image from psmag.com
July 28 marked the death of two of classical music’s greatest composers – Antonio Vivaldi (1741) and Johann Sebastian Bach (1750). In their honor, the DMDB blog is reposting this list originally presented as a note on the DMDB Facebook page on February 2, 2011. That original post was prompted by Anthony Tommasini, who in January 2011, undertook the two-week task in the New York Times of selecting the top 10 classical music composers in history. That list, and 13 others (see resources below), have been consolidated into the official Dave’s Music Database below. As always, the goal is to present an objective list based on others’ opinions. Besides, I’m less informed on classical music than any other genre, so I couldn’t compose a list of my own if I wanted to. My apologies for any misspellings.
Note: this list was updated on March 9, 2012 to aggregate a total of 22 lists focused on classical composers.
1. Ludwig van Beethoven
2. Johann Sebastian Bach
3. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
4. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
5. George Gershwin
6. Franz Schubert
7. Richard Wagner
8. Joseph Haydn
9. Johannes Brahms
10. Igor Stravinsky
11. Frederic Chopin
12. Gustav Mahler
13. George Frideric Handel
14. Antonio Vivaldi
15. Giusseppe Verdi
16. Claude Debussy
17. Robert Schumann
18. Sergei Rachmaninoff
19. Dmitri Shostakovich
20. Antonin Dvorák
21. Felix Mendelssohn
22. Béla Bartók
23. Hector Berlioz
24. Kurt Weill
25. Maurice Ravel
26. Franz Liszt
27. John Phillip Sousa
28. Edward Elgar
29. Jean Sibelius
30. Sergei Prokofiev
31. Giovanni Pierluigi de Palestrina
32. Anton Bruckner
33. Claudio Monteverdi
34. Arnold Schoenberg
35. Modest Mussorgsky
36. Richard Strauss
37. Ralph Vaughan Williams
38. Henry Purcell
39. Charles Ives
40. Giacomo Puccini
41. Domenico Scarlatti
42. Gioacchino Rossini
43. Jean-Philippe Rameau
44. Oliver Messiaen
45. Gaetano Donizetti
46. Ferde Grofe
47. Aaron Copland
48. Camille Saint-Saens
49. Georges Bizet
50. Samuel Barber
Resources and Related Links:
- original note as posted on Facebook (2/2/2012)
- Amazon.com: Essential Artists
Consists of two lists: one of popular music’s essential artists and another of classical composers. Links take you to short bios and more links to works by the artist/composer. Classical list has 52 entries, unranked.
- Answers.com Greatest Classical Composers. By del_icious_manager (date?)
A user posted a question asking for people to list 7 of the greatest classical composers and state reasons for choices. The best answer, as chosen by the asker, was from del_icious_manager who listed seven composers chronologically with sentence-long bios/justifications.
- BiographyOnline.net Greatest Classical Music Composers of All Time. (date?)
Top ten ranked list with brief paragraphs on each entry.
- Cleveland.com Who are the 10 greatest classical-music composers of all time? You decide. By Donald Rosenberg. (1/30/2011)
Response to Anthony Tommasini’s top 10 list in the New York Times. Picks seven composers himself, but doesn’t rank them.
- DigitalDreamDoor.com The 100 Greatest Classical Music Composers. Edited by Guy/Brian. (12/31/2006)
Top 100 ranked list. No commentary.
- eHow.com 10 Most Famous Classical Composers. By Amber D. Walker. (1/3/2010)
This article focuses on ten composers with paragraph entries on each. No ranking.
- HubPages.com Top 5 Classical Composers of All Time. By Isabella Snow. (date?)
This article focuses on five composers with paragraph entries on each. No ranking.
- Jaltcoh.blogspot.com The Top 10 Greatest Classical Composers. By John Althouse Cohen. (1/22/2011)
A personal top ten ranking with detailed entries on each composer. Inspired by the New York Times article.
- Legends of American Music stamp series (1993-1999)
This series of stamps started in 1993 covering various genres. Eight classical composers/conductors were introduced in 1997.
- Listverse.com Top 15 Greatest Composers of All Time. By FlameHorse. (12/17/2009)
Top 15 ranked list with detailed entries and video posts.
- NYTimes.com The Greatest. By Anthony Tommasini. (1/21/2011)
The original post which inspired the DMDB list and several of the other entries in this category. He undertook a two-week series to select the top 10 classical musical composers in history. He laid out the list via articles, videos, and blog posts which garnered more than 1500 responses.
- Squidoo.com The Best Classical Composers of All Time. By ?. (date?)
Unranked list of five composers with links to purchase music and other related products. Writer and date unidentified.
- The-Top-Tens.com Greatest Classical Composers. By ?. (date?)
Users post lists here and then others vote on them. This top ten list has expanded to 23 entries as added by users. Original list generator and date of creation unidentified. Very few commentaries.