Birth Location, Migration, and Clustering of Important Composers

This article examines the 522 most important composers in the last 800 years, as identified by Charles Murray (2003), in terms of their birth location and migration. It also examines detailed patterns of migration and tendencies to cluster in certain cities for those composers born between 1750 and 1899. This information is compiled from the large, Grove Music Online (2009) encyclopedia. There is also some discussion of the biases evident in choosing osignificanto composers. The data show a marked level of migration of important composers going back many centuries suggesting that the phenomenon of globalization had impacted on composers many centuries before its effects were more widespread. The data also show a marked level of clustering in certain cities.