Let's play a little game

[Wendell_E]

Berg needed more years, at least to finish Lulu.

Yeah, I'd give him the whole 20, and hope for a third and fourth opera as well.

[greg]

I don't know...Mahler is among my favourites but I don't want to give him any more years because he might come up with atonal stuff, following Webern and Schoenberg's footsteps. I like my Mahler tonal, please...  0:)

I've thought he would do something like that before, but no, he wouldn't have really gone all out as they did. Some composers have such a unique personality that they'd never do such a thing- Prokofiev, for example. He made his own style and even did the Russian premiere of the Schoenberg op.11 (first all-atonal work), but was never swayed to go into that direction.
Mahler wasn't either, when Schoenberg demonstrated his ideas, although Mahler encouraged him to do his own thing.

You haven't heard the 9th or 10th, have you? There's actually quite a few sections in both Adagios where he crams in all 12 tones in as short of a space as Schoenberg would've- the difference being that he uses standard major-minor-augmented-diminished but with constant appogiaturas and floating from one key to a distant one, to another distant one, etc. The effect is his own, exactly the thing that makes his music seem all at once profound, mystic, transcendent and heart-crushing, which makes his music my favorite and keeps it away from being corny (the use of so many notes and distant keys), although he does come close to being corny many times.

[mn dave]

Very few (if any) years given to Beethoven.

How f*cking strange.

[orbital]

If Scriabin had lived a few years longer, we wouldn't exist 

"Some time before his death he had planned a multi-media work to be performed in the Himalayas, that would bring about the armageddon"

[karlhenning]

Beethoven 10

Chopin 10

Considering how comparatively young Chopin died, it's odd you should yield him only as many as to Beethoven, mon vieux.

[mn dave]

Considering how comparatively young Chopin died, it's odd you should yield him only as many as to Beethoven, mon vieux.

He's lucky I gave him any. 

[marvinbrown]

He's lucky I gave him any. 

  Ouch! Chopin can be quite sublime (in a melancholic kind of way if you know what I mean).

  marvin 

[mn dave]

  Ouch! Chopin can be quite sublime (in a melancholic kind of way if you know what I mean).

  marvin 

Of course I know what you mean. I gave him 10 freakin' years! 

[Joe_Campbell]

Then how is he 'lucky' you gave him any?

[mn dave]

Then how is he 'lucky' you gave him any?

He's lucky I didn't give Beethoven more.

[karlhenning]

Well, and haven't we all wanted a crusty, superannuated Beethoven?

[mn dave]

Well, and haven't we all wanted a crusty, superannuated Beethoven?

Oh, he'd manage just fine.

[karlhenning]

Oh, he'd manage just fine.

What's that you say?

[mn dave]

What's that you say?

Exactly.

[karlhenning]

Exactly.

No, I don't think they can make it today.

[Sergeant Rock]

10 extra years to Beethoven. What if he'd given us 5 more piano sonatas...

32 is more than enough for anyone...even Todd 

another two symphonies...

He wrote nine; that's all he's allowed. It's the law. All great symphonists are only allowed to complete nine 

Sarge

[mn dave]

32 is more than enough for anyone...even Todd 

He wrote nine; that's all he's allowed. It's the law. All great symphonists are only allowed to complete nine 

Sarge

Dirk is da man.  0:)

[Tsaraslondon]

I'd give Puccini a year - just to find out how Turandot's final scene should really go, and to hear that "big tune" that he never got round to writing. Maybe he'd have only needed a couple of extra months. He was almost there.

[Keemun]

I'd distribute the 20 years as follows:

Bruckner - 5 (to finish his 9th symphony and hopefully compose a 10th)
Mahler - 2 (to finish his 10th symphony)
Mozart - 10 (to see what else he might compose)
Beethoven - 3 (to compose his 10th symphony, thereby amending the law cited above by Sarge)

[Joe_Campbell]

He wrote nine; that's all he's allowed. It's the law. All great symphonists are only allowed to complete nine 

Shosty had a bit more than that; I haven't had much chance to explore them though, so I don't know how great a symphonists he is.

However, your idea is supported by Mahler. He died trying to write a 10th!