Desert Island with a Twist

[prémont]

Is a vocal arrangement of 4'33'' allowed?

[Florestan]

Is a vocal arrangement of 4'33'' allowed?

Yes. 

[Florestan]

Now that I think of it, it's much more difficult to name famous composers who wrote little, if any, vocal music than to name famous composers who wrote little, if any, instrumental music. In the former category only Corelli and Chopin come to my mind right now.

[Madiel]

Did Scriabin write any? I forget right now.

[Florestan]

Did Scriabin write any? I forget right now.

According to Wiki:

Romance in F-sharp major    voice & piano    1894 (1892–93?)    dedicated to Natalya Sekerina; published 1924

Keistut and Biruta    opera    c.1898    unfinished; completed from sketches by Alexander Nemtin c.1971 as an Oratorio for soprano, baritone, and orchestra, premiered c.1971, recorded c.1971 privately by Nemtin unreleased

Which means that he is indeed in the same group as Corelli and Chopin.

[vers la flamme]

I think some of his orchestral music includes wordless choral parts.

[Jo498]

Now that I think of it, it's much more difficult to name famous composers who wrote little, if any, vocal music than to name famous composers who wrote little, if any, instrumental music. In the former category only Corelli and Chopin come to my mind right now.

That's interesting. Maybe even more interesting is that I could think of many other composers where (most of) the vocal music seems to be perceived so secondary that even I (who knows they wrote vocal music) think of them overwhelmingly as composers of instrumental music, e.g. Liszt or Shostakovich. The point here is less the question whether "Christus" or "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" are great works or not but that they seem few and far between the large number of instrumental works of these two and other composers, that they are not important for my "mental image" of them and their work. It's almost but not quite like Donizetti's string quartets.

[Brian]

Mozart - Don/Zauber/Figaro/Cosi
Haydn - complete masses
Berlioz - Romeo, Faust, Te Deum, early mass, operas
Saint-Saëns - Samson et Dalila
Verdi - Falstaff
Fauré - Requiem
Mahler - Symphonies 2-4
Ravel - Daphnis et Chloe
Janacek - complete music for voices, including operas and masses
Nielsen - Symphony No. 3
Dvorak - Te Deum
Poulenc - Gloria
Shostakovich - Babi Yar
Nina Simone - complete catalogue

Plus, I've only heard like 10% of Schubert's songs. So I'd bring that complete set to have something new to explore.

[(poco) Sforzando]

I could survive very well. Tons of operas, Lieder, song cycles, masses, oratorios, madrigals, cantatas. Historically speaking, more vocal music has been composed over the centuries than purely instrumental. But would it be cheating if (for example) I brought along a recording of Fidelio that included the Leonore 3, or a Meistersinger that included its own overture? I assume Mahler 8 is no problem, but would Mahler 2 and/or 3 count, each having a relatively brief vocal or choral component? What about Beethoven's 9th or Mahler 4, or would I be restricted to the finale in each case? Could I make a vocal arrangement (ghastly as it sounds) of one of the Beethoven late quartets?

[Brian]

Could I make a vocal arrangement (ghastly as it sounds) of one of the Beethoven late quartets?

Surely the Swingle Singers have recorded the Grosse Fuge?

[San Antone]

At gun point, only vocal music allowed --- a capella, Lieder, melodies, art songs, oratorios, cantatas, operas whatever involving singing. Nothing whatsoever without singing allowed.

Would you survive, or just order "Fire!"?

CLASSICAL
Medieval/Renaissance - Machaut, Dufay, Josquin, Ockeghem, Palestrina
Madrigals - complete boxes by La Venexiana and La Compagnia del Madrigale
Lieder - complete boxes of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Schoeck, Faure, Poulenc, Ravel, Debussy, Ives
Orchestra song cycles - Mahler, Schoeck
Opera - complete Puccini, Verdi, Wagner, Pelleas et Melisande, Porgy & Bess
Sacred Choral - Poulenc, Duruflé, Mozart, Missa Solemnis

NON-CLASSICAL
Jazz - complete Ella Fitzgerald Songbooks, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Frank Sinatra Capital concept albums,
Blues - Robert Johnson, Blind Willie Johnson, Muddy Waters, Mississippi John Hurt
Folk/Country - Jimmie Rodgers, Carter Family, Bill Monroe, Bob Dylan, Hank Williams, Anthology of American Folk Music

I know I've leaving out stuff, but this is a list that off the top of my head.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Surely the Swingle Singers have recorded the Grosse Fuge?

If so, it's surely Grosse!

[Rosalba]

In no particular order - but just as it occurs to me - I would bring the following ten examples of vocal music.

1. Handel - The Messiah
2. Bizet - Carmen
3. Lully - Cadmus et Hermione
4. Gilbert & Sullivan - The Mikado
5. Vivaldi - Stabat Mater
6. Purcell - Dido and Aeneas
7. Lute Songs of John Dowland
8. Musica Reservata - To Entertain A King (Music for Henry VIII)
9. William Byrd, Mass for Three Voices
10. Songs of Barbara Strozzi

I should not repine at all if I had to put up only with vocal music. It was my earliest love.

[DaveF]

9. William Byrd, Mass for Three Voices

I am really interested to know why you would choose the 3-part Mass rather than the 4- or 5-part ones.  The rest of your list shows that you certainly know your way around vocal music (sorry if that sounds patronising - not at all meant to), but most Byrdians, including myself, would put one of the other 2 first in order of preference.

[DavidW]

It is kind of a funny scenario since most people in the world listen exclusively to vocal music!

For me yes easily... Bach, Mozart, Schubert.  With just those three, only vocal I would still be happy.

[Rosalba]

I am really interested to know why you would choose the 3-part Mass rather than the 4- or 5-part ones.  The rest of your list shows that you certainly know your way around vocal music (sorry if that sounds patronising - not at all meant to), but most Byrdians, including myself, would put one of the other 2 first in order of preference.

It's because of a certain simplicity, I suppose. I just know that when I was trying them out a while ago I started with the three-voice Mass and it blew me away.

[Autolycus]

In no especial order

Monteverdi Vespro della Beata Vergine
Dowland's Lute Music
Decent recording of the Eton Choir Book
Orfe's Camina Burana
Bizet's Carmen
Complete set of D'Oyly Carte Gilbert and Sullivan
Purcell Dido and Aeneas
Handel Coronation Odes

[vandermolen]

'FIRE' !!! 0:)

[Olias]

I'd add Dvorak's "Moravian Duets", Copland's "Old American Songs", and Bernstein's "Missa Brevis" into the mix.

[Symphonic Addict]

If I'm allowed to have tons of operas, masses, cantatas, Lieder, etc. from any composer, I'll have some good holidays for sure.

Some firm favorites:

Puccini: Turandot, La Bohème, La Rondine

Canteloube: Chants d'Auvergne

Beethoven: Missa Solemnis, Symphony No. 9, Choral Fantasy

Szymanowski: Stabat Mater and Litany for the Virgin Mary

Monteverdi: Vespro della Beata Virgine

Tallis: Spem un alium

Berlioz: Te Deum, Requiem, L'enfance du Christ

Janacek: Jenufa, From the House of the Dead, Kata Kabanova, The Little Cunning Vixen, Glagolitic Mass, Rikadla

Villa-Lobos: Floresta do Amazonas

Howells: Hymnus Paradisi

Vaughan Williams: Dona nobis pacem, Sancta Civitas, The Poisoned Kiss, A Sea Symphony

Verdi: Otello, Requiem

Tabakova: On the South Downs

Duruflé: Requiem

Stravinsky: Les noces, Oedipus Rex, Symphony of Psalms

Schmitt: Psaume XLVII

Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé

Schmidt: Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln

Haydn: The Creation

Handel: Messiah, Zadok the Priest

Langgaard: Antikrist, Fra dybet

Rachmaninov: The Bells

Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 2

Britten: War Requiem, Serenade for tenor, horn and strings

Respighi: Lauda per la natività del Signore, La Fiamma

Poulenc: Gloria, Stabat Mater

Wagner: The Ring, Parsifal, Tristan und Isolde

Strauss: Salome, Elektra, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Ariadne auf Naxos, Vier letzte Lieder

Mahler: Symphony No. 8

Zemlinsky: Lyrische Symphonie

Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana

Dvorak: Te Deum, Rusalka

Bruckner: Te Deum