100 Greatest Classical Composers

Ludwig Van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Criteria: These Greatest Classical Music Composers are ranked for their innovation and influence, as well as their aesthetic importance and historical significance.

Last Updated: 2017-04-22
  1. Ludwig van Beethoven - 1770-1827
  2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - 1756-1791
  3. Johann Sebastian Bach - 1685-1750
  4. Richard Wagner - 1813-1883
  5. Joseph Haydn - 1732-1809
  6. Johannes Brahms - 1833-1897
  7. Franz Schubert - 1797-1828
  8. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky - 1840-1893
  9. George Frideric Handel - 1685-1759
10. Igor Stravinsky - 1882-1971
11. Robert Schumann - 1810-1856
12. Frederic Chopin - 1810-1849
13. Felix Mendelssohn - 1809-1847
14. Claude Debussy - 1862-1918
15. Franz Liszt - 1811-1886
16. Antonín Dvořák - 1841-1904
17. Giuseppe Verdi - 1813-1901
18. Gustav Mahler - 1860-1911
19. Antonio Vivaldi - 1678-1741
20. Richard Strauss - 1864-1949
21. Serge Prokofiev - 1891-1953
22. Dmitri Shostakovich - 1906-1975
23. Béla Bartók - 1881-1945
24. Hector Berlioz - 1803-1869
25. Anton Bruckner - 1824-1896
26. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina - 1525-1594
27. Claudio Monteverdi - 1567-1643
28. Jean Sibelius - 1865-1957
29. Maurice Ravel - 1875-1937
30. Ralph Vaughan Williams - 1872-1958
31. Modest Mussorgsky - 1839-1881
32. Giacomo Puccini - 1858-1924
33. Henry Purcell - 1659-1695
34. Gioacchino Rossini - 1792-1868
35. Edward Elgar - 1857-1934
36. Sergei Rachmaninoff - 1873-1943
37. Camille Saint-Saëns - 1835-1921
38. Josquin Des Prez - c.1440-1521
39. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - 1844-1908
40. Carl Maria von Weber - 1786-1826
41. Jean-Philippe Rameau - 1683-1764
42. Jean-Baptiste Lully - 1632-1687
43. Gabriel Fauré - 1845-1924
44. Edvard Grieg - 1843-1907
45. Christoph Willibald Gluck - 1714-1787
46. Arnold Schoenberg - 1874-1951
47. Charles Ives - 1874-1954
48. Paul Hindemith - 1895-1963
49. Olivier Messiaen - 1908-1992
50. Aaron Copland - 1900-1990
51. Francois Couperin - 1668-1733
52. William Byrd - 1539-1623
53. Erik Satie - 1866-1925
54. Benjamin Britten - 1913-1976
55. Bedrick Smetana - 1824-1884
56. César Franck - 1822-1890
57. Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin - 1872-1915
58. Georges Bizet - 1838-1875
59. Domenico Scarlatti - 1685-1757
60. Georg Philipp Telemann - 1681-1767
61. Anton Webern - 1883-1945
62. Roland de Lassus - 1532-1594
63. George Gershwin - 1898-1937
64. Gaetano Donizetti - 1797-1848
65. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - 1714-1788
66. Archangelo Corelli - 1653-1713
67. Thomas Tallis - 1505-1585
68. Johann Strauss II - 1825-1899
69. Leos Janácek - 1854-1928
70. Guillaume de Machaut - 1300-1377
71. Alban Berg - 1885-1935
72. Alexander Borodin - 1833-1887
73. Vincenzo Bellini - 1801-1835
74. Charles Gounod - 1818-1893
75. Jules Massenet - 1842-1912
76. Francis Poulenc - 1899-1963
77. Giovanni Gabrieli - 1554-1612
78. Pérotin - 1160-1225
79. Heinrich Schütz - 1585-1672
80. John Cage - 1912-1992
81. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi - 1710-1736
82. John Dowland - 1563-1626
83. Gustav Holst - 1874-1934
84. Dietrich Buxtehude - 1637-1707
85. Ottorino Respighi - 1879-1936
86. Guillaume Dufay - 1400-1474
87. Hugo Wolf - 1860-1903
88. Carl Nielsen - 1865-1931
89. William Walton - 1902-1983
90. Darius Milhaud - 1892-1974
91. Orlando Gibbons - 1583-1625
92. Giacomo Meyerbeer - 1791-1864
93. Samuel Barber - 1910-1981
94. Tomás Luis de Victoria - 1549-1611
95. Léonin - 1135-1201
96. Manuel de Falla - 1876-1946
97. Hildegard von Bingen - 1098-1179
98. Mikhail Glinka - 1804-1857
99. Alexander Glazunov - 1865-1936
100. Don Carlo Gesualdo - 1566-1613
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart


Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach


Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner


Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn


Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms

The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his
energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another... and leaves us with
the feeling that something is right in the world. - Leonard Bernstein








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