Who
was (or is) the most prolific composer
of all?
Bach? Haydn? Mozart?
Schubert? Or perhaps somebody more obscure
like Alan Hovhaness or Johann Kalliwoda?
Does anybody know?
How would we decide
on this? Not by merely counting opuses,
one might suspect. Deutsch’s Schubert
catalogue runs to about a thousand works,
Köchel’s Mozart a mere 600 or so;
Schubert lived for a few years less
but over half of his output consisted
of relatively brief lieder whereas Mozart
wrote many operas. So, in this digital
age, do we count by the minute?
Who cares about quantity
anyway? Surely it is quality that matters.
But haven’t you ever wished that Mahler
had written some string quartets or
that Ravel could have had a concluder/producer
personality type or that Dukas hadn’t
torn so much of his music up? The great
thing about prolific composers is that
one keeps coming across new works by
them and that it is not only the famous
ones that are worth listening to.
So let’s identify and
celebrate prolific composers with a
challenge to MusicWeb readers for the
festive period:
To answer the above
question and provide your justification
in no more than 300 words in an e-mail
to 
by 22 January 2007.
The music cited must all still exist
but does not have to have been played,
published
or recorded.
The prizes for the
most convincing and/or amusing answers
will be as follows:
(1) A 15 CD set The Essential Sibelius
(probably not the man in question
given that he composed almost nothing
for 30 years) which is about to be issued
on BIS. details
Review
(2) A 15 CD set of performances from
the 15th International
Chopin Piano Competition of 2005
issued on Dux . see review
(3)
Your Choice of 3 CDs from the Avie
label.
(4)
Your Choice of 3 CDs from the Concert
Artist label.
You may specify a choice
and we will try to accommodate you but
the 1st prize winner has the final word.
The winning answers will posted on MusicWeb
and the opportunity given for the authors
to expand them into proper articles,
if they wish.
The judges will be
Len Mullenger, Rob Barnett, Patrick
Waller and David Barker whose decision
regarding the prizes shall be final.
In order to win a prize
you must:
- Name a single composer of "classical"
music as the most prolific
of all time
- Provide a brief explanation/justification
in no more than 300 words
- Enter by e-mail before 2300 GMT
on 22 January 2007
No one associated with
the production of MusicWeb will be eligible
for the prizes.
MusicWeb
Christmas 
