Six Degrees of Separation

[Petrushka]

Thanks to Richard Tarleton for giving me the idea for this thread.

According to the six degrees of separation principle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation we would appear to be a lot closer to our favourite composers and people in history than we think.

I am just a couple of moves away from both Hitler and Stalin. For example, a neighbour and family friend, now in her 80s saw Hitler driving in triumph through the Polish city of Danzig in 1939. Along with many other schoolchildren she was forced to watch this. Her father was an official on the Deutsche Reichsbahn who always knew when Hitler's train was coming through as he was responsible for changing the signals.

As for Stalin, I met Maxim Shostakovich in 1981 and anyone who has read Testimony will recall the hilarious passage when DSCH met Stalin.

As a bit of pre-Proms amusement let's see who can get closest to the great, the good and the downright evil.

[salymap]

Well, at 83 I feel I am one remove from many of the great composers. I often shook hands

with Malcolm Sargent [ no jokes please]. He shook hands/met/knew Sibelius, Elgar, RVW, Holst, many more.
And a work colleague knew Delius, I saw/met many composers whilst about my menial tasks.

Ican only think of one politician I've met, Ted Heath, and that doesn't seem to lead anywhere.
TH was our MP and playing in a two piano recital.

No, sorry, not very impressive.

[Nick Armstrong]

I've shaken a hand that shook Hitler's hand. Is that one degree of separation, or two?

Via mutual friends I met several times a chap who when in the Hitler Youth (he was born in the early 20s) had been decorated by AH and shaken his hand. (He'd subsequently become a Panzer driver, been through Stalingrad, was captured by the US army and spent time in a POW camp, and then settled in England in the late 1948s.) Amazing to bump into him in the local supermarket, for instance, and look into a pair of blue eyes that had looked into Hitler's.

I'm one extra degree from Brahms and Bartok via Kodaly and Dohnanyi who were both known to my neighbour Tamas Vasary.

[amateur51]

This is a rather addictive book about chance encounters, the first leading to the second, to the third etc.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Craig-Brown/dp/0007360649/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369583742&sr=1-1&keywords=craig+brown+one+on+one

It might be worth using some of these as a starting point

[Petrushka]

Well, at 83 I feel I am one remove from many of the great composers. I often shook hands

with Malcolm Sargent [ no jokes please]. He shook hands/met/knew Sibelius, Elgar, RVW, Holst, many more.
And a work colleague knew Delius, I saw/met many compozers whilst about my menial tasks.

Ican only think of one politician I've met, Ted Heath, and that doesn't seem to lead anywhere.
TH was our MP and playing in a two piano recital.

No, sorry, not very impressive.

I'd say that's very impressive as each of the names you mention opens up all sorts of fascinating possibilities by making one more move. Therefore, at another remove you can Ravel, Mahler, Strauss as well as many more. Ted Heath, if you think of all the people he met in the world stage while PM opens up very many possibilities.

[Nick Armstrong]

I'd say that's very impressive as each of the names you mention opens up all sorts of fascinating possibilities by making one more move. Therefore, at another remove you can Ravel, Mahler, Strauss as well as many more. Ted Heath, if you think of all the people he met in the world stage while PM opens up very many possibilities.

Yes, saly, I suspect you have the beating of anyone on here!

[Anna]

Yes, saly, I suspect you have the beating of anyone on here!

Yes, saly certainly (from what she's posted before) was in a prime position to meet all kinds of music makers in her job.
I shared a taxi with Vernon Handley, and from the sublime to the ridiculous, have met John Lennon's son Julian and Robert Plant.

[salymap]

Yes, saly, I suspect you have the beating of anyone on here!

Well come to think of it MS seemed to be on at least nodding terms with most of the crowned heads of the time That opens it up a bit.

[Petrushka]

I'm one extra degree from Brahms and Bartok via Kodaly and Dohnanyi who were both known to my neighbour Tamas Vasary.

I'm just one degree closer to Bartok and Kodaly as I shook Solti's hand more than once while I met Karl Böhm whose teacher was himself taught by Brahms. Three moves to Brahms, who would have thought it?

(I'd say your AH example was two moves, Cali).

[EdgeleyRob]

Well now,I once said hello to Michael Kennedy so that's a link to RVW in two degrees (or is that one?).
I also once spoke to Evgenny Kissin as he signed a cd for me,there must be loads of possibilities there,wonder if there is a link back to Alkan ?,I will have to investigate.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

If anyone's met [1]Alexander Goehr (whose father, [2]Walter, was a pupil of [3]Schoenberg, who was a friend of [4]Mahler, who was taught by [5]Bruckner, who was taught by [6]Simon Sechter, who also taught [7]Schubert, who carried the coffin of [8]Beethoven, who knew [9a]Haydn and [9b]Mozart, who was taught by [10]JC Bach) then they can "separate by eleven degrees" themselves from Johann Sebastian Bach.

And why stop there? Buxtehude, Tunder, Frescobaldi, Luzzaschi, De Rore ...

[salymap]

Well now,I once said hello to Michael Kennedy so that's a link to RVW in two degrees (or is that one?).
I also once spoke to Evgenny Kissin as he signed a cd for me,there must be loads of possibilities there,wonder if there is a link back to Alkan ?,I will have to investigate.

Don'tforget your paper link with RVW will you?

[vinteuil]

... I am told some people even claim to have had a connection with Me.

[Nick Armstrong]

... I am told some people even claim to have had a connection with Me.

Presumably they prefer to remain anonymous

[Petrushka]

If anyone's met [1]Alexander Goehr (whose father, [2]Walter, was a pupil of [3]Schoenberg, who was a friend of [4]Mahler, who was taught by [5]Bruckner, who was taught by [6]Simon Sechter, who also taught [7]Schubert, who carried the coffin of [8]Beethoven, who knew [9a]Haydn and [9b]Mozart, who was taught by [10]JC Bach) then they can "separate by eleven degrees" themselves from Johann Sebastian Bach.

And why stop there? Buxtehude, Tunder, Frescobaldi, Luzzaschi, De Rore ...

Brilliant stuff!