# If you could meet one famous composer in history, who would it be and why?



## mahlernerd (Jan 19, 2020)

I would probably pick Beethoven. I know it’s generic, but I would like to see what he actually looked like, considering there are no photos of him, what his personality was like, and most importantly, what exactly his method was for composing music while he was deaf. Being able to experience that would be quite incredible.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Mahler. xxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

Hildegard von Bingen


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## Aurelian (Sep 9, 2011)

More than one! I would want to play for him music written after his time. For example, what would Bach think of Mozart's last 2 symphonies, or what would Mozart's reaction be to the Eroica... you get the point.


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## level82rat (Jun 20, 2019)

I would meet JS and give him one theme after another to see him improvise fugues.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Rachmaninoff. Among other things I would like to encourage him to go back and somehow get the rights to complete the opera Monna Vanna. It's a great story. I don't think anyone else has done it. And it would give him a 4th opera. I'd also like to ask his comments on the current state of affairs here in the U.S.A.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Philip Glass

..........


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Bernstein. I'd buy him two packs of cigarettes and two bottles of wine and sit back and listen to him expound on various subjects.


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## Gallus (Feb 8, 2018)

Haydn. By all accounts a great bloke with a sense of humour, and not only one of my favourite composers who I'd love chatting to about the quartets etc., but also what it was like playing with Mozart and tutoring Beethoven. Would be very cool.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

starthrower said:


> Bernstein. I'd buy him two packs of cigarettes and two bottles of wine and sit back and listen to him expound on various subjects.


That'd work well with Wagner too, but maybe it was cigars in Wagner's case?


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Aurelian said:


> More than one! I would want to play for him music written after his time. For example, what would Bach think of Mozart's last 2 symphonies, or what would Mozart's reaction be to the Eroica... you get the point.


What would Bach think of *Switched On Bach*? Or Glenn Gould's *WTC*?

Or *this*?


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Scriabin - strange man, one of a kind.


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## Plague (Apr 4, 2020)

I'd travel back to 1820s to meet Schubert, and bring him some Penicillin.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Johnny Cage. At least he spoke in English sometimes.


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Beethoven. He's my idol, and I would like to know how he really was.


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## Littlephrase (Nov 28, 2018)

Johannes Brahms


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I would want to visit Rameau. who said (from memory): "I am told I have insufficiently studied the works of the old masters. But why should I? They never studied mine."

Now _there's_ a guy who could be enjoyable company!


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## thejewk (Sep 13, 2020)

I would have liked to have had a cup of tea with Ligeti.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Rossini, have a nice meal and talk about his works.


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## Eclectic Al (Apr 23, 2020)

None to talk to - as I don't really want to know what they thought about anything.
However, I would like to hear Brahms (say) play his own music.

The exception to the above would be if I was a psychiatrist and thought I could treat alcoholism and clear a creative block. Then I would like to treat Sibelius.


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## Aurelian (Sep 9, 2011)

Shostakovich. If he could talk freely, he would be exceptionally interesting.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Between these: Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, or Duke Ellington


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

JS Bach for a few beers and the occasional drunken yet improvised a4 from him.


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## Fredrikalansson (Jan 29, 2019)

Hector Berlioz: incredibly intelligent, wildly creative, extravagant sense of humour, and probably one of the most literate composers in history. How could it not be fun and enlightening.


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

JS Bach, and ask him for the whereabouts of his lost works.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

Eclectic Al said:


> I would like to hear Brahms (say) play his own music.


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

Allerius said:


> Beethoven. He's my idol, and I would like to know how he really was.


This is probably the closest you can get to knowing how Beethoven really was.


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

I second Starthrower - Bernstein would be my choice as well.


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## Eclectic Al (Apr 23, 2020)

Fabulin said:


>


Wow. Don't let some people on TC hear this. They'll insist that the original wax cylinder sounds great, and it's only people focused on superficial matters of recording quality who would have any problems with it.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I think I'd like to carefully approach Prokofiev and see and hear for myself that constantly whirring musical and disputatious mind in action. He would have plenty of salty opinions on his contemporaries (and anybody else) and it would be interesting to get his views on subjects for which we have no testimony from him at all; I especially would like his take on, say Bela Bartok. Also to speculate on how such a gritty and often cantankerous personality could craft sometimes such ravishing music.


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## VitellioScarpia (Aug 27, 2017)

I would love to meet Beethoven around 1822 and have a traversal through all the sonatas with special stops on the Opus 110 and 111. One can only dream...


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## chu42 (Aug 14, 2018)

Vladimir Horowitz said:



> If I go to heaven, and if Schumann is there too, I hope we can become good friends. I love him. He touches me deeply, and he is always creative.


Just thought it was a cute thing to add!


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## Anankasmo (Jun 23, 2017)

Saint-Saens

I would try to get him to stop composing operas and focus even more on instrumental music. I need those missing two woodwind sonatas.


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## Ulfilas (Mar 5, 2020)

Mozart! I'd take him to hear Meistersinger. Imagine that.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Ulfilas said:


> Mozart! I'd take him to hear Meistersinger. Imagine that.


I certainly want to spend the five hours talking to him rather than listening to that


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

chu42 said:


> Vladimir Horowitz said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


If I go to heaven, and if Schumann is there too, I'll just hope that he doesn't have mental illness.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

John Cage. Talking to that guy about anything would be fascinating.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Arnold Bax or Samuel Barber. For their informed insight on their contemporaries and sparkling wit.
Ethel Smyth. Just because.


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