Composers

This page is about who wrote various pieces of music.  For biographical details, etc., see People in Music.

Adagio in G minor (actually largely composed by Remo Giazotto, c 1946)		Tomaso Albinoni
Tocata and Fugue in D Minor (1704?), Sheep May Safely Graze (1713), Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring (c. 1720), Brandenburg Concertos (1721), The Well–Tempered Clavier (1722, Book II 1742), Magnificat (1723), St. John Passion (1724), 6 Partitas (1726–30), St. Matthew Passion (1727), Wachet Auf (1731), Coffee Cantata (1732–5), Christmas Oratorio (1734), Goldberg Variations (1741), The Art of Fugue (1740s)		Johann Sebastian Bach
Adagio for Strings (used in the film Platoon)		Samuel Barber
Concerto for Orchestra (1943), Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta		Bela Bartok
Piano sonatas: Pathetique (No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13), Moonlight (No. 14 in C# minor, Op. 27 no. 2), Pastoral (No. 15 in D, Op. 28), The Tempest (No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31 No. 2), Waldstein (No. 21 in C, Op. 53), Appassionata (No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57), Les Adieux (No. 26 in E flat, Op. 81a)		Ludwig van Beethoven
3 sets of Bagatelles (24 in total); 33 variations on a theme by Diabelli; Christ on the Mount of Olives is his only oratorio
Piano Trio in B–flat major, Op. 97 – commonly known as the Archduke Trio (one of several works he dedicated to his sponsor, Archduke Rudolph of Austria)
Roman Carnival Overture, Symphonie Fantastique, Harold in Italy (symphony with viola obbligato)		Hector Berlioz
Candide overture, The Chichester Psalms, On the Town		Leonard Bernstein
In the Steppes of Central Asia (symphonic poem)		Alexander Borodin
Academic Festival Overture, Cradle Song, St. Anthony Variations, German Requiem, Alto Rhapsody, 21 Hungarian Dances		Johannes Brahms
The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (variations on a theme by Henry Purcell) 1946; War Requiem, based on the poems of Wilfred Owen – commissioned for the consecration of Coventry's new cathedral, in 1962		Benjamin Britten
Scottish Fantasy for violin and orchestra – also one of the most popular violin concertos (German romantic composer, 1839–1920)		Max Bruch
Ten symphonies, numbered 0 to 9, including No. 4, the Romantic		Anton Bruckner
Short orchestral works Two English Idylls, The Banks of Green Willow (folk song arrangement); A Shropshire Lad, based on the poems of A. E. Housman (killed in action on the Somme, 1916, aged 31)		George Butterworth
4' 33" (Four Minutes 33 seconds, 1952: three movements, totalling 4 minutes and 33 seconds, with no notes scored or played – the point being that the audience listens to the ambient sounds of their surroundings)		John Cage
Songs of the Auvergne (1923–30: 29 arrangements of folk songs from that part of France, in five series, for soprano voice, accompanied by orchestra or piano)		Joseph Canteloube
Setting of the Te Deum, whose prelude is famous as the signature tune of the European Broadcasting Union and the theme tune of the Eurovision Song Contest		Marc–Antoine Charpentier
Fanfare for the Common Man, El Salon Mexico		Aaron Copland
Worldes Blis (1916), Black Pentecost (1979); The Yellow Cake Revue (1980) – including 'Farewell to Stromness', one of his most popular pieces		Peter Maxwell Davies
(Prelude to) L'apres–midi d'une faune, Snowflakes are Dancing, Golliwogs' Cakewalk; Suite Bergamesque; Children's Corner (for his daughter); Claire de Lune; La Mer		Claude Debussy
Nights in the Gardens of Spain (for piano, and later for orchestra)		Manuel de Falla
The Walk to the Paradise Garden (orchestral interlude from the 1907 opera A Village Romeo & Juliet), In a Summer Garden (1911), On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring (1912), North Country Sketches (1914)		Frederick Delius
Achieved overnight fame in 1897 with The Sorcerer's Apprentice		Paul Dukas
Symphony no. 9 in E minor, From the New World		Antonin Dvorak
Pomp and Circumstance marches, Enigma Variations, Cockaigne Overture (In London Town), Sea Pictures, Falstaff ('symphonic study'), overture 'In the South', Serenade for Strings, Introduction & Allegro for Strings; oratorios The Light of Life, The Dream of Gerontius, The Apostles, The Kingdom		Edward Elgar
Pavane (used as the theme tune to BBC TV's coverage of the 1998 FIFA World Cup)		Gustave Fauré
Comic operas Merrie England (1902) and Tom Jones (1907)		Sir Edward German
Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris; also a popular piano concerto		George Gershwin
Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (No. 3 – 1976)		Henryk Gorecki
Australian–born composer, best–known for English Country Gardens and arrangements of English folk songs such as Molly on the Shore, Brigg Fair, The Lost Lady Found, Shallow Brown		Percy Grainger
Peer Gynt (incidental music to Ibsen's play): includes Morning Mood, Anitra's Dance, In the Hall of the Mountain King		Edvard Grieg
The Water Music (1717); The Harmonious Blacksmith (1720); Zadok the Priest (British coronation anthem, 1727); oratorios Messiah (1742), Judas Maccabeus (1747); Music for the Royal Fireworks (1749)		Georg Friederich (George Frederick) Handel
Oratorios The Creation and The Seasons; the twelve Salomon Symphonies; the Frog quartet (in D Major, op. 50 no. 6); masses named after Admiral Nelson and Empress Maria Theresa		Joseph Haydn
The Raft of the Medusa (1968) – an oratorio, written as a requiem for Che Guevara – caused a riot at its premiere in Hamburg when a red flag was placed on the stage		Hans Werner Henze
Ludus Tonalis (1942 – a set of 24 preludes and fugues, intended to be the twentieth–century equivalent to Bach's The Well–Tempered Clavier)		Paul Hindemith
The Planets (suite); Egdon Heath (homage to Thomas Hardy)		Gustav Holst
Three places in New England (Orchestral Set No. 1)		Charles Ives
Adiemus (song), Palladio (orchestral piece in the form of a concerto grosso), The Armed Man (mass, subtitled A Mass for Peace)		Karl Jenkins
Piano 'rags' such as Pineapple Rag, Maple Leaf Rag, The Entertainer		Scott Joplin
The Sabre Dance – a piece from the final act of the ballet Gayaneh – is the best–known piece by		Aram Khachaturian
The Háry János Suite – an orchestral piece extracted from the opera of the same title		Zoltán Kodály kodaly
Symphony Espagnole (1875)		Edouard Lalo
Gold and Silver Waltz		Franz Lehar
Faust Symphony; A Symphony to Dante's Divine Comedy (a.k.a. the Dante Symphony); 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies; four Mephisto Waltzes; Dance of the Dead (Totentanz, in German); invented the term "symphonic poem", and composed 13 examples (of which only Les préludes has entered the standard repertoire)		Franz Liszt
Cantata Das Klagende Lied (Song of Lamentation, 1901); song cycles Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Deaths of Children, 1904), Das Lied von der Erde (Song of the Earth, 1911)		Gustav Mahler
Liverpool Oratorio (1991), Standing Stone (1997), Working Classical (1999), Ocean's Kingdom (ballet, 2011)		Paul McCartney
Reformation, Scottish and Italian symphonies; Elijah, St. Paul (oratorios); hymn Hear my Prayer (including O for the Wings of a Dove); Songs without words (a series of piano pieces); Hebrides Overture ('Fingal's Cave'); Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night's Dream (including The Wedding March – not to be confused with Wagner's Bridal March ("Here comes the Bride")); Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (overture)		Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Quartet for the end of time (French composer – written while a prisoner of war in Paris, 1940, and performed along with fellow prisoners)		Olivier Messiaen
'Haydn' Quartets (dedicated to his friend Joseph Haydn); Gran Partita, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (serenades)		Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Pictures at an Exhibition; (St John's) Night on the Bare Mountain		Modest Mussorgsky
Orpheus in the Underworld, La Belle Helene (operettas)		Jacques Offenbach
Carmina Burana (a cantata based on 24 poems, of 254 in a mediaeval collection of the same name, discovered in 1803 in a monastery in Bavaria)		Carl Orff
Best known for his Canon and Gigue in D major, for 3 violins and continuo		Johann Pachelbel
Peter and the Wolf; film music Lieutenant Kije, Alexander Nevsky		Sergei Prokofiev
Dance of the Hours – a ballet from the opera La Gioconda (Disney's Fantasia had hippos dancing to it; also includes the tune used in Allan Sherman's novelty hit of 1963, Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh)		Amalcare Ponchielli
The Rock (fantasy for orchestra), Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, 1934; The Isle of the Dead		Sergey Rachmaninov
Fountains of Rome (1969); Pines of Rome (1924); Roman Festivals (1929)		Ottorino Respighi
In C (1968), A Rainbow in Curved Air (1969), Church of Anthrax (1970, with John Cale, formerly of the Velvet Underground): US minimalist		Terry Riley
Scheherezade (symphonic suite, later used for a ballet by Michel Fokine); The Flight of the Bumblebee (an instrumental interlude from the opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan)		Nikolai Rimsky–Korsakov
Concierto de Aranjuez ("a cornerstone of the classical guitar repertoire")		Joaquín Rodrigo
Carnival of the Animals, Danse Macabre		Camille Saint–Saens
Three Gymnopédies (1888); Gnossiennes (1890); Flabby Preludes (For a Dog) – four piano pieces, 1912; Things Seen Right–to–Left (Without Glasses) – suite for violin and piano, 1914		Erik Satie
Piano quintet The Trout; string quartets Death and the Maiden, Rosamunde; song cycles Die Schone Mullerin (the Fair Maid of the Mill), Winterreise; Shakespearean songs Who is Sylvia, Hark Hark the lark (allegedly on the same day!)		Franz Schubert
Scenes from Childhood (13 piano pieces, 1838); Dichterliebe ("the poet's love" – song cycle, 1840); Spring and Rhenish symphonies (No. 1 and No. 3, 1841 and 1850)		Robert Schumann
Symphonies To October (no. 2), The First of May (no. 3), Leningrad (no. 7), The Year 1905 (no. 11), The Year 1917 (no. 12), Babi–Yar (no. 13)		Dmitri Shostakovich
Karelia Suite (orchestral suite); Valse Triste (short orchestral work); Finlandia, The Swan of Tuonela (tone poems)		Jean Sibelius
Six symphonic poems Ma Vlast ('My Country'), including Vltava – celebrating the Czech Republic's 'national river', known in German as die Moldau		Bedrich Smetana
The Liberty Bell (Monty Python theme tune), The Thunderer, The Washington Post, Semper Fidelis (Official March of the US Marine Corps), The Stars and Stripes Forever (National March of the USA)		John Philip Sousa
The Radetzky March		Johann Strauss (Sr.)
The Blue Danube waltz; Tales from the Vienna Woods		Johann Strauss II
Alpine Symphony; tone poems Also Sprach Zarathustra, Til Eulenspiegl's Merry Pranks, Don Juan, A Hero's Life, Death and Transfiguration, Don Quixote, Metamprhoses		Richard Strauss
Oedipus Rex (oratorio, sung in costume and in Latin; has also been staged as an opera)		Igor Stravinsky
Spem in Alium (c. 1570: 40–part motet)		Thomas Tallis
The Protecting Veil (1987, commissioned for the BBC Promenade Concerts)		John Tavener
Fantasy overture Romeo & Juliet, tone poem Francesca di Rimini, Variations on a Rococo Theme, Capriccio Italienne, 1812 overture		Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
A Child of Our Time (oratorio, 1939–41), Vision of St. Augustine (choral, 1963–5)		Sir Michael Tippett
Fantasy on a theme by Thomas Tallis (1910), The Lark Ascending (1914), Fantasy on Greensleeves (1934), Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus (1939); A Sea Symphony (1910), A Pastoral Symphony (1921), A London Symphony (1910–13), Sinfonia antartica (1952); incidental music for a production of Aristophanes's The Wasps at Trinity College, Cambridge (1909)		Ralph Vaughan Williams
Crown Imperial march (for the coronation of George VI); Spitfire Prelude and Fugue; Façade (1923), Belshazzar's Feast (cantata)		William Walton

© Haydn Thompson 2017–23