# Someone ELSE is getting sent to a desert island, and you get to pick their music



## Clairvoyance Enough (Jul 25, 2014)

You are given a list of all their favorite music and it is sizable though perhaps not quite enough for a lifetime (I understand that is subjective), but none of it is classical.

You are given two options. Send them the complete works of three composers, or send them all of their favorite music.

What would you pick?

Would it affect your decision if they were only going to be on the island for a finite amount of time, say 5, maybe 10 years? What if you had the option to send half of their music and the complete works of only _one_ composer? And not to be "that guy," but if you saw that their musical tastes were a bit unsophisticated, would that affect your choice? Would you make the same decision for a person whose list was full of, say, jazz or movie scores, and a person whose list was just whatever pop music they heard growing up? What if their list of music was just short in general? Basically is there any slight change that would make this question harder, for those of you who found it easy to answer?


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

I'll let them have whatever they want. I don't want to make anyone else's stay on a desert island more miserable than it already is, and forcing them to listen to, say, Bach or Mahler isn't the best way for them to discover those works.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I'd definitely give them the music they like, in the hopes that when my turn for exile came, they wouldn't fill up my iPod with the complete recordings of the South Jersey Accordion Band.


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## Clairvoyance Enough (Jul 25, 2014)

My final question was actually going to be how bad of a person am I for thinking I would probably force my musical taste down this poor person's throat, especially if I was told that they would be forced to listen to the music.

Maybe I should amend my position before I reveal these feelings in public...


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Whatever music the Jews listened to when they wandered in the desert for forty years.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I was thinking of giving them the complete works of Schoenberg, Webern and Berg :devil: You didn't indicate whether there would be a CD player or other playback device on the island :tiphat:


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

If I like ya', my agreeable taste. If I don't like ya', my disagreeable taste. If I love ya', my secret stash.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

My question is, do I like this person or not? I might send him off with a boatload of Celine Dion and Rod Stewart.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Clairvoyance Enough said:


> You are given a list of all their favorite music and it is sizable though perhaps not quite enough for a lifetime (I understand that is subjective), but none of it is classical.
> 
> You are given two options. Send them the complete works of three composers, or send them all of their favorite music.
> 
> ...


I'd give them whatever they wanted... at least that would make them temporarily a bit happy until they arrived on that desert island and realized the only power source was a fire they might be able to build from found wood -- if they were clever enough to start that fire.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Rephrasing the question:

You have the opportunity to give pleasure to a stranger, or to potentially cause that person unhappiness; what do you do?


Sometimes this place disturbs me.


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## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

I am not a mean-spirited person at heart: I would prepare the finest works and performances of their favourite composers to send them, along with a few of my own (to improve their musical taste). If I were mean-spirited I would send them the complete works of Justin Bieber, Ace of Base, and Type O Negative, along with the laserdisc version of Wagner's Ring (the Chéreau Ring).


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## stevens (Jun 23, 2014)

If they were sent to a desert island as a acceptable penalty for a awful crime I would suggest metal rock if the perpetrator loved classical music or hiphop and vise versa (does an average criminal love classical music??..hm). Modern jazz could be a suitable penalty for all tastes (or tyroler-music).


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I'm not a sadist, so I would never subject a deserted individual to endure my tastes. But a friend of mine recently asked me to recommend some modern music, so I put together a compilation. He likes dark stuff, but I decided to go with some variety, since he knows very little of the modern repertoire.

Penderecki-Polymorphia
Alban Berg-Marsch from 3 orchestral pieces
Ives-Central Park In The Dark
Xenakis-Metastaseis
Messiaen-Offrande Au Saint Sacrament for organ
Ravel-Prelude to Le Tombeau de Couperin for piano
Debussy-Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Faun
Hindemith- 3rd movt from Kammermusik No.7 
Schoenberg-pt 1 of Five Orchestral Pieces
Schoenberg-A Survivor From Warsaw
Honegger-3rd movt from symphony No.4

I also bought him a couple of CDs by Varese and Lutoslawski, since he is having me over for the weekend. I hope his wife doesn't mind the Xenakis and Penderecki, heh, heh! Of course I would never forget Ligeti, but he already bought the Teldec set on my recommendation.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring Suite, Leonard Bernstein, NY Philharmonic
Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring Suite, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Charles Ives Concord Piano Sonata, Easley Blackwood
W.A. Mozart Keyboard Concertos, Malcolm Bilson, fortepiano, John Eliot Gardiner
Beethoven, Keyboard Sonatas, Ronald Brautigam, fortepiano
Beethoven Keyboard Sonatas, Annie Fischer, piano
Beethoven Triple Concerto, Rudolph Serkin, Leslie Parnas, Jaime Laredo, Marlboro Orchestra, Alexander Schneider
J.S. Bach Unaccompanied Partitas and Sonatas for Violin, Nathan Milstein
J.S. Bach Keyboard Partitas, Trevor Pinnock, harpsichord


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

KenOC said:


> I'd definitely give them the music they like, in the hopes that when my turn for exile came, they wouldn't fill up my iPod with the complete recordings of the South Jersey Accordion Band.


I'm from South Jersey. I can share your concern.


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## stevens (Jun 23, 2014)

hpowders said:


> Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring Suite, Leonard Bernstein, NY Philharmonic
> Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring Suite, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
> Charles Ives Concord Piano Sonata, Easley Blackwood
> W.A. Mozart Keyboard Concertos, Malcolm Bilson, fortepiano, John Eliot Gardiner
> ...


-Is this conceived as a punishment or a charity?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

stevens said:


> -Is this conceived as a punishment or a charity?


Why do you say that? Everything there is great music, magnificently performed.

What were you expecting, the Beatles?


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

Clairvoyance Enough said:


> My final question was actually going to be how bad of a person am I for thinking *I would probably force my musical taste down this poor person's throat*, especially if I was told that they would be forced to listen to the music.


What on earth would be the point of that? 

Do you really think I would listen to the music of the Wombles (or .... insert your chosen music of the devil) if that was the only thing I had on a desert island?

Well, I wouldn't!


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

stevens said:


> -Is this conceived as a punishment or a charity?


I would take it as neither of those - it is the carefully selected offering of a savant


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I find it disturbing that there are people who think their personal taste is so much better than anyone else's that they would actually do this.


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## echmain (Jan 18, 2013)

Lope de Aguirre said:


> Whatever music the Jews listened to when they wandered in the desert for forty years.


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## stevens (Jun 23, 2014)

hpowders said:


> Why do you say that? Everything there is great music, magnificently performed.
> 
> What were you expecting, the Beatles?


Yes I agree! But we are in minority.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

stevens said:


> Yes I agree! But we are in minority.


I'm assuming this person is deeply in love with classical music. I'm also assuming that "other person" will be stuck on that desert island for a long, long, long time and that he/she has a portable CD player with lots and lots of batteries!


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