Is the Biggest Musical Family Also the Most Famous Musical Family of All Time?

Question 1: Which is the biggest musical family? Simple. Question 2: Which is the most famous musical family? Maybe you know that too. Already more difficult to answer is question 3: Is the biggest musical family then also the most famous musical family? Is there any difference at all? However, let's get back to the headline: Which musical families can you think of at all, which ones have you heard of? The Kellys, the Jacksons? And there are the Straussens, you might know that there is a Johann Strauss, father and a Johann Strauss, son. That's what they are called in Germany and Austria. In English, it's Johann Strauss I and Johann Strauss II. But otherwise? 

The most famous portraits of the most famous composers, painted in water color style. However, are they all members of a musical family?

Question 3 is certainly the most difficult question to answer. Question 2 is also not quite so easy to answer. But it is easier. But now to question 1 in the section above: There the answer is so obvious and crystal clear possible, that requires not even an extensive website page. It is the Bachs! They are the greatest family of musicians on earth and of all time. Which is the most famous musician family in the world, that can be clarified by the most different criteria. It is the combination of the criteria "fame" of the "light figure" of the family, the amount of people who know this family, and thirdly it is the "quality of the musicians in the second and third row". To this combination, my husband's Bach portal dedicates a very special FAQ and very, really very detailed, with a whole "doctoral dissertation" on his website Bach on Bach (... here you will find no list!). So if you want to know which musical family is the most famous, please click there. If you want to know if there are really 85 known or famous musician families, then you are "in the best place" with one click here. Here is the list with all 85 families.

Classical music doesn't have to be "dusty, beer-serious and fun-free". It can also be completely different, with Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Co.!

Is "The Kelly Family" in Germany a Well-Known Musical Family?

It is much more complicated when the question is "Which is the biggest, most famous musical family? Because then, in addition to the degree of fame, the number of musicians in rows one to ten also plays a role. And that results in a "weird competition" of fame vs. number of musicians. And who wants to decide if, for example, the Mozarts are much more famous than the Jacksons, but the Jacksons have many more musicians. Also for this it makes sense to look at the Bach-FAQ 129 on Bach on Bach (... there is a ranking) or to browse here at the "famous musician families of the earth".

Daniel Jerome "Dan" Kelly formed a band in 1974. But: It is not a "beer-serious" competition here, and therefore he "may" be counted as a musician. Even if he didn't play music himself. But if he provides so much beautiful music, he simply qualifies. He gets an honorary title, musician h.c., because also Veit Bach – the first who made music with the Bachs – "counts". And he neither learned nor studied music making, nor earned money with it, and he also did not teach it ... all my ( ! ) criteria for assigning family members. Dan performed publicly as a storyteller, but not with a musical instrument ... and not as a singer either. How fortunate that I set the rules. But for his first wife and also his second wife, it is true for us and today and here that both women did not make music. From both connections, however, twelve children were born, who together with their father then made up the Kelly Family.

Publicly they performed first from 1974 as "Kelly Kids" in Spain, later then everywhere in Italy ... in the famous minibus VW T1. Next destination was 1976 then Vienna in Austria. 1977 Ireland was the stage of the gang. In 1978, the path of life led them first to Cologne, then to Stuttgart. Then to Hamburg. In 1980, the Kelly Family had their first No. 1 hit in the Netherlands and Belgium. After that, the Kellys made music in Europe and the USA.

This is how conservative classical music fans like their masters best. These are the most famous portraits of the experts: Handel, Liszt, Mozart, Wagner, Beethoven.

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Are There Five Bach Shops With Hundreds of Bach Gifts or Are There Thousands of Bach Gifts?

It's more likely that there are thousands of Bach gifts. And tens of thousands of music gifts in other stores on the "Zazzle & Co." platforms! To these shops now?

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So the oldest generation of the Kellys is almost free of musicians. Only the father is our musician h.c. ... in the meantime. From 13 children of the next Kelly generation, eleven are musicians. And that brings us to this second and then the third generation: Daniel "Danny" Kelly Jr. is disabled and was never a member of the band. Carolin Kelly (musician #2), born in 1959, was musically part of the band in the beginning, and therefore she counts, although she later works as a nurse in New York. According to my research, she is not married and has no (... not musical either) children. Patricia Kelly, born in 1962, drowned at the age of one. Kathleen Anne "Kathy" Kelly (No. 3), born in 1963, is a full-blooded musician. In 1992 she gave life to a son, but he does not appear as a musician. Paul Kelly (No. 4) was born in 1994 and is also a musician. John Kelly (No. 5) saw the light of day in 1967 and is also crystal clear a musician. He married a Spanish soprano (No. 6) in 2001, expanding the potential of the musical family. She is also the daughter of a flamenco guitarist (No. 7) and that again adds another point. Maria Patricia Kelly (No. 8) joined the band in 1969 and later became the contact person for press and media. Of course she is also a band member. Her younger son Ignatius "Iggi" Kelly (No. 9) appeared on "The Voice Kids" and is therefore ... in case of doubt, for us and for this "competition" of course also a musician. Jimmy Kelly (No. 10) was born in 1971 and plays several instruments. Jimmy Kelly is married and has three children, but they are not musicians. Joey Kelly (No. 11) enlarges the family troupe from 1972 and married a musician Tanja Niethen (No. 12), singer in the band Bellini, with whom he has four children. But none of them is a musician. And Barby Kelly (No. 13) is the next prospective musician addition from 1975. In 1977 Michael Patrick "Paddy" Kelly (No. 14) is born and later becomes musical director of the Kelly Family. In addition, he is also a solo artist. Maite Kelly (No. 14) was born in Berlin in 1979 and played bass in the band. In addition, she is also a solo artist. Maite Kelly was married and has three daughters, none of whom are musicians either. Finally, Angelo Kelly (No. 15) is the last child of the second Kelly generation. He married Kira Kelly and had five children with her. At Wiki – and I assume this Wikipedia is written and updated by real Kelly fans – it is said that Angelo Kelly is musically supported by his wife and his children Gabriel Jerome Kelly(No. 16), Helen Josephine (No. 17), Emma Maria (No. 18), Joseph Ewan Gregory Walter (No. 19) and finally William Emanuel (No. 20).

Another style again. There are plenty of black and white pictures of the greats of the guild. Plus, wood engravings . Then such portraits like above are something quite different.

With a number of 20 artists in a musical family, the Kellys are 100 percent in the top ten. Let's check the number of musicians in the other families: There are the Jacksons. Together with the Presleys, there are nine musicians. The Straussens in Vienna? A whole six musicians. The Schumanns? Also five. The world-famous Mozarts: Nine family members were musicians. The Liszts and the Wagners are related to each other and as a musical family – together – also make nine musicians. And then there are the Bendas, Schunkes and – above all and especially – the Richters. So these are – until today – the "Top Eight Musician Families" of all times. The Kellys are and remain, in fact, right at the top.

Only cool for cool kids. That's what you get when you – like me – find popular classical music hipper than classical music in general. 

One musical family, however, spoils the Kellys' 1st place and relegates them to the 2nd place. And that is ... you guessed it ... the Bachs from Thuringia. Johann Sebastian Bach alone listed 51 musicians in his "Origin of the Musical Bach Family". In fact, two listed persons are not musicians. Once apart from the fact that the list mentions no women, who were musicians, it lists naturally also no persons, who were born after 1935, the date, when he "provided" the list. In short, today there are about 200 musicians in Europe and in the USA, making the Bachs – or as they used to be called ... the Bache – undoubtedly the biggest musical family in the universe and of all time. And most certainly the most famous as well. And here – with one click – they are, all, really all musician families, known, famous and unknown, sorted by alphabet and listed with the number of musicians. Thereby the following result and ranking is a combination of the Wikipedia editor's compilation and my own research. However ... I do not adopt the pipe organ builders from Wikipedia, because I find that building musical instruments does not "entitle" them to be included in a list of the biggest families of musicians. My list ... my rules of the game. With a smirk. As always. And in addition: Only three musicians of a family and then also relatively unknown are also not allowed in my list, so only about half of the musician families listed on Wikipedia are in my list. But there are a few more obviously forgotten ones. Well-known or famous and ( ! ) many musicians ... that must be for the ranking in my "Musician Families Top 25" anyway. Soon there will be a hint to a similar list, but then – in contrast to the one you can click above – it will list these families in the ranking of the number. And not according to the alphabet.

The first composer and the third: They are well known by now! Right? Bach and Mozart. The third one you don't necessarily have to know as a student: Gounod. And the fourth? Almost no one knows him: His name was Charpentier.

On a much more prominent page of my website there is a similar "weird" contest where mainly famous classical music families are invited to participate and also uninvited again and also only have to share the places with the Jacksons/Presleys, the Kellys and the Sinatras. On it, the family members are listed in more detail, as is the case with the Kellys above.

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99 Music Calendars: Pipe Organ Calendars, Composers Calendars, and Bach Calendars

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: He was the super genius in a relatively large family of musicians.

Schubert: As a musician, he was "all alone, so to speak". No one else in his family was a musician. To the shop.

None of the superstars above (... Schumann, Brahms, Beethoven) belonged to a large and at the same time famous musical family.

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