# Most prolific musician ever?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prolific-musician-ever/201408>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 13, 2003, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prolific-musician-ever/201408 "2003-09-13T17:24:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Already\_in\_Use](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Already\_in\_Use](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Already_in_Use)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prolific-musician-ever/201408/21 "2003-09-14T00:56:40Z")

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Heh, when I saw the thread title, I immediately thought of Frank Zappa and Wesley Willis.

I don’t know much about Willie Nelson, but I think he released a whole lot of albums.

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**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prolific-musician-ever/201408/22 "2003-09-14T01:30:54Z")

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Ravi Shankar.

> **[Ravi Shankar](https://www.ravishankar.org/)**
>
> Ravi Shankar Foundation

I see they are looking for donations of any of his original works on 78’s. That alone is impressive.

I’ll stack this list of credentials up against anyone, anytime, anywhere:

[http://www.ravishankar.org/bio.html](http://www.ravishankar.org/bio.html)

This man is a deity.

Check out his daughter’s site too, she’s both exceptionally beautiful and exceptionally talented.

[http://www.anoushkashankar.com/](http://www.anoushkashankar.com/)

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**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prolific-musician-ever/201408/23 "2003-09-14T01:54:14Z")

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And Norah Jones isn’t bad looking either (she’s another of Ravi Shankar’s daughters.)

Johnny Cash may have _recorded_ over 1500 songs, but he didn’t write anything near that many.

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**Author:** ![Qwertyasdfg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Qwertyasdfg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwertyasdfg)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prolific-musician-ever/201408/24 "2003-09-14T05:22:10Z")

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My orchestra teacher in 9th grade said Telemann was the most prolific composer ever, I don’t know if thats true though. He said Mozart was the 2nd. Bach I would have thought beat them both but I don’t really know. Those 3 sound like good candidates, especially Mozart since he composed starting at a very young age.

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**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-prolific-musician-ever/201408/25 "2003-09-14T14:16:16Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Qwertyasdfg \*  
> \*\*My orchestra teacher in 9th grade said Telemann was the most prolific composer ever, I don’t know if thats true though. He said Mozart was the 2nd. Bach I would have thought beat them both but I don’t really know. Those 3 sound like good candidates, especially Mozart since he composed starting at a very young age. \*\*

In terms of sheer number of compositions, Mozart’s catalog is in the 500s, while Bach wrote over 1,000 works. Of course Bach lived much longer than Mozart, but I think even in terms of annual output he has the edge. OTOH, Mozart wrote more large-scale works, operas in particular.

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