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Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813- February 13, 1883) is one of the most well known German composers of all time with his operas being some of the most popular operas of all time. His compositions are well known for the grand orchestration and his 'Wagnerian' Letimotifs. His most famous work is his operatic cycle called 𝘋𝘦𝘳 𝘙𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘕𝘪𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘯. Wagner's music was used as German propaganda by Nazi Germany during WWII. -
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Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Mussorgsky (March 21, 1839- March 28, 1881) was one of the "Mighty Five" composers. HIs works are inspired by Russian history, folklore, and national themes. His most well known works are Night on Bald Mountain and the piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition. -
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Antonin Dvorak
Antonin Dvorak (September 8, 1841-May 1, 1904) was a Czech composer that frequently employed rhythms from Eastern European cultures and the Americas. His most well known work is his New World Symphony (1893), which was inspired by African American spirituals. -
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Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov
Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov (March 18, 1844- June 21, 1908) was a Russian composer that was considered part of the "Mighty Five", a group of Russian composers that developed Russia's nationalist style of classical music. He wrote the Principles of Orchestration, which discusses the technique of writing for an orchestra. He is most well known for his works Scheherazade and Capriccio Espangol. -
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Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janáček (July 3, 1854- August 12, 1928) is a Czech composer that composed music inspired off of Czech culture. He is considered one of the great "realists" of early 20th century music. Janáček collected Czech, Moravian, and Slovakian folk songs. Rather to "ennoble" the folk tunes within a classical form, he wanted to "ennoble himself". -
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Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler (July 7, 1860- May 18, 1911) was considered a titan of the Austro-German tradition of the Romantic Era. Living primarily as a conductor and a composer, Mahler was known for his extremely large orchestrations. One of his most well known works is Symphony No. 8, or his "Symphony of a Thousand". -
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Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy (August 22, 1862- March 25, 1918) was a French Impressionist composer depsite disliking the term "Impressionist". Art and poetry inspired his compositions as he strayed away from the German music tradition of the time. One of his most famous works is "La Mer", which was inspired off of his childhood memories of the sea. -
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Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss (June 11, 1864- September 8, 1949) was one of the titans of the Austro-German tradition (like Mahler) and he marked the end of what musicologists determine to be the end of the Romantic Era. His opera 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘮𝘦 broke from romantic tradition through tonality exploration and dark religious themes.
During Nazi Germany, Strauss did not join the Nazi party, but he promoted German art in order to protect his Jewish family as well as preserve banned music such as Mahler and Debussy. -
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Carl Nielson
Carl Neilson (June 9, 1865-October 3, 1931) was Denmark's most famous composer of the time. He was inspired by Brahms and Grieg, but he was also inspired by the sounds of different cultures. His notable works include "Helios Overture" and "Maskarade". -
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Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius (December 8, 1865-September 20, 1957) was a Finnish composer that was dismissed in the Austria-German centers despite being popular amongst England and America. He brought fame to Finland, especially after his work "Finlandia" was premiered in 1899. Sibelius was also known for battling with depression, becoming an alcoholic to drown out his thoughts. -
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Erik Satie
Erik Satie (May 17, 1866 - July 1, 1925) was a French impressionist composer and pianist. While it may be possible that Debussy influenced Satie's work, it is likely that the two French composers were inspired off of each other. Satie is known for his work The Gymnopedies, his creation of "furniture music", and his extremely detailed performance instructions that he left on his scores. -
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Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin (November 24,1868- April 1, 1917) was an American composer and pianist who was dubbed as "The King of Ragtime". He wrote over 40 ragtime pieces, including "Maple Leaf Rag" and "The Entertainer". He spent his last years in life trying to compose his opera "Treemonisha", but he died of syphilis in 1917. -
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Will Marion Cook
Will Marion Cook (January 27, 1869-July 19,1944) was an American violinist, composer, conductor, and teacher. He was known for his "Uncle Tom's Cabin" opera and his musical revue called "Clorindy". His composition "Dahomey" echoes the opening of the Largo of Dvorak's New World Symphony. -
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Arnold Schoenburg
Arnold Schoenburg (September 13, 1874 - July 13, 1951) is considered the Father of 12 tone music. He was the leader of the Second Viennese School of Music, and despite being target by the Nazi Party, he moved to the U.S. to continue creating 12 tonal music. One of his most well known works is 𝘗𝘪𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘵 𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘦, which pioneered the use of Sprechstimme (speech singing) in music. -
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Charles Ives
Charles Ives (October 20, 1874-May 19, 1954) was a composer, organist, and an insurance agent. Despite being a well known composer, music was considered his side hustle. "The Celestial Country" was his first work, but he is more well known by his experiemental works, such as "From the Steeples and the Mountains" and "The Unanswered Question". -
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Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel (March 3, 1875- December 28, 1937) was a pianist, conductor, and one of the major pioneers of French impressionist music. He experimented with textures, musical forms, orchestration, and styles. His notable works are Bolero, Daphis et Chloe, and his orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition. -
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Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter (September 15, 1876- February 17, 1962) was a German conductor and composer who was one of the most respected conductors of his time. His place in this time line is strange, since while he is a composer, his role as a conductor plays a grander part in the lives of the composers he surrounded himself with and history. He was extremely close with Mahler as a fellow musician and friend. -
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Manuel De Falla
Manuel De Falla (November 23, 1876-Novmeber 14, 1946) was a Spanish composer and pianist. He is considered the most distinguished Spanish composer of the 20th century due to his works inspired by native Spanish folk music and opera. His works included "The Three-Cornered Hat" and "Nights in the Gardens of Spain". -
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Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók (March 25, 1881- September 26, 1945) was a composer, pianist, and the father of ethnomusicology. His early works relfected those of Liszt, Brahms, and Strauss, but later strived to be as far away from "the destructive urban influence" of the cities. Bartók ventured to the rural villages of eastern Europe to explore their musical truths and document them. -
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Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinksy (June 17, 1882- April 6, 1971) is considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. His works 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘣𝘪𝘳𝘥 Suite and 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 set the new standards for rhythm structure. While his 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 was ridiculed at its premiere, it quickly became one of Stravinksy's greatest works, and one of the greatest works of the 20th century. -
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Percy Grainger
Percy Grainger (July 8, 1882- February 20, 1961) was an Australian composer, arranger, and pianist. He is most well known for recording and arranging English folk tunes with the use of a phonograph. He composed "Shallow Brown" after listening to a recording of John Perring sing the sea shanty multiple times. -
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Anton Webern
Anton Webern (December 3, 1883- August 15, 1945) was an Austrian composer and a part of the Second Viennese School. His music is considered some of the most avant-garde of the atonal movement. His first composition and one of his most famous is his Passacaglia for Orchestra, which is written unlike a traditional passacaglia. Webern died accidently when the American military tried to hunt down his relative that was suspected with having ties to the Nazi party. -
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Edgard Varese
Edgard Varese (December 22, 1883-November 6, 1965) was a French composer. He came to New York from Paris after being released from the French army on medical grounds in 1915. His first major American work was called "Ameriques". -
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Alban Berg
Alban Berg (February 9, 1885 - December 24, 1935) was an Austrian composer who was part of the Second Viennese School. Unlike Schoenberg, his music was not purely 12 tonal. Berg's compositions combined Romantic lyricisms and expression within the 12- tone form. His most well known work is his opera 𝘞𝘰𝘻𝘻𝘦𝘤𝘬. -
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Sergey Prokofiev
Sergey Prokofiev (April 23, 1891- March 5, 1953) was a Russian Neoclassical composer. He studied under Rimsky-Korsakov and was colleagues with Shostakovich. He was a composer during Stalin's Russia, and his works were denounced by the Russian government. He was known for his works "Romeo and Juliet" and "Peter and the Wolf". -
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Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud (September 4, 1892- June 22, 1974) was a French composer, conductor, teacher, and part of the Les Six. He was inspired by Jazz and Brazilian music, making use of polytonality in his works. One of his most well known works is La Creation du Monde. -
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Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith (Novemebr 16, 1895-December 28, 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, and violist. He was a huge advocate of New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) in the 1920s, and he frequently used Renaissance and Baroque forms in a modern fashion. Hindemith completed a series of six sonatas for strings that have influenced from Debussy and Ravel. -
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Erich Korngold
Erich Korngold (May 29, 1897-Novemebr 29, 1957) was a Austrian composer and conductor. He was known for being a child prodigy, performing from an early age and composing his first few works. His composition were mainly for shows, operas, and movies, gaining the title "Father of the Film Score". Some of his most well known works are his scores for "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and "Another Dawn". -
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George Gershwin
George Gershwin (September 26, 1898-July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist. He grew up in Manhattan surrounded by the multiple diverse art forms of the area, and Jazz became a huge influence on his music. His first vaudeville opera was called "Blue Monday Blues", and he was most well known for his composition "Rhapsody in Blue". -
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Francis Poulenc
Francis Poulenc (January 7,1899-January 30, 1963) was a French composer and pianist that was part of the Les Six, a group of composers that reacted strongly against German Romanticism and French Impressionism. His most notable works include his opera Dialogues des Carmelites and Concerto for Organ, Strings, and Timpani. -
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Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington (April 29, 1899- May 24, 1974) was a Jazz pianist, composer, and conductor. Ellington, also referred to as "The Duke", was a master at writing 3-minute specials, and has wrote and collaborated on over a thousand compositions. His most well known work was his orchestral suite called "Black, Brown, and Beige", which was a portrayal of African-American history. -
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Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill (March 2, 1900- April 3, 1950) was a German composer that fled Nazi Germany in 1933. While he was in the States, he composed the "Threepenny Opera" and "Mack the Knife", holding to his ideal that writing music should serve a socially useful purpose. -
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Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland (Novmeber 14,1900- December 2, 1990) was an American composer that incorporated aspects of Jazz and Folk music into his compositions. He was an active member of the American Composer Alliance, advocating for young composers. Copland won a Pulitzer price for his composition "Appalachian Spring" in 1944. His other notable work is "A Lincoln Portrait" which present sung quotes form Lincoln over an orchestra. -
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Harry Partch
Harry Partch (June 24, 1901- September 3, 1974) was an American composer in California. He was inspired by Lou Harrison and he invented a 43 note scale. -
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Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich (September 25,1906- August 9, 1975) was a Neoclassical composer in Stalin's Russia. He experimented with avant-garde techniques and strayed from Western music in his early career. However, the pressures from Stalinist Russia brought him back to a more traditional Western style. He was influenced by Tchaikovsky and Hindemith, and his most notable works are his String Quartets and Symphony No. 5. -
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Olivier Messiaen
Oliver Messiaen (December 10, 1908- April 27, 1992) was a French contemporary composer that was heavily inspired by bird song and Roman Catholic theology. He experimented with non-western scales and modes. His most well known works are Quartet for The End of Time and The Awakening of the Birds. -
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John Cage
John Cage (September 5, 1912- October 12, 1992) was an American avant-garde composer that is considered one of the most experimental composers of the 20th century. He utilized many unorthodox instruments and he used the principle of "indeterminism" in his works. Because of his works, most notable "4'33", he advanced the discussion of the age old question: what is music? -
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Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten (November 22, 1913 – December 4, 1976) was a defining English composer of the 20th century. He was influenced by Bach, Brahms, and Beethoven. Britten composed “Peters Grimes” and “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra”. -
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Lou Harrison
Lou Harrison (May 14, 1917 – February 2, 2003) was an American composer and music critic. He was inspired by Henry Cowell and Indonesian gamelan music. He composed the Opera “Rapunzel”. -
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Gyorgy Ligeti
György Ligeti (May 28, 1923 - June 12, 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian avant-grade classical composer. His music was influenced by his relationship with Stockhausen. He is most well known for his composition of the music for “2001: A Space Odyssey”. -
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Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez (March 26, 1925- January 1, 2016) was a French avant-garde composer and conductor. He was influenced by Messiaen, Leibowitz, and Schoenberg. Boulez believed that 12-tone and serialism was the true music for academics. His notable works are Piano Sonata No. 2 and Pli Selon Pli. -
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Morton Feldman
Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer that experimented with non-traditional notation, improvisation, and timbre. He worked closesly with John Cage, using stillness and silence in his music. His notable works include Piano Piece 1952 and For Bunita Marcus. -
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Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen (August 22, 1928 - December 5, 2007) was a German Composer known for controversial electronic music and serial compositions. His works were influenced by Stravinksy, and he composed a series of nineteen Klavierstücke (Piano Pieces). -
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Toru Takemitsu
Tōru Takemitsu (October 8, 1930 - February 20, 1996) was composer that was largely self-taught. He combined Eastern and Western music and philosophy and he was inspired by Debussy, Messiaen, Schoenberg, and Cage. -
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Bernard Herrmann
Bernard Hermann (July 10, 1931-December 26, 2019) was an American composer who was often referred to as a "music-dramatist" since he wrote mainly for opera and film. He was a passionate advocate for music being widely accessible, and was involved with radio and television broadcasts of musical programs. He is most well known for his score of "Psycho" -
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Steve Reich
Steve Reich (October 3, 1936 - present) is an American composer who pioneered minimalism in America. He composed “It’s Gonna Rain” and “Music for 18 Musicians”. -
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Philip Glass
Philip Glass (January 31, 1937 - present) is a minimalist composer known for bridging the gap between classical and everyday music. He is influenced by everything from Classical Music to relevant minimalist composers to David Bowie. Philip Glass is known for his composition "Einstein on the Beach". -
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John Adams
John Adams (February 15, 1947- present) is an American composer that is rooted in both minimalism and contemporary classical music. He graduated from Harvard and found influence in the works of John Cage. "Nixon in China" is one of his most well known works, having themes and repetitions from minimalism with a Wagnerian and classical type orchestra.