Many of the greatest composers, who wrote iconic works for orchestra, opera, etc., were geniuses in melody, development and orchestration, to name a few skillsets. But when writing for orchestra or other large scale ensemble, one focuses on bigger ideas than minute instrument writing, and often the individual parts could be awkward or boring. There…
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The Velvet Underground is one of the most influential rock bands in the history of the genre, kickstarting the punk movement and inspiring iconic musicians such as David Bowie, Brian Eno and many more. The group’s unique sound was defined by it’s two central figures: Lou Reed, the iconoclastic frontman and lead songwriter with a…
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This is an educational guide to the most important composers of classical style music from the Renaissance Period all the way to the present. The 80 composers in this guide are responsible for the vast majority of all pieces being played in concert halls and opera houses across the world. Each entry provides a short…
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Leos Janacek (1854-1928) Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) Erik Satie (1866-1925) Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) Charles Ives (1874-1954) Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Bela Bartok (1881-1945) Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) Anton Webern (1883-1945) Alban Berg (1885-1935) Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) George Gershwin (1898-1937) Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) Aaron Copland (1900-1990) Kurt Weill (1900-1950)…
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Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840) Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Franz Liszt (1811-1886) Richard Wagner (1813-1883) Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) Charles Gounod (1818-1893) Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884) Johann Strauss…
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Josquin des Prez (1450-1521) Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594) Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) Henry Purcell (1659-1695) Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) George Frederic Handel (1685-1759) Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787) Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Renaissance Period, ~1400-1600 Youtube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxAGUAAP_gE&list=PLEXM-evUYOx-uPqlszHyw2O7IJjecdS9X Baroque Period, ~1600-1750…
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It’s no secret that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the greatest, most prolific composers of all time. While he excelled in many different types of composition, including opera, chamber and piano works, it’s his symphonic work that best shows his musical genius. The symphonies spanned his entire career, from ages 8 to 32, showing…
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As a violinist, I thought I would start my music lists with the category I am the most acquainted with. Similarly, from this point of view, keep in mind there is bound to be some preferential bias towards concertos with especially notable solo parts as opposed to the work as a whole, although I will…
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