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is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries, with later additions and redactions. -
was an Italian music theorist and pedagogue of High medieval music. A Benedictine monk, he is regarded as the inventor—or by some, developer—of the modern staff notation that had a massive influence on the development of Western musical notation and practice. -
was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and as a medical writer and practitioner during the High Middle Ages. -
was an Occitan poet-composer troubadour of the classical age of troubadour poetry.[1] Generally regarded as the most important troubadour in both poetry and music. -
“The Seikilos Epitaph is the oldest complete musical composition preserved, probably dated to the 1st or 2nd century A.D., and it is a tribute to his wife Euterpe.” -
Was the first known significant composer of polyphonic organum. He was probably French, probably lived and worked in Paris at the Notre-Dame Cathedral and was the earliest member of the Notre Dame school of polyphony and the ars antiqua style who is known by name, thanks to the writer known as Anonymous IV. -
is a term used by modern scholars to refer to the Medieval music of Europe during the High Middle Ages, between approximately 1170 and 1310. This covers the period of the Notre-Dame school of polyphony (the use of multiple, simultaneous, independent melodic lines), and the subsequent years which saw the early development of the motet, a highly varied choral musical composition. -
was King of Castile, León and Galicia from 1 June 1252 until his death in 1284. During the election of 1257, a dissident faction chose him to be king of Germany on 1 April. -
was a composer associated with the Notre Dame school of polyphony in Paris and the broader ars antiqua musical style of high medieval music. -
was a French composer and poet who was the central figure of the ars nova style in late medieval music. His dominance of the genre is such that modern musicologists use his death to separate the ars nova from the subsequent ars subtilior movement. -
was a Florentine composer, poet, organist, singer and instrument maker, and a central figure of the music of the Trecento in the Italian peninsula. -
refers to a musical style which flourished in the Kingdom of France and its surroundings during the Late Middle Ages. More particularly, it refers to the period between the preparation of the Roman de Fauvel (1310s) and the death of composer Guillaume de Machaut in 1377. -
was a German inventor and craftsman who invented the movable-type printing press. Though movable type was already in use in East Asia, Gutenberg's invention of the printing press[2] enabled a much faster rate of printing. -
Spanish poet, playwright, and composer.
Considered one of the “fathers of Spanish theater.”
His songs and villancicos represent early Spanish Renaissance polyphony. -
German theologian and main figure of the Protestant Reformation.
He challenged the Catholic Church by publishing the 95 Theses in 1517, opposing indulgences.
Luther translated the Bible into German and defended salvation by faith and the authority of Scripture. -
was a Spanish composer of the Renaissance. He is generally considered to be the most influential Spanish composer before Tomás Luis de Victoria. -
Was a Spanish Renaissance composer and organist. Blind from childhood, he quickly rose to prominence as a performer and was eventually employed by the royal family. -
was an Italian composer of late Renaissance music. The central representative of the Roman School, with Orlande de Lassus and Tomás Luis de Victoria. -
was a composer of the late Renaissance. The chief representative of the mature polyphonic style in the Franco-Flemish school. -
Venetian composer and organist.
Important representative of the Venetian polychoral style.
Worked at St. Mark’s Basilica and wrote sacred music, madrigals, and instrumental pieces.
Uncle and teacher of Giovanni Gabrieli. -
Italian composer, singer, and lutenist.
The first woman in history to publish music under her own name.
Known for expressive madrigals demonstrating great command of Renaissance vocal style. -
was the most famous Spanish composer of the Renaissance. He stands with Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Orlande de Lassus as among the principal composers of the late Renaissance. -
Nephew of Andrea Gabrieli.
Major influence on late Renaissance and early Baroque music.
Master of polychoral writing and among the first to specify instruments and dynamic markings in scores.
His works helped shape the Baroque orchestra. -
Italian late-Renaissance nobleman and composer.
Famous for extremely chromatic, dramatic madrigals, far ahead of his time.
Also known for the notorious murder of his wife and her lover. -
Transitional figure from Renaissance to Baroque. Innovator in madrigal writing and a pioneer of opera. Key works include L’Orfeo (one of the earliest great operas) and the 1610 Vespers. -
Italian composer, regarded as one of the founders of the Baroque oratorio. His works, such as Jephte, shaped the future of sacred dramatic music. Important in the development of recitative. -
Venetian Baroque composer and singer. Published more vocal music than any other woman of the 17th century. Known for expressive cantatas, arias, and madrigal-like chamber works. -
Italian luthier from Cremona. Crafted violins, violas, and cellos considered the finest ever made, prized for their exceptional craftsmanship and sound quality. His instruments remain among the most sought-after in the world. -
English early-Baroque composer. Known for Dido and Aeneas, sacred anthems, odes, and theater music. Blended English, French, and Italian stylistic elements. -
Italian Baroque composer and violinist. Famous for his violin concertos, especially The Four Seasons. Key figure of the Venetian school and of the development of the solo concerto. -
German Baroque composer, extremely prolific and stylistically diverse. In his lifetime he was even more famous than Bach. Wrote hundreds of cantatas, suites, concertos, and chamber works. -
German-born, later British composer. Outstanding writer of operas, oratorios, and instrumental music. His most famous work is the oratorio Messiah (“Hallelujah”). Representative of cosmopolitan Baroque style. -
German late-Baroque composer, widely considered one of the greatest musicians of all time. Master of counterpoint. Major works include The Well-Tempered Clavier, Brandenburg Concertos, St Matthew Passion, Mass in B minor, and The Art of Fugue. -
was a German composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia,[1] both part of the Holy Roman Empire at the time, he gained prominence at the Habsburg court in Vienna. -
was a composer of the Classical period. He was pivotal in the evolution of chamber music forms like the string quartet and piano trio. -
was a highly regarded musician from Salzburg. In her childhood, she developed into an outstanding keyboard player under the tutelage of her father Leopold. She became a celebrated child prodigy and went on concert tours through much of Europe with her parents and her younger brother Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. -
was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his brief life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age resulted in more than 800 works representing virtually every classical genre of his time -
was an Austrian musician and composer who lost her sight at an early age, and for whom her close friend Mozart may have written his Piano Concerto No. 18 in B-flat major. -
was a German composer and pianist. One of the most revered figures in the history of Western music, his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire and span the transition from the Classical period to the Romantic era. -
was an Italian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. He gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces and some sacred music. -
was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a vast oeuvre, including more than 600 Lieder (art songs in German) and other vocal works, seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music, and a large body of piano and chamber music. -
was a French Romantic composer and conductor. His output includes orchestral works such as the Symphonie fantastique and Harold in Italy, choral pieces including the Requiem and L'Enfance du Christ, his three operas Benvenuto Cellini, Les Troyens and Béatrice et Bénédict, and works of hybrid genres such as the "dramatic symphony" Roméo et Juliette and the "dramatic legend" La Damnation de Faus -
was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonies, concertos, piano music, organ music and chamber music. -
) was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic era. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber groups, orchestra, choir and the opera. -
was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leading composer of his era whose "poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation". -
was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic period. With a diverse body of work spanning more than six decades, he is considered to be one of the most prolific and influential composers of his era, and his piano works continue to be widely performed and recorded. -
was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the modern province of Parma (at the time a department of the French Empire), to a family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the help of a local patron, Antonio Barezzi. -
was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor, best known for his operas, although his mature works are often referred to as music dramas. Unlike most composers, Wagner wrote both the libretti and the music for all of his stage works. -
was a German pianist, composer, and piano teacher and prodigy.[1] Regarded as one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era, she exerted her influence over the course of a 61-year concert career, changing the format and repertoire of the piano recital by lessening the importance of purely virtuosic works. -
Was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his people's aspirations to a cultural and political "revival". He has been regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music. Internationally he is best known for his 1866 opera The Bartered Bride and for the symphonic cycle Má vlast ("My Fatherland"), which portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer's native Bohemia. -
was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, often set within studied yet expressive contrapuntal textures. -
Was a Russian composer, one of the group known as "The Five." He was an innovator of Russian music in the Romantic period and strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity, often in deliberate defiance of the established conventions of Western music. -
was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the classical repertoire, -
He frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia, following the Romantic era nationalist example of his predecessor Bedřich Smetana. -
Was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. -
was a Russian composer, a member of the group of composers known as The Five.[d] His best-known orchestral compositions—Capriccio Espagnol, the Russian Easter Festival Overture, and the symphonic suite Scheherazade—are staples of the classical music repertoire, along with suites and excerpts from some of his fifteen operas. -
was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi,[2] he was descended from a long line of composers, stemming from the late Baroque era. -
was an Austrian composer, particularly noted for his art songs, or Lieder. He brought to this form a concentrated expressive intensity which was unique in late Romantic music, somewhat related to that of the Second Viennese School in concision but diverging greatly in technique. -
was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. -
Was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often credited with having helped Finland develop a stronger national identity when the country was struggling from several attempts at Russification in the late 19th century -
was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-century classical music, and a central element of his music was its use of motivic processes as a means of coherence. -
was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century and a pivotal figure in modernist music. -
was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist. One of the major composers of the 20th century, he was also an outstanding teacher of composition and musical analysis. -
was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist, acoustician and founder of Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète (GRMC). His innovative work in both the sciences—particularly communications and acoustics—and the various arts of music, literature and radio presentation after the end of World War II. -
was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde. -
Was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. -
Henry was born in Paris, France,[3] and began experimenting at the age of 15 with sounds produced by various objects. He became fascinated with the integration of noise into music, now called noise music. He studied with Nadia Boulanger, Olivier Messiaen, and Félix Passerone at the Conservatoire de Paris from 1938 to 1948. -
Was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned jazz, popular and classical music. Among his best-known works are the songs "Swanee" (1919) and "Fascinating Rhythm" (1924), the orchestral compositions -
Was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer. -
is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass' work has been associated with minimalism, being built up from repetitive phrases and shifting layers. -
Was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hungary's greatest composers. -
Was a Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century. He has a claim to being Spain's greatest composer of the 20th century,[1] although the number of pieces he composed was relatively modest. -
He studied in Seville as well as in Madrid. He lived in Paris from 1905 to 1914 where he took composition lessons from Vincent d'Indy at the Schola Cantorum de Paris and studied the piano under Moritz Moszkowski. -
Was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music" -
Was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, music pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music education.