Most and least prolific

[stormx]

Hi !! 

Who is the most prolific composer?
Who is the least?

The unit of mesure should not be the number of pieces, but hours of music composed. And please, forget obscure composers (like Sorabji, for instance). Only famous composers are allowed 

My choices:

Most: Haydn (many many symphonies  )
Least: Chopin (less than 15 hours, i guess)

[Nightscape]

Most: Telemann
Least: Webern

[raymagini]

in a top ten book a read it has the top ten most prolific composers according to hours of music but i am not sure how accurate it is because telemann isnt on the list even, and it probably doesnt contain obscure composers but these are some numbers it gives...

1.  Haydn (340 hours)
2.  Handel (303)
3.  Mozart (202)
4.  Bach (175)
5.  Schubert (134)
6.  Beethoven (120)
7.  Purcell (116)
8.  Verdi (87)
9.  Dvorak (79)
10.Liszt (76) (i am sure that this number exludes a lot of the piano transcriptions otherwise it would be much more)
10.Tchaikovsky (76)

i am sure that this list is probably highly inaccurate but here it is

also it states that the most prolific composer during their career per year is schubert
who only composed for 18 years (died young but unlike mozart started late)
and wrote 7 hours and 27 minutes of music per year, which is pretty amazing because thats 7 full CDs and most rock bands would have a hard time putting out more than 1 or 2 a year

also i agree with webern about least prolific.  Schoenberg too didnt write very much considering how influential he was

[stormx]

Great info RayMagini !!!

thanks

PD: i do not know how much music Anton Webern did write, but i have his piano variations in a Pollini CD, and for me is enough

[Lance Morrison]

thanks for mentioning Webern; he may not be the LEAST prolific of *anyone*, but, out of the really influencial composers, yes, he probably was. the works that he actually recognized as worthwhile and gave opus numbers fit on 3 discs.

[thalbergmad]

According to the Guiness book of music world records, the most is Telemann.

Czerny must be reasonably close, not including all the exercises.

The least, i have no idea. I wish it was Satie

[apion]

Other candidates for least prolific: Dukas and Lekeu.

[thierry13]

I think you can not calculate how prolific a composer was by the number of hours, but more in the number of pages. A page of music can last 1 minute as it can last 5 minutes. It depends on the tempo.

[Sergey R]

Least prolific: Me.

[presto agitato]

Most: Heitor Villalobos

Least: I dont know

[theodopolis]

Durufle has only 14 works to his credit.

Like his teacher Dukas, he was intensely self-critical and destoryed many of his compositions.

[stevie]

According to the Guiness book of music world records, the most is Telemann.

Czerny must be reasonably close, not including all the exercises.

The least, i have no idea. I wish it was Satie

yes, telemann was an incredible talent, in my opinion at least as great as handel.

handel said of him 'he can compose a piece quicker than i can copy one out'

[musik_man]

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00001IV8B/qid=1122342384/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_ur_2_2/002-7627835-1607226

That would be nice to own.