Network Analysis

Community Structure of Classical Composer Relationships

35 Composers

64 Verified Meetings

7 Communities

0.54 Modularity Score

3.66 Avg. Connections

0.43 Clustering Coeff.

Key Findings

Most Connected Composer

Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms each had 8 verified meetings with other major composers, making them the social hubs of 19th-century music.

Key Bridge Figure

Johannes Brahms has the highest betweenness centrality (0.253), meaning he connected otherwise separate musical circles—linking the Classical-to-Romantic transition with emerging Modern composers.

Network Structure

The modularity score of 0.54 indicates strong community structure. Composers clustered into distinct groups that largely align with geography, era, and musical philosophy.

Centrality Rankings

Most Connected (Degree)

1. Franz Liszt 8 connections

2. Johannes Brahms 8 connections

3. Robert Schumann 6 connections

4. Felix Mendelssohn 6 connections

5. Hector Berlioz 5 connections

Degree centrality measures raw connectivity — how many composers each person met.

Bridge Figures (Betweenness)

1. Johannes Brahms 0.253

2. Gioachino Rossini 0.210

3. Richard Wagner 0.182

4. Richard Strauss 0.172

5. Franz Liszt 0.159

Betweenness measures how often a composer lies on the shortest path between others — bridges between communities.

Detected Communities

The Louvain algorithm detected 7 distinct communities based on connection patterns:

Community 1: The Modernists Modern Era

Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Alban Berg, Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich

Community 2: Vienna-to-Italy Bridge Mixed Classical/Romantic

Joseph Haydn, W.A. Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Gioachino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner

Community 3: Paris Salon Circle Romantic Era

Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, Hector Berlioz, Niccolò Paganini

Community 4: Brahms Circle Late Romantic

Johannes Brahms, Clara Schumann, Antonín Dvořák, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Edvard Grieg

Community 5: French School Late Romantic/Early Modern

Camille Saint-Saëns, Gabriel Fauré, Charles Gounod, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel

Tightly Connected Groups (Cliques)

Cliques are groups where every member met every other member:

[4] Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Hector Berlioz, Frédéric Chopin

[4] Johannes Brahms, Antonín Dvořák, Edvard Grieg, Pyotr Tchaikovsky

[4] Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt

[3] Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky

[3] Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Alban Berg (Second Viennese School)

Era-Based Analysis

Connections by Era

Baroque 0 internal / 0 cross-era

Classical 3 internal / 2 cross-era

Romantic 37 internal / 7 cross-era

Modern 17 internal / 5 cross-era

Key Cross-Era Connections

Beethoven (Classical) → Schubert (Romantic)

Beethoven (Classical) → Rossini (Romantic)

Brahms (Romantic) → R. Strauss (Modern)

Tchaikovsky (Romantic) → Mahler (Modern)

Debussy (Modern) → Saint-Saëns (Romantic)

Debussy (Modern) → Fauré (Romantic)

Ravel (Modern) → Fauré (Romantic)

Network Characteristics

Isolated Nodes

J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel appear isolated in this network. While they were contemporaries (both born 1685), there is no verified record of them ever meeting despite living relatively close.

Clustering Coefficient

The high clustering (0.43) indicates composers tended to know each other's acquaintances—Frédéric Chopin has the highest local clustering (0.83), meaning his contacts all knew each other.