200 - 300 years later from now, who do you think will be the timeless composers ?
I was checking keywords popularities of famous classical music composers ,
and realized that, it’s so amazing the number of searches for all these classical composers !
and the present results show below,
The keyword ( Global monthly searches from English sites)
Johann Bach - 301,000
Franz Liszt - 201,000
Frederic Chopin - 165,000
Ludwig Beethoven - 165,000
Richard Wagner- 165,000
Wolfgang Mozart - 135,000
Robert Schumann - 135,000
Franz Schubert - 110,000
Giuseppe Verdi - 110,000
Antonio Vivaldi - 110,000
Igor Stravinsky - 110,000
Joseph Haydn - 90,500
Johann Strauss - 90,500
Gustav Mahler - 90,500
Richard Strauss - 74,000
Claude Debussy - 74,000
George Handel - 60,500
Johannes Brahms - 60,500
Edvard Grieg - 60,500
Camille Saint-Saens - 40,500
Antonin Dvorak - 40,500
Felix Mendelssohn - 40,500
William Walton - 33,100
Georges Bizet - 33,100
Hector Berlioz - 33,100
Peter Tchaikovsky - 27,100
Jean Sibelius - 22,200
Dmitri Shostakovich - 22,200
Sergei Prokofiev - 22,200
Sergei Rachmaninoff - 18,100
Modest Mussorgsky - 14,800
Alexander Borodin - 8,100
Jules Massenet - 8,100
Aram Khachaturian - 9,900
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - 3600
But depending on the composer, many people are also searching with only their family name.
If they are searching composers by family name, the results are below,
In Bach's case, he has family members who were also composers, so we can’t know for sure that the Bach keyword is only for Johann S Bach.
Same goes for Strauss.
In Tchaikovsky’s case, there is only one famous composer by this name, and people usually search by his family name only.
So the below results more accurately reflect the number of searches.
And this is only from English site, so depending the country, it must be different.
Bach - 11,100,000 Mozart - 4,090,000 Wagner - 4,090,000 Handel - 4,090,000 Strauss - 3,350,000
Beethoven - 2,740,000 Verdi - 2,740,000 Chopin - 1,830,000 Walton - 1,830,000 Schubert - 1,500,000 Haydn - 1,220,000 Schumann - 1,000,000 Vivaldi - 1,000,000 Liszt - 673,000 Sibelius - 673,000 Mahler - 673,000 Tchaikovsky - 550,000 Brahms - 550,000 Dvorak - 550,000 Debussy - 450,000 Mendelssohn - 450,000 Grieg - 301,000 Stravinsky - 301,000 Rachmaninoff - 246,000 Bizet - 201,000 Shostakovich - 201,000 Prokofiev - 165,000 Saint-Saens - 135,000 Borodin - 135,000 Massenet - 90,500 Mussorgsky - 74,000 Rimsky-Korsakov - 49,500 Khachaturian - 40,500 And I suppose these classical composers search will continue forever, 400 years later, 500 years later and so on. This is actually really amazing things that people are searching about them , as they are not contemporary people, but from 200 - 400 years ago. In some of classical music fans world, seems like it’s always the following three composers are people’s number one favorite composers and they consider them as the greatest composers. ( or one of them ) 1. Johann S Bach 2. Mozart 3. Beethoven I feel they may be the most famous composers in the world who everyone knows. But I think who are the greatest composers is actually decided by one’s personal taste, when it comes to all the top composers, rather than they are famous or not. And I noticed that the Romantic Era ‘s music ( 19th century ) are less popular than baroque period and classic Era ( 17th and 16th centuries ). The first classical composer I knew was , Beethoven and his music “ Symphony No. 5 in C minor “, when I was a little girl. I think he was the most well-known classical composer in my area and the music was used in so many occasions. And somehow, next ones I heard of were Schubert , Mozart, Bach. Out of these four composers, I like Mozart’s music the most. His music is good to hear when I want to feel something easy going. His music makes me feel happy always. But when I was growing up, to this point, I actually wasn’t impressed with any of classical music , at that time, even though I knew Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart and Bach . That is, until I heard Chopin’s music, and also Liszt’s La Campanella . Also Tchaikovsky. Because, soooo beautiful !!! Their music just hit my heart! Back to what I was saying earlier, between Beethoven, Bach and Mozart, Bach’s baroque music would be my second selection that I would choose, after Mozart. Sometimes when I listen to music, I like something which reminds me of a particular generation, and Bach’s music has that baroque generation feel. Vivaldi’s music is great and it also has that baroque feel. Handel is not my cup of tea music, though it also reminds me of that generation. I can picture their life style from the music and my imagination. Beethoven ’s music is still not my cup of tea , but sometimes good to listen to some of Beethoven ’s music while listening to the CD collection of many composers, but I don’t listen to a CD which has only his music. So far, my top favorite composers are below, (These top 4 are in no particular order. All of them are my greatest composers .) 1. Camille Saint- Saens 1. Franz Liszt 1. Pyotr Tchaikovsky 1. Frederic Chopin After these top four, the following are in order of preference. 5. Jules Massenet 6. Aram Khachaturian 7. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 8. Felix Mendelssohn 9. Johann Strauss 10. Johann Pachelbel 11. Antonio Vivaldi 12. Edvard Greig 13. Sergei Rachmaninov 14. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 15. George Bizet 16. Claude Debussy 17. Johann Sebastian Bach 18. Franz Schubert There are more composers I ‘m curious to listen to such as French composer Hector Berlioz, who was in the same generation as Liszt and Chopin. Also want to hear Gabriel Faure who came a little later. A famous genius violinist Paganini also considered Berlioz as a genius composer. Haven’t heard Paganinni’s music and want to hear it too. I wonder why many of French composers are not so well-known now a days ?? ( except for Chopin, who was half French and half Polish ). I say this, because the more French composers I hear, the more impressed I am, there are many truly wonderful music there. I’ve read about that Massenet was a famous composer during 19th century, but he is not so well-known composer now, and almost no one talks about him. Ray is guessing , one of the reasons may be that many classical music communities and the media, are for some reason, always promoting Bach, Mozart and Beethoven… I didn’t include some great composers who I don’t wish to listen often to their music, even though I feel their music is good, such as Dvorak, Wagner, Beethoven. Wagner’s music reminds me of background music of science fiction movies such as Star Wars and others. Sometimes his music sounds very nationalistic, almost like political music and not personal. I prefer more personal music which make me feel good and up. Dvorak’s music always makes me feel lonely even if my original mood was feeling happy, so I don’t love to listen to his music. His music is direct to my heart and feel sad and lonely , and the music reminds me of sunset time. I don’t love music which makes me feel sad or down. Same goes for Mussorgsky’s “ Night on Bald Mountain “. It’s a great music and I can clearly picture the story of the music. But it makes me feel scary and not really uplifting music. Tchaikovsky’s music is different for me. Although his music is also direct to my heart and personal, I can put myself as an audience of his dramatic world , like watching a theatre or story, and makes me tears from the beauty of it. I think for sheer depth of emotion, Tchaikovsky’s music has the most of any other composers. Many times when I have listened to new classical music which I had not heard before and which touched my heart, and was curious to know who the composer of this music was, it was by Tchaikovsky. Some people don’t like Tchaikovsky’s music by saying because it’s too emotional and dramatic. But I feel that’s the true art, made by a human being who has heart. This is why my favorite composers are Tchaikovsky, Liszt ( although some of his music are similar to Wagner but Liszt’s music is very variety and personally emotional for me. ), Chopin and Saint Saens. In this mechanical , digital generation, I noticed that emotion is not valued by many people. Sometimes humans became like robots who have no heart and emotion ?? There is an old quote by Leibniz. “ Music is an unconscious exercise in arithmetic in which the mind does not know that it is counting “ It’s amazing to me to find that there are actually many people who view music this way! Okay, back to my earlier topic about my impressions of composers’ music. Of course, these composers are all incredibly high level musicians, and there is nothing correct or incorrect, it’s just personal taste. Largest number of searches, does not mean, those are the best. In the end, popularity comes down to bias, who was promoted by the most wealthy sponsors, by how many people who are just copying and following what others are saying are the greatest , and also by personal taste. IMO