# If you had to be Locked Up with One Composer, who would it be?



## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

If you had to share a cell with one composer for 30 days who would it be and why? 

I'm thinking maybe Mendelssohn because he had such a deep appreciation for music. However, if one wants to exist in the presence of pure genius (on many levels) probably Wagner.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Difficult - I wouldn't want to share a cell with a male composer. How embarrassing - and anyway, most of the ones I like are not of good character: for example, Lully, who treated his first patroness with flagrant disrespect. 

I think I'd have to choose a safe married man who was religious - maybe William Byrd or else Biber. I do love their music too. Byrd then - there'd be no language barrier.

Of the available females, I'd choose Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, who seems to have been a nice person as well as a fab harpsichordist; though Barbara Strozzi might be more interesting!


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## Stavrogin (Apr 20, 2014)

Has Yuja Wang ever composed anything?


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## Admiral (Dec 27, 2014)

Mozart, because he always seemed to pick the right key


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Maybe Anton Webern. He had a deep understanding of music, reaching back to the Renaissance, through Romanticism, and into modernism. Maybe after 30 days locked up with him I'd finally have the skill to fulfill his dream to be able to sing his music in the streets with the children.


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

Manxfeeder said:


> Maybe Anton Webern. He had a deep understanding of music, reaching back to the Renaissance, through Romanticism, and into modernism. Maybe after 30 days locked up with him I'd finally have the skill to fulfill his dream to be able to sing his music in the streets with the children.


Webern would be an interesting choice. I would love to hear his views on modern music (or just music in general). Perhaps his philosophical position, regarding the ethos of music, would be more interesting than Schoenberg's.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

probably not Gesualdo.


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## ProudSquire (Nov 30, 2011)

Probably Chopin, and purely for my selfish desire to learn how to play the piano. It would be a 30 day challenge to try to absorb as much as I possibly can from the master! Then I can finally play His Berceuse in D flat major, or I would at least hope so! :lol:


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## Nevum (Nov 28, 2013)

Alma Mahler, of course.


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## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

Hildegard, because I could witness her practicing her art even if our jailers didn't provide any instruments.


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## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

Klassic said:


> Webern would be an interesting choice. I would love to hear his views on modern music


Foremost would be, I think, "Du meine Güte, that Pierre kid didn't get me at _all_."


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Well, the thread subject didn't specify classical composer so I pick Christina Perri who writes all of her own music including A Thousand Years (From Twilight Saga soundtrack) and Jar of Hearts:


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

John Cage came into my mind when I saw this. He would probably make me think even if he didn't talk.


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## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

DaveM said:


> Well, the thread subject didn't specify classical composer so I pick Christina Perri who writes all of her own music including A Thousand Years (From Twilight Saga soundtrack) and Jar of Hearts:


Bah - Christina Perri is _so_ not the hottest woman to write a song for the _Twilight_ movies.


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## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> He would probably make me think even if he didn't talk.


What you might not realize is that, while not talking to you for the entire 30 days, he was actually performing a new composition.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> John Cage came into my mind when I saw this. He would probably make me think even if he didn't talk.


It would be practically impossible for me to resist making a cage joke in that situation.


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## Sina (Aug 3, 2012)

John Cage. Caged with him, for me, sounds (ironically?) limitless and border-less.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I'd say Alexander Mosolov. He was a two-fisted kind of a guy, kicked out of the composer's union and later sent to the gulag for brawling. He could overcome the guards and we'd both escape!


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

J.S. Bach — We'd likely end up talking about faith.


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## Stirling (Nov 18, 2015)

Ludwig van Beethoven.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Henry Litolff managed to escape prison also.

But maybe I'll pick Reynaldo Hahn. He seems relatively attractive


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Peter Warlock, black magic will get us out of there


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## Iean (Nov 17, 2015)

J. S. Bach - So that he can sign his autograph on ALL my Bach CDs :angel:


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Stirling said:


> Ludwig van Beethoven.


Q: Ludwig, how did you write all that great music?
A: What? What? What?


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

They say Bartók was a nice fellow but who knows, boundaries change everything.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Goofy thread. I think some of ya'll been locked up too long already.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Clara Schumann


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Verdi, if only I could talk about his masterpieces like La Traviata and Don Carlo would take 30 days


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

Bartók!! Oh yeah!


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

Nevum said:


> Alma Mahler, of course.


...For a moment I thought it said "Alma Deutscher". And I was going to make a really awful joke about being caged up in the same cell as a serial murderer until I looked at your post again.


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

I'm gonna go with Alma Deutscher because I do want to be locked up in a cell with a serial murderer, by the way. I wanna know how she did it.


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## Oliver (Feb 14, 2012)

Bach, so I can tell him how much I love him.


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## Alydon (May 16, 2012)

Thirty days locked up is a long time so I've gone for Percy Grainger. By all accounts he was a vivid and highly skilled conversationalist on many subjects and if we got tired of musical talk Grainger would be capable of throwing one hell of a party - prison authorities permitting!


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

norman bates said:


> probably not Gesualdo.


I don't know - almost certainly he'd not be there for long ... and he might even get you a free pardon too with a bit of luck

From Wiki: "Some years into her marriage with Gesualdo, Donna Maria began an affair with Fabrizio Carafa, third Duke of Andria and seventh Count of Ruovo. In the night of October 16, 1590, at the Palazzo San Severo in Naples, the two lovers were caught in flagrante by Gesualdo, who killed them both on the spot.

The day after the killing, a delegation of Neapolitan officials inspected the room in Gesualdo's apartment where the killings had taken place, and interrogated witnesses. The delegation's report did not lack in gruesome details, including the mutilation of the corpses, and, according to the witnesses, Gesualdo going into the bedroom a second time "because he wasn't certain yet they were dead".

*The Gran Corte della Vicaria found Gesualdo had not committed a crime*."


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## The nose (Jan 14, 2014)

I want Salieri but not the historical Salieri, I want the Salieri from Amadeus to tell me the whole story


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## The nose (Jan 14, 2014)

Or maybe i'll ask Schönberg a class of harmony or an orchestration class to Berlioz.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Leonard Bernstein. So damn articulate and passionate about music and life. I would never get bored.


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## vampireslugger (Aug 5, 2015)

Ives probably, I'm sure he'd be an endlessly enjoyable character: alternately impassioned, shy, curmudgeonly, profound. Otherwise Verdi sounds like a nice, tolerable chap.

Flipping the question -- and as much as I love their music -- God forbid that I'd be stuck in a cage with Gesualdo, Wagner or Ruggles.


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## The nose (Jan 14, 2014)

vampireslugger said:


> Ives probably, I'm sure he'd be an endlessly enjoyable character: alternately impassioned, shy, curmudgeonly, profound. Otherwise Verdi sounds like a nice, tolerable chap.
> 
> Flipping the question -- and as much as I love their music -- God forbid that I'd be stuck in a cage with Gesualdo, Wagner or Ruggles.


I never thought of being alone with Gesualdo... Sounds like a Horror movie .


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## Harold in Columbia (Jan 10, 2016)

vampireslugger said:


> Flipping the question -- and as much as I love their music -- God forbid that I'd be stuck in a cage with Gesualdo, Wagner or Ruggles.


After five hours of listening to Carl tap out the same rhythmic figure on the bars over and over again:

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"I'm giving it the test of time!"


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

I don't know that much about music so I'd choose a composer who had a lot of knowledge about things outside of music - Wagner or Liszt.


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

Wagner Wagnerian


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## Ilarion (May 22, 2015)

My gosh,

This question is medieval torture for me - Why, because so many composers have enormously contributed to my *weltanschauung* - JSBach or Rachmaninov or Charles Tournemire...


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## Oliver (Feb 14, 2012)

Abraham Lincoln said:


> I'm gonna go with Alma Deutscher because I do want to be locked up in a cell with a serial murderer, by the way. I wanna know how she did it.


I don't get it.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

The great Johann Sebastian Bach, who was in fact locked up for one month. I could talk a lot about his musical aesthetics!


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## kartikeys (Mar 16, 2013)

probably Clara Schumann or another lady composer when they were single.


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

Oliver said:


> I don't get it.


Joke that she killed Boulez along with David Bowie and Alan Rickman because they all passed away in a short span of time after she got signed up with a classical music agency.


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## Polyphemus (Nov 2, 2011)

A question I abhor.

However to get in the spirit of the thing I would probably choose Haydn.

So this choice condemns me to no more Mahler, Bruckner, Bartok, Simpson, Pettersson (Whom I have really come to like), etc.

Mercifully it also means that all operas and oratorios will be consigned to the oblivion they deserve or the 9th circle of Hell and the name Callas would cease to be heard.

So why Uncle Joe you ask (if you have not moved on already). Simply put the volume and quality of his compositions (excluding the above mentioned genres). The Symphonies, Quartets, Sonatas etc etc.

Would I be happy though, probably not.

Have to hurry off I have an appointment with my psychiatrist.


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## Polyphemus (Nov 2, 2011)

hpowders said:


> Leonard Bernstein. So damn articulate and passionate about music and life. I would never get bored.


Gawd help us.

 :lol: :tiphat:


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## Ilarion (May 22, 2015)

Polyphemus said:


> A question I abhor.
> 
> However to get in the spirit of the thing I would probably choose Haydn.
> 
> ...


Hey, I met with my psychiatrist yesterday - He cried the whole time... 8vD


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Probably Vivaldi . . . so if I wound up strangling him it wouldn't affect me the least.


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

Myself? Does that count? 30 days is _long_ time... 
Really, I don't think I could spend 30 days locked up with anybody. Except Jesus or Mary. So, who knows, what if...

But, say it was 30 days living in the _vicinity_ of the _vicinity_ of a composer, I would (can you guess) pick Rachmaninoff. 
First of all, I have quite a few questions about the psychology behind most of the works that can't be answered by any existing resources. There seems to be a compelling, underlying aspect that some have described as "dark". Others have attributed it to his depression. To me, it sounds like something else. I would like to know exactly what it is...
Secondly, Rach wouldn't annoy me. Let's be honest - and I think I could say the same about Chopin. 
But make me spend a lot of time around someone like Wagner, a younger Liszt, Mozart... Then someone'd _really_ have to lock me up in a cell.


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

MarkW said:


> Probably Vivaldi . . . so if I wound up strangling him it wouldn't affect me the least.


What if he bested your attack and strangled you in self defense?


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

If I were to answer this thread it would be Phillip Glass or David Lang because they're still alive and there would be no language barrier. You all are morbid s.o.bs if you'd want to spend that much time with the remains of long dead composers...


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I think Bruckner might make an interesting cell mate. His biography strikes me as unusual and interesting.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

ArtMusic said:


> I think Bruckner might make an interesting cell mate. His biography strikes me as unusual and interesting.


He might drive you mad by counting all of the bricks in the walls.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Mahlerian said:


> He might drive you mad by counting all of the bricks in the walls.


Ha! You beat me to it.


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)




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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

Mahlerian said:


> He might drive you mad by counting all of the bricks in the walls.


Bruckner and I could have riveting discussions about how to deal with parts of bricks in the wall - are we going to round up or round down, for instance?


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Fugue Meister said:


> What if he bested your attack and strangled you in self defense?


Well, at least then I wouldn't have to listen to Vivaldi anymore.


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## Martyn Harper (Jan 27, 2016)

Scriabin - the conversation would certainly not be boring - though you would probably need counselling after.


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

Haydn, seeing as though he is my favourite composer. But Rimsky-Korsakov or Telemann would be great as well .


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## TwoPhotons (Feb 13, 2015)

Leonard Bernstein. Just an interesting guy to talk with about music and stuff.


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

Oliver said:


> Bach, so I can tell him how much I love him.


You're probably going to have to fight with Mendelssohn for that honor. ;P


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

JS Bach. I would never get bored.

That was easy!


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## Bruckner Anton (Mar 10, 2016)

Bach for me, no doubt.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

John Cage, he knows how to shut up and listen


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Verdi would be my choice, the man is a Genius .


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## jailhouse (Sep 2, 2016)

J.S. Bach. There's so much to ask him about that we don't know because records were lost and he didn't have that many letters. Gunna pretend he spoke english though


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

It also means which era would I like to live in with a composer and become locked togather for one month? I like 16th and 17th century music but would like to be living in middle 18th century so that I can peruse the accumulated works from all preceeding periods, so my choice is Telemann, JS Bach is not bad but it will be boring to name his name everytime.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

OP: The prettiest composer I could find.

The smaller the room, the better.


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## Friendlyneighbourhood (Oct 8, 2016)

Julian Scriabin


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Frank Zappa - *30 days* in San Ber'dino


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## Friendlyneighbourhood (Oct 8, 2016)

hpowders said:


> OP: The prettiest composer I could find.
> 
> The smaller the room, the better.


It'd be a bit gay to choose to be locked in a steamy, tight, small room with another dude. (unless you're into that)

Who is the sexiest woman composer? That would be my definitive choice :tiphat:


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Hrrrrrrrrr... after 30 days, not sure if any person would be able to resist _taking advantage _of the situation. Would have to be extremely high-integrity individuals...

Cuz in my imagined scenario, only one of us would be, and it wouldn't be _me_.   :tiphat:


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## James Mann (Sep 6, 2016)

My wife, because she's the musically educated one. :kiss:


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Still Verdi, talking about his love for voices and his masterpieces.


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

hpowders said:


> OP: The prettiest composer I could find.
> 
> The smaller the room, the better.


J. S. Bach was very beautiful.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Abraham Lincoln said:


> J. S. Bach was very beautiful.


Even more then Mendelssohn?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Abraham Lincoln said:


> J. S. Bach was very beautiful.


You have her phone number?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Friendlyneighbourhood said:


> It'd be a bit gay to choose to be locked in a steamy, tight, small room with another dude. (unless you're into that)
> 
> Who is the sexiest woman composer? That would be my definitive choice :tiphat:


Whose talking dudes?


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

It would be interesting, and challenging, to spend serious time with Prokofiev. First, he could--and certainly would--give me the Proko opinion on all his contemporaries while we played chess. Besides music, we'd discuss interesting engineering concepts and examples, his interest in math and statistics, and his dabbling in the Christian Science movement. And maybe I'd finally learn something about how his musical ideas come into his head and get transformed into finished works. As long as I kept my mouth shut.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Tchaikovsky. My favourite composer. He had an interesting life and his music is just beautiful!!


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## Genoveva (Nov 9, 2010)

Assuming I could take with me all the anti-biotics and vaccinations I might need, I would probably consider a short time being locked up with Monteverdi, provided the place was comfortable and the food was decent. 

He was quite affluent, was generally well liked and highly respected as a composer, led a decent life and entered the priesthood near the end of it. He also lived in a very nice part of the world, two of my favourite cities, Rome and Venice, so that would be an added attraction.

He lived in the transition period from the late Renaissance style of music to the early Baroque, and this was reflected in his own musical offerings. His was a brilliant composer, and wrote the kind of music that very much appeals to me. His Vespers is among the most beautiful music I have ever heard, and I really love many of his madrigals.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Wagner. I'd feel guilty if I punched any other composer!


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## Guest (Oct 22, 2016)

Genoveva said:


> Assuming I could take with me all the anti-biotics and vaccinations I might need, I would probably consider a short time being locked up with Monteverdi, provided the place was comfortable and the food was decent.
> 
> He was quite affluent, was generally well liked and highly respected as a composer, led a decent life and entered the priesthood near the end of it. He also lived in a very nice part of the world, two of my favourite cities, Rome and Venice, so that would be an added attraction.
> 
> He lived in the transition period from the late Renaissance style of music to the early Baroque, and this was reflected in his own musical offerings. His was a brilliant composer, and wrote the kind of music that very much appeals to me. His Vespers is among the most beautiful music I have ever heard, and I really love many of his madrigals.


His vespers are utterly beautiful,I can imagine ,you sitting next to Monteverdi at his table and friends.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Members are reminded of the terms of service:



> Members may not post/blog any messages or insert any images, nor insert URL links to any images or text that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-oriented, hateful, threatening, or otherwise in violation of any laws.


A number of rather crude posts have been deleted. Please concentrate on the music.


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## FDR (Oct 19, 2016)

The one who has the key or is a good locksmith so that we can get out of our confinement and then walk about and talk in the free.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

I choose Louis Moreau Gottschalk because he led a life of happy and vigorous dissipation, so would be a fund of good stories.


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## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

Bach.

Me: "Bach, in the future when technology has advanced and other brilliant musicians will have analyzed scores and scores of your work and performed them they way they saw fit, there will be this large group of people who will insist on only listening to your music played on instruments of your time with no variations what so ever. They will be known as "HIPsters." What do you think about their outlook on performance?

Bach: "Sounds like utter nonsense to me."

Me: "Thank you, I thought you'd feel that way."

[Content silence for the remaining 29 days, 23 hours, and 58 minutes].

V


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Stockhausen, just as long as I didn't get Stockholm syndrome or some other as yet unnamed syndrome.............


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## Mal (Jan 1, 2016)

There is a Stockhausen syndrome - a rare condition characterized by head malformations. :lol:


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## Friendlyneighbourhood (Oct 8, 2016)

Beethoven, because he'd kill me before I start to get bored


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## Friendlyneighbourhood (Oct 8, 2016)

Taggart said:


> Members are reminded of the terms of service:
> 
> A number of rather crude posts have been deleted. Please concentrate on the music.


The thread isn't about music though bro, it's about being locked up with a composer :lol:


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

Varick said:


> Bach.
> 
> Me: "Bach, in the future when technology has advanced and other brilliant musicians will have analyzed scores and scores of your work and performed them they way they saw fit, there will be this large group of people who will insist on only listening to your music played on instruments of your time with no variations what so ever. They will be known as "HIPsters." What do you think about their outlook on performance?
> 
> ...


No attempts at conversing with him on other things?

I'd ask him about daily life, for advice, and what he thinks of Mendelssohn.


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## R3PL4Y (Jan 21, 2016)

I would be locked up with Bruckner so that I could give him 30 days to finish the 9th symphony


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