Which Composers are Best Represented in Your Library?

[Florestan]

Meaning, composers of whose music you have the largest number of recordings in your library, including (multiple) duplicates.

No surprise in my case, the check last week yielded the following results

1. Mozart - 120 GB of music
2. Chopin - 118 GB
3. Schubert - 115 GB

How about you?

[DavidW]

I think at least 60% of my flac archive are Bach and Haydn.

[Todd]

Top ten composers by gigabytes of storage below, with two caveats:

1.) I have not ripped 97%+ of my opera recordings.

2.) Artist compilations / big boxes are excluded.  These represent the second largest subgroup of my collection. 


Composer list:
1.) Beethoven, 1885.025047741
2.) Bach, 478.079016602
3.) Mozart, 392.576780108
4.) Haydn, 333.99310731
5.) Schubert, 333.076783501
6.) Mahler, 219.602456358
7.) Brahms, 172.409008381
8.) Shostakovich, 154.852823377
9.) Liszt, 145.578184531
10.) Chopin, 135.541313184

[steve ridgway]

Looking at "songs" i.e. files - which may be movements of a larger work -

Scelsi - 297
Pierre Henry - 236
Schnittke - 228
Takemitsu - 157
Webern - 156
Ligeti - 146
Xenakis - 137
Crumb - 137
Penderecki - 126
Boulez - 115
Ives - 114

[Mapman]

By time:

1. Beethoven: 5 days
2. Mahler : 4 days

[Jo498]

Beethoven is clearly the first.
Because I have not ripped anything (with a few exceptions of discs with scratches or possible defects) I have to go by shelf space (Beethoven takes more than 3.5m) which is quite rough as some boxes are very compact while some others, e.g. opera boxes take disproportional amounts of space.
Next is probably Bach but because of the box problem, it could also be Haydn or Mozart that are next (all around 2.5m). In terms of multiple recordings of some pieces, Mozart and Bach are probably ahead of Haydn. Next would be Handel (a bit less than 2m). Then probably Schubert and Brahms. Composers with smaller oeuvres where I have inordinately many recordings of the same stuff are Chopin and Mahler.

[Mirror Image]

If I thoroughly examined my collection, I'm sure there will be many heavy-hitters with the main ones being: Debussy, Strauss, Sibelius, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Bartók, Ravel, Vaughan Williams, Martinů, Bruckner, Mahler, Dvořák, Villa-Lobos, Saint-Saëns, Berlioz, Nielsen, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev.

[vandermolen]

No surprises I guess:

Vaughan Williams
Miaskovsky
Walton (especially Symphony No.1 - I must have every recording)
Copland (espec. 3rd Symphony)
Bruckner (espec. 9th Symphony)
Shostakovich (espec. symphonies 4, 10 and 11)
Prokofiev: Symphony No.6
Bax
Bernstein's 'Jeremiah Symphony'
Bliss
Arnold
Alwyn
Hanson
Glazunov
Moeran
Sibelius

[Papy Oli]

it used to be Mahler (17 days worth) and Beethoven (11 days worth).

then JS Bach came along with his cantatas and stuff 

18+ days worth...

[amw]

I set an arbitrary threshold of 10 GB, which later proved to be a mistake, so I raised it to 20 GB.

Beethoven - 221.22 GB (not counting my collection of Beethoven string quartets, which accounts for another ~50 GB)
Mozart - 148.68 GB
Schubert - 130.25 GB
Bach JS - 128.99 GB
Brahms - 114.24 GB
Haydn - 105.78 GB
Schumann R - 86.61 GB
Dvořak - 55.73 GB
Shostakovich - 49.90 GB
Chopin - 43.19 GB
Scarlatti D - 39.31 GB
Bartók - 36.46 GB
Mendelssohn - 34.74 GB
Martinů - 30.19 GB
Cage - 28.01 GB
Bruckner - 27.34 GB
Tchaikovsky - 26.33 GB
Prokofiev - 25.75 GB
Sibelius - 25.73 GB
Mahler - 25.58 GB
Reger - 25.46 GB
Liszt - 25.21 GB
Hindemith - 22.37 GB
Stockhausen - 21.99 GB
Weinberg - 20.16 GB
Fauré - 20.02 GB

The 10-20 GB range:

Feldman - 18.74 GB
Nielsen - 18.05 GB
Messiaen - 16.75 GB
Debussy - 15.90 GB
Janáček - 15.03 GB
Ravel - 14.91 GB
Stravinsky - 14.52 GB
Saint-Saëns - 14.27 GB
Medtner - 14.08 GB
Vivaldi - 13.94 GB
Reicha A - 13.67 GB
Schoenberg - 13.58 GB
Hummel - 13.27 GB
Anonymous - 13.22 GB
Rachmaninov - 13.06 GB
Spohr - 12.79 GB
Handel - 12.66 GB
Myaskovsky - 11.15 GB
Henze - 11.00 GB
Xenakis - 10.97 GB
Berlioz - 10.95 GB
Strauss R - 10.89 GB
Szymanowski - 10.63 GB
Telemann - 10.41 GB
Sciarrino - 10.09 GB

Among my favourite composers not on the list, the most obvious omission is Poulenc, who slides in just below the mark at 9.50 GB (Elliott Carter, Grieg and Vaughan Williams are in a similar range). Also Kurtág, who ends up around 6.15 GB because of his tendency to write extremely tiny pieces (Scriabin is in a similar range).

I should definitely make a shuffle playlist that excludes all of these composers just to see who ends up being most listened to in the lineup of "composers under 10GB". (Fun fact: the top 27 composers account for 36% of my music library. The next 23 account for 8%.)

[MusicTurner]

I don't have many downloads, but the LEAST represented in my old-media collection among major composers, compared to the complete oeuvre, and post-1700, are probably

- Rossini (but still maybe 15 CDs)
- Paganini (maybe 5 CDs)
- Puccini (but still maybe 20 CDs)
- Glass, P. (~1 CD)
- Stockhausen (~5 CDs)
- Orff (~3 CDs)
- Reich (~1 CD)
- Adams (~2 CDs)
- Parry (~4 CDs)
- Stanford (~3 CDs)
- Adam (~ 1 CD)
- Preisner (1 CD)
- Nyman (1/2 CD)
- Dun (none)
- Rejcha (~3 CDs)
- Xenakis (~4 CDs)
- Cage (~8 CDs)

The MOST represented would simply be the generally assumed, major 18-19th-20th century composers, depending on their composed oeuvre.

[steve ridgway]

Hundreds of Gb LOL. I have electroacoustic composers (Pierre Henry in my list) on a separate card in my music player and what you'd more likely call classical composers (mostly instrumental and vocal) fit in the 64 Gb internal memory. I also have the whole lot in MP3 format on a 64 Gb USB stick in the car. It seems plenty for me.

[amw]

Honestly, I can fit most of the music I really care about on a 512 GB iPhone with room to spare, just by virtue of only keeping one version of each piece and leaving out all the stuff I'm unlikely to want to listen to on a train or airplane (opera, spoken word, anything super quiet) as well as all the composers I rarely ever listen to (quite a lot). But it's more fun to have the big library.

[Leo K.]

I would have to say:

Mozart
Mahler
Beethoven
Schubert
Bach
Ives
Haydn
Bruckner
Schoenberg
Berg
Webern

[Todd]

Honestly, I can fit most of the music I really care about on a 512 GB iPhone with room to spare, just by virtue of only keeping one version of each piece and leaving out all the stuff I'm unlikely to want to listen to on a train or airplane (opera, spoken word, anything super quiet) as well as all the composers I rarely ever listen to (quite a lot). But it's more fun to have the big library.

I might need a terabyte.  $45 at Walmart.  Storage is irrelevant now.



Agree about the library.  It's fun to randomly listen to an obscure composer or performer I thought might be worth hearing a couple decades ago to see if the recordings hold up. 

Of course, with streaming, one needn't purchase almost anything now. 

[SonicMan46]

Just went through my database and quickly counted up the CDs for composers that had at least 20 discs - had quite a few in the 10-20 CD range - but the usual suspects for me w/ the top 4 being JS Bach, Joseph Haydn, WA Mozart and LV Beethoven - the only surprise for me was that I was up to 30 for George Onslow (could be the GMG Forum record!  )  Dave

[DavidW]

Just went through my database and quickly counted up the CDs for composers that had at least 20 discs - had quite a few in the 10-20 CD range - but the usual suspects for me w/ the top 4 being JS Bach, Joseph Haydn, WA Mozart and LV Beethoven - the only surprise for me was that I was up to 30 for George Onslow (could be the GMG Forum record!  )  Dave

Probably due to our former Onslow fan.  Looks like we also favor the same composers.

[SonicMan46]

Probably due to our former Onslow fan.  Looks like we also favor the same composers.

Hi David - couple of threads on Onslow - longest one HERE - now up to 2 pages - 

Snyprrr was active on the first page - assume 'our former GMGer' into String Quartets!  Dave

[amw]

the only surprise for me was that I was up to 30 for George Onslow (could be the GMG Forum record!  ) 

Not quite—I have 34! Although two of those are multi-composer discs (Cherubini/Onslow String Quintets by the Diogenes Quartett, which is very good incidentally, and the "Romantic Piano Quintets" compilation with the Nepomuk Fortepiano Quintet, also containing works by Cramer, Dussek, Hummel, Limmer, Ries and Schubert) so I guess it's more like 32 full "albums". Onslow's quintets, quartets, and chamber music with piano are some of my favourite early romantic examples of the genre from the generation before Schubert/Schumann/Chopin/et al.

("What Onslow albums do you recommend, amw?" That's a great question. If you're into string chamber music from the early 19th century—perhaps you've enjoyed music by Hummel or Spohr or Dussek in the past, or perhaps you're simply looking for something similar to Haydn and early-period Beethoven—I would recommend starting with either L'Archibudelli's collection of three string quintets or the Quatuor Diotima's collection of three string quartets, depending on your level of comfort with period instruments. For the chamber music with piano, the Nepomuk Fortepiano Quintet album I mentioned is worth it if (again) you're ok with period instruments; if not, try Gianluca Luisi and the Ensemble Concertant Frankfurt's album of two Piano Xtets (the Sextet Op. 30 and the Quintet Op. 79bis, for piano and string quartet, which in turn is an arrangement of the Septet for piano, strings and winds Op. 79. Onslow arranged his own works quite a bit.) or look for a good album of the Sonatas op. 16 for violin, viola or cello and piano.)

(You weren't asking that question? Well, too bad. You heard all about it anyway.)

[Jo498]

70 Boccherini (I have about 25 and thought this was a lot...) and 77 CPE Bach as well as 32 Joh. Chr. might be records, though.
65 Telemann did seem a lot at first glance but he has such a huge oeuvre, I have over 40 myself.

For Onslow on modern instruments jpc/cpo has/had a bunch of string quartets and some larger ensembles with the Mandelring Q. but I also have and apparently liked enough to keep (despite not having listened to Onslow in years, I guess) the Archibudelli and the mixed Nepomuk piano quintets