Well, let's see: we have the punk rock lovin' ultralighters and the heavy metal lovin' ultralighters, so I thought I'd throw my two cents in and admit that I'm a classical music lovin' ultralighter. Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Bach, Baroque and Renaissance styles, recorder and harpsichord. :)

Let's see, where to even select a few?:


- Holst: The Planets
- Khachaturian: Night on Bald Mountain
- Mosart: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
- Saint Saens: Danse Macabre
- Puccini: Oh! Mio Babbino Caro
- Puccini: Madama Butterfly - Un Bel Di
- Wagner: The Ride Of The Valkyries
- Dvorak: Carnival Overture, Op. 92
- Copland:
- Fanfare For The Common Man
- Grand Canyon Suite; "Sunrise", "Painted Desert", "On The Trail", "Cloudburst"
- Rodeo; "Saturday Night Waltz"

I can go on forever!

Oh yes it's gotta be classical or silence in the woods! And for me nothing seems so appropriate as Beethoven when I'm in the mountains. There's something about his sensibility and musical energy that just works. I especially enjoy his violin and piano concertos when I'm walking.

On the other hand, opera in the mountains? Not so much; except that I always make an exception for the Magic Flute.

All of Mozart's' Magic Flute, or all?

If with your kids, and you want them to enjoy opera & classical music . . . and in "The Woods" . . . why not play, around the campfire . . and animate the story to be stupid to the kids to make them laugh . . .

- Sergei Prokofiev: "Peter & The Wolf"
- Saint-Saens: "Carnival Of The Animals"

I can just see you dancing around the shadow of the fire acting like "Carnival's 'an elephant'"

I'm a devoted Dvorak! fan of his Soavonic Dances: What if the kids see you & your loved-one, or the kids, waltzing to;
Slavonic Dances, Op. 46, No. 1 in C Major

Michael: You may well yet convert me to opera in the woods! It's just, for me, the whole dramatic aspect of opera is out of place in the wilderness. I seem to want something without a pre-determined story line; that's why I like orchestral music, quartets, chamber orchestras, etc. This kind of music is abstract enough, and so plastic enough, to fit into the perpetually new wilderness experience I find myself in, without dominating it, telling a story, making the scenery fit into the music. Rather the reverse: with luck, the music can illustrate and accompany the landscape. Help it unfold.

Actually I pretty much don't listen to music any more when I'm hiking. I like natural sounds.

I hate rock and roll in the wilderness precisely because of the drums and bass: everything has to be 4/4; the whole friggin' world is reduced to a simple rhythm and, usually, even simpler lyrics. Nature does not unfold in 4/4; listen to any bird, listen to any creek, listen to the wind.

"Nature does not unfold in 4/4; listen to any bird, listen to any creek, listen to the wind."

Now we're talking real classical music.

To me, opera is something to be watched in the theater, not just listened to. I used to be more interested in listening to it, but more recently it's sort of like watching TV with the sound turned off or, more likely, listening to TV or a movie with your eyes closed. With just the sound, half of the effect is gone.

I have enough music running through my head that I have gotten up a lot of long hill climbs to such assorted music as Bach's Brandenburg Concerti and Dvorak's American Quartet.

Love me some Bartok...

I really do not carry music either. Rather read. We also recite poems. Each must bring 2 poems per night, even the kids, to recite.

I have several times carried a small shortwave radio, or iPod to listen to music falling asleep. I like the natural sounds more.



Bartok? There's some good stuff!

Ha...I just got back from playing 2 weeks of classical music at a festival in the mountains (well, more like Sierra foothills, really). Next on the agenda is 4 days in the Emigrant wilderness; I will not be listening to music on my phone (which does have some music I loaded on it for a recent civilized vacation in Europe) but I'm sure I'll have a lot of the last 2 weeks' rep running around in my head from time to time (including some Pink Floyd, as we did a concert with The Machine, a tribute band). I almost never listen to recorded music, probably at least partially because when I do it is something I pretty much concentrate on exclusively. Well, except for putting on something boisterous to clean house to, anyway...

Any time you are hiking and sudden upon a vista, or break into a jog down a slope, or happen upon a bear, Wagner will have some massive swell right on time.

Wagner

The Ring of Niebelung (or whatever).

I still hear that Vedic Opera stuff when i come upon some crazy vista.

Once on Lake Geneva (Switzerland, not WI) I witnessed the most intense lighting striking horizontal from mountain to mountain. No way that wasn't Wotan and Siegfried f'n each other up.

I mean c'mon!
Siegfried, the man without fear, slays the dragon, drinks the dragons blodd and hears the song of nature, AND gets the girl!

It makes up for all the Sarah McClachlan songs I listen to...
OOOO.. did i write that or just think it?!

"I the Arms of the Angel... Far awayyyy..."

Jesus, I need to hike again.

"The Sound of Music"?

Okay, that's not classical

Lots of music humming when I am walking classical and contemporary. It might be a side effect of the lack of oxygen, really I can hear all the instruments in my head. I used to carry a small ocarina with me and one o my most precious memory is playing with the birds during a lunch break extended because of the gig, to the surprise and joy of me, my friend and the birds of course.
Planning to carry a small whistle now that the ocarina fell and broke.