# Introducing the Strauss-Kurtág Index!



## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

I posted recently about my attempts to identify connections between liking one composer and liking another (thread here), based on the results of my composer polls.

_Usual caveat: don't take this too seriously!_
One thing we can explore in the data is how _unlikely_ it is that someone who likes composer A will also like composer B. I got to wondering, is there a really good pair of composers that seem very incompatible? I wanted to find 2 composers that are relatively close to each other in terms of popularity (i.e., the same proportion of people say they like those composers) but with very little overlap in their audience.
I reckoned the best contrast would be to pick one "difficult" modernist composer and one from the most popular musical period (i.e. the 19th century) who is _also_ at the "lighter" end of the scale.
There were a few interesting candidates, but the neatest choice seemed to be Gyorgy Kurtág and Johann Strauss I. About 27% of voters like Kurtág, and about 28% like Strauss, which puts them very close together and comfortably in the top 200 most popular composers. But only 16% of people who like Kurtág also like Strauss, and only 14% of people who like Strauss also like Kurtág.

So, what happens when you take another composer, let's say Beethoven, and compare him with Strauss and Kurtág?
Well, 30% of people who like Beethoven also like Strauss, and 24% of people who like Beethoven also like Kurtág. Subtract the Kurtág figure from the Strauss figure, and you get 6: Beethoven's "*Strauss-Kurtág number*"!

It then becomes a simple matter to calculate the Strauss-Kurtág number for all the composers in my polls. I've only done it for the top 300 composers in the rankings (an arbitrary cutoff, but the lower you go, the less extrapolatable the figures).

So here's the composers with the highest Strauss-Kurtág numbers:
1. Strauss, Johann I (86)
2. Salieri, Antonio (56)
3. Sarasate, Pablo (56)
4. Suppé, Franz von (53)
5. Lehár, Franz (48)
6. Gounod, Charles (46)
7. Strauss, Johann II (44)
8. Offenbach, Jacques (44)
9. Humperdinck, Engelbert (43)
10. Chabrier, Emmanuel (41)

And here's the composers with the lowest:
291. Dallapiccola, Luigi (-51)
292. Xenakis, Iannis (-52)
293. Rihm, Wolfgang (-56)
294. Lachenmann, Helmut (-56)
295. Eötvös, Péter (-57)
296. Ferneyhough, Brian (-60)
297. Scelsi, Giacinto (-63)
298. Nono, Luigi (-68)
299. Grisey, Gérard (-70)
300. Kurtág, György (-84)

I propose that in all future discussions of modernist music or of popular classical music, every participant must first disclose the average Strauss-Kurtág score of their 10 favourite composers so that everyone will know how seriously to take their opinion. :devil:

The full list is here: https://sites.google.com/site/nereffid/composers-strauss-kurtag-index


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Here's the top 10 composers in the rankings, and their Strauss-Kurtág number:
1. Beethoven, Ludwig van (6)
2. Mahler, Gustav (5)
3. Bach, Johann Sebastian (6)
4. Dvořák, Antonín (6)
5. Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (9)
6. Sibelius, Jean (3)
7. Schubert, Franz (3)
8. Prokofiev, Sergei (6)
9. Rachmaninoff, Sergei (6)
10. Ravel, Maurice (4)

Let's look at the 10 highest-placed composers whose number is negative:
1. Stravinsky, Igor (-2)
2. Bartók, Béla (-2)
3. Scriabin, Alexander (-2)
4. Janáček, Leoš (-3)
5. Britten, Benjamin (-2)
6. Ives, Charles (-1)
7. Berg, Alban (-11)
8. Rameau, Jean-Philippe (-4)
9. Schoenberg, Arnold (-18)
10. Monteverdi, Claudio (-9)

The appearance of Rameau and Monteverdi on that list indicates it's not just about modern music. In fact, most composers active before the 18th century get a negative Strauss-Kurtág number, and some fairly substantial ones, too. Two standouts: Gesualdo has a Strauss-Kurtág number of -31, while Pérotin's is -37.
To me, this supports a claim I've been making for a while: that the group of people who Don't Like Modern Music includes a substantial number who also Don't Like Medieval, Renaissance Or Early Baroque Music But For Some Reason Never Complain About Those Kinds Of Music.


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