Composers

Béla Bartók

Hungarian composer known for Concerto for Orchestra and string quartets featuring "night music."

Claude Debussy

French composer associated with Impressionism, known for Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and non-traditional scales.

Paul Hindemith

German composer of new tonality, known for opera Mathis der Maler and concept of Gebrauchsmusik.

Gustav Mahler

Renowned symphonist known for works like Symphony No. 5 and Das Lied von der Erde, marked by personal tragedies.

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Russian composer and pianist famous for piano concertos and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

Maurice Ravel

French composer known for Bolero and orchestration skills, influenced by World War I.

Erik Satie

French modernist composer associated with minimalism, known for Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes.

Arnold Schoenberg

Austrian composer known for atonal music and development of twelve-tone method, leading to serialism.

Jean Sibelius

Finnish composer famous for Finlandia and Lemminkäinen Suite, with a focus on symphonies.

Igor Stravinsky

Russian composer with Russian, neoclassical, and serial periods, known for The Rite of Spring and Symphony of Psalms.

George Gershwin

American composer blending classical and jazz, known for Rhapsody in Blue and Porgy and Bess.

Aaron Copland

American composer of "Populist" works like "El Salón México" and ballets like Appalachian Spring.

Leonard Bernstein

Prolific American composer and conductor, known for West Side Story and Symphony No. 1, "Jeremiah."

Arnold Schoenberg

Austrian composer known for atonal music and developing the twelve-tone method of composition.

Philip Glass

Minimalist composer famous for "Portrait Operas" and influential film scores like The Truman Show.

Samuel Barber

Classicist composer known for "Adagio for Strings" and operas like Vanessa and Antony and Cleopatra.

Charles Ives

Modernist composer using polytonality and American themes in works like "Concord" sonata and Symphony No. 3.

John Cage

Experimentalist composer known for aleatoric compositions like 4′33″ and works for prepared piano.

John Adams

Minimalist composer of operas like Nixon in China and orchestral works like Harmonielehre.

Stephen Sondheim

Celebrated lyricist and composer in musical theater, known for works like Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods.

Franz Schubert

Early Romantic composer famous for lieder and symphonies like the "Unfinished" and "Great C Major."

Hector Berlioz

French composer known for Symphonie fantastique and opera Les Troyens.

Felix Mendelssohn

German prodigy composer of symphonies like the "Italian" and "Scottish" and the "Hebrides" Overture.

Robert Schumann

German composer and critic known for works like Carnaval and symphonies like the "Spring."

Franz Liszt

Hungarian pianist and composer known for Transcendental Études and symphonic poems like Les préludes.

Giuseppe Verdi

Prolific Italian opera composer known for Aida, Rigoletto, and Otello.

Richard Wagner

Influential German opera composer known for the Ring Cycle and operas like Lohengrin and Tristan and Isolde.

Johannes Brahms

A prominent composer of the Romantic era, known as one of the "Three B's" of classical music along with J. S. Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Brahms's Symphony No

Nicknamed "Beethoven's Tenth" due to the final movement's resemblance to the "Ode to Joy" in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

Brahms's Symphony No

Based on a three-note F-A-F motto representing the phrase "Frei aber froh," or "Free but happy."

Ein deutsches Requiem

A non-liturgical concert work for chorus and orchestra by Brahms.

Op

Commonly known as "Brahms' Lullaby," a piece by Brahms.

Johannes Brahms's Conservatism

Viewed as a conservative composer compared to contemporaries like Wagner and Liszt.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

A Russian composer of the Romantic era known for ballets like The Nutcracker and symphonies like the "1812 Overture."

Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet

An "overture-fantasy" inspired by Tchaikovsky's correspondence with Mily Balakirev, featuring a popular love theme.

Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture

A programmatic work incorporating melodies like "God Save the Tsar" and "La Marseillaise," with cannon fire in the score.

Tchaikovsky's Death

Speculated to be effectively suicide following the premiere of his Sixth Symphony, the "Pathétique."

Antonín Dvořák

A Czech composer known for works like the "New World" Symphony and the "American" String Quartet.

Dvořák's Symphony No

Features an iconic English horn solo in the Largo second movement, later adapted into the song "Goin' Home."

Dvořák's Slavonic Dances

Sets of dances based on various styles of folk music from Bohemia, including the dumka and the furiant.