Early and late bloomers among 120 classical composers

Abstract This chapter reviews the empirical research on whether the most eminent and prolific classical composers tended to be child prodigies or at least highly precocious musical talents. According to the 10-year rule, composers should not be able to contribute lasting works to the repertoire until after they have engaged in extensive training and practice for a decade or more. However, composers vary greatly in the duration and effectiveness of this expertise acquisition. In particular, some composers were able to accelerate the process (“better faster”) and to exhibit more musical creativity for a given amount of expertise acquired (“more bang for the buck”). These child prodigies and precocious talents are more likely to exhibit greater creative productivity and to attain greater levels of posthumous eminence—two indicators of compositional genius within classical music.