# What classical music would you take if you had a couple hours to kill on the road?



## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

What would you listen to in a car for a couple hours?


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Riley, _Salome Dances for Peace_.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Mozart piano concerti


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## KRoad (Jun 1, 2012)

What classical music would you take if you had a couple hours to kill on the road? I don't take any because I don't want to get killed! I find music so absorbing that my attention wanders way off the road and driving. Not good for me or others!


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Bruckner. He's great for road trips in Tennessee. 

Once I was listening to one of his magnificent cadences just as I crested a hill, and suddenly there was a great vista ahead of the Tennessee valley, rock cliffs on either side with waterfalls running down. It turned a drive into an experience.


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## DmitriShostabrovich (Jun 17, 2012)

I actually made a playlist last year specifically for this purpose. I used it during a 6-hour drive up to Tennessee. It consisted of music by Dvorak, Grainger, Holst, Mussorgsky, Respighi, Saint-Saens, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, and Verdi. Of course, that was a year ago, and I've added much more music to my library/expanded my tastes since then.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

I regularly have a couple of hours to kill on the road. I generally just go through my collection picking out whatever sounds good at the time.


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## Toddlertoddy (Sep 17, 2011)

The Rite, Petrushka, Firebird, Pulcinella

Two hours filled.


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

KRoad said:


> What classical music would you take if you had a couple hours to kill on the road? I don't take any because I don't want to get killed! I find music so absorbing that my attention wanders way off the road and driving. Not good for me or others!


I used to work with a young woman in her late teens who would absolutely NEVER listen to the radio while she was driving. I remember thinking "how amazingly responsible!"

I, on the other hand, do nothing but listen while driving - teaching CDs, music both classical and non-. Like Klavierspieler, whatever is currently on my playlist. I do have to say that 20th century symphonic music, particularly late 20th century, is usually my favorite in the car.


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## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

Well I won't be driving just riding .


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Stravinsky ~ Les Noces


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## Turangalîla (Jan 29, 2012)

Operas! I don't listen to them much at home (too time-consuming), but in the car I wouldn't be wasting any time.

(Except, I can't drive yet, and my mom—whom I normally travel with—absolutely loathes anything but rock and pop, so I actually wouldn't get to listen to any opera )


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

CarterJohnsonPiano said:


> (Except, I can't drive yet, and my mom-whom I normally travel with-absolutely loathes anything but rock and pop, so I actually wouldn't get to listen to any opera )


That struck me as funny. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?

I fear less for the future with young people like you around!


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## Turangalîla (Jan 29, 2012)

Manxfeeder said:


> That struck me as funny. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?
> 
> I fear less for the future with young people like you around!


Yes, our family is very backwards. The only classical music my parents can stomach is Chopin (and that is only because of the movie _The Pianist_.)


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I would pick pretty much whatever I felt like except for one unfortunate phenomenon. In urban driving, car and road sounds are relatively low, but on the highway those sounds are loud enough that they interfere with hearing soft passages. I could turn the volume up, but them loud passages are unpleasant. So I'm happiest with classical music that has relatively little dynamic range. I find Baroque music is easiest to hear for that reason and tend to bring more Baroque. 

In another thread I asked about the volume variation for works heard on the radio. My understanding is that those works have less dynamic range and are easier to hear in the car. I suppose I could save up to spend a ridiculous amount on a quiet vehicle, but that seems a bit much.


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## lou (Sep 7, 2011)

mmsbls said:


> I would pick pretty much whatever I felt like except for one unfortunate phenomenon. In urban driving, car and road sounds are relatively low, but on the highway those sounds are loud enough that they interfere with hearing soft passages. I could turn the volume up, but them loud passages are unpleasant.


For this very reason I typically don't listen to classical music in the car, at all. Recently I've taken to listening to audiobooks exclusively.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

CarterJohnsonPiano said:


> (Except, I can't drive yet, and my mom-whom I normally travel with-absolutely loathes anything but rock and pop, so I actually wouldn't get to listen to any opera )


Another whippersnapper? Yay!


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## Turangalîla (Jan 29, 2012)

Klavierspieler said:


> Another whippersnapper? Yay!


Hooray for whippersnappers like us! Yay! :clap:


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

CarterJohnsonPiano said:


> Hooray for whippersnappers like us! Yay! :clap:


I'm younger than you.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

For short trips I would probably take some music by the legendary Michael Nyman. Listened to his music in the car before and it seemed to work quite well. For long trips, longer than an hour but less than three, I would listen to some *Ligeti. *For trips longer than three hours but less than eight I would bring along some Wagner and for trips longer than eight hours I would probably bring all of the above.


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

I may listen to Haydn, Dvorak, Beethoven, Mussorgsky, Saint-Saens, Brahms etc. in the car. And my Mom & Pa don't have much problem with that ... I'm clever enough to play the loveliest pieces in the car anyway 

@ComposerOfAvantGarde 
Are you actually younger than me (24 here)?! lol


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Arsakes said:


> I may listen to Haydn, Dvorak, Beethoven, Mussorgsky, Saint-Saens, Brahms etc. in the car. And my Mom & Pa don't have much problem with that ... I'm clever enough to play the loveliest pieces in the car anyway
> 
> @ComposerOfAvantGarde
> Are you actually younger than me (24 here)?! lol


Lots of people here are younger than you.  Large TC population between ages 14 and 23.


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

I have quite a few CDs that I like to use when travelling. They are often the compilation variety, usually CDs I wouldn't cry (much) about if they were stolen or lost en route. There are also the ones where there is a variety of composers sung or played by a specific performer. As I store my CDs alphabetically according to composer these get relegated to the shelf with the compilation CDs.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

I'm contemplating this right now, as I have a 2.5 hour drive each way on Monday. I'll probably split it up with classical and non classical. I'm thinking for the morning drive Ravel's Daphne et Chloe or Prokoviev's Romeo and Juliet. For the ride home either Mahler's 2nd with some of his lieder, or perhaps my second listen-through of his third. If I'm not in a Mahler mood (unlikely) I might pair Tchaikovsky's first symphony with Beethoven's first.


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## Turangalîla (Jan 29, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I'm younger than you.


I know, you're 14, a year younger than me (I stalk everyone). ut:


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## An Die Freude (Apr 23, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I'm younger than you.


I'm younger than you 

On topic, sometimes I listen to things like Beethoven's Ninth or Third, operas etc., but most of the time I listen to what I feel like.


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## Tero (Jun 2, 2012)

If it's stop and go traffic and traffic lights, I do listen to classical. Typically 20 minutes or less, no Mahler!

In freeway traffic, I am so stressed I do not want fast tempi. I go between a CD and NPR.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Handel's Messiah, Mendelssohn's Elijah (sung in English), or Haydn's Creation (sung in English).


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Karlheinz Stockhausen: Invasion (Explosion mit Abschied)


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

I usually listen to podcasts in the car lately but NPR for classical, I like to try and guess the piece playing or if I don't know it try and name at least the composer, (which I'm surprisingly good at this). If I really had to kill 2 hours with 2 cds I would probably op for the well tempered clavier book 2, I don't know it by heart like the first.. or maybe st. John's passion thats around 2 hours...


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## Serge (Mar 25, 2010)

To "kill" a couple of hours? Well, Haydn of course. But then again, he got away with killing much more than just a couple of hours, I hear.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I would take nothing. I believe in paying 100% attention to my driving.


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

Klavierspieler said:


> I regularly have a couple of hours to kill on the road. I generally just go through my collection picking out whatever sounds good at the time.


yup, same here. Although one of the roads that I go on has a speed limit of 50mph but regularly has crawlers doing 38 mph on it. On that road, Maria Callas' anguish dissipates some of my own


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I second Haydn, particularly the SQs; Beethoven's, too. They are great when scattering dust on lonely gravel roads in the foothills and prairies. I find the dynamic range to be relatively constant, so they can be heard over the noise of the road.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

I'd take some Mahler or Bruckner, whom I rarely have the time to listen in one devoted chunk. Or my Strauss symphonic music or opera music boxed sets, I'm still working through those


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## Guest (Aug 3, 2014)

I would take my iPod, get on the road, and then pick from over 100 days of music stored on my current device. It seems unlikely I'd run out of music before running out of gas money.


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## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

This is an easy choice for me. I don't like listening to stuff that takes too much concentration when driving, especially since you can't hear the very soft parts anyway in the car.

The perfect driving music for me is Brahms' 21 Hungarian Dances.









It wouldn't fill up the entire two hours, so I'd supplement it with some Overtures.


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## Clairvoyance Enough (Jul 25, 2014)

I'd probably put on things I'd never heard before. I like to use opportunities like that, where the enjoyment of the music isn't my primary purpose, to find something new.


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