Stats about classical composers

Sam, that makes a nice list of composers who wrote music for the piano. Of the top twenty you show in the graph, I've played at least one piece by 13 out of the 20 composers. When I look at the next twenty, the number drops off drastically--to zero! I guess I need to get busy!

Cécile Chaminade at 82 seems to be the only woman on the list! Unless she was anonymous and wrote a folk song, of course.
But I wonder if there is any other area in life in which women are so underrepresented. I hope not.

WieWaldi Some just told me, there were about 2500 classical composers.
250 of them composed the music that is played today.
36 composed 75% of that.
16 composed 50%.
10 composed 40%.
3 composed 20%, namely Bach, Beethoven and Mozart. And Mozart died young, if he lived longer, this number could probably rise up to 30%.

These numbers look suspiciously round and convenient. I wouldn't be surprised if they were totally made up. I think just the amount of film music composed for full orchestra greatly surpasses all of Mozart's work.

Anyway, there are several problems with the statement above:

• How do you count the total numbers to come up with stats? Pieces? Hours of music? Pages?
• What does "played today" mean? By professionals in concerts? By amateurs? How do you know?
• Which music do you count as "classical"? Do film scores count?

I think the statement as it is is pretty meanigless and I wouldn't give it too much credit.

BartK just the amount of film music composed for full orchestra greatly surpasses all of Mozart's work.

Is film music classical music?
Oh! We can start a new discussion!

While I agree with the name recognition aspect, I think audiences react quite positively to accessible pieces by many of these composers. For example, I think Couperin is underrated and that the public would generally like his music.

Animisha Is film music classical music?
Oh! We can start a new discussion!

Yeah, why not? If not then what criteria do you use to disqualify someone like John Williams, who is a classically trained composer and who writes music that is just as interesting as any late romantic symphony? If you decide that "classical" is from a certain date range then you're deciding up front to limit the number of composers to your chosen set, which is cheating don't you think?

Also, I'd like to point out that Mozart operas are pretty much the musicals of the 18th century. People went to see them like we watch movies today and the music played pretty much the same role as movie scores today.

WieWaldi Funny thing is, one period of Classical music is named "Classical",

It leads to so many misunderstandings. Just like the name Romantic. One always needs to explain, from the Romantic Era, otherwise people may think you mean songs like "I will always love you" and "My heart will go on". Not that there is anything wrong with those songs - not at al! Just not what I mean.

Sam OK, here are the top 100 I came up with from the Carnegie recital database.

A friend of mine put together a dataviz for performances by the NY Phil. Beethoven wins there, with Mozart, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, and Brahms rounding out the top 5.

Stub Of the top twenty you show in the graph, I've played at least one piece by 13 out of the 20 composers.

18/20! (missing Albéniz, Bartók) Only around 30/100 overall, although I guess I've been learning a lot of stuff outside the top 100

BartK If you decide that "classical" is from a certain date range

Agreed! Classical can be a lot of things... you can even say it's the music from a few centuries ago:

There are significantly more than 2500 classical composers. Imslp has nearly 30000 and it is not complete as the number grows every year.

Sam that’s an interesting list, Sam. There are definitely some where I’m surprised by the order. There are a few composers on your list whose orchestral writing I really enjoy, but I’m not familiar with their piano music. So I am now going to have to look them up!

Sgisela that’s an interesting list, Sam. There are definitely some where I’m surprised by the order. There are a few composers on your list whose orchestral writing I really enjoy, but I’m not familiar with their piano music. So I am now going to have to look them up!

One thing to bear in mind about my lists is that once you get below Mendelssohn or Haydn everybody gets lost in the noise. So the fact that one composer is 20th and another is 40th means very little.

Since I am an old guy, I still tend to use actual books to do research, and the best book to research piano repertoire is still Maurice Hinson's "Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire". He has passed on now, but the 4th edition has a new co-author. Want to find what some composer way down in the list wrote for piano?- its right there in Hinson's book.

Sam

Sam I was surprised to see Scarlatti and Scriabin as high on the list. I imagine that there are some peculiarities of Carnegie Hall that also contribute to what gets programmed.

Sgisela I was surprised to see Scarlatti and Scriabin as high on the list. I imagine that there are some peculiarities of Carnegie Hall that also contribute to what gets programmed.

There was a time not that long ago when every program would start with a Scarlatti sonata or something else Baroque. Just from my experience going to Spivey Hall in Atlanta, programs used to be more varied, with something from every period. Now they tend to have a theme - like all Schubert, or all the Chopin Etudes, or all late Beethoven and so forth.

Another thing to bear in mind with the Carnegie Hall database is that it goes back to the 1890s. That is still late Romantic. They weren't playing Debussy or Ravel in 1890. Scarlatti wasn't rediscovered until mid 20th century. Rachmaninoff started playing his own music there between the world wars. So by looking at the entire history things might be a bit skewed. A more ambitious person than myself (I am enjoying my retirement, thank you) could really do some interesting research by looking at how programs have changed over the years. Enough material there for a PhD in musicology. Or a book for music nerds...

Sam

Scott Joplin is the list, but way towards the bottom. If you were compiling a list of composers whose music got played, period, and not just in recitals, he would probably be much further up the list. Then there's the question of whether ragtime belongs in classical repertoire or elsewhere.

Sam Another thing to bear in mind with the Carnegie Hall database is that it goes back to the 1890s.

Very interesting. It would be interesting to see a plot of what got played changed over the years.

Pallas
I’m interested in this. Do you have any ideas where to look for an answer? I started studying classical piano so I have the skill to play film scores, advanced versions of American standards, and ragtime among other things. I understand that “classical” is both an umbrella term and a specific genre, and much film score music is often called “neoclassical,” but in my admittedly uninformed way I’ve been pretty focused on transferable skills, and if it’s complexity that assigns genre, lots of non-classical is plenty complex, sophisticated stuff just looking at scores. If this should be a separate topic, please say, otherwise, I might post a page from a book I just got of ragtime written during the 1970s revival to see what you advanced pianists might say about its flavor (is it classical, why or why not?)

At the University I attended (and probably all schools in the US), ragtime was accepted for required recitals as a modern piece. At least Scott Joplin was. This was at the undergraduate level. Might be too easy for graduate level recitals. And this was a typical regional US university, not a conservatory or a prestigious school.