Magnum Opus

The term "magnum opus" is reserved for an artist's greatest achievement. In some cases, the artist, the public, and critics all agree upon the work that is worthy of such distinction; in others, it takes over 200 years before a consensus begins to emerge, informed by the composer's place in the repertoire; and in yet other cases, there is no consensus, and there need not be one. If you, however, are looking for one great work to introduce you to a composer, then you couldn't do much better than to refer to this list, which I compiled based on scrupulous research.

I must give credit to the editors at http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/best-classic-top10.html. Their classical music lists are well-informed, and I agreed with nearly all of their 39 choices for a composer's "top work."

Adams, John - Nixon in China
Albeniz, Isaac - Iberia
Albinoni, Tomaso Giovanni - Oboe Concerto in D Minor, Op. 9, No. 2
Bach, Carl Philippe Emanuel - 6 Hamburg Symphonies, Wq. 182
Bach, Johann Sebastian - Mass in B Minor
Balakirev, Mily Alexeyevich - Tamara
Barber, Samuel - Adagio for Strings
Bartok, Bela - Concerto for Orchestra
Bax, Arnold - Tintagel
Beach, Amy Marcy Cheney - Symphony in E Minor "Gaelic"
Beethoven, Ludwig von - Symphony No. 9 "Choral"
Bellini, Vincenzo - Norma
Berg, Alban - Violin Concerto "To the Memory of an Angel"
Berio, Luciano - Sequenza I for Flute solo
Berlioz, Hector - Symphonie Fantastique
Bernstein, Leonard - Symphonic Dances from "West Side Story"
Berwald, Franz Adolf - Symphony No. 3 "Singuliere"
Bizet, Georges - Carmen
Boccherini, Luigi - String Quintet in E Major, Op. 11, No. 5
Borodin, Alexander - Symphony No. 2
Boulez, Pierre - Le marteau sans maitre
Brahms, Johannes - Symphony No. 4
Britten, Benjamin - War Requiem
Bruch, Max - Violin Concerto No. 1
Bruckner, Anton - Symphony No. 7
Buxtehude, Dietrich - Prelude, Fugue and Chaconne for Organ in C Major, BuxWV137
Byrd, William - My Ladye Nevells Booke
Cage, John - Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano
Carter, Elliott - String Quartet No. 2
Chabrier, Emmanuel - Espana
Chausson, Ernest - Poeme for Violin and Orchestra
Chopin, Frederic - Preludes, Op. 28
Copland, Aaron - Appalachian Spring
Corelli, Arcangelo - Concerti grossi, Op. 6
Couperin, Francois - Pieces de clavicin, Book 3, Ordre 13 in B Minor
Debussy, Claude - La Mer
Delibes, Leo - Lakme
Delius, Frederick - On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring
Donizetti, Gaetano - Lucia di Lammermoor
Dowland, John - Lachrimae
Dufay, Guillaume - Mass "Se La Face ay pale"
Dukas, Paul - The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Dvorak, Antonin - Symphony No. 9 "From the New World"
Elgar, Edward - Cello Concerto in E Minor
Enescu, George - Romanian Rhapsodies
Falla, Manuel de - El amor brujo
Faure, Gabriel - Requiem
Franck, Cesar Auguste - Violin Sonata in A Major
Gabrieli, Giovanni - In Ecclesiis
Gershwin, George - Rhapsody in Blue
Gesualdo, Carlo - Madrigals, Book VI
Gibbons, Orlando - First Set of Madrigals and Mottets
Glass, Philip - Einstein on the Beach
Glazunov, Alexander - Violin Concerto in A Minor
Glinka, Mikhail - Russlin and Ludmilla
Gluck, Christoph von - Orpheus and Eurydice
Gorecki, Henryk - Symphony No. 3 "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs"
Gounod, Charles Francois - Faust
Grainger, Percy - Lincolnshire Posy
Granados, Enrique - Goyescas
Grieg, Edvard - Piano Concerto in A Minor
Handel, George Frideric - Messiah
Haydn, Franz Joseph - The Creation
Hildegard of Bingen - Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum
Hindemith, Paul - Mathis der Maler (Symphony)
Holst, Gustav - The Planets
Hummel, Johann Nepomuk - Piano Concerto No. 2
Ives, Charles - Three Places in New England
Janacek, Leos - Glagolitic Mass
Josquin Desprez - Missa Pange Lingua
Kabalevsky, Dmitri - The Comedians, for small orchestra (suite)
Khachaturian, Aram - Gayane
Kodaly, Zoltan - Hary Janos Suite
Korngold, Erich - Violin Concerto in D Major
Kreisler, Fritz - Liebesleid
Lalo, Edouardo - Symphonie espagnole
Lassus, Orlande de - Penitential Psalms of David
Lehar, Franz - Die lustige Witwe
Leoncavallo, Ruggiero - I Pagliacci
Leonin - Viderunt Omnes
Ligeti, Gyorgy - Atmospheres
Liszt, Franz - Piano Sonata in B Minor
Lully, Jean-Baptiste - Atys
Machaut, Guillaume de - Messe de Nostre Dame
Mahler, Gustav - Symphony No. 5
Martinu, Bohuslav - Double Concerto for 2 String Orchestras, Piano & Timpani
Mascagni, Pietro - Cavalleria Rusticana
Massenet, Jules - Werther
Mendelssohn, Felix - Midsummer Night's Dream Incidental Music
Messiaen, Olivier - Quartet for the End of Time
Meyerbeer, Giacomo - Les Huguenots
Milhaud, Darius - La Creation du Monde
Monteverdi, Claudio - Vespro della Beata Vergine
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus - Don Giovanni
Mussorgsky, Modest - Pictures at an Exhibition
Nielsen, Carl - Symphony No. 5
Offenbach, Jacques - The Tales of Hoffman
Pachelbel, Johann - Canon and Gigue in D Major
Paganini, Nicolo - Caprices for Solo Violin
Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da - Missa Papae Marcelli
Part, Arvo - Tabula Rasa
Pergolesi, Giovanni Battista - Stabat Mater
Perotin - Beata Viscera
Piazzolla, Astor - Tango Suite for Two Guitars
Poulenc, Francis - Flute Sonata
Prokofiev, Sergei - Symphony No. 5
Puccini, Giacomo - La Boheme
Purcell, Henry - Dido and Aeneas
Rachmaninov, Sergei - Piano Concerto No. 2
Rameau, Jean-Philippe - Castor et Pollux
Rautavaara, Einojuhani - Cantus Arcticus "Concerto for Birds and Orchestra"
Ravel, Maurice - Daphnis et Chloe
Reger, Max - Introduction and Passacaglia in D Minor
Respighi, Ottorino - Pines of Rome
Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai - Scheherazade
Rodrigo, Joaquin - Concierto de Aranjuez
Rossini, Gioachino - The Barber of Seville
Saint-Saens, Camille - Symphony No. 3 "Organ"
Sarasate, Pablo Martin de - Zigeunerweisen
Satie, Erik - 3 Gymnopedies
Scarlatti, Domenico - Sonata in E, K.380, L.23 "Cortege"
Schnittke, Alfred - Concerto Grosso No. 1
Schoenberg, Arnold - Verklarte Nacht
Schubert, Franz - Winterreise
Schumann, Clara Josephine - Trio for Piano and Strings in G Minor
Schumann, Robert - Piano Concerto in A Minor
Schutz, Heinrich - Symphoniae Sacrae III, Op. 12
Scriabin, Alexander - Piano Sonata No. 5
Shostakovich, Dmitri - Symphony No. 10
Sibelius, Jean - Symphony No. 2
Smetana, Bedrich - Ma Vlast
Stockhausen, Karlheinz - Kontakte
Strauss, Johann, Jr. - The Blue Danube Waltz
Strauss, Richard - Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
Stravinsky, Igor - The Rite of Spring
Tallis, Thomas - Spem in alium
Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich - Symphony No. 6 "Pathetique"
Telemann, Georg Philipp - Overture-Suite for Recorder, Strings and Basso Continuo in A Minor, TV 55 no a 2
Tippett, Michael - A Child of Our Time
Vaughan Williams, Ralph - Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis
Verdi, Giuseppe - Otello
Victoria, Tomas Luis de - O Magnum Mysterium
Villa-Lobos, Heitor - Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5
Vivaldi, Antonio - Four Seasons
Wagner, Richard - Tristan und Isolde
Walton, William - Symphony No. 1
Weber, Carl Maria von - Der Freischutz
Webern, Anton - Five Movements for String Quartet
Wieniawski, Henryk - Violin Concerto No. 2
Wolf, Hugo - Morike Lieder

I welcome comments challenging the works I've decided to include here.

Johann Pachelbel

When Johann Pachelbel was 25 years old (in the year 1678), he began working as an organist at a Protestant church in Erfurt, Germany, called Predigerkirche ("Preacher's Church"). He remained there for 12 years. During this time, he composed his now-famous Canon in D.

Predigerkirche's official website has many photos ("Bilder") of the church that you can view here. Seeing the beauty of the architecture and of the organ, it is not hard to imagine how Pachelbel was inspired to compose music of such elegance and optimism. I like to think of the Canon in D as a timeless artifact containing something of the essence of the church and of Pachelbel's experiences working there.

Vivaldi's Tour

The Baroque era is the earliest period of classical music from which music is still widely listened to and performed today (although there definitely remains interest in Renaissance as well as earlier music). Most of the famous Baroque composers all lived around the same time. Below is a time line showing when they lived.


All of these composers passed away before the United States of America was born. And during their lives, people still got around either on foot or on horses or by small boat. I wonder which Vivaldi would be more surprised to discover were he to tour the world of the 21st century: (1) the modern system of ground transportation, or (2) his music being rated and discussed on youtube. I imagine the latter would be the more amazing discovery.

Here is one of my favorite works by Vivaldi. I particularly like the third movement (2:45 - 4:35). (I might not have discovered this and many other works without the Internet.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9ZqcpMRLis

Zipf's Law

In response to a comment I received for the post "What's on the Radio?, Part 2," yes, the data is largely Zipfian.

Zipf's Law is an empirical law that states that given some collection of natural language utterances, the frequency of any word is inversely proportional to its frequency rank. This means that in a body of text such as all the words contained in this blog, the most frequent word ("the") should appear about twice as often as the second most frequent word; the second most frequent word should appear about twice as often as the fourth most frequent word; and so on.

Something that has intrigued statisticians for decades is the fact that many types of data besides natural language data also can be well approximated by Zipfian distributions. The test to see if some data is Zipfian is to plot the logarithm of the frequency by the logarithm of the rank. If the resulting data points tend to fall along a straight line, then the data is Zipfian.

In this case, which is only analogous to the natural language domain, frequency of words is replaced by airtime of composers. We see in the scatter plot above that the data is in fact Zipfian for a large range of values.

Perahia's Schubert

One of my favorite works for solo piano is Schubert's Impromptu in G flat major, Op. 90, No. 3. I listened to several different versions on youtube before I discovered this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qDzTcVpYB0

The performer is Murray Perahia, and his interpretation is dynamic but disciplined. When I listen I hear the music and not the performance. This work, performed in such a lovely way, is a good example of the beauty of early Romanticism in music. The strength and diversity of emotions it evokes surpasses that of most of the music that came before it.

What's on the Radio?, Part 2

The above chart shows the percentage of total airtime on Classical WETA dedicated to composers 1 through N (for N = 1..50), for the year 2009 (ending on June 10th), where each composer is ranked according to the airtime dedicated to his or her music as per the previous post.

This chart shows that the top 4 composers (Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, and Bach) account for over 25% of all airtime. Furthermore, the top 11 composers account for 50% of all airtime, and the top 50 composers account for 80% of all airtime.

The chart below is the same as the one above, but with N ranging fully from 1 to 368.

What's on the Radio?

I wanted to know what kind of music is played on Washington D.C.'s classical music radio station, Classical WETA 90.9 FM. And now, 600 lines of Java (computer) code and two days later, I have the answer.

Classical WETA began publishing online its daily playlists during November of 2008. Using this web resource, I wrote some code that creates a database of sorts filled with information about all the music aired from January 1, 2009, to today, June 10, 2009 (this range spans 161 days). Once I had the database, I wrote some more code that computes some basic statistics. I also did some data management so that the results are pretty accurate.

Below are the results. The first number after a composer's name is the total airtime for that composer, rounded to the nearest hour. The number in parentheses is the number of times that composer came on the radio. From this, we can see that Classical WETA favors older composers and airs very little music by some famous modern composers (see Prokofiev, Bartók, Shostakovich, and Stravinsky, for examples). Also, it always seemed like Telemann came on quite often, and these results confirm my suspicion.

Edit: After seeing the list below, a friend pointed out to me that if you tune in at a random time, there is about a 50% chance you will hear music by someone in the top 10 of the list (Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Bach, Dvorák, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, and Handel).

Composer Total Airtimes on Classical WETA 90.9 FM for the Year 2009:

1. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 313 hours (890 selections)
2. Ludwig van Beethoven, 254 hours (625 selections)
3. Joseph Haydn, 236 hours (683 selections)
4. Johann Sebastian Bach, 213 hours (810 selections)
5. Antonin Dvorák, 158 hours (409 selections)
6. Felix Mendelssohn, 151 hours (481 selections)
7. Johannes Brahms, 140 hours (316 selections)
8. Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, 137 hours (329 selections)
9. Franz Schubert, 108 hours (275 selections)
10. George Frideric Handel, 101 hours (407 selections)
11. Georg Philipp Telemann, 99 hours (407 selections)
12. Antonio Vivaldi, 98 hours (487 selections)
13. Frédéric Chopin, 89 hours (351 selections)
14. Robert Schumann, 81 hours (204 selections)
15. Sergei Rachmaninoff, 70 hours (155 selections)
16. Camille Saint-Saëns, 57 hours (181 selections)
17. Richard Wagner, 48 hours (126 selections)
18. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, 45 hours (136 selections)
19. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, 40 hours (159 selections)
20. Louis Spohr, 33 hours (96 selections)
21. Johann Strauss, Jr., 33 hours (172 selections)
22. Carl Maria von Weber, 31 hours (139 selections)
23. Gioacchino Rossini, 29 hours (158 selections)
24. Johann Nepomuk Hummel, 28 hours (95 selections)
25. Edvard Grieg, 27 hours (96 selections)
26. Georges Bizet, 26 hours (89 selections)
27. Johann Christian Bach, 26 hours (120 selections)
28. Gabriel Fauré, 25 hours (86 selections)
29. Max Bruch, 25 hours (58 selections)
30. Alexander Glazunov, 24 hours (82 selections)
31. Hector Berlioz, 21 hours (58 selections)
32. Ottorino Respighi, 21 hours (45 selections)
33. Claude Debussy, 19 hours (84 selections)
34. Michael Haydn, 19 hours (63 selections)
35. Maurice Ravel, 19 hours (74 selections)
36. Giuseppe Verdi, 18 hours (35 selections)
37. Luigi Boccherini, 17 hours (69 selections)
38. Domenico Scarlatti, 17 hours (100 selections)
39. Giacomo Puccini, 16 hours (28 selections)
40. Carl Stamitz, 16 hours (58 selections)
41. John Field, 15 hours (33 selections)
42. Franz Liszt, 15 hours (54 selections)
43. Johann David Heinichen, 14 hours (66 selections)
44. Franz Danzi, 14 hours (43 selections)
45. Bedrich Smetana, 14 hours (61 selections)
46. Jean Sibelius, 13 hours (51 selections)
47. Nicolò Paganini, 13 hours (39 selections)
48. Léo Delibes, 13 hours (38 selections)
49. Aram Khachaturian, 12 hours (44 selections)
50. Jacques Offenbach, 12 hours (56 selections)
51. Vasily Sergeyevich Kalinnikov, 12 hours (19 selections)
52. Johan Halvorsen, 11 hours (51 selections)
53. Henryk Wieniawski, 11 hours (51 selections)
54. Jean-Philippe Rameau, 11 hours (36 selections)
55. Giuseppe Torelli, 11 hours (77 selections)
56. Modest Mussorgsky, 10 hours (25 selections)
57. Johan Helmich Roman, 10 hours (42 selections)
58. Edouard Lalo, 10 hours (21 selections)
59. Antonio Bazzini, 10 hours (52 selections)
60. Richard Strauss, 10 hours (31 selections)
61. Johann Baptist Georg Neruda, 10 hours (44 selections)
62. Ralph Vaughan Williams, 10 hours (41 selections)
63. William Boyce, 9 hours (51 selections)
64. Franz von Suppé, 9 hours (56 selections)
65. Gaetano Donizetti, 9 hours (4 selections)
66. Alexander Borodin, 8 hours (38 selections)
67. Mauro Giuliani, 8 hours (23 selections)
68. Bernhard Henrik Crusell, 8 hours (22 selections)
69. Tomaso Albinoni, 8 hours (32 selections)
70. Mikhail Glinka, 8 hours (43 selections)
71. Silvius Leopold Weiss, 8 hours (35 selections)
72. Ignaz Joseph Pleyel, 8 hours (31 selections)
73. Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, 8 hours (35 selections)
74. Frederick the Great of Prussia, 8 hours (33 selections)
75. Fritz Kreisler, 8 hours (49 selections)
76. Arthur Foote, 8 hours (15 selections)
77. Carl Friedrich Abel, 7 hours (35 selections)
78. Giovanni Gabrieli, 7 hours (43 selections)
79. Leos Janácek, 7 hours (23 selections)
80. Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello, 7 hours (39 selections)
81. Chevalier de Saint-Georges, 7 hours (23 selections)
82. Francois-Adrien Boieldieu, 7 hours (23 selections)
83. Sir Arthur Sullivan, 7 hours (36 selections)
84. Johann Wilhelm Wilms, 7 hours (14 selections)
85. Jean-Féry Rebel, 7 hours (31 selections)
86. Pablo de Sarasate, 7 hours (34 selections)
87. Francesco Maria Veracini, 6 hours (24 selections)
88. Charles Avison, 6 hours (30 selections)
89. Giuseppe Tartini, 6 hours (26 selections)
90. Percy Aldridge Grainger, 6 hours (35 selections)
91. John Marsh, 6 hours (28 selections)
92. Daniel-François-Esprit Auber, 6 hours (31 selections)
93. Pierre Rode, 6 hours (22 selections)
94. Sergei Prokofiev, 6 hours (22 selections)
95. Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 6 hours (18 selections)
96. Henry Purcell, 6 hours (28 selections)
97. Emmanuel Chabrier, 6 hours (33 selections)
98. Etienne-Nicolas Mehul, 6 hours (19 selections)
99. Alexander Nikolayevitch Scriabin, 6 hours (16 selections)
100. Ferdinando Carulli, 6 hours (20 selections)
101. Sir Edward Elgar, 5 hours (19 selections)
102. Charles Gounod, 5 hours (22 selections)
103. Antonio Salieri, 5 hours (25 selections)
104. Franz Clement, 5 hours (10 selections)
105. John Knowles Paine, 5 hours (17 selections)
106. Peter von Winter, 5 hours (15 selections)
107. Gustav Mahler, 5 hours (8 selections)
108. Christian Cannabich, 5 hours (23 selections)
109. Louis Moreau Gottschalk, 5 hours (19 selections)
110. Leonardo Leo, 5 hours (20 selections)
111. Dmitri Kabalevsky, 5 hours (22 selections)
112. Leopold Mozart, 5 hours (25 selections)
113. Thomas Augustine Arne, 5 hours (24 selections)
114. Benjamin Godard, 5 hours (14 selections)
115. Johann Christoph Bach, 5 hours (21 selections)
116. Domenico Cimarosa, 5 hours (17 selections)
117. Francois Couperin, 4 hours (25 selections)
118. Emil Waldteufel, 4 hours (25 selections)
119. Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville, 4 hours (28 selections)
120. Charles-Auguste de Bériot, 4 hours (11 selections)
121. Ernö von Dohnányi, 4 hours (11 selections)
122. Edward MacDowell, 4 hours (11 selections)
123. Franz Anton Hoffmeister, 4 hours (14 selections)
124. Christoph Willibald Gluck, 4 hours (13 selections)
125. Francois Devienne, 4 hours (14 selections)
126. Franz Krommer, 4 hours (13 selections)
127. Johann Pachelbel, 4 hours (18 selections)
128. Vincenzo Bellini, 4 hours (6 selections)
129. William Grant Still, 4 hours (14 selections)
130. Muzio Clementi, 4 hours (12 selections)
131. Francesco Ciléa, 3 hours (1 selections)
132. George Gershwin, 3 hours (14 selections)
133. John Adams, 3 hours (1 selections)
134. Josef Myslivecek, 3 hours (17 selections)
135. John Playford, 3 hours (21 selections)
136. Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga, 3 hours (8 selections)
137. Nicholas Maw, 3 hours (1 selections)
138. Graf Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer, 3 hours (15 selections)
139. Dmitri Shostakovich, 3 hours (20 selections)
140. Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, 3 hours (18 selections)
141. Traditional, 3 hours (15 selections)
142. Benjamin Britten, 3 hours (13 selections)
143. Luys de Narvaez, 3 hours (13 selections)
144. Samuel Wesley, 3 hours (14 selections)
145. Johann Friedrich Fasch, 3 hours (11 selections)
146. César Franck, 3 hours (7 selections)
147. Georges Enescu, 3 hours (12 selections)
148. James Hook, 3 hours (10 selections)
149. Sir Edward German, 3 hours (11 selections)
150. Carl Nielsen, 3 hours (12 selections)
151. Antonio Rosetti, 3 hours (9 selections)
152. Anton Bruckner, 3 hours (4 selections)
153. Karl Goldmark, 2 hours (12 selections)
154. Gabriel Pierne, 2 hours (12 selections)
155. Elias Parish Alvars, 2 hours (5 selections)
156. Joseph Fiala, 2 hours (8 selections)
157. Marc-Antoine Charpentier, 2 hours (15 selections)
158. Domenico Caudioso, 2 hours (9 selections)
159. Georg Caspar Schurmann, 2 hours (6 selections)
160. Archduke Rudolf of Austria, 2 hours (8 selections)
161. Jan Zach, 2 hours (8 selections)
162. Carl Michael Ziehrer, 2 hours (8 selections)
163. Mily Balakirev, 2 hours (12 selections)
164. Robert Ballard, 2 hours (7 selections)
165. Franz Lehar, 2 hours (10 selections)
166. Renaissance Music, 2 hours (10 selections)
167. Adriano Banchieri, 2 hours (7 selections)
168. Ludwig August Lebrun, 2 hours (8 selections)
169. Victor Herbert, 2 hours (8 selections)
170. Adolphe Adam, 2 hours (14 selections)
171. Giovanni Bottesini, 2 hours (10 selections)
172. Thomas Linley, 2 hours (7 selections)
173. Leonard Bernstein, 2 hours (14 selections)
174. George Chadwick, 2 hours (7 selections)
175. Josef Strauss, 2 hours (12 selections)
176. Friedrich von Flotow, 2 hours (6 selections)
177. Nicola Fiorenza, 2 hours (9 selections)
178. Gasparo Spontini, 2 hours (12 selections)
179. Samuel Barber, 2 hours (9 selections)
180. Salomon Jadassohn, 2 hours (6 selections)
181. Franz Lachner, 2 hours (6 selections)
182. Vincent d' Indy, 2 hours (4 selections)
183. Schubert/Liszt, 2 hours (12 selections)
184. Bach/Busoni, 2 hours (5 selections)
185. Agustin Barrios Mangore, 2 hours (4 selections)
186. Ignaz Paderewski, 2 hours (5 selections)
187. Johann Martini, 2 hours (5 selections)
188. Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, 2 hours (9 selections)
189. Gottfried Finger, 2 hours (4 selections)
190. John Stanley, 2 hours (6 selections)
191. Nicola Porpora, 2 hours (5 selections)
192. Clara Wieck Schumann, 2 hours (4 selections)
193. Marin Marais, 2 hours (11 selections)
194. Traditional Irish, 2 hours (4 selections)
195. Giovanni Paisiello, 2 hours (3 selections)
196. Cecile Chaminade, 2 hours (9 selections)
197. Hugo Alfvén, 2 hours (9 selections)
198. Philipp Heinrich Erlebach, 2 hours (5 selections)
199. Louis Ganne, 1 hours (10 selections)
200. Anton Stamitz, 1 hours (5 selections)
201. Baldassare Galuppi, 1 hours (7 selections)
202. Claudio Monteverdi, 1 hours (9 selections)
203. Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, 1 hours (4 selections)
204. Franz Benda, 1 hours (5 selections)
205. Johann Christian Schieferdecker, 1 hours (7 selections)
206. Kalervo Tuukkanen, 1 hours (11 selections)
207. Jean-Joseph Mouret, 1 hours (3 selections)
208. Johann Strauss, Sr., 1 hours (8 selections)
209. Franz Berwald, 1 hours (8 selections)
210. Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, 1 hours (3 selections)
211. James Brooks, 1 hours (5 selections)
212. Joseph Lanner, 1 hours (7 selections)
213. Rudolf Friml, 1 hours (7 selections)
214. Zoltan Kodaly, 1 hours (4 selections)
215. Albert Franz Doppler, 1 hours (6 selections)
216. Ferdinand David, 1 hours (6 selections)
217. Max Reger, 1 hours (6 selections)
218. Anton Rubinstein, 1 hours (7 selections)
219. William Byrd, 1 hours (6 selections)
220. Alessandro Marcello, 1 hours (5 selections)
221. François Rebel and François Francoeur, 1 hours (1 selections)
222. Jacques de Saint-Luc, 1 hours (5 selections)
223. Manuel de Falla, 1 hours (9 selections)
224. Padre Antonio Soler, 1 hours (8 selections)
225. Richard Addinsell, 1 hours (6 selections)
226. David Diamond, 1 hours (5 selections)
227. Engelbert Humperdinck, 1 hours (6 selections)
228. Felix Draeseke, 1 hours (4 selections)
229. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, 1 hours (5 selections)
230. Jean-Baptiste Arban, 1 hours (7 selections)
231. Johann Joachim Quantz, 1 hours (4 selections)
232. Enrique Granados, 1 hours (7 selections)
233. Franz Ignaz Beck, 1 hours (6 selections)
234. Tylman Susato, 1 hours (7 selections)
235. Heinrich Marschner, 1 hours (6 selections)
236. Ernest Bloch, 1 hours (5 selections)
237. Iosif Ivanovici, 1 hours (7 selections)
238. John Dowland, 1 hours (5 selections)
239. John Mahon, 1 hours (4 selections)
240. Jules Massenet, 1 hours (6 selections)
241. Otto Nicolai, 1 hours (6 selections)
242. Thomas Morley, 1 hours (8 selections)
243. Johan Wagenaar, 1 hours (5 selections)
244. Michele Mascitti, 1 hours (7 selections)
245. Nikolai Medtner, 1 hours (3 selections)
246. Joseph Joachim, 1 hours (1 selections)
247. Albert Roussel, 1 hours (3 selections)
248. Eric Satie, 1 hours (6 selections)
249. Strauss Family, 1 hours (4 selections)
250. Daniel Bacheler, 1 hours (5 selections)
251. Francesco Xaverio Geminiani, 1 hours (5 selections)
252. Filippo Gragnani, 1 hours (3 selections)
253. Gabriel Diaz, 1 hours (5 selections)
254. John Alden Carpenter, 1 hours (4 selections)
255. Georg Matthias Monn, 1 hours (2 selections)
256. John Harbison, 1 hours (2 selections)
257. Hermann Bellstedt, 1 hours (4 selections)
258. Arcangelo Corelli, 1 hours (4 selections)
259. Igor Stravinsky, 1 hours (6 selections)
260. Joseph Rheinberger, 1 hours (1 selections)
261. Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek, 1 hours (6 selections)
262. Francois Borne, 1 hours (3 selections)
263. Scott Joplin, 1 hours (4 selections)
264. Francis Poulenc, 1 hours (3 selections)
265. Josef Rheinberger, 1 hours (3 selections)
266. Joseph Canteloube, 1 hours (4 selections)
267. Anton Arensky, 1 hours (1 selections)
268. Eduard Strauss, 1 hours (4 selections)
269. Hans Sitt, 1 hours (4 selections)
270. Georg Christoph Wagenseil, 1 hours (3 selections)
271. Wilhelm Stenhammar, 1 hours (4 selections)
272. Alban Berg, 1 hours (1 selections)
273. André Previn, 1 hours (1 selections)
274. Charles Tomlinson Griffes, 1 hours (2 selections)
275. Thomas Shaw, 1 hours (2 selections)
276. Ambroise Thomas, 1 hours (3 selections)
277. Henry Charles Litolff, 1 hours (3 selections)
278. Jeno Hubay, 1 hours (4 selections)
279. Arnold Schoenberg, 0 hours (1 selections)
280. Bach/Rachmaninoff, 0 hours (3 selections)
281. Libby Larsen, 0 hours (1 selections)
282. Reinhold Glière, 0 hours (4 selections)
283. Aaron Copland, 0 hours (3 selections)
284. Claude Gervaise, 0 hours (3 selections)
285. Frederick Delius, 0 hours (1 selections)
286. Gerald Finzi, 0 hours (1 selections)
287. Kosaku Yamada, 0 hours (1 selections)
288. Malcolm Arnold, 0 hours (3 selections)
289. Eugène Ysaÿe, 0 hours (2 selections)
290. John Ireland, 0 hours (1 selections)
291. Anonymous, 0 hours (3 selections)
292. Kevin Puts, 0 hours (1 selections)
293. Thomas Tallis, 0 hours (1 selections)
294. Albert Zabel, 0 hours (2 selections)
295. Horatio Parker, 0 hours (2 selections)
296. Miklos Rozsa, 0 hours (2 selections)
297. Pietro Locatelli, 0 hours (1 selections)
298. Astor Piazzolla, 0 hours (1 selections)
299. Johann Peter Salomon, 0 hours (2 selections)
300. Toru Takemitsu, 0 hours (1 selections)
301. Cesar Cui, 0 hours (3 selections)
302. Hans Neusidler, 0 hours (2 selections)
303. Roy Harris, 0 hours (1 selections)
304. Arno Babadjanian, 0 hours (1 selections)
305. Béla Bartók, 0 hours (2 selections)
306. Ernest Chausson, 0 hours (1 selections)
307. Gustav Holst, 0 hours (2 selections)
308. Niels Wilhelm Gade, 0 hours (2 selections)
309. Frank Martin, 0 hours (1 selections)
310. Ferde Grofé, 0 hours (2 selections)
311. Johann Gottlieb Janitsch, 0 hours (1 selections)
312. Virgil Thomson, 0 hours (2 selections)
313. William Bolcom, 0 hours (1 selections)
314. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, 0 hours (1 selections)
315. Johann III Strauss, 0 hours (2 selections)
316. Jean-Baptiste Lully, 0 hours (2 selections)
317. Moritz Moszkowski, 0 hours (2 selections)
318. Somei Satoh, 0 hours (1 selections)
319. Gordon Jacob, 0 hours (1 selections)
320. György Sándor Ligeti, 0 hours (1 selections)
321. Rossini/Britten, 0 hours (1 selections)
322. Benedetto Marcello, 0 hours (1 selections)
323. Bright Sheng, 0 hours (1 selections)
324. Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, 0 hours (1 selections)
325. Howard Hanson, 0 hours (1 selections)
326. Lars-Erik Larsson, 0 hours (1 selections)
327. Paul Dukas, 0 hours (1 selections)
328. Saro/Bruell, 0 hours (2 selections)
329. Stanley Myers, 0 hours (1 selections)
330. Alonso Mudarra, 0 hours (1 selections)
331. Alphonse Hasselmans, 0 hours (1 selections)
332. Amy Beach, 0 hours (1 selections)
333. Graeme Koehne, 0 hours (1 selections)
334. Harold Shapero, 0 hours (1 selections)
335. Irving Fine, 0 hours (1 selections)
336. Johannes Ockeghem, 0 hours (1 selections)
337. Maria-Theresia von Paradis, 0 hours (1 selections)
338. Amilcare Ponchielli, 0 hours (1 selections)
339. Giles Franaby, 0 hours (1 selections)
340. Hamilton Harty, 0 hours (1 selections)
341. Henri Herz, 0 hours (1 selections)
342. Jan Dismas Zelenka, 0 hours (2 selections)
343. Pietro Mascagni, 0 hours (1 selections)
344. Schubert/Prokofiev, 0 hours (1 selections)
345. Strauss/Schulz-Evler, 0 hours (1 selections)
346. Adolph Martin Foerster, 0 hours (1 selections)
347. Andrea Gabrieli, 0 hours (1 selections)
348. Arthur Frackenpohl, 0 hours (1 selections)
349. Louis Joseph Herold, 0 hours (1 selections)
350. Michigo Miyagi, 0 hours (1 selections)
351. Erich Wolfgang Korngold, 0 hours (1 selections)
352. Henry Kimball Hadley, 0 hours (1 selections)
353. Hugo Wolf, 0 hours (1 selections)
354. Josef Fiala, 0 hours (1 selections)
355. Juventino Rosas, 0 hours (1 selections)
356. Karol Kurpinski, 0 hours (1 selections)
357. Emil von Reznicek, 0 hours (1 selections)
358. John Philip Sousa, 0 hours (1 selections)
359. Pietro Lappi, 0 hours (1 selections)
360. Ron Nelson, 0 hours (1 selections)
361. Samuel Scheidt, 0 hours (1 selections)
362. Schubert/Rachmaninoff, 0 hours (1 selections)
363. Alessandro Stradella, 0 hours (1 selections)
364. Johann Jr & Josef Strauss, 0 hours (1 selections)
365. Marcel Tournier, 0 hours (1 selections)
366. Rachmaninoff (arr. Kreisler), 0 hours (1 selections)
367. Vivian Fung, 0 hours (1 selections)
368. Francis Lopez, 0 hours (1 selections)

A New Mythology

To me, the closest thing we have to the ancient Greeks' mythological heroes in our current culture is the classical music composers. More than great scientists, more than great painters or writers, the lives and works of the great composers is the stuff of legend. We often hear of the "trinity" of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. We see images of Debussy riding the waves of the sea. We hear accounts of Rachmaninov's towering height and large hands, of Liszt's virtuosity at the keyboard, of Elgar's mustache.

There simply is not the same degree of general interest in someone like Howard Florey, who played a key part in the discovery of penicillin, as there is in Ludwig van Beethoven. Granted, some writers such as Shakespeare and Austen are quite revered, but how can they compete with Beethoven for mythological status when the very concept represented by Beethoven's name is grounded partly in his musical setting of Ode To Joy?

While the lives and personalities of the great composers of classical music might become increasingly mythicized in the future, we can rest easy knowing that their works will be left intact.