Home Music Lane

It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes.

Exactly

Which is why I find it uninteresting and fruitless. Much more interesting and fun to find out what people actually like to listen to.

A couple of decades ago, Goulding came out with a book that tried to determine the greatest composers empirically. He used data from radio playlists of classical music stations, sales catalogs and recording lists of labels and retailers, etc. Based on these various sources, he compiled data on each work by each composer. His idea was to determine the greatest composers based on who was being played, how often, how many recordings were being made and their sales over a period of many years.

This is the only effort I've ever seen by anyone to actually try to use an objective research method and base rankings on quantified results. There are serious weaknesses with the methodology, of course, and I have problems with his list as a result. But is it any less credible than a person like the NY Times critic telling us who he chose, based on his own (basically subjective) reasons?

Listing the "greatest" will always be fraught with controversy and dissatisfaction. But you just cannot argue with personal favorites. If I say I derive great pleasure listening to Rachmaninoff, that is a fact that others cannot dispute. It matters not whether they enjoy listening to Rachmaninoff or prefer Bach instead.

I suppose critics, who make a living writing about music, feel obligated to try to proclaim that their list is "The 10 Greatest Composers of All Time," rather than "My Subjective List of the 10 Best Composers" or "My 10 Favorite Composers." Because they must try to maintain a superior credibility with their audience of readers. But that's all it really is. A personal list.

On a side note, here is a real research project. Randomly select 1,500 people as your test subjects. Hook them up to brain scanners, heart and breathing monitors, etc. Play classical music for them and track their physiological responses to the music. Lots and lots of tests with lots and lots of pieces of music, familiar and new. Then tabulate the results to determine the "greatest composers" based on the actual physiological effects of the music on people. We already know that music increases dopamine levels, that it causes involuntary physical responses (from toe tapping to spastic dancing to air guitar and faux conducting to relaxation to snoring). Which composers succeeded at writing music that provides the most discernible physiological effects?

"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)


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