Just In Case You Were Wondering
A *hmmm I wonder* that turned into a 3-hour Excel love-in:
The stats are too incomplete at present to give absolutes for the top twenty but the top five pieces played by League of American Orchestra members from 2000/01 to 2005/06 [the last season for which stats are available] are:
- Beethoven—-Symphony 7 — 288 times
- Beethoven— Symphony 5— 270 times
- Brahms——- Symphony 1— 257 times
- Tchaikovsky -Symphony 5— 253 times
- Beethoven—Symphony 9 — 250 times
* A time equals one time played. If an orchestra plays a concert four times over the weekend, the piece is counted four times.
Further contextualizing of this information is a bit difficult because the number of reporting orchestras and the format in which the final report was presented were dramatically different in 2005/06 to the previous five years.
If the figures from the incomplete 2005/06 season are removed, a new top 5 emerges:
- Dvorak——–New World —————– 217 times
- Beethoven— Symphony 5————— 205 times
- Beethoven— Symphony 3————— 204 times
- Beethoven—Symphony 7—————- 199 times
- Berlioz——–Symphonie Fantastique– 193 times
These figures are more accurate because the number of reporting orchestras is +/- 6 over the reduced data set rather than 130. New World jumps up all the way to the top from 8th place and Tchaik 6 moves down to 7th. Both disappearing for [infinity+1] would suit Miss Mussel just fine.
One of the things that can be calculated to a reasonably accurate degree is that during the 2004/05 season, only 1.8% of all concerts played included the number one hit. If we take the top five together, it works out to 6.1%.
Doesn’t seem so bad until you account for the Canon Effect and use figures from the top 20 pieces. It works out to 22.1% of all concerts contained one of these pieces. There aren’t any concerti or overtures on the list, so it is fair to assume that only one of these pieces would be programmed once per concert.
The next time an impromptu Excel party happens, Miss Mussel will investigate how prevalent the Canon Effect is when the top 50 and 100 most played pieces are factored in.
Even more interesting, [and Miss Mussel can't even believe she is suggesting this considering how much she hated graphing in high school] would be a graph showing the shape of the top 20, 50 and 100 pieces. How popular are the most popular? Long tail, no tail?
Math is so much better when you don’t have to show your work.
