Remembering the Romantics: Which Romantic composer are you most closely connected to?

+19 votes
2.5k views

This week's Example Profiles of the Week are Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt. The feud between these Romantic era composers is famous in the music world.

Featured alongside them are other notable Romantic era composers:

Who are you most closely connected to? If you're one of the 20,446,000 of us who are connected to each other on our big tree you can check with the Connection Finder.

You can also check for shared ancestors with the Relationship Finder. Are you a cousin to any of them?

Let us know below!

P.S. Help us choose and improve profiles for next week's feature: Alexander Hamilton and others in the musical Hamilton.

WikiTree profile: Frédéric Chopin
in The Tree House by Abby Glann G2G6 Pilot (722k points)
edited by Chris Whitten

geez, I wind up being connected to Frédéric Chopin at 37 degrees.  Nice, one of my favourite composers.  laugh

32 from Brahms, 36 from Clara Schumann, 35 from Fanny Mendelssohn, 45 from Sibelius, Grieg 27, 25 from Wagner, and 31 from Dvorak.  

Hmm, maybe that's why I'm such a music lover.

25 Answers

+11 votes
I am most closely connected to Richard Wagner at 25 degrees.

I am 32 degrees from Edvard Grieg but I have long suspected that I could be related to him through his great grandfather Alexander Greig who was from Scotland where my Greig ancestors were from.
by Samantha Thomson G2G6 Pilot (254k points)
Same degrees to Wagner for me.
+12 votes

Ferenc Liszt is 26 and Richard Wagner is 25 Degrees 

by Brian Nash G2G6 Mach 3 (33.3k points)
+15 votes
by Jamie Nelson G2G6 Pilot (612k points)
+10 votes

24 degrees from Richard Wagner25 degrees from Ferenc Liszt, 35 degrees from Frédéric Chopin, 33 degrees from Johannes Brahms, 37 degrees from Clara Schumann, 36 degrees from Fanny Hensel, 46 degrees from Jean Sibelius, 28 degrees from Edvard Grieg, 31 degrees from Antonín Dvořak

Edvard Grieg is a 20th cousin 3x removed, MRCA Floris van Holland (1210 - 1234)

by Mike Wells G2G6 Pilot (132k points)
+10 votes
Surprisingly, only 17 degrees from Richard Wagner.  Seems his daughter married an Englishman.

And therefore of course 18 degrees from Liszt, since Liszt was the grandfather of Eva Maria Wagner.
by Shirlea Smith G2G6 Pilot (280k points)
+9 votes
by Pip Sheppard G2G Astronaut (2.7m points)
+8 votes

  22 degrees from Ferenc Liszt32 degrees from Frédéric Chopin31 degrees from Johannes Brahms33 degrees from Clara Schumann33 degrees from Fanny Hensel42 degrees from Jean Sibelius26 degrees from Edvard Grieg21 degrees from Richard Wagner29 degrees from Antonín Dvořák

Looks like Wagner is the winner!

I spent most of the past week adding to Clara Wieck Schumann's family, and was desperately trying to connect her directly to the large tree in her Wieck, instead of through her husband's family.  There were quite a few Wieck-Weick-Wick profiled already, so thought a possible connection to at least one of them.  Sadly, when I ran into problems with German records and took it to G2G, an expert in German helped me find her grandfather, which had no connections I could find to the Wieck already profiled :(   Like a Wikitreer friend said, sometimes you have to admit semi-defeat.

by Loretta Morrison G2G6 Pilot (176k points)
BUT, at least Clara was already connected and was chosen... if you read about her she was pretty amazing.  The first to do piano recitals and programs in public concert halls and not just at homes, and the first to do them from memory !
+8 votes
19 to Wagner, Dvorak 25, Grieg 31, Brahms 34, Fanny 37, Sibelius 45, Clara 46.

Not my favourites at the top but never mind. The refreshing one is Grieg, because so far all my connections to well-known people have been through my Tilliduffs, but Grieg is through my father's Cornish family.
by Christine Searle G2G6 Mach 4 (41.2k points)
+9 votes
I was disappointed to see that Anton Bruckner wasn't in the list, and then even more disappointed to see that he didn't have a profile ... so I created one (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bruckner-324).

Perhaps someone with experience in Austrian genealogy (and fluency in German?) might connect him to the tree?
by Ken McEvoy G2G6 Mach 1 (12.0k points)

Yeah, the problem with picking some greats, were no way to connect them to the large tree.  If you notice not even Mozart, Bach, Tchiakovsky.,and Beethoven aren't listed.  Because either they did not have any descendants (never had children)..  Or, because they were hard to get connected for lack of information on the ancestors.

Edited for a typo :)

Good for you for starting his profile!
+9 votes
19 from Liszt, 18 from Wagner (not a big fan I must admit). Next closest are Grieg at 25, Dvorak at 27 and Brahms at 28. Grieg is interesting because the connection is through Charles Darwin - who knew! Thanks Abby for setting up the Example Profiles. They really are a lot of fun.
by Laurie Cruthers G2G6 Pilot (165k points)
edited by Laurie Cruthers
+8 votes
23 from Grieg,25 from Liszt and 34 from Chopin. I dont really understand the degrees.
by Toni Boone G2G6 Mach 2 (26.3k points)
+8 votes
Closes is 23 degrees from Wagner (meh)

Furthest is 45 degrees from Sibelius

Grieg is 26 degrees, but the only romantic related to me by blood: 28th cousins 4x removed with common ancestor Beatrice de Savoie

The good news is that Kathie Forbes and I are 20 degrees AND 11th cousins once removed through common ancestor Robert Welles Sr.

And the band played on...
by Carol Baldwin G2G Astronaut (1.1m points)
+6 votes

How cool! As a composer myself, this was really fun! 

by John Schalcosky G2G6 Mach 1 (10.0k points)
+5 votes

I am


28 degrees from Richard Wagner

29 degrees from Edvard Grieg

29 degrees from Ferenc Liszt

31 degrees from Antonín Dvořák

34 degrees from Clara Schumann

36 degrees from Johannes Brahms

36 degrees from Frédéric Chopin

40 degrees from Fanny Hensel

48 degrees from Jean Sibelius

by Tommy Buch G2G Astronaut (1.9m points)
+6 votes
Frédéric Chopin 35 degrees

Ferenc Liszt 25 degrees

Johannes Brahms 33 degrees

Clara Schumann 33 degrees

Fanny Mendelssohn 35 degrees

Jean Sibelius 42 degrees

Edvard Grieg 27 degrees 18th cousins five times removed  Beatrice Savoie Savoie-271

Richard Wagner 24 degrees

Antonín Dvořák 30 degrees

Kathie Forbes 20 degrees  15th cousins once removed  William Mainwaring Mainwaring-15
by Mildred Wheeler G2G6 Mach 7 (79.6k points)
+6 votes
For me the winner is *drum roll* Richard Wagner - 21 degrees
by Rosalie Neve G2G6 Pilot (174k points)
+6 votes
Like almost everyone above, closest are Wagner (23 degrees) and Liszt (25), who are two degrees from each other, since Wagner married Liszt's daughter.

With no surprise those two are deep in the core or heavily connected families (Europe 19th century notables), to which everyone of us is somehow connected.
by Bernard Vatant G2G6 Pilot (166k points)
+6 votes
No cousin relation but I'm closest to Richard Wagner at 22 degrees, the furthest is Jean Sibelius at 42 degrees, Grieg at 27, Brahms and Dvorak at 30, Schuman and Mendelssohn at 35. Lizt was 23 and Chopin 36.  Interesting side note, my gr gr grandfather was a composer, music teacher and pianist.  Someone showed me a news article that William Semnacher (my gr gr) was writing a memoir about Lizt.
by Cindy Shephard G2G6 Mach 1 (14.3k points)
+4 votes
I'm closest to Wagner via marriage (24 degrees with two marriages) and next closest to Dvorak (27 degrees) but related by blood all the way to his wife.
by Scott Hutchins G2G6 Mach 2 (24.5k points)

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