Vote for Your Favorite Beethoven Symphony

Comments

April 9, 2007 at 1:01 pm

(1) William Dunning says:

Aaron, you have called for a very interesting vote here, and the results will be interesting to see — whenever you declare that the polling is finished. As I write on April 9, after about four or five days of polling, No. 5 is the leader, at 23%, with No. 9 second at 20%.

Years and years ago (in the 1970s, say), classical radio stations all across the US polled listeners for “The 100 favorite Compositions” or something like that, and then programmed a week, or a month, of the most popular items (it was, I think, originally a response to the “Top 40″ device of popular stations, which has disappeared by now). Consistently, year in and year out, the No. 1 “hit” in the classical repertoire was always Beethoven’s Choral Symphony No. 9 in d. Hands down winner, every time.

Someone even published a pamphlet that listed the results of one (or perhaps several) such polls as a guide to the perplexed who wished to build a record library and join the ranks of those who really like good music.

What you may be uncovering is that tastes are indeed changing. It would be interesting to follow up on this survey and see how much the list is the same as it was years ago, and what trends are showing up as CD technology inevitably changes our approach to listening — just as the LP did 60 years ago.