I don't want a poll. It should include composers represented by a single work, all media inclusive. If you only know approximately, give your best estimate. I know something like this has been done before, though I don't recall seeing it. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how various peoples collections are by composer, as opposed to how many performances of the same work they have.
BTW, if this is inappropriate to General Classical Music, I ask the moderator to please move it to where it belongs. Thanks.
I'm sure I have hundreds of composers, but I don't keep a data base so the number is unknown. It's a great collection notable for its breadth and depth. Then again, plenty of folks would probably think it sucks.
Quote from: Don on August 21, 2008, 03:23:24 PM
I'm sure I have hundreds of composers, but I don't keep a data base so the number is unknown. It's a great collection notable for its breadth and depth. Then again, plenty of folks would probably think it sucks.
A collection of that size is unlikely to suck by any reasonable standard.
:) I would like to get some hard numbers, though. In that part of my collection that's been ripped (80%) I have 94 composers. I expect there won't be many more added when I finish the project.
At the last rough count, 169. And rising. :)
Low estimate is 1500.
Probably more. I have many collections: several Czech CDs with four to six different composers, many of the Musik in Deutschland, Donaueschinger and Cultures Electroniques CDs, each with several composers per disc.
Does one count Crawling with Tarts as one composer or two? And what about AMM and MEV and the like?
244 on CDs--they're cataloged. I'm not about to go through all the LPs to extract all the obscure composers for winds and guitar on compilations.
Not counting jazz or any other form, including the quasi-classical crossovers recorded by the likes of Kronos Quartet, Yo Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and so on (I do love Kronos's rendition of Purple Haze, nonetheless!).
Quote from: some guy on August 21, 2008, 04:19:23 PM
Low estimate is 1500......
Some Guy - that's a remarkable number of 'classical' composers to own - just curious, how many CDs do you have? :)
For myself, I just quickly went through the pages of my classical database - just
over 400 composers listed; but I do collect a lot of the 'unknowns', so may have just 1 or 2 discs of quite a few of these forgotten composers - ;D
SonicMan, I have around three thousand CDs. Small but respectable collection. (A friend of mine has upwards of 15,000 CDs and many more LPs, that's how I gauge small.)
Aside from the collection CDs, each with four to eight different composers, I burned many of my LPs to CD before giving them away. (To friends with tiny collections.) And those CDs have many of them several composers on each.
There's lots of overlap, of course. Two CDs of music by Klaus Huber and other Huber pieces here and there. But with things like the Sub Rosa A-chronology collections, with sometimes a dozen different composers on each CD.... Well, you see how easy it is to have 1500 composers, even with the dozens of CDs devoted to individuals like Berlioz and Dvorak and Prokofiev and Cage and such.
Oh, it's fun!!
My focus is rather more narrow. I have works by about 35 composers but I have pretty much everything written by those 35.
Well, don't get me wrong, I do have everything (or close) by about 45 people and many CDs (six or more) by about twenty others.
It's just that all those CDs with anywhere from four to fourteen people per disc really pump the numbers up. Now, if only I could remember all those people. You know, like Jan Slimáček or Dajuin Yao.
5 < X < 2,001
Seriously, I actually took the time to count all of the classical composers I have listed on my ipod and came up with 480 (481 if I count both Rachmaninov and Rachmaninoff) ;D.
Since most of my compilations and 20th century composer recordings aren't on my ipod, I think I could easily double that number for my total.
Hornteacher, I'm in the same boat. I have about 40 different composers represented, so far.
Quote from: Szykniej on August 21, 2008, 06:20:21 PM
Seriously, I actually took the time to count all of the classical composers I have listed on my ipod and came up with 480 (481 if I count both Rachmaninov and Rachmaninoff) ;D.
Don't forget
Rakhmaninov! 482.
Did we sneak some
Henning in among those 482?
454 on CD. I've never catalogued my classical LP collection (somewhere around 3000 LPs) but I'd estimate there are another 150-200 composers there (much early music and contemporary that I haven't duplicated on CD).
Sarge
Ok, let me count....... expect a reply from me by Monday.
Quote from: karlhenning on August 22, 2008, 06:52:03 AM
Don't forget Rakhmaninov! 482.
Did we sneak some Henning in among those 482?
Damn, I forgot my Henning CD (it's not catalogued). Make my count 455 then 8)
Sarge
Quote from: GGGGRRREEG on August 22, 2008, 07:05:22 AM
Ok, let me count....... expect a reply from me by Monday.
I got to 5 and lost track. I give up.
Quote from: GGGGRRREEG on August 22, 2008, 07:07:00 AM
I got to 5 and lost track. I give up.
I laughed at that one - very good.
Having a more concentrated focus than most, I'm confident that my number of composers is quite low for the number of discs I own. Also, I'm not much of a fan of compilations. For example, I'd never purchase a disc such as the "Fiesta" one from Dudamel.
Quote from: Don on August 22, 2008, 07:12:38 AM
I laughed at that one - very good.
True story, too. Most of my CDs are copied, so I got to Brahms, Bartok, and Berg and they were sort of mixed together- i was thinking, "wait, did i already count Brahms? did I skip counting Berg, and now do i have to count him?"
Quote from: Don on August 22, 2008, 07:12:38 AM
For example, I'd never purchase a disc such as the "Fiesta" one from Dudamel.
You mean this?
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61G3uomE0QL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
:o
Quote from: GGGGRRREEG on August 22, 2008, 07:20:11 AM
True story, too. Most of my CDs are copied, so I got to Brahms, Bartok, and Berg and they were sort of mixed together- i was thinking, "wait, did i already count Brahms? did I skip counting Berg, and now do i have to count him?"
You mean this?
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61G3uomE0QL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
:o
That's the one. As it happens, a friend of mine in Moline sent me a copy of "Fiesta" that I quickly handed off to my daughter.
you didn't review it on amazon, did you?
the guy who gave it 1 star has a different name, but...... LOL
Quote from: GGGGRRREEG on August 22, 2008, 07:32:20 AM
you didn't review it on amazon, did you?
No - I don't do reviews on Amazon.
Quote from: Don on August 22, 2008, 07:34:30 AM
No - I don't do reviews on Amazon.
Oh, okay, I'll leave it at that. You can find out on your own what I'm laughing about. ;D
I have one house....oops...wrong answer... been listening to too much politics.
A sloppy fast count....hey! that's as good as I do gratis wise....1050
Quote from: karlhenning on August 22, 2008, 06:52:03 AM
Did we sneak some Henning in among those 482?
I wish I had a Henning CD to include, but I understand they're very rare and hard to find.
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on August 22, 2008, 07:06:07 AM
Damn, I forgot my Henning CD (it's not catalogued). Make my count 455 then 8)
Sarge
Is it for sale? ;D
Quote from: johnQpublic on August 22, 2008, 07:47:33 AM
I have one house....oops...wrong answer... been listening to too much politics.
HA! ;D
Quote from: Szykniej on August 22, 2008, 07:48:53 AM
I wish I had a Henning CD to include, but I understand they're very rare and hard to find.
Well, I simply don't know how some of these rarities have not found their way to you,
Tony.
We can do something about that, you know.
Quote from: GGGGRRREEG on August 22, 2008, 07:38:57 AM
Oh, okay, I'll leave it at that. You can find out on your own what I'm laughing about. ;D
You can't make fun of a guy who knows all about electric shavers. :D
Perhaps 150 composers, 130 at least.
Well, I have something about 110 composers, it looks rather little with comparison to others. ;D ;D
Still many others to discover. ;)
So we have wide and narrow collections, but keep in mind the relative size of the collection. I have less than 400 CDs or mp3 equivalents, and these contain about 100 composers. If you have as many composers as CDs/LPs than you're casting a much wider net than those of us at 25-35%.
Probably over 500. I have large batches of some composers (the usual suspects), but since I'm omnivorous I have tons of single discs with one or more little known composers being represented. And I have some Henning and Molineux, of course :D !
I didn't see Harry posting here ? Did he ? He'll certainly break the bank ! :D Youhooo, Harry?
It is not Harry's habit to brag about the size of his CD collection. He prefers to be modest about it. So, please, don't embarrass him.
but we wanna know, Harry!
Quote from: drogulus on August 24, 2008, 08:57:30 AM
So we have wide and narrow collections, but keep in mind the relative size of the collection. I have less than 400 CDs or mp3 equivalents, and these contain about 100 composers. If you have as many composers as CDs/LPs than you're casting a much wider net than those of us at 25-35%.
I think my (almost) 170 composers spread across about 2,000 CDs seems a fairly good balance ... although, things
are unfairly weighted in favour of Beethoven. I must have about 280 CDs of recordings of his work.
Quote from: Mark on August 25, 2008, 09:39:31 AM
I think my (almost) 170 composers spread across about 2,000 CDs seems a fairly good balance ... although, things are unfairly weighted in favour of Beethoven. I must have about 280 CDs of recordings of his work.
Society's to blame.http://www.youtube.com/v/8dehAiSJHZM
Quote from: Mark on August 25, 2008, 09:39:31 AM
I think my (almost) 170 composers spread across about 2,000 CDs seems a fairly good balance ... although, things are unfairly weighted in favour of Beethoven. I must have about 280 CDs of recordings of his work.
There's nothing unfair about Beethoven representing more than 10% of your collection. Bach must be over 20% of my collection and that's totally fair given my preferences.
I've never done a count, though I'd guess probably several hundred at this point. My collection is dominated by the greats – Mozart, Beethoven, Mahler, et al – but I can't resist exploring some lesser known composers. I've started the long, slow process of ripping my CD collection (I'm thinking I'll be at it for a year or two, if I finish), so at the end maybe I'll know how composers are in my collection.
Quote from: James on August 25, 2008, 09:54:07 AM
enough
Enough is okay, but don't you feel that you have just the right number of composers (given your tastes)?
Quote from: Todd on August 25, 2008, 12:37:10 PM
I've never done a count, though I'd guess probably several hundred at this point. My collection is dominated by the greats – Mozart, Beethoven, Mahler, et al – but I can't resist exploring some lesser known composers. I've started the long, slow process of ripping my CD collection (I'm thinking I'll be at it for a year or two, if I finish), so at the end maybe I'll know how composers are in my collection.
I think your estimate of the time it takes is about right, or even a bit optimistic, given a collection several times larger than my own. This is true if you rip 3 or 4 CDs a day, a figure which seems low, perhaps, but really isn't when you consider tagging, transcoding (for a portable player), and other organizing chores. I've been going slowly, trying different programs to deal with problem discs (you'll find at least a few of these), reripping to correct the occasional error, as well as optimal compression rates to preserve SQ for portability.
The whole process would go faster if I just took a pile of discs and ripped them, then left all the other chores to another session just for that purpose. I do it my way mostly because I'm not really in a hurry, and I enjoy what I'm doing.
:) I have a question for those with large collections.
How does having several hundred composers available to listen to affect your relationship to their music? Can you evaluate, understand, or appreciate 1000 composers in the same way you do 100? Or is it just up to individual capacities? I would think that I couldn't listen to so many different composers the same way I listen to the limited number I have, which I can imagine increasing by a factor of 2 but hardly by a factor of 10.
Quote from: drogulus on August 25, 2008, 01:01:38 PM
I have a question for those with large collections. How does having several hundred composers available to listen to affect your relationship to their music? Can you evaluate, understand, or appreciate 1000 composers in the same way you do 100?
No problem - I just take them one at a time. Lately I've been listening to the music of Boris Goltz. Once I feel that I fully understand and appreciate his musical idiom, I'll move on to a different unfamilar composer. Patience is the key.
Quote from: drogulus on August 25, 2008, 01:01:38 PMHow does having several hundred composers available to listen to affect your relationship to their music?
That's a good question. For me, I am very interested in relatively few composers and listen to a lot of recordings of their music (Beethoven and Bartok jump immediately to mind), and I have a pretty good grasp of what I like in terms of interpretation and what the music means to me. For "new" composers I have to go through the same process of familiarizing myself with their works that I did with my current favorites. Sometimes they become favorites (eg, Szymanowski and Enescu several years ago, and more recently Nancarrow and Balada) and sometimes not (eg, Reger, Blitzstein, Ferneyhough). Of course, even if a composer isn't generally my cup of tea, it often pays to try new works from them. I may never quite get inside the music the same way, though.
Quote from: drogulus on August 25, 2008, 01:01:38 PM
I have a question for those with large collections. How does having several hundred composers available to listen to affect your relationship to their music? Can you evaluate, understand, or appreciate 1000 composers in the same way you do 100? Or is it just up to individual capacities? I would think that I couldn't listen to so many different composers the same way I listen to the limited number I have, which I can imagine increasing by a factor of 2 but hardly by a factor of 10.
Well, you asked several questions there, but I think I can do them all with one answer, how'd that be?
When I started out, I only knew a dozen or so, and spent the early years getting more pieces by the dozen I liked best. And each new composer would get the same treatment: me buying as many of their recordings as I could find. (I remember Nielsen and Gerhard being particularly difficult to find in the LP days.) As I discovered new composers, my interest in the older ones would diminish, but only for awhile. What I've found overall is that pretty much everything gets better the more I listen, the more people I have to listen to. The more people I like, the more people I like. (You understand that I've been using "new" to mean "new to me," though generally I have gone forward chronologically as well, being now right around today. I go to concerts of mostly world premieres, in some cases of pieces that were finished the day of the concert. And while there's a pretty sharp drop off at 2006 in my collection, I do have many privately recorded CDs of music from the past 18 months or so.)
In brief, I used to enjoy Ligeti enough to buy several CDs. But after several years of Klaus Huber and György Kurtág and Helmut Lachenmann and Chaya Czernowin, among others, I go back to Ligeti pieces I once found kind of dull and enjoy them thoroughly. And just imagine how easy and pretty Schoenberg and Carter and Boulez sound after decades of Marclay and Karkowski and Merzbow. No really. Imagine it.
I think it's a question of relating a composer's idiom to a sub group, with some sub-groups part of a larger group, etc. So none comes as an entity unconnected with any other previously known composer (or genre).
some guy, your description matches up with my experience pretty well. I just can't imagine the whole process a whole order of magnitude larger unless I live to be a hundred or so and give up all other activities. That means speeding everything up, and I can't imagine doing that or wanting to. So, it seems clear that the process of comprehension and appreciation is not exactly the same for everyone. I can't begin to imagine that my recent absorption and reevaluation of Britten, a recent example, could have taken much less time than the weeks it has taken, though if I had a long waiting list of unheard recordings that might change my behavior.
I've always bought recordings singly and listened to them immediately, though not always repeatedly. Sometimes I come back a year later, after reading something here perhaps, and begin a thorough immersion. This would indicate that the pattern of the individual just might be set with shopping and buying habits. The size of a collection may depend ultimately on whether you're the shotgun or sniper rifle type, and the listening habits follow from rather than determine what you look for.
Quote from: some guy on August 25, 2008, 02:23:16 PM
No really. Imagine it.
OT, (it's my thread
:P) but I
never find it difficult to listen to these composers. I just note that I react differently to what I hear, and that the desire to
relisten goes missing. Boulez doesn't sound ugly to me, in fact it's very much the opposite. The difference is in how (or whether) the music is retained in memory. Some kind of reconstruction goes on in the imaginative process to create the illusion of "meaning" (or meaning, if you like). Without this the music would be inaccessible to the emotional equipment used to tell you you want to hear it again.
Alternative answer: You can't make me.
:)
Haha, I know I can't! Your description of your reevaluation of Britten reminds me of my experience with Sibelius back in LP days (moving along from 78s, where I started). I'd heard and liked the warhorse, Valse Triste, but a couple of other things left me completely cold. So I went to the big downtown library in Sacramento, loaded up on all their Sibelius LPs, and a week later was a big Sibelius fan.
It was a great lesson to have learned. From then on, I was never bothered if I didn't "get" something right away. Or even after repeated listenings. I knew that if it were to "click" it would click, and if it didn't, "Oh, well."
And Lilas, you articulate exactly what I had tried to do but then just gave up on. So thanks for stepping in there with that!
Quote from: drogulus on August 21, 2008, 03:18:42 PM
I don't want a poll. It should include composers represented by a single work, all media inclusive. If you only know approximately, give your best estimate. I know something like this has been done before, though I don't recall seeing it. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how various peoples collections are by composer, as opposed to how many performances of the same work they have.
BTW, if this is inappropriate to General Classical Music, I ask the moderator to please move it to where it belongs. Thanks.
There are 140 composers in my MP3 folder, but I'm sure you could quadruple that and not be anywhere close to the number I have on vinyl/CD. I notice, just offhandedly, that I have never ripped any Feldman, Lindberg, Takemitsu, Korte, Kupferman, Szymanowski, Kabalevsky -- well, you see what I mean.
I've never even heard of Korte and Kupferman :o. But then I suppose we all have our niches of special interests. That's one of the main reasons I'm a member here. So many fascinating discoveries !!
Quote from: gomro on August 27, 2008, 06:34:35 PM
There are 140 composers in my MP3 folder, but I'm sure you could quadruple that and not be anywhere close to the number I have on vinyl/CD. I notice, just offhandedly, that I have never ripped any Feldman, Lindberg, Takemitsu, Korte, Kupferman, Szymanowski, Kabalevsky -- well, you see what I mean.
Soon (meaning a few months, perhaps, since I'm not in a hurry), I'll have every composer in my collection ripped to the archive, minus new acquisitions, and they will go in quickly once the backlog is finished.
666. Which is actually a rather scary number :)
Oh, thank goodness...it's actually 667! I have just bought a CD of orchestral music by Mikolajus Ciurlionis which I haven't yet catalogued.
Phew!
Quote from: Dundonnell on September 02, 2008, 01:49:19 PM
666. Which is actually a rather scary number :)
I've decided to go for 200 composers, a goal I'll never reach, so I don't have to worry about what happens if I do.
:) Quote from: Dundonnell on September 02, 2008, 01:52:12 PM
Oh, thank goodness...it's actually 667! I have just bought a CD of orchestral music by Mikolajus Ciurlionis which I haven't yet catalogued.
Phew!
The asteroid that was due to hit the Earth just blew up harmlessly.
:)
Quote from: Don on August 25, 2008, 01:14:23 PM
No problem - I just take them one at a time. Lately I've been listening to the music of Boris Goltz. Once I feel that I fully understand and appreciate his musical idiom, I'll move on to a different unfamilar composer. Patience is the key.
Seems very similar to what I do, though I seem to have 3 - 5 simultaneously on my plate for a period of 3-4 months up to a year. Last year it has been Røntgen (as well as some explorings into Dutch music in general), Sallinen, Ligeti, d'Indy (and some other French romantics), some Schoenberg, and I feel Tippett may be coming on. Some of these I'm still exploring. I often do explore "around" a composer, that is I listen to his less known contemporary or compratiots writing in a similar idiom and find that very rewarding. I also have periods where I do unfamiliar works by a composer I know reasonably well, had a period here I bought lot of Beethovens less familiar works and listened to them.
Haven't heard of Goltz though.
Quote from: erato on September 02, 2008, 09:43:35 PM
Seems very similar to what I do, though I seem to have 3 - 5 simultaneously on my plate for a period of 3-4 months up to a year. Last year it has been Røntgen (as well as some explorings into Dutch music in general), Sallinen, Ligeti, d'Indy (and some other French romantics), some Schoenberg, and I feel Tippett may be coming on. Some of these I'm still exploring. I often do explore "around" a composer, that is I listen to his less known contemporary or compratiots writing in a similar idiom and find that very rewarding. I also have periods where I do unfamiliar works by a composer I know reasonably well, had a period here I bought lot of Beethovens less familiar works and listened to them.
Haven't heard of Goltz though.
Neither had I until Music & Arts sent me a complimentary copy of a Goltz disc they will soon be releasing.
Only dozens, but I might not be typical of the whole group because I've only made a small handful of cd purchases over the past couple of years. I would prefer to discover different music by streaming radio online and save the cd purchases for music I already know that I'll love. This is of course completely different from a couple of years ago when I was in grad school.
Berlioz, Shostakovich and Henning are the essentials, anyway, David ;D
I have no idea how many composers I have in my collection. Just this morning, I put on an Aquarius CD and, to my surprise, I have a Cambodian composer in my collection! Ung's music is very good!
1067
Ha ha (a joke partly on me with my dumb life).
Here're my files, once again-
http://www.box.net/shared/msy3l7zhnd
http://www.box.net/shared/isfjzp1ljy
(I have hardly any CDs today though.)
I just counted my folders (all my CDs are ripped on my hard drive and sorted by composer) and it comes out to about 540, and yes, i've listened to all of them, if only briefly. Most of them are just the product of exploration. Eventually i plan of narrowing down to about less then a dozen of composers per era.
I'm not systematic, so a whole century can go by with no composer in it. I'll fill in the larger blank areas eventually.
Your definition of "era" seems to be a mite vague, Josquin. My discs are sorted by country, and for the larger ones, chronologically. But if forced to define eras, I'd limit myself to pre-1550, then pre-1700s. And then I don' think I could distinguish 'eras' anymore. There's a continuum and consequent blurring of the timeline. Sometimes Bach seems more 'modern' than Handel, and late Haydn more advanced than early Beethoven, etc.