There are probably about a dozen classical composers who the average person would recognize (by name if not by their work) today. However, I was thinking that there are probably, on any given night, two dozen bands playing in Chicago that I’ve heard of and know something about.
I doubt any of them will be around in 2-300 years like Beethoven, Mozart, et. al., but there certainly is a variety of what would be considered “good” bands.
My question is, in 18th (or 19th or whenever) century Vienna (or Prague or wherever these guys tended to congregate), how many composers were working and performing at any given time?
I assume that when an orchestra performed, they played for significant runs (like a play, not just a one-off like you’d see a band these days) and that there was significant preparation time, rehersal, etc. I also wonder if there were significantly fewer venues to hear the music (what with needing to a) fit a large enough of an audience to make it profittable b) seat all the musicians, etc.)
You need to remember that before Beethoven (early 19th century), most composers did not make a living composing works for the public. They were all members of some aristocratic court or other, adding to the sophistication of same by their efforts (thus increasing their patron’s prestige in the eyes of other aristocrats), the same way that availability of pepper in the evening’s dinner did. They were part of the trappings of any well-appointed court, so if you round up a reliable figure of how many courts there were at any time with the sort of resources necessary to support a composer (maybe more than one for super-wealthy courts) and the musicians, you probably have a pretty good figure on how many were employed at the time.
Once you get into the 19th Century, and popular concerts, it’s not so very different that the popular scene today. If you could scrape together the resources to get your music performed, you charged what you could reasonably get. There were superstar composers, and for every one, you probably had at least ten that didn’t rise above the background noise.
I have a book, The Essential Canon of Classical Music, that probably lists about 60-70 composers as its short list before the modern era. If that many made the short list, imagine how many were forgotten.
A rough guess would say that there are about 100 “classical” composers that are extremely well-known today, and another 200-300 that are lesser known, but still get recorded or played regularly. Beyond that, there are many (500+?) more obscure that have been recorded or played, but are not well known at all.
Now, go back to any era, let’s say 1791 (Mozart’s death) and you will find that the composers we now know from that era comprise only the tip of the iceberg. There will be dozens of artists and composers that, at the time were VERY popular, and have been completely forgotten over the years.
I agree that you can parallel that to today’s situation, were there are:
regional bands
one hit wonders
flashes in the pan
etc
… all these are pretty much forgotten 10 years after the fact.
Scotandrsn summarises the situation regarding concerts and performances well. There are well-worn tales of chaotic first performances of Beethoven symphonies, due to the best players being used in other more popular concerts, inadequate rehearsal time, etc. There’s a longer tradition of public performance of opera, for which earlier composers such as Handel and Mozart were best known.
The Classical Composers’ Database lists 2,525 composers. Naxos Records’ The A to Z of Classical Music lists 718 “Great Composers and Their Greatest Works.” I don’t have my Deutche Gramofon directory handy, but I think it’s in about the same ballpark as Naxos.
All of these listings are a little “inclusive” to give your question a meaningful answer. The Naxos book lists a lot of people who pre- and post-date the era in which Classical music is considered to have been composed and includes most major Baroque, Romantic, Modern, etc. composers (Any listing that includes both Hildegarde von Bingen and Scott Joplin has some fairly fuzzy parameters).
I’ve asked myself this same question, and a hard number answer is hard to come by.
How many are “remembered?” Shit, I dunno. How many do you remember?
The Bruch violin concerto is perhaps such a piece. Although his Scottish Rhapsody gets an occassional airing. (He actually wrote two other violin concertos, so the fact his Concerto No. 1 is known as the concerto speaks volumes.)
Yes! There was a bit on NPR a couple years ago about a piece called “Over the Sea” by a Mexican composer. It’s hard to describe, but I know you’ve heard it in countless Popeye cartoons (The tune tends to connote trapeezes, drunkenness and seasickness), as well as at the end of Big Bad Voodoo Daddys’ “You and Me and the Bottle Makes Three” (Right before the guy says “Whaddya mean it’s closing time?”).
This is among the most ubiquitous classical (well, orchestral) riffs known, and I can’t even remember the composer’s name! I’d say that qualifies as a classical one-hit wonder.
The piece is Over the Waves by Juventino Rosas. The original Spanish title is Sobre las Olas .
George Lewis, the New Orleans traditional jazz clarinetist, did a jazz version of Over the Waves. Pretty unusual choice of music for traditional jazz, especially considering that it’s in waltz time.
Orff, yes. But certainly I’d take issue with Holst being a one-hit wonder. True, Mars is a cliche - but does Bolero’s equivalant status relegate Ravel to the same catagory?
I think we’d have to concede Holst. Ravel isn’t a good comparison; even the most casual classical music listener is probably aware of Daphnis & Chloé, Pavane pour une Infante Défunte, Tzigane, maybe the left-hand piano concerto, the string quartet, and a handful of other works. Even Orff has Catulli Carmina and Gassenhauer (which I understand was used in a Volkswagen ad). But you’d have to be pretty seriously into the repertoire to know any of Holst’s works beyond The Planets. My nomination for one-hit wonder is Albinoni.
OK, fair enough, maybe Holst is known by that one piece. And for one movement alone, at that. I don’t like it, though…
However…it’s more than a ‘casual’ classical listener that would know that much Ravel. I like to use my dad as a benchmark for such things, being a habitual Classic FM listener…he knows Bolero inside out, but would probably be puzzled by the string quartet.
Maybe you’re not aware of it, but “high school band” is, in itself, an Americanism. I’ve never seen or heard a high school band, let alone played in one.
Never knew that. I knew that high school field bands, or any field band for that matter, were an American thing, but I guess I just assumed that most Western countries had concert bands within the public schools. Hm.