The Fischer-Dieskau Dilemma

One of the most important performers in the field of classical music died yesterday. And that's going to be a problem for a lot of classical radio stations (at least in the US).

This has been a rough week for recording artists. Donna Summer died, prompting stations that play either light rock, urban, or Top 40 to air her songs in tribute. Chuck Brown, the father of Go-Go also died this week. Although not as well-known nationally, in the Washington DC area, where Go-Go originated, urban stations played and replayed his many recordings.

Now there was a reason for those retrospectives: although Summers and Brown weren't considered current artists (and therefore not usually included in the mix), their music was aired back in the day, and was familiar to audiences.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau died earlier today. This German lyric tenor was a giant in the field, and considered one of the all-time greatest performers of lieder. He was also renowned for his opera roles, and (to a lesser extent) for his conducting. I haven't been able to find a definitive list of the original recordings he made, but most sources put it into the hundreds.

Hundreds of recordings, and many of them set the standard for performance of the works (or at least a benchmark other artists measure themselves by). So just as the light rock station is playing Donna Summer, and the urban radio station is playing Chuck Brown, classical stations will be airing Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, right?

Welllll, there's a problem. You see, Fischer-Dieskau sang. And most classical stations avoid programming any type of vocal or choral works -- at all. I started a series called the CE Classical Challenge to examine in a quantitative way how much vocal music was being programmed on a typical day. It usually hovered around 0%.

So how will most classical stations honor one of the most important figures in the classical world? Make that one of the most important figures in the field of recorded classical music?

I think I already know the answer.

But I would love to be proved wrong.

Radio Nightmare

Last night I dreamed I was back at WJMA, a station I worked for back in the 1980's. It was more of a nightmare than a dream. I was filling in for the regular Saturday afternoon host Even though the format was country (which it is for the station in real life),  I had been asked to play classical music, since that's what I do at WTJU.

There were some nightmarish elements fellow broadcasters could appreciate. There wasn't a log, so I didn't know when things were supposed to happen, like the news feed at the top of the hour. I didn't know what commercials to run, or even where they were in the studio or on the board (had I chosen to run any). Ditto with public service announcements. The studio clock wasn't working, so I was relying on my wristwatch for time checks.

Worse yet, the studio also doubled as the lobby, with a door opening onto the street, so people were constantly coming and going -- and of course talking the whole time, whether the mic was open or not. In fact, the News Director was there, criticizing everything I did, but only while I was trying to talk on air. When I asked him to stop, he replied that if I was doing what I was supposed to, he wouldn't have anything to say. (BTW - I worked with this person at the station, and he's still there. He's a true professional and would never do any such thing in real life).

Apparently I had done this shift the previous Saturday, and he was there with some programming suggestions. The classical music I played before was too hard to listen to. It was too long, and too complex for their country music listeners. So no vocal music, nothing over four minutes in length, and the more familiar the better.

I replied that I only had about four tracks by Bach, another four by Handel, and three by Vivaldi that fit his criteria. "That's fine," he said, "just keep repeating threm." I expressed doubts that running the same eleven tracks in rotation from 1 to 4PM was a good idea. That's when he informed me that I would be on until 5, or possible 6PM when the owner's plane landed.

I woke up.

Yes, it was all a dream -- except for one part. As I've documented in my Classical Challenge, there are quite a few music directors who labor under some of the restraints I was lucky enough to escape when I awoke.  I wonder if they consider their jobs a nightmare, or a dream?

The CE Classical Challange - Public Radio East

The Public Radio Classical Challenge rolls on!  (Please check the link in the previous sentence to get all the disclaimers surrounding this informal survey). We stay in North Carolina and examine a day's worth of classical programming from Public Radio East (serving Eastern Carolina). Like many stations, WTEB has a news/classical music format. It airs classical music overnight using WFMT's service. It has three locally-produced classical music blocks throughout the weekday; mid-mornings, afternoons, and late evenings.

Public Radio East broadcasts in an area that has a large seasonal population (beach-goers), and so I'm not surprised that their programming leans towards the conservative side of what's shaping up to be (as our survey continues) to be a very safe approach to programming.

Based on our one-day survey, the most representative WTEB track would be an orchestral composition from the late romantic/post-romantic period (1870-1910). Something by a dead, male, European composer, of course. That fits in with the 101 Strings-type sound many stations seem to be aiming for (especially during the dayparts). And for the most part, the repertoire's consistent with the offerings of the North Caroline Symphony.

But there were some subtle differences. WTEB aired a very percentage of chamber music. This is good, as it exposes the listener to some of the works they're likely to hear in more intimate settings, such as the local Manning Chamber Music Series and the North Carolina Chamber Music Festival.

What about vocal music? Still no danger of hearing any opera arias or lieder broadcast over the airwaves (at least on the day we checked). But WTEB did play some choral music, which means members of the various choral societies in the listening area can actually hear works they might perform.

Still, some things remained the same. Jennifer Higdon may have won the Pulitzer Prize for music, but it's not likely you'll hear her on WTEB. Why?

1) She's a female composer (0% aired)
2) She's still alive (0% aired)
3) She's writing music in the 21st Century (0% aired)

Three strikes. She's out.

Here's the breakdown for the day's playlist:

Types of Ensemble
68% Orchestra (includes soloist with orchestra)
18% Chamber group
7% Solo instrumental performer (mostly piano)
7% Choral ensemble
0% Solo vocalist

Style Period
50% Romantic
21% 20th Century (mostly works before 1940)
18% Classical
11% Baroque
0% Early music
0% Soundtracks

Composer Demographics
96% European
4% American
0% Other

100% Dead
0% Living

100% Male
0% Female

The CE Classical Challange - WHQR

For the fifth Classical Challenge, we move to North Carolina, and look at a sample playlist from WHQR in Wilmington. WHQR airs classical music mainly from 9am to 12 noon during the week, and uses Public Radio International's Classical 24 syndicated service for overnight.

WHQR carries a lot of news/talk, and they produce a significant amount of strong local programming. And they also use Twitter and Facebook appropriately and effectively. Looking at it from a station viewpoint, they're serving their audience well.

As before, I just looked at a single day's playlist (in this case, 1/11/10)

But if your only exposure to classical music was through WHQR, what would your impression of the genre be? Well, nothing out of line with what we've seen so far. The quintessential WHQR classical track would be an orchestral work from late 19th - early 20th century Europe.

WHQR serves their classical listeners well by keeping things soothing. But as a recent study shows, it's an audience that's not growing. It's declining. So the status quo isn't enough. And that's really what the challenge is all about. If centuries-old orchestral music by dead European males isn't bringing new listeners to classical then perhaps its time to change the mix.

Here's the breakdown for the day's playlist:

Types of Ensemble
71% Orchestra (includes soloist with orchestra)
6% Chamber group
24% Solo instrumental performer (mostly piano)
0% Choral ensemble
0% Solo vocalist

Style Period
41% 20th Century (mostly works before 1930)
35% Romantic
12% Classical
12% Baroque
6% Early music (renaissance only)
0% Soundtracks

Composer Demographics
94% European
6% American (basically Gershwin)
0% Other

100% Dead
0% Living

100% Male
0% Female

Relevant Classics

Part of what I'm trying to do with the CE Classical Challenge is get people thinking about classical music, and how it's programmed on public radio stations.

Does it matter? Very much. According to a recent study, the public radio audience is aging up, and out. And it's happening the quickest in the classical format.

The oldest public radio format is classical music; the median age of its audience has aged seven years over the last 10 years — to age 65. That means half of the classical audience are not boomers but seniors.  There has been no growth in the size of the classical audience over the 10-year period studied, except as public radio has been able to purchase failing commercial classical stations.

So clearly classical programming isn't connecting with (relatively) younger audiences.

But does it mean classical music's dead?

No, because younger audiences have discovered classical music on their own. Music that speaks to them. Music that has points of connection with the other forms of music they listen to.

It's what I've been saying all along, but it's not just me. Flavorwire recently posted Indie Rock's 5 Favorite Classical Composers. It's well worth reading -- and listening to. The article provides examples of not only the composers, but also of the indie artists they influence (or resemble).

The list consists of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Claudio Monteverdi, Steve Rich, Arvo Part, and John Adams. Notice that four of the composers come from the late 20th Century -- and three of them are still alive, and still creating music.

Want to attract the next generation of classical listeners? Why not start with playing the composers people are already listening to?

The CE Classical Challange - WMRA

For the fourth Classical Challenge, I looked at WMRA/WEMC in Harrisonburg, VA. For a representative sampling, I used their playlist for Monday, 11/02/09. (If this is your first Classical Challenge post, I strongly encourage you to read CE Classical Challange Revisited to fully understand the nature of my somewhat unscientific survey).

WMRA and WEMC used to be separately run stations, each serving the same population. When WMRA took over WEMC, most of the classical programming was shifted to the smaller station, and WMRA moved to a news/talk-heavy format, which has proven to attract more listeners and bigger fund-raising returns for most stations.

There weren't many surprises in the type of classical music WEMC offered. All the composers were safely dead, and all safely male. The repertoire was almost exclusively European, save for a little Gershwin (American, but dead).

Over two-thirds of the music was orchestral, with most of it coming from the Romantic and late Classical periods (and some post-romantic 20th Century works thrown in). No choral works were aired, nor any tracks by solo vocalists.

Now there's been some misunderstanding about why I think this is a bad thing. I'm not saying that we need to establish quotas for types of music, or composer gender or anything like that. But what I do want us to think about is this:

Muzak played familiar tunes in soothing orchestral arrangements, designed to provide a pleasant, ambient background and nothing more. When we only air familiar orchestral classics by tried-and-true composers, are we not doing basically the same thing?

Understand, I'm not advocating a lunchtime Xenakis retrospective. But within the realm of accessible music that would be radio-friendly, there are plenty of works that would add freshness to stations playlists' and perhaps more active engage (but not distract) the listener.

That's why I look at women composers. Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel's piano works are similar to those of her brother Felix, but they have a slight difference that I think makes them interesting. Clara Schumann also wrote works that are both note-worthy and radio-friendly.

It's why I look for American composers. These are our countrymen expressing themselves through music. If there's any audience that should connect with their music, it would be an American one. Germany celebrates Beethoven, Austria celebrates Mozart, the Czech Republic celebrates Dvorak. And we celebrate -- ?

It's also why I look for choral and vocal music. The bulk of amateur musicians can be found in choirs. It seems to me a healthy selection of choral works injected into the mix would only help bring this under served part of the potential audience into the fold.

So is WEMC's programming good or bad? Well, like every other public radio station, they're programming the best they can with the resources they have to get the results they want.

All I'm challenging are the results. Is classical music really only about the orchestral works of Europeans who've been dead for a hundred years or more? If it is, then why should I care whether it stays or goes away?

Types of Ensemble
69% Orchestra (includes soloist with orchestra)
18% Chamber group
13% Solo instrumental performer (mainly piano, and some classical guitar)
0% Choral ensemble
0% Solo vocalist

Style Period
36% Romantic
28% Classical
21% Baroque
15% 20th Century
15% Early music (renaissance only)
0% Soundtracks

Composer Demographics
97%European
3% American
0% Other

100% Dead
0% Living

100% Male
0% Female

Dead music, dead issue

It was an eye-catching headline:

Audiences hate modern classical music because their brains cannot cope

This article in The Telegraph by Richard Gray went on to explain the scientific research behind the assertion.

Could this be the reason all of public radio classical stations we've surveyed so far avoid living composers? Because the music's so foreign to the average listener that its incomprehensible?

Not quite.

Reading the article carefully, I quickly discovered that the modern composer brains couldn't comprehend was -- Arnold Schoenberg. According to the article:

In the early twentieth century, however, composers led by Schoenberg began to rally against the traditional conventions of music to produce compositions which lack tonal centres, known as atonal music. 

Under their vision, which has been adopted by many subsequent classical musicians, music no longer needed to be confined to a home note or chord.
But such atonal music has been badly received by audiences and critics who have found it difficult to follow.

So the modern music they're talking about was written by a composer who died in 1951 -- 59 years ago. To put that into perspective, it's like saying people today can't handle hip-hop because Fats Domino is too outré. Or that Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" (1959) made jazz incomprehensible for 2010 audiences. Or people won't go to movies because Fellini ruined everything.

A lot has happened in the past half century. But you wouldn't know it by this article.

Professor David Huron, an expert on music cognition at Ohio State University, has studied some of the underlying reasons why listeners struggled with such modern classical pieces, 

"Some of the things that were done by those composers such as Schoenberg undermined this cognitive aid for making music easier to understand and follow. Schoenberg's music became fragmented which makes it harder for the brain to find structure.

Makes it seem like Arnold just left us recently, doesn't it?

While traditional classical music follows strict patterns and formula that allow the brain to make sense of the sound, modern symphonies by composers such as Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern simply confuse listeners' brains.

Mmmm, yes. But what happened next? While there are still a few academic composers that continue down the dodecophonic path, many have moved on. What are living composers doing?

Here's an excerpt from Philip Glass' Violin Concerto (1987). I'm hearing "strict patterns and formula" in this 23-year-old work. How about you?



Let's get a little closer in time to what might be reasonably called "modern music." Michael Torke wrote his saxophone quartet in 1995, only fifteen years ago. Do you experience an "overwhelming feeling of confusion" listening to this music? Me either.



Then there's Jay Greenberg's "Four Scenes for Double String Quartet," composed in 2008. Anyone experiencing "constant failures to anticipate what will happen next?"



If you read the article carefully, the "modern" music of Schoenberg is always mentioned in the present tense, creating the impression that this is where classical music is today.

"many people still seem to find modern classical music challenging"

"atonal music has been badly received by audiences and critics who have found it difficult to follow"

Composers speak a different, more accessible language today. Is anyone listening?

- Ralph

And I also don't entirely buy that atonal and/or dodecophonic music is totally incomprehensible. It's been a regular part of movie music since the 1940's. Here's Webern setting the mood for an "Andy Griffith Show" scene.

The CE Classical Challange - WHRO

For the third Classical Challenge, I looked at WHRO in Norfolk, VA. For a representative sampling, I used their playlist for Monday, 11/02/09.

Assuming this snapshot of WHRO's regular programming is typical, what would someone whose only exposure to classical music is WHRO's broadcasts might think about the genre?

As with the other stations I've looked at to date, classical music would seem to be an exclusively male form of expression -- no works by women composers were aired. Most were European (95%), with the other 5% being a mixture of composers from the Americans (North and South). And although no music by living composers were aired, at least WHRO doesn't dwell as far in the past as other stations -- 37% of the works aired were written in the 20th Century, most before 1950, but a goodly number after World War I.

About a quarter of WHRO's music came from the Classical era, and the same amount from the Romantic era, with only a small amount of Baroque music (8%). And there were some renaissance works as well (2%).

Although WHRO stayed with deceased composers, they played many more of them during the broadcast day than the other stations I've sampled, which is a plus. Our hypothetical listener will hear more than much more than the Three B's on WHRO.

Unfortunately, some things remain constant from station to station. Orchestral music made up over two-thirds of the music aired, keeping the sound closer to the 101 Strings side of the street. Solo instrumental works (25%) were mostly solo piano, leavened with mostly classical guitar. Chamber music was heard least often (8%), with a good portion of that also accounting for the Baroque era selections.

And although musicians played all throughout the day and night, not one of them opened their mouth. No choral music, and no vocal music. Although WHRO explores the classical repertoire more thoroughly than any of the other stations I've looked at, there are still lines that weren't crossed.

So what about people going to hear their regional ensembles? What's the correspondence between what they hear on stage and what they can hear on the radio?

Certainly nothing by the Virginia Chorale. They're singers.

On the other hand, most of the works of the 2010/2011 Virginia Symphony Orchestra concert season could be aired on WHRO. Repertoire mainstays such as Rachmaninoff, Brahms and Schumann are no problem. And WHRO's adventurous enough to air Barber, Schmitt, Glazunov, and Bantock -- they could even air the same works the Symphony's performing.

But there's an issue with Michael Torke and Lowell Liebermann, who will both have works performed by the Symphony. Is their music too wild for the radio? Nope. Both composers write compelling, imaginative, melodious and accessible works. And their recordings sell very well and in Torke's case, even have appeal outside the traditional classical market. In any other genre, that would help one's music get on the radio.

Michael Torke and Lowell Liebermann are both male, which is good -- so were 100% of the composers aired on WHRO. But they're also Americans composers (only aired about 5% of the time). And they have an even bigger strike going against them. Torke and Liebermann are both still alive. And during our sample broadcast day, 0% of the composers aired shared that condition.

Types of Ensemble
66% Orchestra (includes soloist with orchestra)
25% Solo instrumental performer (mainly piano, and some classical guitar)
8% Chamber group
0% Choral ensemble
0% Solo vocalist

Style Period
37% 20th Century
25% Romantic
24% Classical
8% Baroque
2% Early music (renaissance only)
0% Soundtracks

Composer Demographics
95% European
3% American
2% Other

100% Dead
0% Living

100% Male
0% Female

Classically Challenging

I had an opportunity to go to the local symphony orchestra concert yesterday -- and what happened has bearing on our Classical Challenge discussion. Specifically, repertoire choices, audience demographics, and the relationship between the concert hall and the radio.

Fresh Repertoire Choices
The Charlottesville and University Symphony is a pretty good community orchestra. It's run out of the University of Virginia's McIntyre Department of Music, and is comprised of faculty, student, and community players, with first chairs primarily filled by music department faculty.

Maestro Kate Tamarkin doesn't just stick to the same old same old. She regularly programs new music and lesser-known works in the repertoire. This season she's already presented Nino Rota's Bassoon Concerto, and will give a world premiere of a work by Judith Shatin.

With a title like "Heartland of Europe," you might expect I was in for an afternoon of Dvorak and Smetana. Not so. The program:

Zoltan Kodaly: Galatan Dances
Frederic Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2
- intemission -
Arvo Part: Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
Andrzej Panufnik: Sinfonia Sacra

Zowie! Now that's a program I could get into! And may I say that the orchestra did a fine job, especially with the intricacies of the Panufnik. It was fearless programming for this community ensemble, and they rose to the challenge.

Not Entirely Ancient Audience Demographics
Yes, as in the case of many orchestras, the audience was mostly mature. Plenty of blue-haired ladies and men with liver-spotted bald heads. But there were also a significant number of folks in their twenties and thirties (and even forties and early fifties).

There wasn't a storming of the exits when the second half started, either. While I could see some of ladies from the retirement home outing squirming uncomfortably during the Panufnik, I also noticed quite a few patrons leaning forward in rapt attention.

The audience wasn't just senior citizens on their last legs -- and the music wasn't all over a century old, either. I'd like to believe there's a connection.

Classically Challenged Radio
Now for any other genre of music you care to name, the music you hear in concert is pretty much the same music you'll hear on the air. We heard four works performed live on stage in Charlottesville. What's the chances of hearing any of them on our local radio station?

Well, according to our snapshot of WVTF's programming, perhaps 50/50. I think it's possible that WVTF would play the Kodaly. After all, symphonic music is a pretty sure bet at that station, and Kodaly's European (96% of composers aired on WVTF), dead (80%), and male (100%).

Chopin's piano concerto is a pretty good bet as well. Not only for the same reasons as Kodaly, but he's a romantic era composer, a style period WVTF heavily favors (about 30% of all pieces).

Panufnik has the right credentials, (European, male, dead), but with the exception of movie soundtracks, WVTF usually stays safely in early part of the 20th Century for their music. A work from 1963 is just, well, too modern. Doubly so for Arvo Part's 1976 "Cantus."

Besides, Part's still alive.

Anyone else see the problem?

- Ralph

The CE Classical Challange - WCVE

For the second Classical Challenge, I moved down the road a little from WVTF and looked at WCVE in Richmond, Va. As a representative sampling, I used their playlist for Monday, 11/30/09.

Remember, the goal here isn't to do an exhaustive analysis of the station's programming -- I have neither the time nor resources to do that. Rather, consider this a spot-check on a (hopefully) typical programming day.

Looking at the numbers below, here's what I think a listener whose only exposure to classical music was WCVE might think of the genre.

Here's what I saw:

Classical music is an apparently exclusively male form of expression, and is a genre whose time has come and gone. Every work WCVE aired was written by a dead composer, so clearly the genre's over and done with. On the plus side, although 94% of the composers were European, WCVE did air some American composers and even some from Latin and South America. All dead, of course.

About two-thirds of the compositions aired were orchestral, which isn't too surprising. For many listeners, classical stations often fill the void left by the demise of the easy-listening format by providing nice, background music. It's an easy audience to please -- just keep it bland. But is that what classical music's all about?

Modern orchestras were the favored sound. Chamber groups performances outnumbered solo artists about two to one. Most of the chamber groups played baroque music, and most of the solo artists were pianists (primarily playing romantic music).

Not a single note was sung by the human voice.

Now take a moment and think about that. How many times do you sing each day, either in the car, or the shower, or elsewhere? How many times do you hum along, or whistle to music? As humans, we almost can't help but make vocal music. So why is it so underrepresented on air? (I have an idea, which I'll share in the next post.)

The stats indicate you might hear the Richmond Symphony on Richmond's public radio station (especially if they play something from the romantic period). But the Richmond Choral Society? I don't think so. Nor any of the music they perform.

Here's something else to consider. I attended a world premiere performance of a Steve Reich work in Richmond a while ago. The audience was packed to overflowing with enthusiastic listeners. Any chance of hearing Reich's work on WCVE? Not likely -- he's still alive. (And while I agree not all of Reich's works are ideal for radio, there are several short pieces that are engaging and quite fun, IMHO.)

In any other genre, a popular recording artist like Steve Reich would not only pack the house, but also be heard on the local radio station. In the city of Richmond, classical music is a lively, vibrant, forward-looking genre. On the city's radio station, it's a different story.


Types of Ensemble
66% Orchestra (includes soloist with orchestra)
13% Solo instrumental performer (almost exclusively piano)
21% Chamber group
0% Choral ensemble
0% Solo vocalist

Style Period
36% Romantic
28% 20th Century (mainly post-romantic)
18% Classical
15% Baroque
3% Early music (late renaissance only)
0% Soundtracks

Composer Demographics
94% European
3% American
3% Other

100% Dead
0% Living

100% Male
0% Female

The CE Classical Challange - WVTF

For the first Classical Challenge, I looked at our local public radio station, WVTF. As a representative sampling, I used their playlist for Monday, 11/2/09.

Take a peek at the numbers below, and consider what impression someone might have if their only exposure to classical music was WVTF.

Here's what I saw:

Apparently, classical music was mainly written for orchestras. It was composed by European men, mostly between 1820-1920 (although there's a fair chunk of it written between 1750-1820). And they're all dead. So classical music comes to us from times long past -- sort of like what you get on an oldies station.

Something else. The only music heard by living American composers on WVTF were movie soundtracks. So one might assume that Europe is the exclusive source of great classical music (not the Europe of today, mind you, but the Europe of all those dead guys). So the best we can do over here is write a catchy tune or two. Hardly the same.

Now WVTF has a nice on-air sound. And I concede that their goal is primarily to keep their audience happy. But I think there's something of disconnect with that audience.

It is unlikely that the nationally-known artists performing in local chamber music series will be aired on WVTF. It is extremely unlikely any music composed within the last 20 years -- even those played by regional and university orchestras -- will be aired on WVTF (unless it's from a soundtrack). It is almost a certainty that no woman composer will ever get an airing on WVTF (and not the just ones whose works are regularly performed by those regional and university ensembles). It is unlikely that the cantatas, oratorios, or other music performed by community choral groups will be heard on WVTF.

Consider this for a moment: Rene Fleming's album "Verismo" just won a Grammy for Best Classical Vocal Performance. Beyonce Knowles won a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. You can be sure that stations airing some form of popular music (CHR, AC, Urban, etc.) will be playing Beyonce's songs in heavy rotation. And you can be equally sure you will never, ever hear a track from "Verismo" on WVTF.


Types of Ensemble
64% Orchestra (includes soloist with orchestra)
16% Solo instrumental performer (almost exclusively piano)
13% Chamber group
1% Choral ensemble
0% Solo vocalist

Style Period
34% Romantic
27% 20th Century (mainly post-romantic)
20% Classical
15% Baroque
3% Early music (late renaissance only)
1% Soundtracks

Composer Demographics
96% European
3% American
1% Other

80% Dead
10% Living

100% Male
0% Female

The CE Classical Challange

I've written a lot about classical music programming on public radio stations.

Recently, one of my Twitter colleagues challenged some of my assumptions. He gently pointed out that not every station only plays European orchestral music written 350-100 years ago (and also provided some examples).

Fair enough.

So I've decided to do a somewhat scientific survey of what stations are playing. Ideally, I'd like to look at playlists for an entire month from each station airing classical music, cross reference each work, and do some serious number-crunching.

The reality is, though, that I'll be doing this survey in my spare time, so the scope will be much more limited. So the results won't be definitive, but I think they'll be representative.

Each week I'll take a different station's posted classical playlist for the day. I'll be looking at several factors: style periods, composer demographic, musical forces. Here's the breakdown:

Style Period (dates are approximate)
- Medieval (up to 1300)
- Renaissance (1300 to 1600)
[I may end up lumping these together as "Early Music"]

- Baroque (1600 to 1750)
- Classical (1750 - 1820)
- Romantic (1820 - 1910)
- 20th Century (1910 - 2000)
- 21st Century (or Modern) (2000 - )
- Crossover (this would include show tunes, movie scores, Beatles songs for brass choir, etc.; the 20th and 21st century categories are reserved for mainstream classical works. John Corigliano's symphony would go under "20th Century"; his music for the movie "Coma" would go under "Crossover")

Musical Forces
- Orchestral (includes concertos)
- Chamber (generally nine instruments or less - chamber orchestra would be "orchestral")
- Solo Instrument (includes works which has one solo instrument and one accompanying instrument, such as a violin sonata w/piano accompaniment)
- Choral (either a cappella, or choir plus instruments where the choir has the lead role, such as an oratorio)
- Solo Voice (either voice and piano (lieder), or solo voice with orchestra, such as an opera aria)

Composer Demographic
- Male/Female
- Living/Dead
- European/American/Other (this would include Latin and South America, Asia and Africa)

So every week I'll look at a different radio station's playlist, tabulate and post the results. And I'll also provide an updated PDF report with all the stations and their playlists, so you can check my work.

Should be an interesting experiment. If there's a station you'd like me to look at, just leave a suggestion in the comment field. Otherwise, next week we'll start close to home (well, my home anyway) with a survey of WVTF, Roanoke, VA.

- Ralph