Q. How much does it cost?
A. $19.95 (less if you buy more than one).

Q. Does anything come with it?
A. Each poster is shipped with an information sheet that includes an alphabetical list of composers and their dates. This is especially helpful when you're looking for a particular composer in the timeline.

Q. How many composers are included?
A. The third edition includes 959 composers.

Q. Isn't that a lot of composers to have on one poster?
A. Yes.

Q. How do they all fit?
A. Many of the composers lived in earlier times when people were smaller.

Q. Ha ha. How do they all fit?
A. Small (but readable) type and many hours of arranging and re-arranging.

Q. What information is included for each composer?
A. The poster provides birth and death years, countries of origin and activity, and significant works and dates of composition.

Q. What do the colors mean?
A. The composers are ranked in four groups based on their historical and cultural importance. The four groups are represented by black type (first rank), purple type (second rank), grey type (third rank) and blue type (fourth rank).

Q. Who decides which composers belong in which groups?
A. Good question. A variety of sources were used to decide where composers belong (as well as which composers to include). In the case of composers like Bach and Beethoven there isn't much controversy. On the other hand, the 20th century presents a number of difficulties. Overall, an effort was made to strike a balance between critical considerations and popular appeal.

Q. How are the entries arranged?
A. The poster runs chronologically from left to right, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. The placement of each composer corresponds to when he or she lived.

Q. Exactly?
A. Yes and no. The medieval section condenses about 550 years into one column, but from 1400 on spacing is proportional (1/16"=1 year). Thus the rectangles enclosing first- and second-rank composers exactly correspond to their life spans and indicate precisely who lived when. Third- and fourth-rank composers are arranged by year of birth and (mostly) alphabetically from top to bottom. They're also staggered to give a rough indication of their life spans.

Q. Isn't that hopelessly complicated?
A. Not really. It sounds confusing, but actually it works very well visually.

Q. What does "Missa l'homme armé" mean and how come the poster includes so much Latin?
A. "Missa" is Latin for "Mass" and "l'homme armé" is "the armed man," a popular French song on which many composers based Masses. Much early music was written for the Church and services were conducted in Latin. The primary language of the poster is English, but the titles of many works appear in their original languages, including French, Italian, German and Latin. However, many popular compositions in languages other than English are translated for ease of identification, e.g., "An der schönen, blauen Donau ('The Blue Danube')."

Q. What's going on at the bottom of the poster?
A. The small timeline along the bottom of the poster chronicles significant events in music history, from the establishment of Gregorian chant and the beginning of music printing, to the launching of the iPod and the awarding of the first Pulitzer Prize to a woman.

Q. What size batteries does the poster use?
A. The poster doesn't use batteries. It will work on any wall and requires no special hardware or software (although a frame might be nice).

Q. How long did it take to create the poster?
A. The original version of the poster was compiled and designed over the course of about two years. Subsequent editions have required about a month of supplemental work.

Q. What other items are available from Carissimi Publications?
A. The Classical Composers Poster is our sole product.

Q. Where can I buy one?
A. I'm glad you asked. Please click here for more information.

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