Notes

I have always felt that a disproportionate number of composers were born in March. Even limited to the more well-known composers, March hosts the birthdays of:

• Chopin – March 1, 1810
• Vivaldi – March 4, 1678
• Ravel – March 7, 1875
• C.P.E. Bach – March 8, 1714
• Mussorgsky – March 21, 1835
• Telemann – March 24, 1681
• Haydn – March 31, 1732
• J.S. Bach – March 31, 1685

To my surprise, even when expanding my list of composers to a number of 140, March still claims the top month for composer birthdays.

Even more surprising, March holds an even clearer lead over the 11 other months in composers’ death months as well.

Whether this is a coincidence, or if this would be typical for any sample of people over the same time range, I will leave up to the readers to consider.

I would be very interested to see what the data would look like with a more satisfying sample size, 1,000+. I would like to know if the March bias evaporates with the larger sample, or if there really is something to it.

July and August are also quite the anomalies. At a sample size of 140, it is surprising to me to see months with only 2 or 3 composers in them.

I hope this was of interest to you, and if it was, you may be interested in checking out my post on The Lifespans of 150 Great Composers.

I have included a downloadable PDF at the bottom of this page, but if I can provide any other formats that would be helpful to you, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me using the contact information on this website.

Happy Exploring~