Music Related World Records

When I was a kid I had a copy of Guinness Book of World Records and I wore that book out. We didn’t have the internet back then, so to find all the strange and bizarre in one place was a treasure trove. Wouldn’t it be great to know you had the world’s record in something, no matter how ridiculous? I was looking online for piano related world records and didn’t find what I was looking for; like the most hours playing a piano without stopping (that would be a fun one to try). But I did find some other fun music related world records, so here they are as of August 2006.
Check out the Guinness World Records Website

Oldest Symphony Orchestra
The oldest existing symphony orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, of Leipzig, Germany, was established in 1743.

Youngest No.1 Classical Artist
Welsh soprano Charlotte Church was just 12-years and 9-months old when her debut album, Voice Of An Angel, reached No. 1 in the UK classical album charts on November 9, 1998. It went double platinum in the UK within four weeks of release. Church first appeared on stage at the age of three at a Welsh holiday camp.

Most Prolific Conductor
The Austrian conductor, Herbert von Karajan (1908–89), made over 800 recordings. He was conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna State Opera, and La Scala Opera of Milan, and founded the Salzburg Festival, in 1967.

Most Prolific Symphonist
The most prolific symphonist was Johann Melchior Molter (1696–1765) of Germany, who wrote over 170 symphonies.

Most tour tickets sold in a day (concerts)
A total of 1.6 million tickets, valued at £80 million (US$142,825,258.47) were sold in the first 24 hours (November 19 2005) for Robbie Williams’ 2006 World Tour.

Most Valuable Cello
On June 22, 1988, a Stradivarius cello was sold for a record £682,000 ($1,213,960) at Sotheby’s, London, UK. The cello, known as “The Cholmondeley”, was made in Cremona, Italy, in approximately 1698. The instrument is called the Cholmondeley as it is known to have been in the possession of the Marquess of Cholmondeley in the middle of the last century, from whom it passed to an English amateur, Mr Drury, and from him to David Bittner, a Viennese dealer.

Most Valuable Music Manuscript
The record payment for a musical manuscript is $4.1 million, paid by James Kirkman at Sotheby’s, London, England, on May 22, 1987, for a bound volume of nine complete symphonies in Mozart’s handwriting. Consisting of 508 pages, the book was sent in for auction by a private anonymous collector. Sotheby’s reportedly described it as “the most important music manuscript to be auctioned this century”.

Oldest Jazz Club
The Village Vanguard cellar jazz club opened in New York City, USA, in 1935, and has hosted mainstream jazz concerts ever since. Artists who have appeared there include John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Wynton Marsalis, and Thelonious Monk.

Longest Album Title
The album with the longest title to reach the US chart contains ninety words. ‘When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He’ll Win the Whole Thing ‘Fore He Enters the Ring There’s No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won’t Matter, Cuz You’ll Know That You’re Right.’The album was by Fiona Apple, a singer from New York. It was released on November 9, 1999.

Loudest Drummer
A peak reading of 109.1 decibels was recorded during a show by the French one-man show The Jerome Experience (aka drummer Jéróme Dehèdin) at the Celtic Warriors 10th Birthday Bash at Woodgreen Animal Shelter, Cambridgeshire, UK on April 12, 2003.

A peak-level sound meter was used to record Dehèdin’s drumming, which peaked at a volume equivalent to a propeller plane taking off and louder than a pneumatic drill from 3 m (10 ft) away.

Most Drumbeats In A Minute
The most single-stroke drumbeats played in one minute is 1,026, achieved by Johnny Rabb of the USA, on April 28, 2000, at the Nashville Music Institute, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

Most drumbeats in a minute, hands
The world record for the most single-stroke drumbeats played in one minute is 1,507 and was achieved by Alberto Arias Pellitero (Spain) on the set of ‘Guinness World Records – El Show De Los Records in Madrid, Spain on May 25, 2006.

Largest choir
Excluding sing-alongs by stadium crowds, the greatest choir assembled contained 60,000 singers who sang in unison at the finale to a choral contest held among 160,000 participants in Breslau, Germany on August 2 1937.

Largest Concert Audience For A Rock Artist
The largest paying audience ever attracted by a solo performer was an estimated 180,000–184,000, in the Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at a Paul McCartney concert held on April 21, 1990.

Largest Orchestra
The world’s largest orchestra consisted of 6,452 musicians from the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and music students from throughout British Columbia. They played at BC Place Stadium, Vancouver, Canada, on May 15, 2000.

Largest Trombone Ensemble
The largest trombone ensemble consisted of 289 musicians, who gathered to play for 9 minutes 28 seconds at Café-zalencentrum, Broekhuizen, Netherlands, on June 8, 1997.

Largest Violin Ensemble
On June 15, 1925, at Crystal Palace, London, UK, 4,000 child violinists gathered to play Recollections of England – Selection by Mareston, conducted by Arthur Payne and assisted by HM. Grenadier Guards Band.

Highest Paid Pianist
Wladziu Valentino Liberace earned more than $2 million per 26-week season with a peak of $138,000 (then $49,285) for a single night’s performance at Madison Square Gardens, New York City, USA in 1954.

Farthest Distance Traveled By A Human Voice
The normal intelligible outdoor range of the male human voice in still air is 180 meters (200 yd). Silbo, the whistled language of the Spanish-speaking inhabitants of the Canary Island of La Gomera, is intelligible under ideal conditions at 8 km (5 miles). There is one recorded case of the human voice being detectable at a distance of 17 km (10.5 miles) across still water at night.

Fastest Rap MC
Ricky Brown (USA) rapped 723 syllables in 51.27 seconds on his track “No Clue” at B&G Studios, Seattle, Washington, USA, on January 15, 2005.

Fastest Playing Of The Sailor’s Hornpipe
Trombonist Peter “Fats” Baxter, of Hove, England, played The Sailor’s Hornpipe in 8.5 seconds at the House of Commons in Westminster, London, England, on December 15, 1998. The Sailor’s Hornpipe is a well-known English folk tune, often performed to accompany a dance, which is believed to have been invented by sailors of the English navy.

Biggest-Selling Christmas Song
Bing Crosby’s recording of White Christmas (1942) has sold over 100 million copies around the world, with at least 50 million sales as singles. White Christmas has been reissued annually since 1942. The latest chart success with the song was in December 1998, when it charted for three consecutive weeks in the UK, reaching No. 29.