Some strange figures seems to arise when one looks at the distribution of
Composers' birthdays by month.  Of the 700 or so composers for whom I have
a reliable birth date in my database this is the frequency by month:

   Jan: 74, 2.4
   Feb: 67, 2.39
   Mar: 58, 1.87
   Apr: 62, 2.07
   May: 61, 1.97
   Jun: 61, 2.03
   Jul: 47, 1.52
   Aug: 49, 1.58
   Sep: 53, 1.77
   Oct: 61, 1.97
   Nov: 65, 2.17
   Dec: 69, 2.23

The second figure in the column is a frequency of birth by day per month,
levelling out the number of days per month (28-31).

I am not a statistician; but it seems to me that there must be some
explanation of why the birth rate for January is almost 60% higher than for
July.

If one selects composers born before 1850 the discrepancy becomes even
greater with January and December both having 26 and July and August 11
and 15 respectively.  That is a difference of 100% between mid-winter
and mid-summer!!  Does any one know:  Are these numbers reflected in the
general (European)population? Do you think it might have something to do
with nutrition as it would have been related to the weather in Europe.  Or
is it just the influence of the Spring having its effect nine months later?
Could the time of birth actually have something to do with musical ability?
I would not like to believe it has anything to do with astrology!!

Cheers

Gerry

 [I think it's just spring fever.  I did a similar analysis back in 1993,
 and those results can be found at Classical Net in the Composer Works/Data
 section as List #1.  My results were very similar, though my composer
 database has expanded by almost a factor of two and so the analysis needs
 updating.  -Dave]