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.
• Porgy and Bess (Gershwin) (1935) — “folk opera” set on Catfish Row, a poor Black community in Charleston, South Carolina; based on DuBose Heyward’s novel Porgy (with libretto by Heyward and lyrics by Ira Gershwin); Gershwin lived near Folly Beach to absorb the music of the Gullah people; signature numbers include “Summertime” (a lullaby sung by Clara), “It Ain’t Necessarily So” (sung by the drug dealer Sportin’ Life), “My Man’s Gone Now” (Serena, mourning her husband Robbins, who is killed in a craps-game fight by the stevedore Crown), “A Woman Is a Sometime Thing” (Jake), and “I Loves You, Porgy”; the crippled beggar Porgy loves Bess; ends with Porgy setting out for New York to find Bess after Sportin’ Life lures her away.
• 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.”