# Musicologist Question: Do Composers Have A Fave Length Of Time?



## suntower (Mar 29, 2015)

I'm looking for some 'scholarly research'. I want to know how to find out if anyone has done the following study: Mapped the frequency distribution or average length of a movement or composition by composer.

Some examples: Does Beethoven have a certain length (in minutes/seconds) that he uses over and over for the majority of his scherzos. Or do most Bach organ preludes tend to have the same length. Do Verdi arias tend to be the same length?

Background: Many of us have noticed that most guys seem to want to play at the same tempi over and over for a given style. (In my case, I will almost always fall into 123bpm for one style, 96 for another, 71 for a third. I've compared recordings of myself over the past 30 years and it's -amazing- how consistent this is.) I'm almost sure -everyone- has a similar internal 'metronome'.

Well I've expanded this... I now wonder if most composers tend to write the same -length- of sonata movement or minute or aria or rondo or whatever over and over. IOW: if we all have a baked-in 'favourite length of time' within a certain genre. 

No scholar me... but based on the arcane subjects I've read about in the past, I think it likely that -some- grad student -somewhere- has done research like this for some thesis. My suspicion is that there is a spreadsheet with a 'frequency distribution' laid out in very fancy statistical terms by composer, period, type of music, etc.

So... how would I find out? Is there some central 'repository' for such papers? And if so, how does a non-academic gain access?

TIA.


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