By Ricky O’Bannon

robannon@bsomusic.org

Classical music is not easily quantified.

And not without good reason. A beautiful violin sonata or exhilarating symphony finale are much better described in subjective qualitative terms than some scientific measurement.

But numbers can occasionally provide context for ongoing conversations in classical music or highlight trends – such as how often music by female composers is performed – that might not have otherwise been noticed.

To explore those trends, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra gathered data on the 2014-15 seasons that have been programmed by 21 major American orchestras. The orchestras were selected based on size and operating budget.

We created a database with most concerts and pieces — excluding pops or family concerts — that these orchestras will play during the coming season. For those pieces performed, the data tracks the number of performances a given piece will receive, the composer, a piece’s composition date, soloists, the composer’s nationality, gender and whether the composer is living.

During the next few weeks, we will publish a series of stories and analysis revealing the trends we’ve spotted, including the most performed pieces of music and what the gender gap in female composers means.

For now, here are some of the initial findings from the data we analyzed:

Collectively, the 21 orchestras will perform more than 1,000 different pieces in part or full by 286 different composers a total of almost 4,600 times.

9.5% of all pieces performed are written since the year 2000.

The average date of composition of a piece performed during the year is 1886.

A little more than 11% of the works performed are from composers who are still living.

Female composers account for only 1.8% of the works performed. When only looking at works from living composers, they account for 14.8%

German composers account for more than 23% of the total pieces performed, followed by Russians (19%) and Austrians (14% — in large part due to Mozart).

American composers made up less than 11% of the pieces performed. When looking at only works by living composers, however, they account for more than 54%





More from Orchestra Season by the Numbers series:

Methodology