Classical Music

Medieval and Early Renaissance

• Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179) — German; the most prolific surviving composer of medieval monophony; works include Ordo Virtutum (one of the earliest surviving morality plays with music) and the song collection Symphoniae harmoniae caelestium revelationum.
• Léonin (c. 1150–c. 1201) — French; Notre Dame school; credited with Magnus Liber Organi, an early collection of organum (two-voice polyphony for liturgical use).
• Pérotin (c. 1160–c. 1230) — French; Notre Dame school; extended Léonin’s work into three- and four-voice polyphony; notable works Viderunt omnes and Sederunt principes.
• Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300–1377) — French; leading composer of the Ars Nova; Messe de Nostre Dame, the earliest surviving complete polyphonic mass setting by a known composer; also renowned as a poet.
• Francesco Landini (c. 1325–1397) — Italian; leading Trecento composer; known for ballate and the characteristic “Landini cadence.”
• John Dunstaple (c. 1390–1453) — English; influential on the Burgundian school; helped establish the smooth consonant style that shaped Renaissance polyphony.

High Renaissance

• Guillaume Dufay (c. 1397–1474) — Franco-Flemish; Burgundian school; synthesized French and Italian styles; motets and mass cycles including L’homme armé mass.
• Johannes Ockeghem (c. 1410–1497) — Franco-Flemish; master of intricate counterpoint; Missa prolationum showcases elaborate canonic technique.
• Josquin des Prez (c. 1450–1521) — Franco-Flemish; considered the supreme master of Renaissance polyphony; masses, motets (Ave Maria… virgo serena), and chansons.
• Orlando di Lasso (c. 1532–1594) — Franco-Flemish; prolific; over 2,000 works spanning masses, motets, and secular pieces; worked at the Munich court.
• William Byrd (1543–1623) — English; leading composer of the Elizabethan era; Catholic polyphony, keyboard music (My Ladye Nevells Booke), and Anglican service music.
• Tomás Luis de Victoria (c. 1548–1611) — Spanish; intensely expressive Catholic sacred polyphony; O magnum mysterium, Officium Defunctorum.
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525–1594) — Italian; paradigm of Renaissance sacred polyphony; smooth voice-leading; Pope Marcellus Mass (Missa Papae Marcelli); his style became the model for ecclesiastical counterpoint.
• Carlo Gesualdo (c. 1566–1613) — Italian; renowned for extreme chromaticism in his madrigals; Tenebrae Responsoria.

Baroque (c. 1600–1750)

Transition and Early Baroque

• Dietrich Buxtehude (c. 1637–1707) — Danish-German; organist at the Marienkirche in Lübeck; influential organ preludes and passacaglias; cantatas; Bach walked some 400 km to hear him play in 1705.
• Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) — Italian; bridged Renaissance and Baroque; pioneered opera with L’Orfeo (1607) and L’incoronazione di Poppea (1643); also composed Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610).
• Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672) — German; brought Italian styles north; Symphoniae sacrae, Musikalische Exequien; major precursor to Bach.
• Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687) — Italian-born French; dominated French Baroque opera; established the French overture form; collaborated with Molière on comédies-ballets.
• Arcangelo Corelli (1653–1713) — Italian; codified the concerto grosso and trio sonata forms; Christmas Concerto (Op. 6 No. 8).

High Baroque

• Henry Purcell (1659–1695) — English; Dido and Aeneas (opera; notable for Dido’s lament “When I Am Laid in Earth”); The Fairy Queen; Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary.
• Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725) — Italian; father of Domenico; over 600 cantatas and 114 operas; helped establish the da capo aria.
• Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757) — Italian; spent much of career in Spain and Portugal; 555 single-movement keyboard sonatas exploring brilliant harpsichord technique.
• François Couperin (1668–1733) — French; “Couperin le Grand”; Pièces de clavecin (four books); codified French harpsichord style.
• Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) — Italian; “the Red Priest”; The Four Seasons (Le quattro stagioni, four violin concertos, part of Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione, Op. 8); Gloria in D major; over 500 concertos total.
• Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767) — German; extraordinarily prolific; Tafelmusik (Musique de Table); more works survive than those of Bach or Handel.
• George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) — German-born British; Messiah (oratorio, premiered Dublin 1742; “Hallelujah” chorus); Water Music (suites for George I’s Thames pageant); Music for the Royal Fireworks; operas including Rinaldo and Giulio Cesare.
• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) — German; Lutheran; synthesized all Baroque styles; Brandenburg Concertos (six, BWV 1046–1051); Mass in B minor (BWV 232); St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244); The Well-Tempered Clavier (two books, all 24 keys); Goldberg Variations (BWV 988); The Art of Fugue; Cello Suites; Violin Partitas and Sonatas.

• Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764) — French; leading theorist and opera composer of the French Baroque; Hippolyte et Aricie, Castor et Pollux; his Traité de l’harmonie (1722) became foundational music theory.

• John Gay (1685–1732) — English; playwright and poet; The Beggar’s Opera (1728), a satirical ballad opera using popular tunes of the day rather than original composition; forerunner of musical theatre and direct inspiration for Brecht and Weill’s Threepenny Opera.

Classical Era (c. 1750–1820)

Early Classical and Galant Style

• Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826) — German; Romantic opera pioneer; Der Freischütz (1821), Euryanthe, Oberon; established German Romantic opera as a distinct tradition ahead of Wagner.
• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788) — German; second son of J. S. Bach; key figure bridging Baroque to Classical; Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments; empfindsamer Stil.
• Giovanni Battista Sammartini (c. 1700–1775) — Italian; early symphonist who influenced Haydn.
• Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787) — German-Bohemian; reformed opera away from ornate castrato conventions toward dramatic simplicity; Orfeo ed Euridice (1762), Alceste.

Haydn and Mozart

• Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) — Austrian; “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet”; 104 symphonies, including the “Surprise” (No. 94, second-movement pizzicato surprise), “Farewell” (No. 45), and “Clock” (No. 101) symphonies; The Creation and The Seasons (oratorios); 68 string quartets including Emperor (Op. 76 No. 3); Trumpet Concerto.
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) — Austrian; child prodigy; 41 symphonies, the last three (Nos. 39–41) written in six weeks in 1788; Symphony No. 40 in G minor; Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter”; piano concertos Nos. 20–27; Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major (“Elvira Madigan”); Clarinet Concerto in A major (K. 622); operas Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute); Requiem in D minor (K. 626, unfinished at death, completed by Süssmayr); Eine kleine Nachtmusik (K. 525); string quartets dedicated to Haydn.

Beethoven

• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) — German; bridged Classical and Romantic; progressive deafness from early adulthood; nine symphonies: No. 3 “Eroica” (in E-flat; originally dedicated to Napoleon), No. 5 in C minor (famous four-note opening motif), No. 6 “Pastoral,” No. 7 in A major, No. 9 in D minor (premiered 1824; choral finale sets Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”); 32 piano sonatas including “Pathétique” (Op. 13), “Moonlight” (Op. 27 No. 2), “Appassionata” (Op. 57), “Hammerklavier” (Op. 106); five piano concertos (No. 5 “Emperor”); Violin Concerto in D major; string quartets including the late quartets (Op. 127–135); opera Fidelio; Missa Solemnis.

Early and Middle Romantic (c. 1820–1870)

• Franz Schubert (1797–1828) — Austrian; over 600 Lieder (art songs) including Erlkönig, Der Erlkönig, Ave Maria, Die Forelle (“The Trout”); song cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise; Symphony No. 8 “Unfinished” (B minor, D. 759; two movements); Symphony No. 9 “The Great” (C major); Trout Quintet (D. 667); String Quintet in C major.
• Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) — Italian; opera seria and buffa; Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville, 1816), La Cenerentola, Guillaume Tell (1829; overture widely known); retired from opera at 37 and composed little for the rest of his life.
• Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848) — Italian; bel canto opera; prolific; Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), L’elisir d’amore (1832), Don Pasquale (1843).
• Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835) — Italian; bel canto; long-breathed vocal lines; Norma (1831; “Casta diva”), La sonnambula, I Puritani; died age 33.
• Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791–1864) — German-French; dominated French grand opera in the mid-nineteenth century; Robert le diable (1831), Les Huguenots (1836), L’Africaine (1865); spectacular stagings influenced later opera composers including Verdi.
• Hector Berlioz (1803–1869) — French; pioneered programmatic orchestration; Symphonie fantastique (Op. 14; five-movement “episode in the life of an artist”; introduced the idée fixe); Harold in Italy; Roméo et Juliette (dramatic symphony); Grande Messe des morts (Requiem); opera Les Troyens.
• Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) — German; Symphony No. 4 “Italian” and No. 3 “Scottish”; overture A Midsummer Night’s Dream (composed at 17); Wedding March from the later incidental music; Violin Concerto in E minor (Op. 64); Elijah (oratorio); Songs Without Words for piano; revived Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in 1829.
• Robert Schumann (1810–1856) — German; Dichterliebe and Frauenliebe und -leben (song cycles); Carnaval and Kinderszenen for piano; Piano Concerto in A minor; four symphonies; suffered severe mental illness in later life.
• Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) — Polish; worked almost exclusively for piano; nocturnes, études (Opp. 10 and 25, including the “Revolutionary” and “Black Key”), preludes (Raindrop Prelude in D-flat), ballades, mazurkas, polonaises (“Heroic” in A-flat), waltzes, two piano sonatas (No. 2 in B-flat minor with the Funeral March), two piano concertos.
• Franz Liszt (1811–1886) — Hungarian; virtuoso pianist; Hungarian Rhapsodies (19 for piano); Piano Sonata in B minor; symphonic poems including Les Préludes; Transcendental Études; invented the symphonic poem form; late works anticipated atonality.
• Richard Wagner (1813–1883) — German; revolutionary opera composer; advocated Gesamtkunstwerk (total artwork); operas: Der fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde (famous opening “Tristan chord”), Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung); Parsifal; Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walküre.
• Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) — Italian; master of opera; Nabucco (“Va, pensiero” chorus), Rigoletto, Il trovatore, La traviata, Aida, Otello, Falstaff; Requiem (Messa da Requiem).
• Charles Gounod (1818–1893) — French; opera Faust; Ave Maria (adapted from Bach’s Prelude No. 1).
• César Franck (1822–1890) — Belgian-French; Symphony in D minor; Violin Sonata in A major; organ works.
• Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884) — Czech; nationalist; Má vlast (My Homeland), a cycle of six symphonic poems, including Vltava (The Moldau); opera The Bartered Bride.
• Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840) — Italian; violin virtuoso of near-mythical technique; 24 Caprices for Solo Violin (Op. 1; Caprice No. 24 in A minor became a theme for variations by Brahms, Rachmaninoff, and others); two violin concertos; his showmanship spawned the “virtuoso cult” of the Romantic era.
• Johann Strauss II (1825–1899) — Austrian; “The Waltz King”; The Blue Danube waltz (Op. 314), Tales from the Vienna Woods; operetta Die Fledermaus (1874); Emperor Waltz; dominated Viennese dance music for decades.
• Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880) — German-French; master of French operetta; Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld, 1858; “Infernal Galop,” known as the can-can), La belle Hélène, La Vie parisienne; posthumous opera Les contes d’Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann, 1881).
• Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) — German; “conservative” Romantic; four symphonies; Academic Festival Overture, Tragic Overture; two piano concertos; Violin Concerto in D major; Double Concerto (violin and cello); A German Requiem (Ein deutsches Requiem); Variations on a Theme of Paganini; chamber music including the Clarinet Quintet.

Late Romantic (c. 1870–1910)

• John Philip Sousa (1854–1932) — American; “The March King”; conductor of the U.S. Marine Band and later his own touring band; Stars and Stripes Forever (1896; designated the official national march of the United States in 1987), Semper Fidelis, The Washington Post march; also invented the sousaphone.
• Amy Beach (1867–1944) — American; first major American female symphonist; Gaelic Symphony in E minor (1896; first symphony composed and published by an American woman); Piano Concerto in C-sharp minor; Mass in E-flat major.

• Anton Bruckner (1824–1896) — Austrian; organist and devout Catholic; nine numbered symphonies (plus an unfinished No. 9) of vast scale; Symphony No. 4 “Romantic,” No. 7 in E major, No. 8 in C minor; Te Deum; revised his works repeatedly, creating multiple versions.

• Jules Massenet (1842–1912) — French; prolific opera composer; Manon (1884), Werther (1892), Thaïs (1894; Méditation for violin and orchestra); dominated the Paris Opéra in the late nineteenth century.
• Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) — French; Carnival of the Animals (satirical suite, withheld until after his death); Symphony No. 3 “Organ”; Danse macabre; opera Samson et Dalila; Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso for violin.
• Georges Bizet (1838–1875) — French; opera Carmen (premiered 1875, initially poorly received); L’Arlésienne suites.
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) — Russian; ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker; Symphony No. 6 “Pathétique” (in B minor; premiered days before his death); Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor; Violin Concerto in D major; 1812 Overture; operas Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades; Romeo and Juliet fantasy overture.
• Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) — Czech; Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” (in E minor, composed in America 1893); Cello Concerto in B minor; American String Quartet (Op. 96); Slavonic Dances; oratorio Stabat Mater.
• Edvard Grieg (1843–1907) — Norwegian; nationalist; incidental music for Ibsen’s Peer Gynt (suites include “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and “Morning Mood”); Piano Concerto in A minor; Lyric Pieces for piano.
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) — Russian; one of “The Five” (Moguchaya Kuchka); orchestral showpieces Scheherazade (Op. 35) and Capriccio Espagnol; The Flight of the Bumblebee (from opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan); operas Sadko and The Golden Cockerel; master orchestrator.
• Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924) — French; Requiem (Op. 48, notable for its serene character); Pavane; piano nocturnes and barcarolles; Pelléas et Mélisande suite.
• Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881) — Russian; one of “The Five”; Pictures at an Exhibition (piano suite, famously orchestrated by Ravel); opera Boris Godunov; song cycle Songs and Dances of Death.
• Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) — Italian; verismo operas La Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Turandot (unfinished; “Nessun dorma”).
• Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857–1919) — Italian; verismo; Pagliacci (1892; “Vesti la giubba”), typically paired with Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana; the two together form the standard “Cav and Pag” double bill.
• Pietro Mascagni (1863–1945) — Italian; verismo; Cavalleria rusticana (1890; won the Sonzogno competition; “Intermezzo” widely known); never replicated that early success.
• Hugo Wolf (1860–1903) — Austrian; known primarily for Lieder; Mörike-Lieder, Eichendorff-Lieder, Spanisches Liederbuch.
• Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) — Austrian; nine completed symphonies (plus unfinished No. 10); Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”; No. 5 in C-sharp minor (Adagietto famously used in Visconti’s Death in Venice); No. 8 “Symphony of a Thousand”; Das Lied von der Erde (song-symphony); song cycles Kindertotenlieder and Des Knaben Wunderhorn.
• Claude Debussy (1862–1918) — French; Impressionist (though he rejected the label); Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, 1894); La mer (three orchestral sketches); Images for orchestra (including Ibéria); piano works Suite bergamasque (including “Clair de lune”), Préludes (two books), Children’s Corner; opera Pelléas et Mélisande; String Quartet in G minor.
• Richard Strauss (1864–1949) — German; tone poems Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel, Also sprach Zarathustra (opening used in 2001: A Space Odyssey), Don Quixote, Ein Heldenleben; operas Salome, Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier, Arabella; Four Last Songs (late career).
• Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) — Finnish; nationalist; seven symphonies; Finlandia (Op. 26); Violin Concerto in D minor; tone poem Tapiola; The Swan of Tuonela.
• Alexander Glazunov (1865–1936) — Russian; Violin Concerto in A minor; eight symphonies.
• Carl Nielsen (1865–1931) — Danish; six symphonies including “Inextinguishable” (No. 4) and “Simple” (No. 6); Wind Quintet.
• Paul Dukas (1865–1935) — French; meticulous self-critic who destroyed most of his manuscripts; The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1897; famous from Disney’s Fantasia); opera Ariane et Barbe-Bleue (1907); La Péri (ballet).
• Edward Elgar (1857–1934) — English; Enigma Variations (Op. 36, 1899), Cello Concerto in E minor (Op. 85), Pomp and Circumstance Marches (No. 1’s trio theme used as “Land of Hope and Glory”); The Dream of Gerontius (oratorio); Violin Concerto.
• Erik Satie (1866–1925) — French; eccentric iconoclast; Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes for piano; influenced Les Six.

Nationalist and Post-Romantic

• Gustav Holst (1874–1934) — English; The Planets (Op. 32, 1916; seven-movement orchestral suite, each movement named for a planet’s astrological character); St. Paul’s Suite; The Hymn of Jesus.
• Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) — English; drew on English folk song and Tudor polyphony; Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910), The Lark Ascending (1914; violin and orchestra), Symphony No. 2 “A London Symphony,” Symphony No. 5 in D major; nine symphonies total.
• Leoš Janáček (1854–1928) — Czech (Moravian); late-blooming; developed “speech-melody” notation; operas Jenůfa (1904), The Cunning Little Vixen, Katya Kabanova, The Makropulos Case, From the House of the Dead; Glagolitic Mass; Sinfonietta.
• Mikhail Glinka (1804–1857) — Russian; regarded as the father of Russian classical music; A Life for the Tsar (1836; first major Russian-language opera), Ruslan and Lyudmila (1842); Kamarinskaya (orchestral fantasy on folk tunes) influenced later Russian composers.
• Mily Balakirev (1837–1910) — Russian; founder and leader of “The Five” (Moguchaya Kuchka); Islamey (1869; oriental fantasy for piano, notoriously difficult); Symphony No. 1 in C major; taught Borodin and others.
• Alexander Borodin (1833–1887) — Russian; one of “The Five”; chemist by profession; Prince Igor (opera, completed posthumously by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov; Polovtsian Dances); In the Steppes of Central Asia; Symphony No. 2 in B minor.
• Isaac Albéniz (1860–1909) — Spanish; pianist-composer; Iberia (1906–1909; twelve piano pieces evoking Andalusian landscapes and dances); Suite española; helped define a distinctly Spanish nationalist style.
• Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959) — Brazilian; most prolific and influential Latin American composer; Bachianas Brasileiras (nine suites blending Bach counterpoint with Brazilian folk idioms, 1930–1945); Choros series; Guitar Concerto.
• Carlos Chávez (1899–1978) — Mexican; conductor and composer; founded the Orquesta Sinfónica de México; Sinfonía India (1936; uses pre-Columbian melodic material); Toccata for Percussion.
• George Enescu (1881–1955) — Romanian; Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 in A major (Op. 11 No. 1, 1901–1902); opera Oedipe (1936); also a celebrated violin teacher (taught Yehudi Menuhin).
• Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860–1941) — Polish; world-famous pianist and statesman; Piano Concerto in A minor (Op. 17); Minuet in G (Op. 14 No. 1); served as Prime Minister of Poland in 1919.

• Pablo Casals (1876–1973) — Spanish cellist and conductor; largely responsible for the modern revival of Bach’s Cello Suites through his landmark recordings (1936–1939); founded the Prades Festival; refused to perform in Franco’s Spain.

• Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915) — Russian; early piano works in Chopin’s vein, later developed idiosyncratic “mystic chord” harmonic language; Prometheus: The Poem of Fire; ten piano sonatas.
• Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) — Russian; late Romantic; Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor and No. 3 in D minor; Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini; Symphony No. 2 in E minor; Vespers (All-Night Vigil, Op. 37).
• Charles Ives (1874–1954) — American; pioneered polytonality, polyrhythm, and quotation; Symphony No. 4; Three Places in New England; Concord Sonata for piano.
• Manuel de Falla (1876–1946) — Spanish; nationalist; ballet El amor brujo (including “Ritual Fire Dance”); Nights in the Gardens of Spain.
• Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936) — Italian; orchestral tone poems Fountains of Rome, Pines of Rome, Roman Festivals.
• Béla Bartók (1881–1945) — Hungarian; synthesized folk music with twentieth-century techniques; Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta; Concerto for Orchestra; Bluebeard’s Castle (opera); six string quartets; Mikrokosmos (piano pedagogy); Piano Concerto No. 2; Violin Concerto No. 2.
• Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967) — Hungarian; Háry János suite; Dances of Galánta; developed the Kodály method of music education.
• William Walton (1902–1983) — English; Façade (entertainment for reciter and chamber ensemble, with Edith Sitwell’s poetry, 1922); Violin Concerto (1939); Belshazzar’s Feast (cantata, 1931); Symphony No. 1 in B-flat minor; film scores for Olivier’s Shakespeare films.
• Engelbert Humperdinck (1854–1921) — German; Hänsel und Gretel (1893; Wagnerian fairy-tale opera; premiere conducted by Richard Strauss); Königskinder.
• Percy Grainger (1882–1961) — Australian; Country Gardens; collected and arranged folk songs.

Twentieth Century

Early Twentieth Century

• Lili Boulanger (1893–1918) — French; first woman to win the Prix de Rome (1913); short life (died age 24); D’un matin de printemps and D’un soir triste for orchestra; Faust et Hélène (cantata, Prix de Rome winning work); Psalm 130 (“Du fond de l’abîme”).
• Kurt Weill (1900–1950) — German-American; collaborated with Bertolt Brecht on Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera, 1928; “Mack the Knife”), Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny; later Broadway work including Lady in the Dark and Lost in the Stars; spans the classical/popular divide.
• Gian Carlo Menotti (1911–2007) — Italian-American; wrote operas in Italian verismo tradition but largely in English; The Medium (1946), The Consul (1950; Pulitzer Prize), Amahl and the Night Visitors (1951; first opera commissioned for US television); founded the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto.

Second Viennese School and Serialism

• Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) — Austrian-American; developed the twelve-tone (dodecaphonic) technique; late Romantic early works (Verklärte Nacht, Gurrelieder) gave way to free atonality (Pierrot lunaire) and then serialism (Piano Suite Op. 25, Variations for Orchestra); opera Moses und Aron.
• Alban Berg (1885–1935) — Austrian; Schoenberg student; expressionist twelve-tone works with lyrical quality; operas Wozzeck and Lulu; Violin Concerto (“To the Memory of an Angel”).
• Anton Webern (1883–1945) — Austrian; Schoenberg student; extremely concentrated, aphoristic works; Five Pieces for Orchestra (Op. 10); Symphony Op. 21; influenced postwar serialists.

Stravinsky and Neoclassicism

• Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) — Russian-American; three stylistic periods; early Russian: ballets for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes — The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), The Rite of Spring (Le sacre du printemps, 1913; premiere near-riot); neoclassical: Pulcinella, The Rake’s Progress (opera), Symphony of Psalms; serial late works.
• Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) — Russian; Peter and the Wolf (Op. 67, orchestral fairy tale); ballet Romeo and Juliet (“Dance of the Knights”); Symphony No. 1 “Classical”; Symphony No. 5; Piano Concerto No. 3; opera War and Peace; Lieutenant Kijé suite.
• Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) — French; member of Les Six; Gloria; opera Dialogues of the Carmelites; Stabat Mater; piano works and song cycles.
• Paul Hindemith (1895–1963) — German; Mathis der Maler (symphony drawn from his opera); Symphonic Metamorphosis; Ludus Tonalis for piano.

French Interwar (Les Six and Contemporaries)

• Darius Milhaud (1892–1974) — French; member of Les Six; polytonalist; prolific; La Création du monde (1923; jazz-inflected ballet); Le Bœuf sur le toit (1920); Suite provençale; eighteen string quartets.
• Arthur Honegger (1892–1955) — Swiss-French; member of Les Six; Pacific 231 (1923; orchestral piece evoking a steam locomotive); Antigone (opera); Symphony No. 3 “Liturgique.”
• Carl Orff (1895–1982) — German; Carmina Burana (1937; scenic cantata setting medieval Latin and Middle High German poems; “O Fortuna” is ubiquitous); developed the Orff Schulwerk music education approach.
• Virgil Thomson (1896–1989) — American; clear, tonal, often hymn-like style; Four Saints in Three Acts (1934; opera with Gertrude Stein libretto), The Mother of Us All (1947; also Stein libretto); influential music critic for the New York Herald Tribune.

American Modernism

• Aaron Copland (1900–1990) — American; “Dean of American Music”; ballets Appalachian Spring (contains the Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts”), Rodeo, Billy the Kid; Fanfare for the Common Man; Lincoln Portrait; Symphony No. 3.
• Samuel Barber (1910–1981) — American; Adagio for Strings (from String Quartet Op. 11; frequently played at state funerals); opera Vanessa; Violin Concerto.
• Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) — American; conductor and composer; West Side Story (musical but classically significant); Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; Chichester Psalms; Symphony No. 2 “The Age of Anxiety”; Candide overture.

Mid-Century European

• Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) — Russian/Soviet; 15 symphonies; Symphony No. 5 (Op. 47, a calculated “creative reply” to Stalin-era criticism; finale ambiguously triumphant or ironic); No. 7 “Leningrad”; No. 10 in E minor; 15 string quartets; Piano Quintet; opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (suppressed by Stalin).
• Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992) — French; synaesthete; bird-song transcriptions; Quartet for the End of Time (composed in a German POW camp, 1941); Turangalîla-Symphonie; Catalogue d’oiseaux for piano.
• Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) — English; operas Peter Grimes, The Turn of the Screw, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Death in Venice; War Requiem (juxtaposes the Latin Mass with Wilfred Owen’s WWI poetry); The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell); Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings.
• Elliott Carter (1908–2012) — American; complex polyrhythmic language; five string quartets; Concerto for Orchestra.
• Witold Lutosławski (1913–1994) — Polish; Symphony No. 3; Cello Concerto; developed “aleatory counterpoint.”
• György Ligeti (1923–2006) — Hungarian-Austrian; Atmosphères (used in 2001: A Space Odyssey); Lontano; Études for piano; opera Le Grand Macabre; Lux Aeterna.
• Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928–2007) — German; leading postwar avant-gardist; electronic works Gesang der Jünglinge, Kontakte; total serialist Gruppen; seven-opera Licht cycle.
• Pierre Boulez (1925–2016) — French; serialist and conductor; Le Marteau sans maître; Pli selon pli.
• Sofia Gubaidulina (b. 1931) — Russian; Offertorium (violin concerto); In croce.
• Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) — Estonian; developed tintinnabuli style; Spiegel im Spiegel; Tabula Rasa; Fratres; St. John Passion.
• Aram Khachaturian (1903–1978) — Armenian-Soviet; colorful, folk-inflected orchestral works; Gayane ballet (1942; includes the “Sabre Dance”), Spartacus ballet (1954; Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia widely known); Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto.
• Philip Glass (b. 1937) — American; leading figure of minimalism; Einstein on the Beach (1976; landmark opera co-created with Robert Wilson); Satyagraha (1980), Akhnaten (1984); Glassworks; film scores for Koyaanisqatsi (1982) and The Hours (2002).
• John Adams (b. 1947) — American; minimalist and post-minimalist; operas Nixon in China and Doctor Atomic; Harmonielehre; Short Ride in a Fast Machine.
• Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) — French; meticulous orchestrator; Boléro (1928; single theme with 18 repetitions building in dynamics and instrumentation); La valse; Pavane pour une infante défunte; Daphnis et Chloé (ballet); orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition; String Quartet in F major; piano works Gaspard de la nuit and Miroirs.

Post-War and Contemporary

• Edgard Varèse (1883–1965) — French-American; pioneer of electronic and noise-based music; Ionisation (1931; first major Western work for percussion ensemble alone); Amériques; Poème électronique (1958; composed for the Philips Pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair); influenced Zappa and later rock musicians.
• Krzysztof Penderecki (1933–2020) — Polish; Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (1960; for 52 strings; clusters and novel notation); St. Luke Passion; Polish Requiem; Symphony No. 3.
• Luciano Berio (1925–2003) — Italian; Sinfonia (1968–69; third movement superimposes a vast collage on the Scherzo of Mahler’s Second Symphony); Sequenza series for solo instruments; electronic works at Studio di Fonologia.
• Steve Reich (b. 1936) — American; leading figure of minimalism; pioneered phasing technique; It’s Gonna Rain (1965; tape phasing); Drumming (1971); Music for 18 Musicians (1976); Different Trains; Tehillim.
• Alfred Schnittke (1934–1998) — Russian; polystylist blending tonal and atonal languages; Concerto Grosso No. 1 (1977); four symphonies; Viola Concerto.
• Górecki, Henryk (1933–2010) — Polish; Symphony No. 3 “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs” (Op. 36, 1976; for soprano and orchestra; became a surprise bestseller in 1992 recording with Dawn Upshaw); Beatus Vir.
• Kaija Saariaho (1952–2023) — Finnish; spectral-influenced orchestration; opera L’Amour de loin (2000; premiered at Salzburg); Lichtbogen; Sept papillons for cello.
• Thomas Adès (b. 1971) — British; opera The Tempest (2004, after Shakespeare); Asyla; Polaris; conductor and pianist as well as composer.
• John Cage (1912–1992) — American; 4’33” (1952; three movements of notated silence, any instrument, any duration; reframes environmental sound as music); invented the prepared piano technique (Sonatas and Interludes, 1946–48); Music of Changes; Imaginary Landscape series; central figure of the New York School and Fluxus.
• Milton Babbitt (1916–2011) — American; total serialist; Three Compositions for Piano (1947; among the earliest total serial works); Philomel (1964; soprano and electronic tape); associated with Princeton; extended Schoenberg’s row technique to all parameters.
• Gérard Grisey (1946–1998) — French; co-founder of spectral music with Murail; Partiels (1975); Les Espaces acoustiques (1974–1985; six-work cycle).

Specific Works as Answerlines

Symphonies

• Symphony No. 3 “Eroica” (Beethoven) (E-flat major, Op. 55, 1803–04) — originally inscribed to Napoleon; Beethoven reportedly erased the dedication when Napoleon declared himself emperor; second-movement funeral march (Marcia funebre); its unprecedented length and ambition marked a turning point in symphonic history.
• Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven) (C minor, Op. 67, c. 1804–08) — famous four-note short-short-short-long opening motif (described by Beethoven’s secretary Schindler as “Fate knocking at the door,” though this is disputed); transitions directly from third to fourth movement without pause.
• Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral” (Beethoven) (F major, Op. 68, 1808) — five movements each with descriptive titles; depicts a day in the countryside; includes a “Thunderstorm” movement; premiered on the same concert as Symphony No. 5.
• Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven) (A major, Op. 92, 1811–12) — Wagner called it “the apotheosis of the dance”; second-movement Allegretto became so popular it was encored at the premiere and is sometimes performed independently.
• Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven) (D minor, Op. 125, 1822–24) — premiered 1824; Beethoven conducted (or stood near the podium, effectively deaf); choral finale sets Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” for soloists, chorus, and orchestra; adopted as the European Union’s anthem.
• Berlioz — Symphonie fantastique (Op. 14, 1830) — five-movement program symphony depicting an artist’s opium dream; introduced the idée fixe (recurring theme representing the beloved); movements include “March to the Scaffold” and “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath”; premiered at the Paris Conservatoire.
• Symphony No. 4 “Italian” (Mendelssohn) (A major, Op. 90, 1833) — inspired by travels in Italy; finale is a saltarello; premiered in London; Mendelssohn never finalized revisions and it was published posthumously.
• Symphony No. 3 “Scottish” (Mendelssohn) (A minor, Op. 56, 1842) — inspired by visit to Holyrood Palace; four movements played without pause; dedicated to Queen Victoria.
• Symphony No. 1 (Brahms) (C minor, Op. 68, 1855–76) — took over twenty years to complete; sometimes called “Beethoven’s Tenth” by von Bülow; finale theme bears a resemblance to the “Ode to Joy.”
• Symphony No. 4 (Brahms) (E minor, Op. 98, 1884–85) — finale is a passacaglia (chaconne) on an eight-bar theme derived from Bach’s Cantata BWV 150; Brahms’s last symphony.
• Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” (Dvořák) (E minor, Op. 95, 1893) — composed while Dvořák directed the National Conservatory in New York; slow movement (Largo) inspired “Goin’ Home” by William Arms Fisher; premiered at Carnegie Hall.
• Symphony No. 6 “Pathétique” (Tchaikovsky) (B minor, Op. 74, 1893) — premiered nine days before Tchaikovsky’s death; finale is an unusual Adagio lamentoso that ends the symphony quietly; Tchaikovsky himself gave it the subtitle.
• Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” (Mahler) (C minor, 1888–94) — five movements; finale uses Klopstock’s Aufersteh’n poem supplemented by Mahler’s own text; soprano, contralto, and chorus join in the finale; over 80 minutes in performance.
• Symphony No. 5 (Mahler) (C-sharp minor, 1901–02) — Adagietto (fourth movement) for strings and harp became iconic after Visconti’s film Death in Venice (1971); Mahler played it privately as a love letter to Alma.
• Symphony No. 8 “Symphony of a Thousand” (Mahler) (E-flat major, 1906) — requires eight vocal soloists, two large choruses, boys’ choir, and enlarged orchestra; Part I sets the Veni Creator Spiritus hymn; Part II sets the final scene of Goethe’s Faust; premiered in Munich, 1910.
• Das Lied von der Erde (Mahler) (1908–09) — song-symphony in six movements for tenor (or baritone), contralto (or mezzo), and orchestra; sets German translations of Tang-dynasty Chinese poetry; finale “Der Abschied” (The Farewell) lasts over 30 minutes.
• Symphony No. 2 (Sibelius) (D major, Op. 43, 1902) — most popular of his seven; often read as a work of national resistance to Russian rule; premiered in Helsinki.
• Symphony No. 5 (Sibelius) (E-flat major, Op. 82, 1915, rev. 1919) — swans flying in formation inspired the famous horn motif of the finale; Sibelius saw the swans on the same day he was working on the symphony.
• Symphony No. 7 (Sibelius) (C major, Op. 105, 1924) — single-movement symphony; his last completed symphony; followed by the tone poem Tapiola.
• Symphony No. 7 “Leningrad” (Shostakovich) (C major, Op. 60, 1941) — composed partly during the Siege of Leningrad; first movement’s “invasion episode” (long crescendo on a repeated march theme) became a symbol of wartime resistance; microfilmed score was flown out of the USSR to reach Toscanini for an American premiere.
• Symphony No. 10 (Shostakovich) (E minor, Op. 93, 1953) — composed after Stalin’s death; second movement Scherzo is widely interpreted as a portrait of Stalin; the monogram D-S-C-H (D–E♭–C–B♮ in German notation) appears in the third movement.
• Symphony No. 1 “Classical” (Prokofiev) (D major, Op. 25, 1917) — consciously modeled on Haydn; one of the first neo-classical works; Prokofiev composed it away from the piano to test his inner ear.
• Nielsen — Symphony No. 4 “Inextinguishable” (Op. 29, 1916) — two sets of timpani placed on opposite sides of the stage “battle” each other in the finale; composed during World War I; the title expresses the indestructibility of the life force.

Concertos

• Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor” (Beethoven) (E-flat major, Op. 73, 1809) — largest and most technically demanding of Beethoven’s five piano concertos; nicknamed “Emperor” by publisher Johann Baptist Cramer (not by Beethoven); composed during Napoleon’s bombardment of Vienna; slow movement in B major creates an unusual key relationship.
• Violin Concerto (Mendelssohn) (E minor, Op. 64, 1844) — cadenza in first movement unusually placed before the recapitulation rather than near the end; three movements linked without pause; one of the most-performed violin concertos.
• Violin Concerto (Brahms) (D major, Op. 77, 1878) — dedicated to and premiered by Joseph Joachim; three movements; Brahms’s only violin concerto; the solo part was reportedly so difficult that players joked it was a concerto “against” the violin.
• Piano Concerto No. 2 (Brahms) (B-flat major, Op. 83, 1881) — unusually has four movements (including a scherzo); sometimes called the “biggest” concerto in the repertoire; premiered by Brahms himself.
• Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tchaikovsky) (B-flat minor, Op. 23, 1875) — famously rejected and criticized by Nikolai Rubinstein before its triumphant premiere by Hans von Bülow in Boston; opening theme in the introduction does not return in the main movement.
• Violin Concerto (Tchaikovsky) (D major, Op. 35, 1878) — initially rejected by Leopold Auer as “unplayable”; first performed by Adolf Brodsky in Vienna (1881); Eduard Hanslick’s hostile review is one of the most quoted in music criticism.
• Cello Concerto (Dvořák) (B minor, Op. 104, 1895) — often called the greatest cello concerto; Brahms reportedly said he would have written one himself if he had known such a thing was possible; Dvořák revised the finale to incorporate a theme from his song Lasst mich allein in memory of his sister-in-law Josefina Čermáková.
• Grieg — Piano Concerto (A minor, Op. 16, 1868) — opens with a famous downward cascading motif on the piano; composed when Grieg was 25; the only concerto he completed; revised throughout his life.
• Piano Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninoff) (C minor, Op. 18, 1901) — composed after the failure of his First Symphony caused a nervous breakdown; psychotherapy with Nikolai Dahl helped him regain confidence; dedicated to Dahl; opening movement begins with solo piano chords building from silence.
• Piano Concerto No. 3 (Rachmaninoff) (D minor, Op. 30, 1909) — arguably the most technically demanding standard concerto; composed for Rachmaninoff’s American tour; later famously depicted in the film Shine (1996).
• Violin Concerto (Sibelius) (D minor, Op. 47, 1904, rev. 1905) — the only concerto Sibelius completed; revised substantially after an unsuccessful premiere; extremely virtuosic solo part; slow movement has one of the most lyrical themes in the violin repertoire.
• Concerto for Orchestra (Bartók) (1943) — five movements; unusual form where each orchestral section is featured concerto-style; commissioned by Koussevitzky for the Boston Symphony Orchestra; composed while Bartók was ill and impoverished in the United States; second movement “Game of Pairs” presents five pairs of wind instruments.
• Bruch — Violin Concerto No. 1 (G minor, Op. 26, 1866) — one of the most-performed violin concertos; despite writing three, Bruch reportedly found it frustrating that No. 1 so overshadowed his other work; slow movement (Adagio) is especially beloved.

Orchestral and Programmatic Works

• The Four Seasons (Vivaldi) (Le quattro stagioni, Op. 8 Nos. 1–4, c. 1720) — four violin concertos, each accompanied by a sonnet (possibly written by Vivaldi); part of the larger set Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione (12 concertos); among the most performed Baroque works.
• The Planets (Holst) (Op. 32, 1914–16) — seven-movement suite; movements named for astrological characters of the planets (Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune); Earth and Pluto absent (Pluto not yet discovered, Earth not an astrological planet); Neptune movement ends with a wordless women’s chorus fading to silence; first complete public performance 1920.
• Smetana — Má vlast (My Homeland) (1874–79) — cycle of six symphonic poems; Vltava (The Moldau) is most famous, depicting the river from its source to Prague; also includes Vyšehrad (the legendary castle) and Šárka (a Bohemian Amazon).
• Pictures at an Exhibition (Mussorgsky) (1874; orch. Ravel 1922) — piano suite depicting an imaginary walk through an art exhibition of Mussorgsky’s friend Viktor Hartmann; connected by a recurring “Promenade” theme; finale “The Great Gate of Kyiv” (Kiev); Ravel’s orchestration is far more often performed than the original.
• Night on Bald Mountain (Mussorgsky) (St. John’s Night on the Bare Mountain, 1867; rev. Rimsky-Korsakov 1886) — tone poem depicting a witches’ sabbath; Rimsky-Korsakov’s revision is the standard concert version; used in Disney’s Fantasia.
• Rimsky-Korsakov — Scheherazade (Op. 35, 1888) — four-movement symphonic suite based on One Thousand and One Nights; solo violin represents Scheherazade; movements titled “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship,” “The Tale of the Kalender Prince,” “The Young Prince and the Young Princess,” and “The Festival at Baghdad — The Sea.”
• The Firebird (Stravinsky) (L’Oiseau de feu, 1910) — commissioned by Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes; Stravinsky’s breakthrough work; Firebird suite (in two versions, 1911 and 1919) is frequently performed; “Infernal Dance” and “Lullaby” are signature moments.
• Petrushka (Stravinsky) (1911; rev. 1947) — three-tableau ballet for Ballets Russes; depicts a puppet (Petrushka) with human feelings who loves a ballerina; “Petrushka chord” is a bitonality of C major and F-sharp major simultaneously.
• The Rite of Spring (Stravinsky) (Le sacre du printemps, 1913) — premiere at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on May 29, 1913, reportedly caused a near-riot due to Nijinsky’s unconventional choreography and the radical music; dedicated to pagan Russia and the ritual sacrifice of a young girl.
• Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Debussy) (1894) — inspired by Mallarmé’s poem; opens with an unaccompanied flute solo; Nijinsky’s 1912 choreography caused a scandal; often cited as the beginning of musical Modernism.
• La Mer (Debussy) (1905) — three “symphonic sketches” for orchestra; movements titled “From Dawn to Noon on the Sea,” “Play of the Waves,” and “Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea.”
• Carnival of the Animals (Saint-Saëns) (Le carnaval des animaux, 1886) — fourteen-movement “grand zoological fantasy” for two pianos and chamber ensemble; Saint-Saëns withheld it from publication (except “The Swan”) fearing it would damage his serious reputation; premiered publicly only after his death; “The Swan” features a solo cello.
• Symphony No. 3 “Organ” (Saint-Saëns) (C minor, Op. 78, 1886) — two movements each divided into two parts; organ and piano (four hands) join the orchestra; dedicated to Liszt; finale’s main theme was used in the film Babe (1995).
• Daphnis et Chloé (Ravel) (1912) — full ballet in three parts commissioned by Diaghilev; famous “Daybreak” passage opens Suite No. 2; wordless chorus used throughout; among the most ambitious orchestrations in the repertoire.
• Boléro (Ravel) (1928) — single melody in C major repeated 18 times over 15–17 minutes with no development, only changes in orchestration and a single modulation to E major just before the ending; composed for dancer Ida Rubinstein; Ravel considered it an orchestral experiment rather than a “real” composition.
• Appalachian Spring (Copland) (1944) — originally composed for Martha Graham’s dance company; variations on the Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts” is the suite’s climax; Pulitzer Prize for Music 1945; orchestral suite more commonly performed than the original 13-instrument version.
• Fanfare for the Common Man (Copland) (1942) — composed for brass and percussion at the request of Eugene Goossens, conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony, who asked for wartime fanfares; became the basis of the finale of Copland’s Symphony No. 3.
• Rodeo (Copland) (1942) — four-movement ballet for Agnes de Mille; “Hoe-Down” is the famous finale, based on the fiddle tune “Bonaparte’s Retreat.”
• Peter and the Wolf (Prokofiev) (Op. 67, 1936) — symphonic fairy tale for narrator and orchestra; each character represented by a specific instrument and theme (Peter = strings, Wolf = horns, Bird = flute, Duck = oboe, Cat = clarinet, Grandfather = bassoon, Hunters = woodwinds and timpani); composed in under a week.
• Rhapsody in Blue (Gershwin) (1924) — composed in three weeks for Paul Whiteman’s “Experiment in Modern Music” concert at Aeolian Hall, New York; orchestrated by Ferde Grofé; opening clarinet glissando (improvised by Ross Gorman at rehearsal) became iconic; blends jazz idioms with classical form.
• An American in Paris (Gershwin) (1928) — tone poem for orchestra including actual Parisian taxi horns; commissioned for the New York Philharmonic; used in the 1951 film of the same name.
• Finlandia (Sibelius) (Op. 26, 1899, rev. 1900) — orchestral tone poem; composed as part of a pageant protesting Russian censorship in Finland; the “Finlandia Hymn” section became a de facto patriotic anthem; the tsarist government banned performances under that title.
• St. Paul’s Suite (Holst) (1913) — for string orchestra; written for the girls of St. Paul’s Girls’ School where Holst taught; finale combines the folk tune “Dargason” with “Greensleeves.”
• Respighi — Fountains of Rome / Pines of Rome (Fontane di Roma, 1916; Pini di Roma, 1924) — both tone poems depicting Rome at different times of day or in different moods; Pines famously includes a recorded nightingale; together with Roman Festivals they form the “Roman Trilogy.”
• Orff — Carmina Burana (1937) — scenic cantata (not opera or symphony) for soloists, chorus, and orchestra; sets 24 of the medieval Carmina Burana poems in Latin, Middle High German, and Old French; opens and closes with “O Fortuna,” a setting of a poem lamenting Fortune’s wheel.

Chamber and Solo Works

• Gloria in D major (Vivaldi) (RV 589, c. 1715) — choral work for soloists, chorus, and orchestra; one of the most performed Baroque choral works; rediscovered in the 20th century.
• Goldberg Variations (Bach) (BWV 988, 1741) — aria with 30 variations, returning to the aria at the end; composed for the harpsichord; named after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, though the anecdote that they were written to help Count Keyserlingk sleep is disputed; Glenn Gould’s two recordings (1955 and 1981) are definitive modern touchstones.
• Mass in B minor (Bach) (BWV 232, assembled c. 1748–49) — not a liturgical work (too long for a single service); assembles movements from earlier cantatas and newly composed sections; considered Bach’s greatest choral work by many; the Kyrie and Gloria were submitted to the Dresden court for the title of court composer.
• Winterreise (Schubert) (D. 911, 1827) — song cycle of 24 songs to poems by Wilhelm Müller; depicts a young man’s desolate winter journey after a failed love; among the most profound song cycles in the repertoire; songs include “Der Leiermann” (The Hurdy-Gurdy Man) and “Der Lindenbaum.”
• String Quintet in C major (Schubert) (D. 956, 1828) — scored for two cellos instead of the traditional two violas; composed in the last weeks of Schubert’s life; slow movement Adagio in E major widely considered one of the most beautiful in the chamber repertoire.
• “Moonlight” Sonata (Beethoven) (Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2, 1801) — nicknamed “Moonlight” posthumously by critic Ludwig Rellstab; first movement’s triplet arpeggios in the bass became iconic; Beethoven placed the unusual marking quasi una fantasia on both Op. 27 sonatas.
• “Hammerklavier” Sonata (Beethoven) (Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major, Op. 106, 1817–18) — longest and most technically demanding of the 32 sonatas; Hammerklavier simply means “fortepiano” in German; the Adagio and the fugal finale are among Beethoven’s most imposing piano movements.
• Late String Quartets (Beethoven) (Opp. 127–135, 1825–26) — five quartets comprising the “late quartets”; No. 14 in C-sharp minor (Op. 131) is in seven movements played without pause; No. 16 in F major (Op. 135) contains the enigmatic inscription “Must it be? It must be!”; the Grosse Fuge (Op. 133) was originally the finale of Op. 130 before being published separately.
• A German Requiem (Brahms) (Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45, 1865–68) — seven movements for soprano, baritone, chorus, and orchestra; sets Old Testament texts (in Luther’s German Bible, not the Latin Mass); composed after the death of his mother; premiered in full at Bremen Cathedral, 1868.
• Violin Sonata in A major (Franck) (1886) — four movements; famous finale is a strict canon at the unison; dedicated to Joseph Ysaÿe and premiered by Eugène Ysaÿe; considered one of the masterpieces of the violin sonata repertoire.
• Symphony in D minor (Franck) (1888) — the only symphony Franck completed; three movements in a cyclic form (themes recur across movements); unusual second-movement English horn solo.
• Fauré — Requiem (Op. 48, c. 1887–1900) — seven movements; noted for its serene, consolatory character; omits the “Dies Irae”; Fauré called it “a lullaby of death.”
• Messiaen — Quartet for the End of Time (Quatuor pour la fin du temps, 1941) — eight movements for violin, clarinet, cello, and piano; composed and premiered in Stalag VIII-A prisoner-of-war camp; inspired by the Book of Revelation (specifically the angel who says “there shall be time no longer”); performed for some 5,000 prisoners.
• Cage — 4’33” (1952) — three movements of notated silence (or more precisely, no intentional sounds) in any instrumentation; premiered by David Tudor; Cage’s intention was to frame ambient sounds as music and challenge the definition of performance; the title refers to the total duration of the premiere, though the work specifies only relative proportions.
• Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (Bartók) (1936) — four movements commissioned by Paul Sacher for the Basel Chamber Orchestra; first movement fugue on a chromatic subject; used in Kubrick’s The Shining.
• String Quartet No. 8 (Shostakovich) (C minor, Op. 110, 1960) — five movements composed in three days in Dresden; Shostakovich said it was his musical testament; uses the D-S-C-H monogram extensively; quotes from his earlier works and revolutionary songs; dedicated “to the memory of the victims of fascism and war.”
• Reich — Music for 18 Musicians (1974–76) — landmark minimalist work for eleven musicians playing eighteen parts (with doubling); pulsing harmonic cycles; approximately 55–75 minutes; widely influential on electronic and ambient music.
• Pärt — Spiegel im Spiegel (1978) — for piano and violin (or cello); the title means “mirror in the mirror”; uses the tintinnabuli technique (one voice traces arpeggios of a tonic triad, another stepwise melodic lines); serene, contemplative character.

Additional Composers

• Granados, Enrique (1867–1916) — Spanish; Goyescas (piano suite, 1911; inspired by Goya’s paintings; later adapted into an opera of the same name); Danzas españolas; died when the ocean liner carrying him home from the opera’s New York premiere was torpedoed by a German submarine.
• Delius, Frederick (1862–1934) — English (of German descent); impressionistic, nature-inspired works; On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring; Brigg Fair; A Mass of Life; his complete works were compiled by Eric Fenby who served as his amanuensis after Delius became blind and paralyzed.
• Medtner, Nikolai (1880–1951) — Russian; Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor; Fairy Tales (Skazki) for piano; conservative Romantic idiom; close friend of Rachmaninoff; admired by a small but devoted following.
• Hummel, Johann Nepomuk (1778–1837) — Austrian; student of Mozart and Haydn; leading pianist of the early Romantic era; Trumpet Concerto in E-flat major (also known in the E major version); Piano Concerto in A minor (Op. 85); Septet in D minor.
• Field, John (1782–1837) — Irish; invented the nocturne as a piano genre; his 18 nocturnes directly inspired Chopin; worked for years in Russia; Nocturne in B-flat major No. 5 is his most famous.
• Chabrier, Emmanuel (1841–1894) — French; España (1883; rhapsody for orchestra based on Spanish rhythms and melodies, composed after a trip to Spain); Le Roi malgré lui (opera); influenced Ravel and Les Six.
• Glazunov, Alexander (1865–1936) — Russian; Violin Concerto in A minor (Op. 82, 1904; a standard of the violin repertoire, dedicated to Leopold Auer); eight symphonies; Raymonda ballet; director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
• Tippett, Michael (1905–1998) — English; A Child of Our Time (1941; oratorio incorporating Negro spirituals analogous to Bach’s use of chorales; inspired by Kristallnacht); operas The Midsummer Marriage, King Priam; four symphonies.
• Poulenc, Francis (1899–1963) — French; member of Les Six (the group of young French composers promoted by critic Henri Collet in 1920, alongside Milhaud, Honegger, Durey, Auric, and Tailleferre); Gloria (1959); opera Dialogues of the Carmelites (1957; based on Bernanos; ends with nuns mounting the scaffold during the Terror); Stabat Mater; song cycles Banalités and Tel jour telle nuit.
• Scriabin, Alexander (1872–1915) — Russian; early piano works in a Chopin/Liszt vein, later evolved an idiosyncratic harmonic language centered on the “mystic chord” (C–F♯–B♭–E–A–D); Prometheus: The Poem of Fire (Op. 60, 1910; score includes a “color organ” part called luce); Symphony No. 3 “Le Divin Poème”; ten piano sonatas.
• Lully, Jean-Baptiste (1632–1687) — Italian-born French; dominated French Baroque; surintendant de la musique to Louis XIV; established the French overture (slow–fast–slow) and the French Baroque opera (tragédie en musique); collaborated with Molière on comédies-ballets including Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme; died from gangrene after striking his foot with a conducting staff.
• Rameau, Jean-Philippe (1683–1764) — French; leading theorist and opera composer of the French Baroque; Traité de l’harmonie (1722) became foundational music theory; operas Hippolyte et Aricie (1733), Castor et Pollux (1737); harpsichord works; his late entry into opera made him a controversial figure (the “Querelle des Bouffons” pitted his followers against fans of Italian opera).
• Gesualdo, Carlo (c. 1566–1613) — Italian Prince of Venosa; renowned for extreme chromaticism and dissonance in his madrigals (books I–VI) that would not be equaled until the late Romantic era; Tenebrae Responsoria for Holy Week; also notoriously murdered his wife and her lover in 1590.
• Telemann, Georg Philipp (1681–1767) — German; the most prolific composer in Western music history (over 3,600 works catalogued); Tafelmusik (Musique de Table, 1733; three suites of orchestral music for dining); Paris Quartets; highly regarded in his lifetime, more famous than Bach or Handel.
• C.P.E. Bach — see Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach under Classical Era above.
• Cherubini, Luigi (1760–1842) — Italian-French; long-tenured director of the Paris Conservatoire; admired by Beethoven and Brahms; Requiem in C minor (1816; Brahms studied it while writing his own German Requiem); operas Médée (1797; later revival by Maria Callas) and Les deux journées.

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• “Granados died when the SS Sussex was torpedoed by a German U-boat in the English Channel in March 1916, while returning from the Metropolitan Opera premiere of the opera Goyescas.”
• “John Field is credited with inventing the piano nocturne; Chopin heard his nocturnes and developed the form further. Field composed 18 nocturnes (some sources say 19 or 20 depending on whether fragmentary works are included).”
• “Lully died of gangrene from a conducting-staff foot injury in 1687; he was conducting a Te Deum to celebrate Louis XIV’s recovery from illness.”
• “Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana is classified as a ‘scenic cantata’ — Orff’s own term; it can be staged as a ballet or performed as a concert work without staging.”