What’s in a Name? Dynasties, Selection, and Talent Allocation Among Classical Composers

How does family background shape entry into elite professions, and how do changes in training regimes influence the allocation of talent? We study dynasties in Western classical composition, a setting where family ties historically influenced access, and where rich biographical data allow us to trace selection dynamics over multiple centuries. Using data on over 16,000 composers from 450 CE to the present, we identify dynastic ties from Grove Music Online and measure prominence using the length of each composer’s biographical entry. Dynastic composers are between 14 and 21 percent less prominent than their non-dynastic peers, conditional on country and birth cohort. This discount is driven by descendants; founders are as prominent as non-dynasts, while descendants under-perform both. Similar results hold using archival manuscript data from R´epertoire International des Sources Musicales, suggesting the pattern is not an artifact of editorial selection. In the twentieth century, the pattern reverses: dynasts become more prominent, consistent with a shift from informal, family-based entry to standardized selection via conservatory training. Supporting this interpretation, we show that dynasts are less likely to have formal training mentioned in their biographies, and that the dynasty discount is smaller in regions and periods where conservatories were present. Our findings suggest that credentialing reforms may have influenced patterns of elite formation and talent allocation, offering broader insight into the relationship between human capital access and long-run economic performance.