COMPOSER SIMILARITIES THROUGH "THE CLASSICAL MUSIC NAVIGATOR": SIMILARITY INFERENCE FROM COMPOSER INFLUENCES

Data from "The Classical Music Navigator" (CM/V) website are used to generate statistics bearing on the relative stylistic similarities of 500 classical music composers. When the CMN was compiled, notice was taken of which composers are thought to have influenced which others; it is reasoned here that composers with similar arrays of composer influences should usually themselves be adjudged as similar. Measures of association like the ones more commonly used in fields such as biogeography and biological systematics were applied to pairwise comparisons across the 500 by 500 matrix of composer influences lists, and then examined for the relevant characteristics. Samples of the results using three measures in particular are given.