What Makes a Great Composer?: A Data-Driven Exploration of Music History (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World)

How education, institutions, emotion, and opportunity shape creativity in classical musicWhy do we still listen to Mozart’s music but not Salieri’s?Would Nadia Boulanger be better known as a composer than a teacher if she were a man?Why did so many composers move to Vienna, Paris, and London, despite the hardships of city life?In What Makes a Great Composer?, economists Karol J.Borowiecki and Marc T. Law offer a novel perspective on why some composers and their works have endured while others have not.Drawing on data-driven methods and economic theory rather than the usual anecdotes and received wisdom regarding the sources of musical genius, Borowiecki and Law uncover previously unnoticed patterns of creativity.Spanning nearly a millennium of musical history-following composers from medieval courts and cathedrals to modern concert halls and conservatories-their account shows how the creative lives of composers were molded by opportunity, constraint, talent, and temperament. Borowiecki