Measuring emotion through quality: evaluating the musical repertoires of Spanish symphony orchestras

Abstract

Repertoire programming decisions taken by symphony orchestra managers usually pursue a mixture of aims embracing both quality and audience success, but are influenced by various factors. Our goal is to assess the quality of the repertoire of Spanish symphony orchestras and to gauge the impact of a series of external variables on the programming decisions. We take a sample of 20 professional symphony orchestras covering a homogenous period from 2014 to 2017. First, we summarise the quality in the repertoires through three partial indices (contemporaneity, most well-known composers and conventionality) before constructing a composite quality indicator using Data Envelopment Analysis. Second, we use regression analysis to examine the effect on the programme quality of various external variables, some related to the internal management of the orchestras, others addressing the socio-economic contextual aspects of the area in which they are located. We also carried out a cluster analysis to identify the most frequent programming strategies. We find there are two programming strategies, ranging from novelty and risk to more stable and safe repertoires based on well-known composers. The quality of orchestras is linked to longer seasons, how young these institutions are, and their being located in Madrid, whereas the most conventional programmes correspond to longer-standing orchestras located in areas with older populations and lower levels of education.