9
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Pete had a conversation with his shy friend Dave from his old concert band "Plain Inspiration"

Pete: Do you like classics?

Dave: Absolutely!

...

Pete: Is there any chance you would tell me who your favourite composer is?

Dave: Actually, I don't think I have one.

Pete: Oh come on, every musician who likes classics has a favourite composer.

Dave: Man, I don't know who that could be, Pete.

Pete: Okay, apparently I've got to give you some examples; maybe this could help.

Dave: Well, I think this will not help me but please, go ahead.

Pete: Ok, maybe Gustav Holst, Erik Satie, Georges Bizet or Giacomo Puccini?

Dave: I don't like any of those. By the way, which one is your favourite?

Pete: Okay, this almost seems like you said the truth from the beginning. Maybe you will find an answer in the future.

Well, you should definitely know my favourite composer already.

Who is Pete's favourite composer?

Hint 1

The composers mentioned have no direct relation to the answer.

Hint 2

Their concert band had a poorly designed band logo

Hint 3

Every line of the conversation is important

Hint 4

You won't get far with rational thinking

Hint 5

You can find a piece of the composer(s) in the riddle

Hint 6

Maybe you can find a specific number on the first line (or in another hint)

Announcement

Won't give hints anymore, because it shouldn't be that hard to solve now. Will offer a bounty in a few days if no one can give the correct answer.


Please do not change the structure of my puzzle since a hint depends on it


Not related to the riddle

Since this is my first post here on Puzzling, I would appreciate any kind of feedback (too easy?, style okay? etc.)

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6
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    $\begingroup$ If you want some feedback then I'll say this: Are you gonna make more puzzles? :P $\endgroup$
    – Mr Pie
    Aug 29, 2018 at 6:40
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    $\begingroup$ @user477343 well it depends, I guess people like this one so far, so chances are there I'm gonna make another one. Wanna see what people think of the answer :D $\endgroup$
    – Ian Fako
    Aug 29, 2018 at 7:22
  • $\begingroup$ @IanFako now that the riddle is answered, can you explain the second hint? Nice riddle by the way :) $\endgroup$
    – obl
    Sep 3, 2018 at 17:07
  • $\begingroup$ @obl I thought maybe someone tries to imagine their logo. Simple or "bad" logos often consits of their band names initials. Should have used better wording :D $\endgroup$
    – Ian Fako
    Sep 4, 2018 at 14:34
  • $\begingroup$ So what exactly was the ellipsis for? "Every line of the conversation is important," you said. As I type this, I realized; it was the clue for the decimal point, right? $\endgroup$ Sep 8, 2018 at 21:23

9 Answers 9

5
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Is it

Paganini

or

Liszt

because the

first letter of the nth word in each line where n is the next digit of pi

spells out

La Campanella

edit: I only guessed this because I looked at the number of lines and saw that there were the same number of lines as letters in the piece title, and reverse-engineered a solution from there.

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1
  • $\begingroup$ This one is correct. Initials of their band name is PI $\endgroup$
    – Ian Fako
    Sep 3, 2018 at 11:42
8
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My guess is that it is:

Lin Manuel Miranda

Because:

The ellipsis after "Absolutely!" is three periods, or 'stops'; Lin in dialectical Scots English, cognate with Danish, Swedish and Icelandic, means 'to pause, rest, or stop'.

And:

"Man" and "Well" are given as first words in sentences = Manuel

And:

Bizet's most famous work is Carmen, and a famous Latin American performer is Carmen Miranda.

And:

You had it true = you had it right. At the beginning, we have three stops, a stop in music denotes silence. To Mirandize someone is to read them their rights: you have the right to remain silent, hence Miranda again.

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    $\begingroup$ Never thought people could interpret so much out of my puzzle :D Good guess but wrong $\endgroup$
    – Ian Fako
    Aug 29, 2018 at 7:18
3
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This is an interesting puzzle, and I'm not sure what to make of anything...

The four composers that Pete mentioned were all Romantic-era composers; so maybe Pete really likes Romantic-era composers? In which case he could appreciate the "founder" of the Romantic era, Ludwig van Beethoven, whose bold works near the end of his career (See: Choral Symphony) ushered out the Classical era of his youth and brought in a new Romantic era. (It's also quite possible he appreciates Frédéric Chopin, since he was representative of that era as well and has connections to Paris along with many of the composers mentioned.)


Second Guess

Could it be

Piotr Il'ich Tchaikovsky? A Romantic-era composer from around the same time as the four mentioned, whose name is also Pete?


Third Guess

Could it be

(Saint) Hildegard von Bingen, a 12th century nun and one of the most famous composers of plainchant of all time? This might be because the concert band's name was Plain Inspiration, referencing the fact that Pete might have been inspired by plainchant.


Feedback: Overall a pretty good riddle -- I think that it may need to have a few more tags added (say, knowledge) because the answer is not inherently obvious without that extra knowledge. (I certainly don't even think my answer is correct.) The grammar could be cleaned up a bit, because it affects the readability of the puzzle. I hope that there's a more slam-dunk answer than mine, although am I on the right track?

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16
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    $\begingroup$ El-Guest, your answers are always well thought out; are you a jack-of-all-trades, or do you just research with extreme prejudice? +1 $\endgroup$ Aug 28, 2018 at 16:01
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    $\begingroup$ @PerpetualJ I'd like to think a little bit of both, I'm a former triviahead who competed in local trivia tournaments (but that was a long time ago, so the research is required to keep up!) I love classical music though, so I was really excited to see this puzzle!! $\endgroup$
    – El-Guest
    Aug 28, 2018 at 16:04
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ I can definitely see that in your answers! This is a good puzzle for sure, not many will write puzzles about such great composers! $\endgroup$ Aug 28, 2018 at 16:08
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @IanFako In reference to not being a native speaker, you can always say that in your post and ask someone to be kind enough to help you by editing it; so long as the riddle doesn't rely on the grammar itself. $\endgroup$ Aug 28, 2018 at 17:04
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ @IanFako, is this any closer to the thinking/reasoning that I should be using? $\endgroup$
    – El-Guest
    Aug 28, 2018 at 17:16
3
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Would his favorite composer be:

Gustav Holst?

This is based on the phrase "said the true from the beginning" in combination with "an answer in the future".

In which he came first in your list, but was born in 1874 and was the last born on your list.


Second Guess

Georges Bizet

Whom is also my favorite (due to Carmen) aside from Beethoven (I know cliché, but who can resist Moonlight Sonata).

My second guess is also based on "said the true from the beginning". In which:

Georges Bizet was born in 1838 and came first out of all the named composers.


Third Guess

Based on what El-Guest has supplied, I believe it would be:

Inspiration Orchestra

On the basis that:

You have stated no research is required and that the answer is contained in the riddle. Also, I had originally thought of this, but I believe I was over-thinking it and I was looking into Plain Inspiration on Google.


My Thoughts

As a whole, your post is well formatted; it could use a couple grammar changes (in my personal opinion, but to each their own; I'm not one to nitpick on this). The back and forth between Pete and Dave is quite a nice style riddle (conversations with hidden answers are often fun to solve), and the answers seem to be located somewhere in your riddle.

Also building on what El-Guest has stated below, I would definitely recommend additional tags for this. Knowledge definitely fits, Wordplay is a possibility. Feel free to research the available tags and determine which best fit your puzzle!

This was a great first post! Welcome to Puzzling.SE!

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    $\begingroup$ This answer looks 728% less speculative than mine...I hope one of the two are correct! (+1) :) $\endgroup$
    – El-Guest
    Aug 28, 2018 at 15:58
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ It would actually be nice to see either rot13(Trbetrf Ovmrg be Yhqjvt ina Orrgubira) as they are both fantastic composters. $\endgroup$ Aug 28, 2018 at 16:02
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Not quite there yet, but good guesses. I'll add an additional tag to make it a bit easier ;) $\endgroup$
    – Ian Fako
    Aug 28, 2018 at 17:02
  • $\begingroup$ The answer is an actual composer. I've stated that a bit of research is needed $\endgroup$
    – Ian Fako
    Aug 28, 2018 at 17:52
3
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Is it

The Dependency Manager for PHP Composer?

Because

Composer has a poorly designed logo - it is a conductor, not a composer, and it has nothing to do with the previously mentioned composers or music at all. I couldn't make sense of this based off of the actual riddle, though.

EDIT:

Okay, also Pete says "Okay, this almost seems like you said the true from the beginning. Maybe you will find an answer in the future." So instead of saying "truth", he says "true", which is a boolean value used in PHP.

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3
  • $\begingroup$ Haha pretty good answer, but sadly not correct $\endgroup$
    – Ian Fako
    Aug 28, 2018 at 20:57
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Aw dang. Is the use of the word 'true' instead of 'truth' intentional? $\endgroup$
    – obl
    Aug 28, 2018 at 21:18
  • $\begingroup$ oh, missed that one :/ "truth" is correct english I guess :D $\endgroup$
    – Ian Fako
    Aug 29, 2018 at 7:08
2
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Pete's favorite composer is

Dave. Pete already said that every musician who likes classics has a favorite composer. Dave likes classics, but does not have a favorite composer. Therefore, Dave is not a musician. However, Dave had a role in the band but NOT as a musician. He was the composer, therefore Pete's favorite composer was Dave himself.

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1
  • $\begingroup$ This makes perfect sense, but it's not the answer I'm looking for $\endgroup$
    – Ian Fako
    Aug 30, 2018 at 7:52
1
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Guessing, because I realized something but don't want to actually make the profile. I don't know if bands count, but I realized something. Hint 3 says that "Every line of the conversation is important." The ]right answer was "almost... at the beginning." The second line of the dialogue is "..."- an ellipsis. A quick look at Wikipedia's disambiguation page shows two albums by that name. One is by Scorn, which is electronic music, so I realized, as I'm typing this, that it probably isn't that. The other album is by a Scottish alternative rock band called Biffy Clyro. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis_(Biffy_Clyro_album)#Track_listing In the "Track Listing" section, it says that Simon Neil wrote all the songs unless they note otherwise, and he's still involved when those notes exits. He is credited as a songwriter, which I feel implies lyrics whereas "composer" implies writing the music. However, the article also says he wrote the songs and lyrics, thus qualifying him as a composer as well. Therefore, I believe Pete's favorite composer to be Simon Neil from the band Biffy Clyro.

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3
  • $\begingroup$ +1 for research but not the right answer. Apparently I can learn a lot from your answers :D $\endgroup$
    – Ian Fako
    Aug 31, 2018 at 9:00
  • $\begingroup$ Was I at least on the right track with the rot13(ryyvcfvf guvat) rot13.com $\endgroup$ Aug 31, 2018 at 22:02
  • $\begingroup$ Nope, maybe you can work with my hints :D $\endgroup$
    – Ian Fako
    Sep 1, 2018 at 17:26
0
$\begingroup$

This is a complete guess, and I doubt it's the answer; but:

Is Pete's favorite composer David Petersen?

This guess is based on:

The two names used are Pete and Dave which are typically short for David and Peter.

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3
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    $\begingroup$ This is an obscure one, but a heck of an answer! Did you know of him beforehand, PerpetualJ? $\endgroup$
    – El-Guest
    Aug 28, 2018 at 17:24
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Good guess, but too easy :D $\endgroup$
    – Ian Fako
    Aug 28, 2018 at 17:25
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @El-Guest not really, I just did a Google search on the names supplied; came across this one and immediately laughed. Then I thought to myself; it's a long shot, but heck, any answer this great is worth it. $\endgroup$ Aug 28, 2018 at 17:27
0
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Well, this took a bit of research and still is kinda vague. But, oh well...

Answer

All-4-One.


The song "Here is my heart" has the following in the lyrics: "With every revolution shows the answer is in the evolution. Turning...spinning...moving on". This fits into what Pete says about the answer being in the future.


"Every musician who likes classics has a favourite composer", we could say All. 4 Composers are named. Pete asks for only One. All-4-One.

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1
  • $\begingroup$ Nope sorry, the answer is pretty obvious once you find the correct pattern $\endgroup$
    – Ian Fako
    Sep 2, 2018 at 18:22

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