Greatest Classical Composers by Era

  1. Beethoven (1770 - 1827)*
  2. Mozart (1756 - 1791)
  3. Bach (1685 - 1750)
  4. Haydn (1732 - 1809)
  5. Schubert (1797 - 1828)*
  6. Handel (1685 - 1759)
  7. Vivaldi (1678 - 1741)
  8. Palestrina (1525 - 1594)
  9. Monteverdi (1567 - 1643)
10. Purcell (1659 - 1695
11. Des Prez (1440 - 1521)
12. Rameau (1683 - 1764)
13. Lully (1632 - 1687)
14. Gluck (1714 - 1787)
15. Couperin(1668 - 1733)
16. Byrd (1539 - 1623)
17. D. Scarlatti (1685 - 1757)
18. Telemann (1681 - 1767)
19. Lassus (1530 - 1594)
20. C.P.E. Bach (1714 -1788)
21. Corelli (1653 - 1713)
22. Tallis (1505 - 1585)
23. de Machaut (1300 - 1377)
24. Gabrieli (1558 - 1613)
25. Pérotin (1160 - 1225)
26. Schütz (1585 - 1672)
27. Pergolesi (1710 - 1736)
28. Dowland (1563 - 1626)
29. Buxtehude (1637 - 1707)
30. Dufay (1400 - 1474)
31. Gibbons (1583 - 1625
32. Victoria (1549 - 1611)
33. Léonin (1135 - 1201)
34. Hildegard (1098 - 1179)
35. Gesualdo (1566 - 1613)
36. J.C. Bach (1735 - 1782)
37. A. Scarlatti (1660 - 1725)
38. Ockeghem (1410 - 1497)
39. Spohr (1784 - 1859)
40. Boccherini (1745 - 1801)
41. Cherubini (1760 - 1842)
42. Charpentier (1643 - 1704)
43. Frescobaldi (1583 - 1643)
44. Carissimi (1605 - 1674)
45. Dunstable (1390 - 1453)
46. Marenzio (1553 - 1599)
47. Hummel (1778 - 1837)
48. Clementi (1752 - 1832)
49. Zelenka (1679-1745)
50. Praetorious (1571 - 1621)

---

*Classical/Romantic composer

---

Antoine Brumel
Antoine Busnois
Antonio de Cabezon
Biagio Marini
Cristobal de Morales
Christopher Tye
Clement Janequin
Domenico Cimarosa
Francesco Cavalli
Giulio Caccini
Heinrich von Biber
Gaspare Spontini
Georgio Allegri
Gilles Binchois
Giovanni Battista Sammartini
Giuseppe Tartini
Giuseppe Torelli
Heinrich Issac
Jacob Arcadelt
Jacob Obrecht
Jacopo Peri
Jakob Johann Froberger
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
Johann Adolf Hasse
Johann Gottfried Walther
Johann Joachim Quantz
Johann Pachelbel
Johann Schein
Johann Stamitz
John Blow
John Field *
John Taverner
Matthew Locke
Michael Haydn
Nicholas Gombert
Pierre de La Rue
Salamone Rossi
Samuel Scheidt
Sylvius Leopold Weiss
Thomas Arne
Thomas Morley
Thomas Weelkes
Tomaso Albinoni
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach

  1. Wagner (1813 - 1883)
  2. Brahms (1833 - 1897)
  3. Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893)
  4. Schumann (1810 - 1856)
  5. Chopin (1810 - 1849)
  6. Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847)
  7. Liszt (1811 - 1886)
  8. Dvořák (1841 - 1904)
  9. Verdi (1813 - 1901)
10. Mahler (1860 - 1911)
11. Strauss (1864 - 1949)*
12. Berlioz (1803 - 1869)
13. Bruckner (1824 - 1896)
14. Sibelius (1865 - 1957)*
15. Mussorgsky (1839 - 1881)
16. Puccini (1858 - 1924)
17. Rossini (1792 - 1868)
18. Elgar (1857 - 1934)
19. Rachmaninov (1873 - 1943)*
20. Saint-Saens (1835 - 1921)
21. Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 - 1908)
22. Weber (1786 - 1826)
23. Fauré (1845 - 1924)*
24. Grieg (1843 - 1907)
25. Smetana (1824-1884)
26. Franck (1822 - 1890)
27. Scriabin (1872 - 1915)
28. Bizet (1838 - 1875)
29. Donizetti (1797 - 1848)
30. J. Strauss, Jr. (1825 - 1899)
31. Borodin (1833 - 1887)
32. Bellini (1801 - 1835)
33. Gounod (1818 - 1893)
34. Massenet (1842-1912)
35. Holst (1874 - 1934)*
36. Respighi (1879 - 1936)
37. Wolf (1860 - 1903)
38. Meyerbeer (1791 - 1864)
39. Glinka (1803 - 1857)
40. Glazunov (1865 - 1936)
41. Paganini (1782-1840)
42. Offenbach(1819 - 1880)
43. Reger (1873 - 1916)
44. Bruch (1838 - 1920)
45. Delibes (1836 - 1891)
46. Busoni (1866 - 1924)
47. Delius (1862 - 1934)
48. Albéniz (1860 - 1909)
49. Balakirev (1837 - 1910)
50. Sullivan (1842 - 1900)

---

*Romantic/Modern composer

---

Adolphe Adam
Amilcare Ponchielli
Amy Beach
Anton Rubinstein
Arrigo Boito
Carl Loewe
César Cui
Charles-Marie Widor
Charles Stanford
Charles-Valentin Alkan
Edouard Lalo
Edward German
Edward MacDowell
Emmanuel Chabrier
Enrique Granados
Ernest Chausson
Eugene Ysaÿe
Francisco Tarrega
Franz Berwald
Franz Lehár
Franz Schmidt
George Whitefield Chadwick
Gustave Charpentier
Henryk Wieniawski
Horatio Parker
Hubert Parry
Johann Strauss, Sr.
John Philip Sousa
Joseph Canteloub
Karl Goldmark
Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Michael William Balf
Niels Wilhelm Gade
Pablo Sarasate
Pietro Mascagni
Paul Dukas
Reinhold Glière
Ruggiero Leoncavallo
Vincent d'Indy

  1. Stravinsky (1882 - 1971)
  2. Debussy (1862 - 1918)
  3. Prokofiev (1891 - 1953)
  4. Shostakovich (1906 - 1975)
  5. Bartòk (1881 - 1945)
  6. Ravel (1875 - 1937)
  7. Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958)
  8. Schoenberg (1874 - 1951)
  9. C. Ives (1874 - 1954)
10. Hindemith (1895 - 1963)
11. Messiaen (1908 - 1992)
12. Copland (1900 - 1990)
13. Satie (1866 - 1925)
14. Britten (1913 - 1976)
15. Webern (1883 - 1945)
16. Gershwin (1898 - 1937)
17. Janácek (1854-1928)
18. Berg (1885 - 1935)
19. Poulenc (1899 - 1963)
20. Cage (1912 - 1992)
21. Nielsen (1865 - 1931)
22. Walton (1902 - 1983)
23. Milhaud (1892 - 1974)
24. Barber (1910 - 1981)
25. Falla (1876 - 1946)
26. Honegger (1892 - 1955)
27. Tippett (1905 - 1998)
28. Kodály (1882 - 1967)
29. Martinu (1890 - 1959)
30. Varèse (1883 - 1965)
31. Villa-Lobos (1887 - 1959)
32. Bernstein (1918 - 1990)
33. Szymanowski (1882 - 1937)
34. Khachaturian (1903 - 1978)
35. Rodrigo (1901 - 1999)
36. Lutoslawski (1913 - 1994)
37. Pärt (1935 -
38. Weill (1900 - 1950)
39. Bloch (1880 - 1959)
40. Orff (1895 - 1982)
41. Bax (1883 - 1953)
42. Carter (1908-2012)
43. Henze (1926 - 2012)
44. Stockhausen (1928-2007)
45. Glass (1937 -
46. Ligeti (1923-2006)
47. Maxwell Davies (1934-2016)
48. Adams (1947 -
49. Grainger (1882-1961)
50. Roussel (1869 - 1937)

---

Modern

---

Alan Hovhaness
Alberto Ginastera
Alexander von Zemlinsky
Alfred Schnittke
Arthur Bliss
Astor Piazzolla
Carlos Chávez
Charles Tomlinson Griffes
Dmitri Kabalevsky
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Frank Bridge
Frank Martin
Fritz Kreisler
George Antheil
George Crumb
Georges Enescu
Gerald Finzi
Gian Carlo Menotti
Henry Cowell
Herbert Howells
Howard Hanson
Iannis Xenakis
Jacques Ibert
Joaquin Turina
John Ireland
John Tavener
Krzystof Penderecki
Lou Harrison
Luciano Berio
Luigi Dallapiccola
Luigi Nono
Malcolm Arnold
Marcel Dupré
Maurice Duruflé
Milton Byron Babbitt
Morton Gould
Pierre Boulez
Peter Warlock
Scott Joplin
Steve Reich
Toru Takemitsu
Virgil Thomson
Walter Piston
William Schuman