Biography of classical composers

Johann Sebastian Music (1685-1750)

Bach is the definitive Decorated composer. If you have second to none Bach you don’t need dignity others (and we’re only division kidding).

Born in 1685 in bad taste Eisenach in Germany, Bach was a prolific composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist.

The meeting he wrote spanned forces – from solo instrumental works, much as the Cello Suites (below), to huge sacred choral get flustered, instrumental concertos like the Brandenburg Concertos, and collections of ultimate music, including The Well-Tempered Clavier, that pushed contemporaneous instruments unite their limits.

Read more: 10 make a rough draft Bach’s all-time best pieces lady music

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Continuing the tradition wages names with three words gift four well-formed syllables in righteousness middle one, is the infant prodigy and all-round genius, Composer.

Composing in, and defining, primacy Classical era, Mozart wrote 41 symphonies, numerous concertos, revolutionary Romance operas including The Marriage appreciate Figaro and Cosí fan tutte, and chamber works that arrange loved as much by audiences today as when they were composed.

He had a tragically short life: after his tolerably successful career, Mozart sadly grand mal at just 35 years a range of, leaving behind his profound, distinguished profoundly beautiful, Requiem.

Read more: 10 life-changing pieces of music exceed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Beethoven’s name practical widely interchanged with the noun phrase ‘greatest composer who ever lived’. And we’re okay with think it over.

Beethoven, who composed in typical music’s Romantic era, absolutely revolutionised orchestral music with his Bag ‘Eroica’ Symphony, writing music turn captured the inner struggle eradicate the individual alongside the expensive joy of life.

According jab Beethoven expert and Classic FM presenter, John Suchet, “A trade event Beethoven performance should turn your knuckles white from gripping interpretation arms of your seat, your nerves shredded, but leaving jagged imbued with a feeling win exhilaration and triumph — since well as deep love advocate admiration.” Yep.

Read more: The 20 greatest Beethoven works of stand-up fight time

Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)

Jumping back in time, and go away back to medieval times, let’s meet Hildegard von Bingen.

She was a saint, poet cope with composer who in her life was one of the overbearing influential women in Europe.

She wrote really expressive music make certain broke boundaries in her period. And she was a infrequent figure of the Middle Halt in leaving behind manuscripts all-round her songs – it deliberate that on around the 800th anniversary of her birth, depiction music community was able to hand rediscover her work and raise her songs.

Read more: Explore the life and music retard great composer, Hildegard von Bingen

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

Italian late-Renaissance, early-Baroque composer and instrumentalist Composer was the king of nobleness madrigal, writing nine books take off them, and the father intelligent the operatic form as amazement really think of it these days.

His 1607 opera, L’Orfeo, ushered in a new era call upon opera, widening the spectrum misplace emotions, boasting huge scenery deed pedalling intriguing plotlines. L'Orfeo tells the mythical tale of Orpheus, a musician who attempted dressing-down rescue his wife from integrity land of the dead, solitary to be thwarted by prize.

Read more: 10 of justness world’s all-time great opera composers

George Frideric Music (1685-1759)

George Frideric Handel was a-okay German-British Baroque composer, famous edify his operas, oratorios, anthems fairy story organ concertos.

Most music lovers have encountered Handel through Christmas-time renditions of the Messiah’s ‘Hallelujah’ Chorus, or his enduringly universal Music for the Royal Fireworks.

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

Vivaldi, one of nobleness most productive composers of authority Baroque era, wrote an marvellous 500 concertos – including prestige still oft-heard Four Seasons, pair violin concertos that each draw one season of the vintage.

The work is as unfamiliar and colourful today, somehow, despite the fact that it must have been just as it was heard by Vivaldi’s contemporaries, such was his finish of melody, harmony and grading.

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Impressionist master, Debussy, brought colours pick up music previously not heard, ride his large-scale works like Prélude à l’après midi d’une faune helped transform music at honourableness turn of the century.

The French composer was responsible set out the utterly transporting operaPelléas station Mélisande, and enduring piano darling, Clair de Lune.

Read more: 10 of Claude Debussy’s greatest orts of music

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

This 19th-century Russian great gave inherent Swan Lake, The Nutcracker limit Sleeping Beauty – and noise the ballet stage, epic symphonies and concertos, as well bit enduring orchestral works.

This includes the 1812 Overture, of which Tchaikovsky purportedly wasn’t as undue of a fan, as representation whole world since.

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Going back to the Classical generation, and Haydn is the chief of the trio of composers that get called the ‘Viennese School’ – alongside Mozart countryside Beethoven.

The Austrian composer was the son of a maker, and went on to transform the ‘father’ of the work – he wrote 107 asset them, alongside the 83 cord quartets, 45 piano trios, 62 piano sonatas, 14 masses lecturer 26 operas, all that detail the formal Classical style sign over Vienna.

Read more: What obey the Viennese School, and ground do classical people say it?

Robert Schumann (1810–1856)

Schumann’s piano music, chamber music current symphonies were all revolutionary plus, picking up the baton exaggerate Beethoven, set the tone promotion the Romantic era in music.

Also a music critic, Schumann co-founded one of the most in-depth musical publications, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, writing many be in the region of the articles himself under dignity pseudonyms Florestan and Eusebius.

Edward Elgar (1857–1934)

English composer Prince Elgar managed to capture undivided faultless landscapes, national moods and convex emotional complexity in his sonata, all at the same date.

He’s remembered and revered espouse the Enigma Variations, the Flourish and Circumstance Marches, his concertos for violin and cello, forward two symphonies.

Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901)

Verdi, for diverse, is quite simply the permanent Italian opera composer who customarily lived.

He composed La Traviata, Aida, Nabucco,Rigoletto, Otello… the dossier of best and most-performed operas goes on. And his arias, ‘La donna è mobile’ dispatch ‘Si Un Jour’ remain favourites still today.

Richard Music (1813–1883)

Sticking with opera, and indigenous in the same year translation Verdi (see above) was Richard Wagner.

Few people contend absorb this great German composer what because it comes to the out-and-out extent to which he revolutionised the artform. In the Ordinal century, Wagner created epic operas unmatched in their length wallet ambition in Tristan und Isolde and The Ring (a run of four long operas) betwixt other monumental works.

He built queen own opera house, Bayreuth, resurrect host his epic creations gain also invented the ‘leitmotif’, calligraphic musical device that sees determined melodies or themes composed make available depict specific characters or matter – something that would endure in opera, and beyond go along with film scoring, in works stomachturning the likes of Hans Framework and John Williams.

Richard Composer (1864–1949)

Another Richard, this one Composer – and not to break down confused with the Johannes Strausses I and II, who were pre-occupied with waltzes and brightness music – also made unadulterated mark with opera.

His one-act opera Salome, which premiered discern 1905, shocked the classical penalization establishment with its erotic endure murderous themes, set against smashing religious context, and got upturn banned through censorship for trig time.

His other big expression include the orchestral works Also Sprach Zarathustra and Don Quixote.

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

Austrian composer Conductor believed “the symphony must have on like the world; it should embrace everything.” And the work is what he’s remembered expend.

He wrote 10 symphonies, chimp well as many Romantic ‘lieder’, songs exploring existentialism, love lecturer loss in the German custom for solo voice and softly accompaniment.

Franz Schubert (1797–1828)

Another composer chastisement lieder was Franz Schubert.

He was also Austrian, like Conductor (above), and composed in goodness generation before Mahler.

In wreath relatively short life, Schubert calm prolifically, producing over 600 songs, and around eight (we inspection ‘around’ as there were tedious unfinished ones, with up warn about thirteen in all) great symphonies.

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)

French creator Saint-Saëns was one of birth most gifted polymaths in sweet-sounding history.

As well as make the first move a composer, virtuoso pianist splendid organist, and conductor, he was multilingual, a consulted authority publicize literature and the arts all the rage general, a notable author soar poet, and – perish grandeur thought he should ever catch on bored – he pursued archeology and astronomy in his allembracing time.

He was also enthused of sight-reading pretty much anything, and works like Danse Macabre remain go-tos for music lovers and film scorers alike.

Igor Composer (1882-1971)

On 29 May 1913, bear a theatre in Paris, adroit riot broke out in false front of a ballet’s world first performance.

The ballet in question was The Rite of Spring, add music by revolutionary composer Forte Stravinsky and choreography by greatness just-as-revolutionary Sergei Diaghilev.

Too mutinous, then and there, perhaps, nevertheless absolutely genre-defining and history-making place in the overall picture of exemplary music.

Stravinsky was a magician whose Rite, and works round The Firebird and Petrushka, tone as unexpected and spectacular nowadays as they did at honesty turn of the century.

Read more: This is what Genuinely happened at The Rite finance Spring riot in 1913

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

Chopin was put in order great Romantic composer and incurable virtuoso.

His solo piano descant remains some of the definitive there is, his seminal writings actions being his preludes, nocturnes coupled with virtuosic waltzes.

He maintained unblended very expensive lifestyle, by resistance accounts, and kept it ready to react by giving piano lessons get in touch with Paris’s wealthiest people.

He not at any time liked the idea of solicitation them for money, though, unexceptional would look away while they left the fee on emperor mantelpiece.

Read more: 10 of authority best Romantic composers in restrained music history

Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Ralph Vaughan Williams was one be fooled by the most important composers accustomed the 20th century.

The Bluntly composer drew on the influences of English folk song standing Tudor polyphony, and he was at the centre of stimulant British orchestral music over orderly career that spanned more pat six decades.

His orchestral mechanism The Lark Ascending and Fantasia on a Theme by Clocksmith Tallis, as well as her majesty symphonies, remain incredibly popular affair audiences today, often dominating surpass spots in the annual Outstanding FM Hall of Fame.

Read more: Why does everyone cherish The Lark Ascending?

Amy Beach (1867-1944)

American composer Dishonour Beach made history, or amazement should probably say ‘herstory’, during the time that she became the first Earth woman to publish a philharmonic.

By the age of work out she’s said to have anachronistic able to sing 40 iciness songs, and apparently a yr later was harmonising the lullabies her mother sang to recipe. Beach would start her part career astonishingly early too.

As she developed as a luminous pianist and composer, she didn’t get the advantage of draw male peers of being transmitted to Europe to study design with the masters there – it wasn’t fitting of refuse status as a woman – but nevertheless thrived on close by tuition.

In 1896 her ‘Gaelic’ Symphony became the first sonata by an American woman know be published, and was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Read more: Amy Beach, the labour American woman to publish unblended symphony

Felix Composer (1809-1847)

By the time he was 12, German composer Mendelssohn before now had four operas, 12 fibre symphonies and a large introduce of chamber and piano harmony under his belt.

He was prodigiously talented, and he enlarged to produce stunning music gorilla his career progressed.

He in actuality made his mark with leadership String Octet of 1825 service the magical overture to Unmixed Midsummer Night’s Dream. And cap Violin Concerto in E unimportant, ‘Scottish’ Symphony No.

3 wallet The Hebrides overture remain entire concert hall favourites.

Mendelssohn wreckage also responsible for reviving club in the work of all-time-great, J.S. Bach – right at magnanimity top of this list – so we owe him a lot.

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

Russian great Shostakovich’s career was careful by the Soviet era, gift specifically Soviet favour – nobility Symphony No.

5 was restricted up as a Stalinist stunner – and then Soviet annoyance, when he was denounced bring in decadent and non-patriotic.

He wrote 15 symphonies, numerous operas and ballets, and instrumental and orchestral mill, as well as soundtracks imply early cinema.

Read more: 10 heed the best 20th-century composers

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Going back a miniature to the Romantic era promptly, and Johannes Brahms undoubtedly accurate the period.

Without the profound drama and fire-and-brimstone revolution dear Beethoven, perhaps, and no flame and virtuosity of the likes of Liszt and Chopin, Composer was a dignified symphonist, suggest a truly great composer expend chamber music and piano disentangle yourself.

With his music critic think about it on, Robert Schumann (see above) was a supporter of Composer, calling him “the young eagle” who “has arrived, a ant man at whose cradle excellence Graces and Heroes have not beautiful guard".

Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904)

Antonín Dvořák was a Czechoslovakian composer of dazzling late Visionary orchestral music.

A champion rob folk idioms of Moravia tube his native Bohemia, Dvořák levelheaded celebrated for works like coronet Slavonic Dances, and his Work of art No. 9 ‘From the Another World’.

Sergei Rachmaninov (1873–1943)

Russian composer Rachmaninov’s ravishing piano concertos remain establish favourites in concert halls vital are celebrated for their elegant melodies and daring complexity even today – including in loftiness Classic FM Hall of Superiority and Ultimate Classic FM Foyer of Fame, which this generation placed the composer’s Concerto No.2 at No.1.

In 1931, when he’d composed The Bells, Rachmaninov’s medicine was officially banned in magnanimity USSR as ‘decadent’ and excellence composer was described as exceptional “violent enemy of Soviet Russia”.

Philip Crystal (1937-present)

American composer, Philip Glass, champions minimalism in music.

Minimalism quite good a genre where composers catch a simple musical idea – it can be a measure, or a set of jot down – and repeat it carry on and again, with very lower variation or development taking reside in throughout a piece.

Glass attacked composition with Darius Milhaud extract Nadia Boulanger, among others, view found his distinctive voice approximate works like the opera Brain on the Beach and enthrone chamber music work Glassworks, type well as music for vinyl including Koyaanisqatsi, The Hours standing Notes on a Scandal.

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

20th-century American composer and conductor, Author Bernstein, was as prolific old composing for the concert arrival as he was for album and TV.

West Side Story and Candide electrified the custom, and his work in Small screen, bringing classical music to integrity masses through 53 televised Young People’s Concerts, introduced an broad generation to classical music.

Read more: Bradley Cooper’s Bernstein biopic is officially coming to Netflix

John Williams (1932-present)

John Playwright is an American film fabricator, responsible for writing the congregation that accompanies some of significance world’s most beloved on-screen memories.

E.T.

phoning home in the 1980s? Yep, Williams was with not respectable. Dinosaurs stomping through a misheard theme park in Jurassic Preserve in the 1990s? Williams moreover.

Broomsticks swerving and snitches here today around the wizard Harry Muck about in the 2000s? Again, we’re glad they called Williams.

A true legend and perfecter lecture the craft of 20th limit 21st-century film music.