Top Classical Blogs, brought to you by Invesp.com

Technorati has gone haywire, leading me to not use it anymore for ranking, and AC Douglas had troubles with Google that led him to shut down his rankings of classical music blogs. Fortunately some pros, Invesp.com, have stepped in with a comprehensive ranking system based on a variety of stats, such as Feedburner RSS subscriptions, Yahoo links, Google PageRank, Alexa/Compete/Technorati ranks, # of visitors, etc. Invesp is an e-commerce consulting business. You may not like their results, and can complain to them about it, such as the inclusion of a photography site on the Classical Music Blog list (#19, Out of Focus). Plus I know some statistics are missing from my blog, apparently because it isn't listed on Compete.com, the main source of monthly visitors for Invesp.com. Frankly, I'm happy I won't get the complaints anymore. Unfortunately they only list the top 25, rather than the top 50, though others are listed in the single statistic categories. And Invesp.com only lists blogs they know about. So if you know of a classical music blog that you think should be in the list, let them know. They also maintain ranks of many other topics, such as science fiction and philosophy.

Here are the top 25 Classical Blogs as of today (they recalculate the statistics every day), with the change from my last Technorati ranking in parentheses. I don't have the links to the blogs, out of deference to Invesp.com. Follow the link to their ranking and then click through to the blogs of interest.

1. The Rest is Noise: Alex Ross, music critic (no change in rank from my last ranking)
2. Sequenza21: Jerry Bowles, new music and composers (+2)
3. La Cieca, James Jorden, opera (+6)
4. Wolf Trap Opera (never been on my lists)
5. NewMusicBox (the e-magazine, I've never included this because it has non-blog elements)
6. Opera Chic (-4)
7. Ionarts: Charles T. Downey, musicologist and critic (no change)
8. On An Overgrown Path: Bob Shingleton, producer (+3)
9. Jessica Duchen's classical music blog, critic and author (+1)
10. slipped disc, Norman Lebrecht, music critic (didn't make the list last time)
11. Mind the Gap: Molly Sheridan, music critic (was too new for my previous rankings)
12. Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog: (+19)
13. Opera Today (another e-magazine, even harder to call this a blog than NewMusicBox)
14. Dial "M" for Musicology, Phil Ford and Jonathan Bellman, musicologists (-1)
15. aworks: "new" american classical music, Robert Gable, enthusiast (-2)
16. The Collaborative Piano Blog: Chris Foley (+10)
17. mostly opera...: (-2)
18. BIS New Releases (not really a blog, the listing of Naxos new releases)
19. Out of Focus (not a music blog)
20. Musical Perceptions: me (+1)
21. Adaptistration, Drew McManus, consultant to the stars orchestras (-5)
22. finding my singing voice: Catherine K. Brown, vocalist (new to me)
23. The Rambler: Tim Rutherford-Johnson, musicologist and critic (and British!) (-6)
24. Jason Weinberger's blog: conductor and clarinetist (new to me)
25. The Omniscient Mussel: Marcia Adair, music critic (didn't make my last list)

There are some heavy hitters from my previous rankings who Invesp.com clearly don't know about, like Kyle Gann (PostClassic), and Greg Sandow. Some of the other highly ranked blogs from my previous lists are found in subcategories, like the number of pages indexed by Google and the number of incoming links. I don't know how Invesp.com weights the stats that kept them out of the top 25, especially AC Douglas (Sounds & Fury), Steve Smith (Night after Night), and Lisa Hirsch (the Iron Tongue of Midnight).

SNOB-MUSAC Google Edition

As promised, here is the listing of classical blogs by Google backlinks. Read the previous post for information on abbreviations. Again, thanks to Ben Smith of Classical Convert for help in tabulating this.

1 The Rest is Noise: 8350 [+620] Alex Ross (Crit)
2 Night after Night: 3100 [+700] Steve Smith (Crit)
3 Sequenza21: 2890 [+20] Jerry Bowles (C)
4 PostClassic: 2880 [-190] Kyle Gann (C)
5 Sounds and Fury: 2730 [-10] AC Douglas (L)
6 Jessica Duchen: 2550 [-270] (Crit)
7 Sandow: 2330 [-840] Greg Sandow (consultant)
7 On an Overgrown Path: 2330 [-1350] Bob Shingleton (producer)
9 La Cieca: 2140 [+50] James Jorden (O)
10 Soho the Dog: 2130 [-190] Matthew Guerreri (C)
11 Think Denk: 1900 [-260] Jeremy Denk (piano)
12 Ionarts: 1820 [-1630] Charles T. Downey (A)
13 The Standing Room: 1730 [-490] Monsieur C (voice)
13 Aworks: 1730 [+30] Robert Gable (L)
15 Oboeinsight: 1670 [-110] Patty Mitchell (oboe)
15 The Iron Tongue of Midnight: 1670 [-920] Lisa Hirsch (Crit)
17 Darcy Argue's Secret Society: 1650 [+890] Darcy James Argue (piano and C)
18 Deceptively Simple: 1550 [-80] Marc Geelhoed (Crit/administration)
19 The Concert: 1500 [-620] Anne-Carolyn Bird (voice)
20 Musical Perceptions: 1470 [-850] Me (A)
21 An Unamplified Voice: 1460 [-1910] JSU (O) [the big mover of the list!]
22 Listen: 1420 [-110] Steve Hicken (C and Crit)
23 The Rambler: 1340 [-330] Tim Rutherford-Johnson (A)
24 Prima La Musica, poi le parole: 1320 [+190] Sarah Noble (O)
25 Collaborative Piano: 1290 [+418] Chris Foley (piano)
26 Fredosphere: 1260 [+1030] Fred Himebaugh (C)
27 On a Pacific Aisle: 1240 [+626] Josh Kosman (Crit)
28 Vilaine fille: 1160 [-570] (Crit)
29 Slipped Disc: 1150 [-1060] Norman Lebrecht (consultant)
30 Daily Observations: 1140 [+305] Charles Noble (viola)
31 Musical Assumptions: 1120 [-30] Elaine Fine (C and viola)
32 Renewable Music: 1100 [+20] Daniel Wolf (C)
33 A View from the Podium: 1090 [+80] Kenneth Woods (conductor)
34 Roger Bourland: 1070 [+161] Roger Bourland (C)
35 Yankeediva: 1010 [+169] Joyce DiDonato (voice)
36 Nico Muhly: 975 [+284] (C)
37 Felsenmusick: 925 [-7] Daniel Felsenfield (C)
38 Mind the Gap: 923 [new to list] Molly Sheridan (Crit)
39 The Well-Tempered Blog: 921 [-219] Bart Collins (piano)
40 Notes From the Kelp: 908 [+79] Alex Shapiro (C)
41 My Favorite Intermissions: 897 [-32] Maury D'annato (O)
42 Thirteen Ways: 876 [-16] eighth blackbird (ensemble)
43 Adaptistration: 859 [+100] Drew McManus (arts administration)
44 Sieglinde’s Diaries: 851 [-569] Leon Dominguez (O)
45 ANABlog: 796 [-614] Analog Arts Ensemble
46 Sounds Like Now: 792 [+252] Brian Sacawa (saxophone)
47 Wellsung: 790 [-280] Alex and Jonathan (O)
48 Monotonous Forest: 760 [+151] Bruce Hodges (AD)
49 Trrill: 753 [-687] Nick Scholl (O)
50 Intermezzo : 743 [+196] (O)

Google backlinks will count links from non-blogs, and don't expire after 6 months, so older blogs have an advantage. There was a lot of movement on this list, including the complete dropping of Opera Chic from 2nd to 56th! The average change in number of backlinks among the top 50 was -139, the average among all 252 blogs was -38. I had another thought while polishing this list on why there are fewer links to classical music blogs. I know of many bloggers who have become active on Facebook or have created their own online social forums (NetNewMusic.net for one). Perhaps these opportunities to interact have reduced links as means of talking between blogs. I should also acknowledge that AC Douglas has found Google links to be fluctuating wildly right now, so any drops could be affected by that.

One blog that I had linked to in the Best of the Rest is now in the top 50, Monotonous Forest. I don't know if I helped beyond the one or two backlinks I personally contributed, but it is good to see some new blood.

SNOB-MUSAC

Here is SNOB-MUSAC (the Semi-annual Naming Of Blogs Mostly Used to Scribble About Classical music), only one month late (again)! This is the version based upon Technorati. The google version will be posted shortly. I'd like to thank Ben Smith from Classical Convert for helping me in checking the stats on 252 blogs. The list includes the change in Technorati authority this time, so you can see how much movement there was.

The list shows the rank, the blog, the TA and change from the last listing, the author(s), and the category: C = composer, Crit = critic, O = opera, A = academic, L = listener, AD = arts director, and the rest are self explanatory.

1 The Rest is Noise: 546 [+49] Alex Ross (Crit)
2 Opera Chic: 153 [+6] (O)
3 PostClassic: 129 [0] Kyle Gann (C)
4 Sequenza21: 125 [-26] Jerry Bowles (C)
5 Nico Muhly: 123 [+5] (C)
6 Sandow: 107 [0] Greg Sandow (Consultant)
7 Ionarts: 97 [-6] Charles T. Downey (A)
8 Soho the Dog: 88 [+5] Matthew Guerreri (C)
9 La Cieca: 80 [-21] James Jorden (O)
10 Jessica Duchen: 78 [+7] (Crit)
11 On an Overgrown Path: 77 [-14] Bob Shingleton (producer)
11 Darcy James Argue's Secret Society: 77 [+8] (piano, C)
13 Dial “M” for Musicology: 75 [-18] Phil Ford and Jonathan Bellman (A)
14 Think Denk: 73 [0] Jeremy Denk (piano)
15 Mostly Opera: 66 [+4] (O)
16 Adaptistration: 63 [-35] Drew McManus (orchestra management)
17 The Rambler: 59 [+6] Tim Rutherford-Johnson (A)
18 Classical Life: 55 [-32] Timothy Mangan (Crit)
19 Oboeinsight: 54 [-5] Patty Mitchell (oboe)
20 Yankeediva: 52 [+7] Joyce DiDonato (voice)
21 Musical Perceptions: 51 [-25] Me (A)
21 Mad Musings of Me: 51 [-2] Gertsamtkunstwerk (O)
23 Sounds and Fury: 50 [-20] AC Douglas (L)
24 Music Meets Tech: 49 [-656] Hugh Sung (piano)
25 Deceptively Simple: 46 [-16] Marc Geelhoed (Crit/orchestra administration)
26 Collaborative Piano: 45 [-33] Chris Foley (piano)
27 Renewable Music: 44 [+3] Daniel Wolf (C)
28 The Iron Tongue of Midnight: 43 [0] Lisa Hirsch (Crit)
29 CBC Radio 2: 42 [-16] Li Robbins (radio director)
30 The Standing Room: 38 [-18] Monsieur C (voice)
31 Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog: 37 [-43] (bass)
32 The Concert: 34 [-26] Anne-Carolyn Bird (voice)
33 An Unamplified Voice: 34 [+7] JSU (O)
33 Sieglinde’s Diaries: 34 [-17] Leon Dominguez (O)
33 Arts Addict: 34 [0] Jason Heath (bass) yes, a second blog on the list
36 Night after Night: 33 [-37] Steve Smith (Crit)
37 Terminaldegree: 32 [+12] Terminaldegree (kazoo)
38 Portland Cello Project: 31 [+11] Portland Cello Project (cello ensemble)
39 Prima La Musica, poi le parole: 30 [+5] Sarah Noble (O)
40 Wellsung: 29 [0] Alex and Jonathan (O)
40 Africlassical: 29 [-9] William J. Zick (A)
42 A View from the Podium: 28 [-11] Kenneth Woods (conductor)
42 Roger Bourland: 28 [-26] Roger Bourland (C)
42 The Gathering Note: 28 [new to list] Zach Carstensen (Crit)
45 Intermezzo: 27 [+4] (O)
45 Catalysts & Connections: 27 [+4] Evan Tobias (Educator)
47 The Well-Tempered Blog: 26 [-9] Bart Collins (piano)
47 My Favorite Intermissions: 26 [-12] Maury D’annato (O)
47 Violinist.com Diaries: 26 [-80] (violin)
50 Musical Assumptions: 25 [-12] Elaine Fine (C and viola)

A few blogs returned to the list this time around, plus some that I had been tracking for a while (cyber stalking!) but hadn't made it to the top 50 yet. Otherwise mostly just a reordering of the usual suspects. The average change in Technorati Authority (the number of unique blogs that linked to that blog in the last six months) for the top 50 blogs was -21.1. The average change for all 252 blogs was -4.7. I don't know why there was such a drop. It could be an effect of the economy, with more people out looking for jobs. It could be due to the age of the classical blogosphere, with less emphasis on linking to each other as more and more blogs appear and the older ones are old and established. Or it could be due to unique reasons for each blogger. I stopped blogging for over a month, and was very sporadic before that so it is no surprise that my Authority dropped.

Another book meme

Chad torments me with another book meme, where I can show the gaps in my education. Those in bold I have read, those in italics I started but didn't finish. I highly recommend A Confederacy of Dunces and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, two very different books. Which ones have you read?

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis [redundant!]
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo [in French!]

The Best of the Rest

I'm inspired by the various "Link Posts" that bloggers do when they have nothing else to say. But given the recent top 50 lists I just published, I'm also interested in giving a voice to those who aren't as well known. So this will be a roughly regular feature, The Best of the Rest, a list of links to posts from blogs that aren't on the Top 50 lists.

1. Theme and Variations: A review of two CD's by the Amadeus Guitar Duo, Baroque Moments and Images from the South. "However, there is much to be said for the guitar ensemble."

2. Of Sound Mind: Falling in love with the sound of cutting apart a large oil tank with a Sawzall. "The overall effect is what you might imagine, a grandiose cacophony, but there is something about the pacing and the incidental sounds made by the removal of a panel, or the constant drone of the waves, that is kind of magical."

3. Musicology/Matters: "A PhD in Horribleness", reviewing/appreciating Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible as an unusual parody musical.

4. Fredosphere: On how writing short science fiction caused composer's block, and the final revisions to Fred's choral work, The Moon that Dreamed of Earth.

5. Joshua Nemith's Cincinnati Pianist Blog: This is a slightly older post, but still a good one: Advice for performing at a funeral. "If your pastor calls you in and tells you that the deceased person's Uncle Hank and Cousin Jimmy want you to accompany them on a banjo and harmonica rendition of Barry Manilow's "Looks Like We Made It" – smile politely and say you would be delighted. When the duo show up twenty minutes before the funeral with five chord changes scribbled on a greasy napkin, and they instruct you to just "follow them", smile again and serve up the music as best you can."

SNOB-MUSAC, Technorati edition

Here is the semi-annual listing of the bløgösph¥re, only one month late! This is the version based upon Technorati. I'll post the Google version on Monday. Based on previous complaints, I have omitted Terry Teachout's blog. However, a new blog has taken his place at the top, perhaps also controversial. However, it is definitely about classical music. Much movement, and many new blogs in the list, thanks to Chris Foley's extensive list at Pageflakes. I'm including the change in Technorati authority this time, so you can see how much movement there was.

The list shows the rank, the blog, the TA and change from the last listing, the author(s), and the category: C = composer, Crit = critic, O = opera, A = academic, L = listener, AD = arts director, and the rest are self explanatory.
UPDATE: Corrections have been made, based on comments and email.

1 Music Meets Tech: 705 [new to list] Hugh Sung (piano)
2 The Rest is Noise: 497 [-153] Alex Ross (Crit)
3 Sequenza21: 151 [-632] Jerry Bowles (C)
4 Opera Chic: 147 [-34] (O)
5 PostClassic: 129 [0] Kyle Gann (C)
6 Nico Muhly: 118 [new] (C)
7 Sandow: 107 [0] Greg Sandow (Consultant)
8 Violinist.com Diaries: 106 [-52] (violin)
9 Ionarts: 103 [-30] Charles T. Downey (A)
10 La Cieca: 101 [-2] James Jorden (O)
11 Adaptistration: 98 [+30] Drew McManus (orchestra management)
12 Dial “M” for Musicology: 93 [+14] Phil Ford and Jonathan Bellman (A)
13 On an Overgrown Path: 91 [-53] Bob Shingleton (producer)
14 Classical Life: 87 [+46] Timothy Mangan (Crit)
15 Soho the Dog: 83 [-37] Matthew Guerreri (C)
16 Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog: 80 [-32] (bass)
17 Collaborative Piano: 78 [+23] Chris Foley (piano)
18 Musical Perceptions: 76 [+14] Me (A)
19 Think Denk: 73 [-33] Jeremy Denk (piano)
20 Darcy James Argue's Secret Society: 73 [new to list] (piano, C)
21 Jessica Duchen: 71 [-22] (Crit)
22 Night after Night: 70 [-52] Steve Smith (Crit)
23 Sounds and Fury: 70 [-6] AC Douglas (L)
24 Deceptively Simple: 62 [-12] Marc Geelhoed (Crit/orchestra administration)
25 The Concert: 62 [-9] Anne-Carolyn Bird (voice)
25 Mostly Opera: 62 [new] (O)
27 Oboeinsight: 59 [+1] Patty Mitchell (oboe)
28 CBC Radio 2: 58 [new] Li Robbins (radio director)
29 A Beginner's Guide to Classical Music: 57 [+41] Classical Convert (L)
30 The Standing Room: 56 [-9] Monsieur C (voice)
31 Roger Bourland: 54 [+7] Roger Bourland (C)
32 The Rambler: 53 [-7] Tim Rutherford-Johnson (A)
32 Mad Musings of Me: 53 [+23] Gertsamtkunstwerk (O)
34 Sieglinde’s Diaries: 51 [+12] Leon Dominguez (O)
35 Yankeediva: 45 [new] Joyce DiDonato (voice)
36 The Iron Tongue of Midnight: 43 [-21] Lisa Hirsch (Crit)
37 Renewable Music: 41 [+3] Daniel Wolf (C)
38 A View from the Podium: 39 [+13] Kenneth Woods (conductor)
39 My Favorite Intermissions: 38 [-4] Maury D’annato (O)
39 Daily Observations: 38 [+18] Charles Noble (viola)
39 Africlassical: 38 [new] William J. Zick (A)
42 Musical Assumptions: 37 [+2] Elaine Fine (C and viola)
43 The Metropolitan Opera Blog: 36 [new] Philipp Brieler (O)
44 CSO Bass Blog: 35 [-14] (bass)
44 Aworks: 35 [-5] Robert Gable (L)
44 Thirteen Ways: 35 [+7] eighth blackbird (ensemble)
44 The Well-Tempered Blog: 35 [+8] Bart Collins (piano)
48 Chicago Classical Music: 34 [-2] (L)
49 Arts Addict: 34 [new] Jason Heath (bass) yes, a second blog on the list
50 Brian Dickie: 34 [+1] (AD)
51 Vilaine fille: 33 [+3] (Crit)
52 Classical Music: 31 [+5] Janelle Gelfand (Crit)

At first I thought there would be a trend of all the blogs having reduced numbers of links, perhaps because I waited until the middle of July when everyone is on vacation. But then it seemed that while some big name blogs have lost links, they are balanced by others gaining in links. Finally, I did some math. Among the blogs already listed previously, there has been an average reduction of 24.1 in Technorati Authority, bigger than I thought. The median is a reduction of 2 TA, so the average is definitely influenced by the really big losses in Sequenza21 and Alex Ross. Taking those two outliers, the average is -4.7, much closer to the median, and reflects my second impression. So both thoughts were correct: some significant blogs have lost Technorati rank, but most have had minimal losses.

Call for Blogs

I will be compiling my Semi-annual Naming Of Blogs Mostly Used to Scribble About Classical music (SNOB MUSAC)*, with publication in one week. I'm planning to work out some new statistics from the rankings, in efforts to keep up with the recent competition in classical music blog ranking. I will be using previous lists, my blogroll on the left, and Chris Foley's list of 220 on PageFlakes. If you know of a blog not on any of those lists, or have a particular URL you want me to use in compiling the stats, indicate so in the comments to this post. While I will be checking all the blogs I have listed to see if they have updated in the last six months, I'd also appreciate any notes about blogs that have closed shop.

*Okay, it is really called the Top 50+ Classical Music Blogs, but that doesn't have nearly as amusing an anagram.

I hear my name not being spoken

Yes, I took another of my unannounced blog breaks. This break was due to a succession of Holy Week, Spring Break, and the sad news of my grandfather's death. But I'm now ready to face the music, so to speak. First up, I hear that my rankings have (more) competition. I'm fine with that, though I feel that ACD should have paid the courtesy of linking to one of my previous rankings, or at least mentioning the prior art of my rankings. It certainly would be fitting, since he clearly critiques my methodology in his own description of his criteria. A link at that point would allow his readers to judge for themselves the differences in rankings between his system and my two systems.

I'm curious why he omits group blogs or institutional blogs. I can understand keeping out the "index blogs" since they don't contribute new content to discussions of classical music. I also understand omitting e-zines, since I do the same. E-zines are an electronic form of MSM, thus different from the gate-crashing blogs. But ionarts is a major player in classical music blogging, as is Sequenza21. [Edit: I now see that ionarts is included, even though it is clearly a group blog. Same with Dial 'M'. So what is a group blog, in ACD's definition?] They both generate and influence discussions throughout the blogosphere, which is presumably what ACD's counting of backlinks is measuring. So why cut out influential blogs, merely because they have more than one author?

Anywho, back to my taxes. I'll post my semi-annual top 50-ish in June, so start earning those links!

Look Ma, I'm on TV!

Well, I'm not physically on TV, and it's blog-TV rather than real TV, but Jason Heath has recorded about 5 minutes of ruminations on my top 50 lists (see links over on the left). Other than misspelling my name (hey, my own wife misspelled it after we had been dating for a year) and announcing the wrong URL (it's okay, since he provides working links), it was a nice little thrill to hear my name mentioned several times. So go watch, and get the popularity of that video post up beyond a paltry 5%.

The Top 50 Classical Music Blogs - Google Version

Using the number of Google links gives a different result than Technorati links, since Google counts links from non-blog sites, and has a more complicated algorithm for determining whether to count a particular link or not. I've heard some explanations of this, but I'm not sure I have the total picture. Also different from Technorati, Google counts all active links, regardless of how old they are. Thus this ranking has a bias for older blogs that have had more time to accumulate links. Here is the ranking based on the number of Google links (listed after the blog name), as determined by typing link:URL in Google.

1 About Last Night: 8840 Terry Teachout (Crit)
2 The Rest is Noise: 6560 Alex Ross (Crit)
3 PostClassic: 2790 Kyle Gann (C)
4 On an Overgrown Path: 2580 Bob Shingleton (producer)
5 Sandow: 2560 Greg Sandow (Crit)
6 Adaptistration: 1890 Drew McManus (orchestra management)
7 Ionarts: 1880 Charles T. Downey (A)
8 Jessica Duchen: 1620 (Crit)
9 Sequenza21: 1560 Jerry Bowles (C)
10 Night after Night: 1410 Steve Smith (Crit)
11 Sounds and Fury: 1320 AC Douglas (L)
12 The Iron Tongue of Midnight: 1130 Lisa Hirsch (Crit)
13 Musical Perceptions: 1090 Me (A)
14 Mad Musings of Me: 1070 Gertsamtkunstwerk (O)
15 Classical Music: 1030 Janelle Gelfand (Crit)
16 Soho the Dog: 1020 Matthew Guerreri (C)
17 Think Denk: 919 Jeremy Denk (piano)
18 Oboeinsight: 864 Patty Mitchell (oboe)
19 Deceptively Simple: 851 Marc Geelhoed (Crit)
20 The Standing Room: 776 Monsieur C (L and voice?)
21 The Concert: 762 Anne-Carolyn Bird (voice)
22 Listen: 733 Steve Hicken (C and Crit)
23 Aworks: 722 Robert Gable (L)
24 Twang Twang Twang: 714 Helen Radice (harp)
25 La Cieca: 705 James Jorden (O)
26 Vilaine fille: 691 (Crit)
27 The Rambler: 654 Tim Rutherford-Johnson (A)
28 Wellsung: 622 Alex and Jonathan (O)
29 Violinist.com Diaries: 620 (violin)
30 The Well-Tempered Blog: 615 Bart Collins (piano)
31 Sieglinde’s Diaries: 614 Leon Dominguez (O)
32 Meanwhile, here in France: 603 Ruth (cello)
33 Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog: 563 (bass)
34Prima La Musica, poi le parole: 543 Sarah Noble (O)
35 An Unamplified Voice: 512 JSU (O)
36 Dial “M” for Musicology: 492 Phil Ford and Jonathan Bellman (A)
37 Felsenmusick: 470 Daniel Felsenfield (C)
38 Café Aman: 458 Anastasia Tsioulcas (Crit)
39 Roger Bourland: 447 Roger Bourland (C)
40 Daily Observations: 438 Charles Noble (viola)
41 Trrill: 426 Nick Scholl (O)
42 Renewable Music: 396 Daniel Wolf (C)
43 Chicago Classical Music: 363 (L)
44 Sound and Mind: 331 Kris Shaffer (A)
45 Loose Poodle: 329 Peter (the other) Kaye (C)
46 ANABlog: 310 Analog Arts Ensemble
47 Sounds Like Now: 309 Brian Sacawa (saxophone)
48 A View from the Podium: 307 Kenneth Woods (conductor)
48 NY Opera Fanatic: 307 Roy Wood (O)
50 In the Wings: 296 Heather Heise (piano)

The top 51 Classical Music Blogs - Technorati version

Here are the top 52 Classical Blogs, as ranked by the number of unique blogs linking to said blog (the Technorati Authority number). Unlike last time, I used only the larger Technorati Authority (TA) number if a blog had two addresses, no adding. There are several surprises, some significant moves in the list, including a new #1. The largest mover upwards was Hucbald, who rose 48 spots from June's ranking. Close behind were Today's Opera News (42) and the CSO Bass Blog (41). I had a TA of 79 three weeks ago, but that dropped down sharply, probably as all of the links from my June list timed out. Technorati only counts links from the last six months, and I actually did the June list in May. Thus I continue my slow descent in the ranks. But then I did take many breaks these last six months, and didn't do much spreading of link love to encourage higher links back to me. Commence the complaints about your own rank.

The list shows the rank, the blog, the TA, the author(s), and the category: C = composer, Crit = critic, O = opera, A = academic, L = listener, AD = arts director, and the rest are self explanatory.
Update: I've made a few corrections.
Update II: One more correction. Sorry for the error, Steve. And thanks to Marc for catching my mistakes.

1 Sequenza21: 783 Jerry Bowles (C)
2 The Rest is Noise: 650 Alex Ross (Crit)
3 About Last Night: 314 Terry Teachout (Crit)
4 Opera Chic: 181 (O)
5 Violinist.com Diaries: 158 (violin)
6 On an Overgrown Path: 144 Bob Shingleton (producer)
7 Ionarts: 133 Charles T. Downey (A)
8 PostClassic: 129 Kyle Gann (C)
9 Night after Night: 122 Steve Smith (Crit)
10 Soho the Dog: 120 Matthew Guerreri (C)
11 Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog: 112 (bass)
12 Sandow: 107 Greg Sandow (Crit)
13 Think Denk: 106 Jeremy Denk (piano)
14 La Cieca: 103 James Jorden (O)
15 Jessica Duchen: 93 (Crit)
16 Dial “M” for Musicology: 79 Phil Ford and Jonathan Bellman (A)
16 Sounds Like Now: 79 Brian Sacawa (saxophone)
18 Sounds and Fury: 76 AC Douglas (L)
19 Deceptively Simple: 74 Marc Geelhoed (Crit)
20 The Concert: 71 Anne-Carolyn Bird (voice)
21 Adaptistration: 68 Drew McManus (orchestra management)
22 The Standing Room: 65 Monsieur C (L and voice?)
23 The Iron Tongue of Midnight: 64 Lisa Hirsch (Crit)
24 Musical Perceptions: 62 Me (A)
25 The Rambler: 60 Tim Rutherford-Johnson (A)
26 Oboeinsight: 58 Patty Mitchell (oboe)
27 Collaborative Piano: 55 Chris Foley (piano)
28 CSO Bass Blog: 49 (bass)
29 Roger Bourland: 47 Roger Bourland (C)
30 A Singer's Life: 44 Michelle Bennett (voice) [stopped posting in September]
31 My Favorite Intermissions: 42 Maury D’annato (O)
32 Classical Life: 41 Timothy Mangan (Crit)
33 ANABlog: 40 Analog Arts Ensemble
34 Aworks: 40 Robert Gable (L)
35 Sieglinde’s Diaries: 39 Leon Dominguez (O)
35 Renewable Music: 38 Daniel Wolf (C)
36 Chicago Classical Music: 36 (L)
37 A Monk's Musical Musings: 35 Hucbald (guitar)
37 Musical Assumptions: 35 Elaine Fine (C and viola)
39 Brian Dickie: 33 (AD)
40 Catalysts & Connections: 31 Evan Tobias (education)
40 Counter/Point: 31 manpranissimo (voice) [no longer music]
40 Listen: 31 Steve Hicken (C and Crit)
43 Mad Musings of Me: 30 Gertsamtkunstwerk (O)
43 Vilaine fille: 30 (Crit)
45 Terminaldegree: 29 (kazoo)
46 Wellsung: 29 Alex and Jonathan (O)
47 Thirteen Ways: 28 eighth blackbird (ensemble)
47 Wolf Trap Opera: 28 (O)
49 Today's Opera News: 27 Alan Foust (O)
49 The Well-Tempered Blog: 27 Bart Collins (piano)
51 A View from the Podium: 26 Kenneth Woods (conductor)
51 Classical Music: 26 Janelle Gelfand (Crit)

Rank This!

It is about time for me to tabulate the top 50-ish classical music blogs again, in my semi-annual efforts to win friends and enemies. Now is the time to send me the URL's of any blogs I should consider for the ranking. Please do not send me blogs that I have already ranked here, here, or here, or that are listed in the comments to those posts. But do let me know if an address needs to be updated. I will start checking stats on December 20, so get me any changes before then.

Lists, schmists

Yesterday a reporter asked me to make a comment on the Little Einsteins top 10 list of classical music for preschoolers. First, here is the press release with the list:

April 18, 2007 -- Music by Smetana and Bach are at the top of preschooler’s favorite classical pieces, according to the producers of the animated television series Disney’s “Little Einsteins.” For the first time, the show has put together a Top 10 List of classical music pieces that are the most appealing to kids.

The writers and producers of “Little Einsteins” conduct hands-on research for every episode at schools with kids 2 to 5, where the show’s creative team can see first-hand which music is striking a chord with preschoolers before the show goes into animation production.

According to Eric Weiner, Executive Producer of “Little Einsteins,” “Kids respond to all classical music, and are attracted to it naturally, very early in their development. However, there are definitely some pieces that are not only appealing to them, but also stays in their minds long after they hear it. Kids express this by dancing, humming and singing along, and we have monitored those reactions and which music gets the highest marks by these kids.”

The top ten list:

1. “The Moldau” from Ma Vlast by Bedrich Smetana
2. “Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor, Menuet and Badinerie” by Johann
Sebastian Bach
3. “Humoresque No. 7” by Antonin Dvorak
4. “Symphony No. 9 in e minor from The New World: Largo” by Antonin Dvorak
5. “Morning” from Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 by Edvard Grieg
6. “Symphony No. 8, ‘Unfinished’” by Franz Schubert
7. “Symphony No. 40” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
8. “Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, 1st Movement” by Johann Sebastian Bach
9. “Wedding March” by Felix Mendelssohn
10. “Triumphal March” from Aida by Giuseppe Verdi

Weiner explains, “Music is organic for kids. We went into a school to test our show and we were warned that the kids there have no music program or music exposure and cannot sit still for very long. We played a classical piece for them and they immediately stopped what they were doing and started to dance.”

About the show: “Little Einsteins” is a half-hour animated series on Disney Channel (8 AM ET/PT seven days a week; additional airing at 8:30 AM on weekends) that follows the global adventures of four young friends (Leo, June, Quincy and Annie) and their versatile shuttle named Rocket, who takes them around the world on a quest to complete important missions while learning about music and art along the way. Classical music and works of art are intrinsic to each mission, and every episode invites interaction from viewers at home who are asked to sing, hum and pat along to the featured symphony and seek a detail while traveling through a master work of art to help their onscreen friends with the mission of the day.

The show is produced and animated in New York City.

And here is what I said to the reporter (I'll wait to announce identities until after the story is published):

My first reaction is to wonder what list of works they started with to winnow down to the top 10. How many pieces did they test on the children, and what criteria did they use to select that initial list? That would reveal any biases, such as the clear bias towards tonal music and orchestral music. Second, at least five of the pieces are used regularly in cartoon music: #1, #3, #5, #9, and #10. The reactions to those pieces might have more to do with Bugs Bunny et al than with the material of the music. The criteria used to measure interest is fine, though scientific studies by Laurel Trainer and others are more rigorous in the application and retesting to check for other artifacts. #6 and #7 don't specify the movement used, even though the other multi-movement works listed do specify which movement was used. It is interesting that of the eight specific works, four are in triple meter or compound meter and the other four are in simple duple/quadruple meter. #6 is in triple no matter which movement is used, and #7 is likely quadruple if the first movement is used, so we have a perfect 50/50 split between 3 and 2. This is rather suspicious. Next, there is an interesting conflict within the producer's quote. He says he was told the children "cannot sit still for very long" and seemingly contrasts it with "started to dance." There is a big debate going on right now in classical music circles about the social expectations for audience behavior. Should audiences be allowed to clap between movements? What about dancing in the aisles? One of my colleagues, Eric Edberg, gave a recital where he encouraged the audience to get up and move. This motion is a natural reaction for young children, but frowned upon by adults, even of college age.

Finally, (much more than 2 cents, sorry!) I support the exposure of classical music to children, but would be leery of naming pieces that are universally loved. My kids were scared by orchestral music when they were 2 or 3, because the sounds were so diverse and loud. My son loves choral music and jazz, my daughter prefers solo piano and brass quintets. This despite the fact that both study a string instrument and both are exposed to the same music at home. Any teacher or parent should explore a wide range of musics with their children to find out what they like.

Ways of ranking

In comments on the previous post, AC Douglas and Roger Bourland recalculate the list using Google links. I have done the same using the unpublished list of 116 blogs I have collected. Here are the blogs that didn't make the top 53 using Technorati, but would be in the top using Google (shoehorn them into Roger's list) (and some numbers are probably different, since I checked the statistics today):
#20: Vilaine Fille 854 (Crit)
#33: Daily Observations, 465 Charles Noble (viola)
#33: Fredösphere, 465 Fred Himebaugh (C)
#37: Café Aman, 421 Anastasia Tsioulcas (Crit)
#42: Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra Blog 368
#43: Brian Dickie 366 (artistic director)
#47: In the Wings, 346 Heather Heise (piano)
#48: Today's Opera News, 338 Alan Faust (O)
#49: Of Music and Men, 324 Ilkka Talvi (violin)
#50: Sound and Mind, 323 Kris Shaffer (A)
#51: Coloratur...aaah 322 (voice)

I won't mention which blogs would be cut to make room for these worthies. As I look at the different lists, I think Technorati has a better picture of the more current buzz, as it would with the emphasis on only the last six months. Google is a more historical approach, so even if a blog doesn't get new links in the past six months, it could still rank well based on past performance. Matthew Guerreri's blog is getting linked a lot lately, as the Technorati ranking shows, but by Google standards he would be down at #90 (oops, I just mentioned one). So I trust Technorati more for this use. Here is an old study comparing Google with Technorati, though some of his interpretations of the statistics are incorrect, particularly when comparing Google and Yahoo. Technorati doesn't record nearly as many links, the question is which links are important, and how old the links are.

Update: Chris Foley has generated his own list, using subscription rates on Bloglines, an RSS reader. He also makes good arguments for the validity of subscription ranking, not just because I go up considerably (to #11). However, I would have more faith with using statistics from one RSS reader if the numbers were considerably higher. There are 67 people who choose Bloglines to read this blog, but there could be many others that choose Google Reader, Kinja, deli.cio.us, or other aggregators. And the proportion of readers choosing one service over another could change radically from blog to blog, augmented by these low numbers. If we were talking in the hundreds or thousands, I would have more confidence. But I also understand the limitations Chris worked with. You go to list with the statistics you have, not the statistics you want to have.

The Top 51 53 Classical Music Blogs

Here is the semi-annual listing of the bløgösphère, not quite as painful as the running of the bulls. My decisions on whether a blog is about classical music was based upon painstaking research and whimsy. I have calculated the ranks using Technorati, despite the imperfections, because there is nothing else that provides near universal statistics. Roger Bourland pointed out that some of you are frisky, constantly changing your URLs around so you might end up with more than one listing in Technorati. Since the big T provides the number of unique blogs linking to a given blog, now called the Authority number, I decided to add these numbers together for blogs that had two listings. This was a painful decision, as it allowed Terminaldegree to bump me from the top 20. There were many other big moves and some new kids on the list, though Alex is still the top dog (sorry, Soho). The ranking listed is the new Authority number. If you don't see your blog up there, and it is mentioned somewhere in my blogroll or in comments, you didn't make the cut (which I had to extend to 52, since there was a three-way tie for 50). I have the rankings on a spreadsheet going past 100, so if you want to know your ranking, you can email me. For those curious about how classical music blogs stack up against everyone else, Alex's blog is #6247, and the lowest ranked blogs were ranked 198,543. So we stayed in the top 200,000, w00t! The categories stay the same as last time: C = composer, A = academic (musicology/music theory), L = listener, and O = opera fan, the rest are self explanatory. Link to the last ranking. Update: Technorati finally responded to my ping on Timothy Mangan's blog, so I can include his Classical Life in the list.
Update #2: Welcome to NewMusicBox readers. I would like to reiterate the comment made by Rob Deemer, that this list makes no claims about quality. What it does claim is how influential a given classical music blog is, as shown by how many other bloggers read and react to a given author/group. And that reminds me, should I include magazine style blogs like NewMusicBox (Authority = 171)?

1 The Rest is Noise: 508 Alex Ross (Crit)
2 About Last Night: 347 Terry Teachout (Crit)
3 A Singer's Life: 248 Michelle Bennett (voice)
4 Opera Chic: 193 (O) [two listings of 106 and 87]
5 Sequenza21: 182 Jerry Bowles (C)
6 Night after Night: 149 Steve Smith (Crit) [two listings 96 and 53]
7 On an Overgrown Path: 145 Bob Shingleton (producer)
8 PostClassic: 129 Kyle Gann (C)
9 Ionarts: 123 Charles T. Downey (A)
10 Violinist.com Diaries: 114 (violin)
11 Sandow: 107 Greg Sandow (Crit)
12 Think Denk: 96 Jeremy Denk (piano)
13 La Cieca: 94 James Jorden (O)
14 Soho the Dog: 87 Matthew Guerreri (C)
15 Jessica Duchen: 86 (Crit)
16 Dial “M” for Musicology: 67 Phil Ford and Jonathan Bellman (A)
17 Aworks: 65 Robert Gable (L)
17 The Concert: 65 Anne-Carolyn Bird (voice)
19 Sounds and Fury: 62 AC Douglas (L)
20 Terminaldegree: 61 (kazoo) [57 + 4]
21 Musical Perceptions: 58 Me (A)
22 Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog: 57 (bass)
23 Adaptistration: 54 Drew McManus (orchestra management)
23 Mad Musings of Me: 54 Gertsamtkunstwerk (O)
25 Deceptively Simple: 53 Marc Geelhoed (Crit)
25 Loose Poodle: 53 Peter Kaye (C)
25 The Rambler: 53 Tim Rutherford-Johnson (A) [41 + 12]
28 Roger Bourland: 52 Roger Bourland (C) [43 + 9]
29 Oboeinsight: 50 Patty Mitchell (oboe)
30 Meanwhile, here in France: 43 Ruth (cello)
31 The Standing Room: 40 Monsieur C (L and voice?)
31 Sieglinde’s Diaries: 40 Leon Dominguez (O)
31 Classical Music: 40 Janelle Gelfand (Crit)
34 A Sort of Notebook: 38 Waterfall (L)
34 ANABlog: 38 Analog Arts Ensemble
36 The Well-Tempered Blog: 37 Bart Collins (piano)
36 The Iron Tongue of Midnight: 37 Lisa Hirsch (Crit)
36 My Favorite Intermissions: 37 Maury D’annato (O)
36 Renewable Music: 37 Daniel Wolf (C)
40 An Unamplified Voice: 34 JSU (O)
40 Classical Life: 34 Timothy Mangan (Crit)
42 On a Pacific Aisle: 30 Josh Kosman (Crit)
42 Chicago Classical Music: 30 (L)
44 Listen: 29 Steve Hicken (C and Crit)
44 Wellsung: 29 Alex and Jonathan (O)
44 Twang twang twang: 29 Helen Radice (harp)
47 Trrill: 28 Nick Scholl (O)
47 Am Steg: 28 Kris Shaffer (A)
49 Musical Assumptions: 26 Elaine Fine (C and viola)
49 Sounds Like Now: 26 Brian Sacawa (saxophone) [18 + 8]
51 Eric Edberg: 25 (cello)
51 Collaborative Piano: 25 Chris Foley (piano)
51 Catalysts & Connections: 25 Evan Tobias (education)

Calling all bloggers!

I'm starting to do the research for the next installment of the top 51 classical music blogs. If you know of a blog that wasn't on the last list or mentioned in the comments to that post, or listed in my blogroll, please name it here or email me.