Not at all! We could then talk about orchestral music – one of my favorite CDs is a collection called “The Glorious Sound of Brass.” It’s got a 1966 recording from the Philadelphia Brass Ensemble of Brade’s “Allemande,” with trumpet, french horn, euphonium, and tuba. (And Handel’s “Samson,” with E. Powers Biggs on organ - a great piece to listen to with the windows down and the car stereo up).
My Grandmother always taught us to scan the newspaper on the of a party, so we’d have plenty of conversational topics to pull from. These days, I find listening to NPR far more useful.
I’m no great shakes socially, so preparation provides a bit of a confidence boost.
Wow… You and I are antimatter opposites in a lot of ways…but I have the same collection (LP) and love it. I’m a big fan of the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble; I have many of their LPs. It’s fun to listen to Bach performed by a brass ensemble, because the different instruments help bring out the sound of the separate melodic lines. When each “voice” of a fugue is played on a different instrument, it really highlights the melodic threads.
To the OP, music is actually a great place to start. “What’s your favorite music?” Also, “What are you reading lately?” and “What’s your favorite movie?”
Sometimes, I’ll do the Sherlock Holmes thing. “I see you’ve recently been bicycling. Mountain bike, perhaps?” It doesn’t always work, but when it does, it can be mighty impressive!
Wow – two moments ago, I thought, “Now that you mention it, you DON’T see white dog poop anymore! I wonder why that is?” and one moment ago, I learned the answer. Thread delivers!
Oh yeah, on topic: I like asking the question, “What topic could you go on and on and on about and not even care that your audience’s eyes are glazing over?”
You get to learn what they’re passionate about, they usually become passionate as they go on and on about your answer (which is usually attractive and entertaining), and you get to see if this is a topic you could stand hearing about ad infinitum over the course of your relationship/friendship/evening out/whatever, or if you’re already thinking about hanging yourself just hearing their answer.
I’m in a situation where most of the people I meet are either foreigners or children of foreigners. So this is almost always a good choice.
But my personal choice is not “where are you from?”, it’s “tell me what makes the place you’re from special”.
Secretly, every person is dying to tell you about their roots. Whether it’s the Moroccan ski resort that was close to where they grew up, or how the city where they were born is currently being moved to another location… that always gets the conversation started
If someone said that to me, I would find it extremely creepy. (I’m a straight male FWIW)
Philip Jones Brass Ensemble! I have their Sousa collection and one other, which I think is called “Simply Brass,” and has the Salzedo “Divertimento” march on it along with other things that don’t come immediately to mind.
It’s funny that you mention fugues, because I was led to E. Powers Biggs through his recording of the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor – to this day, in my opinion, the best recording of that piece.
I originally had that on vinyl, and many others, but I made the conflicted decision in the late 1990s to go totally digital, so I either repurchased or digitized my entire vinyl collection.
In a way, I regret it, because – and I may be imagining it – there was a certain richness and warmth to the Denon turntable and Shure cartridge that even 256K sampling doesn’t seem to replicate.
But on the plus side, I can listen to music in the house, car, and waiting for the shuttle bus, with my entire collection at my fingertips. And as I’ve gotten older, I think I’ve lost some of my upper range hearing anyway, so maybe the loss is a function of the inner ear, not the system that’s delivering the sound.
Anyway – fun hijack!
Really? I can imagine someone thinking it’s a lame joke (it is, as is my entire repertoire), or wondering whether I actually mistakenly think I know them… but what makes it strike you as creepy? And “extremely”, to boot?
Yes, indeed. Oh, brass. I could go on and on about my love for the french horn (then again, I can go on and on about anything), but I don’t want to continue the hijack. To bring it back around to the OP, though, clearly, brass instruments are a great conversation starter!
Do . . . .you . . . . speak . . . . English?
Valved brass, anyway. I hate those bastard bugle players and their reliance on embouchure.
Seriously, though, the overarching point is hopefully not missed. You toss nuggets out and find something that flares up into a conversation. Brass is not the answer: variety of interests that can sustain a conversation in many different directions is the answer.
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I usually try to bring up something related to why we are in the same place. If it is an activity, then something about that. If it is a party, then whoever is at the party that we have in common, either my escort or the host.
Quick extension of the highjack: do you know Flanders and Swann, and their wonderful parody of Mozart’s Fourth Horn Concerto?
(YouTube video, with preliminary 15 second ad – ick – and a short introductory monologue. But, oh! Worth waiting for!)
I can see mistaken identity, but failing that, your gambit would give most people the willies IMO.
Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?
But as to the OP, I don’t think I have one. I rarely see strangers but if I did I would feel fake using some kind of “repertoire”.
I do the gambit the OP does, but you’ll often get a short answer, like “nothing” or “not much.” Something I’ve found that seems to work is then to make a joke out of that answer; “You mean, you just sit at home and watch the paint dry?” or “Come on, get some excitement in your life, live a little!” Even if all you get is a tiny laugh or a smirk, that’s usually enough to get the conversation rolling.
I also will ask about interesting items or articles of clothing. Or reference whatever’s going on around me. Except I never talk about the weather. I’m sure it can work for some people, but I can never get the conversation away from that! It just peters out.
I used to be a lot better at conversations. I would just talk about whatever I was thinking about in a somewhat exciting manner, and it would work. But I find I can’t do that so well anymore.
I’ve never really thought about any one conversational tool. I can’t remember ever having any trouble getting or keeping a conversation going with anyone. I can strike up a easy conversation with people in line at the bank, next to me on the light rail, at the grocery store, anywhere, about anything, with people from all walks of life.
I guess the gambit would be whatever happens to be occurring at the moment, such as “can you believe how crowded the train is tonight”? (well used to be, since I moved west of Denver, I don’t commute by light rail anymore). But that sort of thing. Once the thing is started with something like that, it rolls really easily.
I’m not good at much, but I do have the gift of friendly gab. 
I was taken aback by the idea that people who aren’t all aflutter at the F word are losers. Wow.
I don’t have any planned repertoire, but I do tend to find starting conversations pretty easy most of the time. Usually, it’s something about the context: where we are, what day it is, how do they know the host, etc. It’s rare when I can’t get a conversation started if I try.
Sometimes I don’t try, but that’s rare if it’s a social event.