-
Period: to
Antonin Dvorak
Was Czech. Used various folk sounds and natural influences from around the world to influence his writing. -
Period: to
Gustav Mahler
Bridged Austro-German tradition with 20th century modernism. Was a talented conductor who converted from Judaism for a director position at Vienna Court Opera. -
Period: to
Claude Debussy
Used impressionist and symbolist art aspects in his music. Used whole tone scale and delicate harmonies to exploit overtones and skirt cadences -
Period: to
Richard Strauss
He wrote various operas and tone poems that are still very popular. He followed after the style of Wagner and Lizst and represents the latter side of Germans. His father was a famous horn player. -
Period: to
Jean Sibelius
Finnish; his affinity for nationalism is expressed in his work, which are mostly tone poems and symphonies. He was a heavy drinker and temperamental. -
Period: to
Erik Satie
French avant-garde. Lifelong heavy drinker who died of cirrhosis. -
Period: to
Will Marion Cook
Influential in bringing African-American works and influences into the spotlight in the 1920s. -
Period: to
Sergei Rachmaninov
Russian; part of the Russian Romantic tradition. He was known for his piano works and symphonies, and moved to the US in 1917. -
Period: to
Arnold Schoenberg
Father of the 2nd Viennese School. Developed 12-tone technique as we know it. Was extremely controversial in his time in the theory field. Moved to California to work as a professor. -
Period: to
Charles Ives
American who was noted for poly-rhythms, polytonality, quarter tones and aleatoric technique. -
Period: to
Maurice Ravel
French whose works are notable for their colorful orchestration, distinctive tone and unresolved dissonances. -
Period: to
Bela Bartok
Hungarian who was was strongly influenced by his country's folk music. -
Period: to
Igor Stravinsky
Russian-born, moved to US in 1939; known for his ballets which shocked Parisian audiences with frequent dissonance and irregular rhythm; later developed a neoclassical style and experimented with serialism, -
Period: to
Percy Grainger
Australian-born, US citizen in 1918; played a prominent role in the return of British folk music. -
Period: to
Anton Webern
Austrian; leading proponent of serialism; music marked by brevity -
Period: to
Edgar Varese
French-born, spent most of his career in the US; very focused on timbre and rhythm; coined the term "organized sound" for his work -
Period: to
Alban Berg
Austrian composer of the 2nd Viennese School. His compositional style combined Romantic lyricism with twelve-tone technique. -
Period: to
Nadia Boulanger
French teacher and conductor who taught many 20th century composers. -
Period: to
Sergei Prokofiev
Russian, known for being an iconoclastic composer-pianist and composing many well known classics. -
Period: to
Darius Milhaud
French; a member of Les Six. Influenced by jazz and Brazilian music and extensive use of polytonality. -
Period: to
Arthur Honegger
Swiss composer born in France. Member of Les Six, his most known work is Pacific 231. -
Period: to
Paul Hindemith
German, advocate of the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit). Used folk music and his compositions were banned by the Nazis. -
Period: to
Carl Orff
German, wrote music for the Nazis, and wrote Carmina Burana -
Period: to
Virgil Thomson
American, instrumental in the development of the american sound in classical music. Was a modernist, neoromantic, and neoclassicist. -
Period: to
Wolfgang Korngold
Austrian, became famous for Hollywood scores -
Period: to
George Gershwin
Major pianist and composer for orchestra in jazz idiom. -
Period: to
Roy Harris
American, used folk music as well as the fugue and passacaglia. Was also known for his use of antiphonal effects. -
Period: to
Francis Poulenc
French composer and pianist. Was a part of Les Six, and alternated between light-hearted works and religious music. -
Period: to
Duke Ellington
American composer and jazz orchestra leader. Master of writing for the 78 rpm disc, many of his compositions have become jazz standards. -
Period: to
Kurt Weill
German composer who moved to America. Held the ideal of writing music that served a socially useful purpose, Gebrauchsmusik. Also wrote work on Jewish themes. -
Period: to
Aaron Copland
American composer, referred to as "the Dean of American Composers". The open slowly changing harmonies in his music created what is thought to be the sound of American music. -
Period: to
Ernst Krenek
Austrian-American, student of Webern, explored atonality and wrote numerous books. -
Period: to
Stefan Wolpe
German émigré, influenced by Schoenberg and Hindemith. Works based on twelve tone and diatonic scales. -
Period: to
He Luting
Chinese composer. Composed songs for Chinese films. During the Cultural Revolution, became a target due to his Western music, particularly his defense of Claude Debussy. -
Period: to
Dmitri Shostakovich
Russian composer who experimented with 12-tone, but stuck to basic tonality. Lived through Stalin's reign while other composers died around him -
Period: to
Oliver Messiaen
French, influenced by Greek and Hindu music, birdsong, and his faith. -
Period: to
Elliot Carter
American modernist composer. Combined elements of European modernism and American "ultra-modernism" into a distinctive style with a person harmonic and rhythmic language, after an early neoclassical phase. -
Period: to
Samuel Barber
American born. Combined Romanticism with classical forms. -
Period: to
Bernhard Herrmann
Hollywood composer: Orson Welles's "Citizen Kane", Hitchcock's "Vertigo", and Scorsese's "Taxi Driver". -
Period: to
John Cage
American. Very experimental. Used aleatory music, silence, ;repared piano, random objects, etc. -
Period: to
Benjamin Britten
English composer/ pianist, wrote many operas and song works. -
Period: to
Milton Babbitt
Composer as well as mathematician, noted pioneer of electronic music. -
Period: to
Charlie Parker
Saxophonist, leader of the Bebop movement. -
Period: to
Giannis Xenakis
Romanian-born Greek French avant-garde; very unique, architecture-like music; "texture music" -
Period: to
Gyorgy Ligeti
Hungarian-Austrian composer. Best known for the use of his music in film. Very well regarded, innovative, and influential composer. -
Period: to
Pierre Boulez
French composer, conductor and writer. Dominant figure of post-war classical music. leading figure in avant-garde, and played an important role in the development of integral serialism. -
Period: to
Karlheinz Stockhausen
German composer. Known for his work in electronic music, aleatory techniques, serial composition and music spatialization. -
Period: to
Toru Takemitsu
Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Admired for his subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre. Known for combining elements of oriental and occidental philosophy and for fusing sound with silence and tradition with innovation. -
Period: to
Philip Glass
American composer. One of the most influential Minimalist composers. -
Period: to
John Corigliano
American composer of contemporary classical music. Best known for his Symphony No.1 a response to the AIDS epidemic and his film score for Francois Girard's "The Red Violin". -
Period: to
Joan Tower
Contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conducted. One of the most successful woman composers of all time. -
Period: to
Christopher Rouse
American composer, best known for his orchestral compositions including a Requiem. -
Period: to
Michael Gordon
American composer and co-founder of Bang on a Can music collective. -
Period: to
David Lang
American composer. Co-founder of Bang on a Can. Jewish descent. -
Period: to
Julia Wolfe
American composer. Co-founder of Bang on a Can. Married to Michael Gordon. -
Period: to
Mark Adamo
American composer, librettist and professor of music composition. Married to John Corigliano.