his music has meant to me.

Giacinto Scelsi, because he seems such a mysterious and fascinating figure so it would be great to hear him talking about his inspirations and to see where's the truth about the orchestrations of Vieri Tosatti

Charles Ives and Sibelius, to ask them why they stopped composing their great music.

Liszt, especially to hear him play.

Jake Heggie, because he seems truly a funny guy.


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

John Cage - I'd like to ask what's his favorite 4'33'' joke.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

ArtMusic said:


> I would love to hang out with the 18th century folks, wearing wigs, breeches, embroidery coats etc. Fashion was cool back then. Hang out with Bach family, the Mozarts, Haydn, Handel, Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Telemann, Rameau, Beethoven, whoever cares to come along. And some ladies too.


That sounds fun, ArtMusic, but don't forget the Bohemian Viennese café scene of the fin de siècle.


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

Amy Beach, Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann


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## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

Vesteralen said:


> Amy Beach, Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann


And how about Cécile Chaminade?


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

Il_Penseroso said:


> And how about Cécile Chaminade?


She can come along to, if she brings Barbara Strozzi


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## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

Vesteralen said:


> She can come along to, if she brings Barbara Strozzi


Omg! :tiphat:


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

Well, last few posts aside....

I wasn't trying to derail the thread.

I have a lot of male composers whose music I enjoy, but I couldn't think of one of them that I really would like to spend any time with.

I would, though, find it fascinating to get some insights from some of these women on their experiences as composers in the environment they dealt with.


Make of it what you will.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I think the Darmstadt and IRCAM scenes of roughly the '50s to '70s would have been pretty cool to hobnob in.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

brotagonist said:


> I think the Darmstadt and IRCAM scenes of roughly the '50s to '70s would have been pretty cool to hobnob in.


I don't know if I'm right or wrong, but I can't help but think of it as a snake pit full of jealousies and vanity.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

I dunno.. despite the long faces he makes, I have the feeling Rachmaninoff was a very friendly and cool guy + he could teach me piano.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

norman bates said:


> I don't know if I'm right or wrong, but I can't help but think of it as a snake pit full of jealousies and vanity.


Was it really that bad? If it was, then I'd like to have been a fly on the wall heh heh...


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

I would love to do some more hiking in the Bavarian Alps in the company of Wagner. He had a great love for that place as far as I know, and who wouldn't?And we would have a lot of time to talk about music, myths, German history, poetry, human perception of beauty and other things.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

SiegendesLicht said:


> I would love to do some more hiking in the Bavarian Alps in the company of Wagner. He had a great love for that place as far as I know, and who wouldn't?And we would have a lot of time to talk about music, myths, German history, poetry, human perception of beauty and *other things*.


Some other things probably best to avoid, though.

Mahler and Schoenberg for me...fellow neurotics.


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## Gaspard de la Nuit (Oct 20, 2014)

Besides just choosing one individual, if I could meet any composer of titanic stature, I would ask them what their inspiration is. Then I would ask them to teach me 😃.


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## Bevo (Feb 22, 2015)

Well as much as I love Beethoven's music, I can't say I would want to hang out with him a lot, because he got fairly... angry and violent quite often. I would like to hang out with Brahms, but only because it's taken me a long time to develop an ear for his music and I would be curious to hear what his thought process was on his works. I'd also like to have a talk with Tchaikovsky, just hear his techniques in writing such luxurious and thought-provoking melodies. Just me though.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I would choose
Haydn, Schubert and Vaughan Williams
3 very different characters


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## Guest (Feb 26, 2015)

Sorabji. He sounds like a complex dude.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

SiegendesLicht said:


> I would love to do some more hiking in the Bavarian Alps in the company of Wagner. He had a great love for that place as far as I know, and who wouldn't?And we would have a lot of time to talk about music, myths, German history, poetry, human perception of beauty and other things.


Maybe you'd inspire him to write another opera.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Composers with a good sense of fun and recent enough so the cultural divide wouldn't be too great - Cage, Feldman and Ligeti


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

OldFashionedGirl said:


> I would like to hang out with Bartók. I don't know why.


How's your Hungarian language skills?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Aaron Copland because we both speak English and I could ask him if he and Leonard Bernstein were ever lovers.


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

hpowders said:


> How's your Hungarian language skills?


Bartok spoke English


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

hpowders said:


> Aaron Copland because we both speak English and I could ask him if he and Leonard Bernstein were ever lovers.


That would be great!!!


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

hpowders said:


> Aaron Copland because we both speak English and I could ask him if he and Leonard Bernstein were ever lovers.


They look like they would make a very sweet couple, if they were.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

violadude said:


> They look like they would make a very sweet couple, if they were.
> 
> View attachment 64982
> 
> ...


I'm sure they had something intense going on. I adore that bottom photo!!! May I use it for an avatar pic?


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

hpowders said:


> Aaron Copland because we both speak English and I could ask him if he and Leonard Bernstein were ever lovers.


You would as well, wouldn't you? :lol:


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

elgars ghost said:


> You would as well, wouldn't you? :lol:


I'm a hetero myself.

I would just like to be a fly on the wall some past Saturday night when they were both together by themselves.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

hpowders said:


> I'm sure they had something intense going on. I adore that bottom photo!!! May I use it for an avatar pic?


Sure, I don't have the rights to the picture, I just pulled it off google.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Dim7 said:


> Bartok spoke English


Yeah, but if you really wanted to get to know him, Hungarian would be the way to go.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

violadude said:


> Sure, I don't have the rights to the picture, I just pulled it off google.


Okay, good. I love that photo. Makes me sad too. 1990 was a very bad year for American classical music.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

I need to revise... now I want to hang out with Helen Grime and Steve Reich for some beers.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I'd like to hang out with Charles Ives because he would most likely give me a classical music lovers' discount off of a life insurance policy for my dog.


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## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

I don't think I'd like to hang out with any of my favorite composers. Like violadude said, not the best idea to meet your heroes. Rather, I'd want to be a time-traveling creeper and silently watch Beethoven play the piano in his room. Like a true stalker.


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

hpowders said:


> Yeah, but if you really wanted to get to know him, Hungarian would be the way to go.


I would learn Hungarian just to meet Bartók.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

OldFashionedGirl said:


> I would learn Hungarian just to meet Bartók.


Wow! Just remember if he plays a recording of Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, leave the light on!


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## Überstürzter Neumann (Jan 1, 2014)

Boccherini, Haydn and Dvorak seems to have been genuinely pleasant people.
Vienna by night in the company of Beethoven and Kuhlau must have been quite an experience.
Bruckner, just to get a first-hand impression on the man who wrote such remarkable works.
Eisler and Weill, on political considerations.


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## Frei aber froh (Feb 22, 2013)

I think it would be enjoyable and fascinating to witness Mahler and Shostakovich talking about music, philosophy, literature, and life in general. It might be a bit horrifying but also fascinating if Wagner participated. I also would want to talk about philosophy with Mahler and Wagner and attend one of Shostakovich's house concerts. And if I had the opportunity, I would definitely attend Schoenberg's composition class at UCLA. In the end, though, I don't think I would want to meet any of them for reasons already discussed.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

hpowders said:


> Aaron Copland because we both speak English and I could ask him if he and Leonard Bernstein were ever lovers.


Bernstein slept his way into the business. He started with the traditional Greek man/boy relationship getting it on with Mitropoulos.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Vincent Persichetti to ask him how the heck he composed his 12th piano sonata, the "mirror" sonata. Incredible feat!


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## Guest (Mar 3, 2015)

Kopachris said:


> On the "New posts" page, this thread shows up truncated at "What composer/composers would you like to hang" and I was worried for a moment.


Yeah, I thought it seemed a tad intolerant.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

dogen said:


> Yeah, I thought it seemed a tad intolerant.


I bet there still would have been some suggestions, though...


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I would like to hang out with Aaron Copland to ask him why Leonard Bernstein was a more convincing conductor of the former's music.


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

Schubert. We'd hit our favourite beer hall. Use the composer's fame to meet women...and casually mention that Franz has syphillis.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

William Schuman to find out how a kid who had no exposure to classical music until rather late, made a complete transformation and become one of America's greatest 20th century symphonists.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Can I meet Schnittke? I want my hairdo looking like his.


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

Wagner. I'd ask him,
........"What inspired you to come up with that interesting little chord progression at the beginning of _Tristan_?"


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Surprisingly I wouldn't want to hang around Morton Feldman. I heard he tripped over one of his students as a malicious prank. Great music, not necessarily a great friend.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Pierre Boulez because we share a birthday and I can compare Aries characteristics with him.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

albertfallickwang said:


> Surprisingly I wouldn't want to hang around Morton Feldman. I heard he tripped over one of his students as a malicious prank. Great music, not necessarily a great friend.


Perhaps it's because he wouldn't give him a cigarette.


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## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

Brahms was another practical joker, I found this in a book I'm currently reading:

"Gustav Nottebohm, a German academic who did the first serious work on Beethoven's sketchbook. (Johannes Brahms, a longtime friend, once pranked Nottebohm by fashioning a fake Beethoven sketch and then bribing Nottebohm's favorite grocer to wrap up the scholar's cheese and sausage in it)"

- Matthew Guerrieri, _The First Four Notes: Beethoven's Fifth and the Human Imagination_ (pg. 17)

:lol: :lol:


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

D Scarlatti, to ask him if he seriously expected anyone to either learn to play or listen to over 500 of his keyboard sonatas.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

hpowders said:


> D Scarlatti, to ask him if he seriously expected anyone to either learn to play or listen to over 500 of his keyboard sonatas.


Probably not. The idea of composing for posterity didn't occur to anyone until the 19th century.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

I would like to hang out with septimaltritone and musicrom... his compositions could be pretty awesome .


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