Style and Analysis Master List - Bickham

Medeival

Bernart de Ventadorn (1130-1200)

1130 - 1200
  • One of the most famous Troubadours
  • Developed the CANÇONS and form of courtly love poetry
  • Important works: Can vei la lauzeta mover

Guirau De Bornelh (1138-1215)

1138 - 1215
  • Considered a "Master of the Troubadours"
  • Perfected trobar leu, or light style
  • 90 poems and 4 melodies survive

Leonin

1150 - 1201
  • Earliest known composer of polyphonic organum
  • Member of the Notre Dame School and ars antigua style
  • Named by the Anonyomous IV as the author of the "Magnus Libra"

Walther von der Vogelweide (c. 1170 – c. 1230)

1170 - 1230
  • Minnesinger in Northern Germany
  • Poetry written in the High German Tradition and full of political commentary.
  • Still has an influence on German poetry.

Pérotin (fl. c. 1200)

1200 - 1250
  • Master of the Notre Dame School and ars antiqua style
  • primarily a composer of organum. He was the first composer of organum triplum and organum quadruplum.
  • Sederunt principes and Viderunt Omnes are some of his most famous works (organum quadruplum)

Franco de Cologne (fl. mid-13th Century)

1250 - 1300
  • German music theorist and composer
  • Developed the first style of permanent musical notation
  • Famous for Franconian motets in which rhythm is developed further from the rhythmic modes and text is in multiple languages ( Amours mi font/En mai/Flos filius eius)

Phillippe de Vitry (1291-1361)

1291 - 1361
  • Composer and theorist
  • Most famous for his Ars Nova Treatise on music
  • Developed the isorhythm and iso-rhythmic motet

Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377)

1300 - 1377
  • Composer and poet of the Ars Nova tradition
  • developed the motet, secular songs forms and the "formes fixes"
  • "Messe di Notre Dame" is the earliest known setting of the ordinary of the Mass by one composer.

Jacobus De Bononia (fl. 1340-c. 1386)

1340 - 1386
  • Italian composer of the "Trecento," or the italian Ars Nova
  • Mainly wrote madrigals (canonic and non-canonic)
  • Wrote to Petrach's poetry: Non al suo amante

François Andrieu (fl. late 1300's)

1370 - 1420

Johannes Ciconia (1370-1412)

1370 - 1412
  • A composer of a variety of styles including ars nova, ars subillitor, and Renaissance (a crossover composer)
  • Wrote secular and sacred music including motets, madrigals, formes fixes, Masses, and iso-rhythmic motets.

Baude Cordier (1380-1440)

1380 - 1440
  • One of the main composers of the Ars subilitor.
  • Mostly composed secular rondeaux's
  • "Amans amés secretement," "Amans amés secretement," "Belle, Bonne, Sage," (heart shaped manuscript)

Renaissance

John Dunstable ( c. 1390 – 1453)

1390 - 1453
  • Important in the development of the Burgundian School (although English)
  • Began the development of triadic harmony and had an affinity for the interval of a third (was exposed to the fauxboudon style and adopted some of it's characteristics such as use of 3rds and 6ths).
  • Representative works: Veni creator spiritus, 3 Magnificats, Missa Rex seculorum (Mass with a cantus firmus melody) *

Guillaume DuFay (1397-1474)

1397 - 1474
  • Important composer in the Burgundian School
  • Wrote in all forms of the time: Madrigals, motets, chanson, magnificats, hymns, fauxbourdon style chants
  • Most music was for liturgical use: Missa se la face ay pale and Missa L'Homme armé are famous mass settings.

Gilles Binchois (1400-1460)

1400 - 1460
  • One of the foremost composers of the Burgundian Schools (with Dunstable and Du Fay)
  • Considered a great melodiest and his songs are simple and clear.
  • Most of his secular songs are in rondeaux form and talk of courtly love, and chivalry. They are not often strophic because the rhythmic scheme is often varied.
  • Nove cantum melodie (motet)

Johannes Ockeghem (1410/25-1497)

1410 - 1497
  • A composer in the period between the Burgundian Composers and Des Prez
  • Wrote 14 masses, motets and chansons.
  • He uses the cantus firmus technique in many of his works. Also famous for wide leaps and low vocal ranges
  • Missa prolationum, Missa cuiusvis toni

Antoine Busnois (1430-1492)

1430 - 1492
  • Burgundian Composer who became a leader in the style after the death of du Fay.
  • Famous composer of secular chanson (most are rondeaux), motets and sacred music
  • uses a little imitation, singable melodies and triadic sonorities
  • L'homme armé

Josquin des Prez (1450/55-1521 )

1450 - 1521
  • One of the greatest masters of the Renaissance.
  • Wrote in all of the standard vocal genres of the time: Masses, motets, chansons
  • Stylistic characteristics: points of imitation, early works are more ornamented, free and flowing lines within a polyphonic work, and clear setting of the text.
  • at least 18 full masses, hundreds of motets and chansons

Clément Janequin (1485-1558)

1485 - 1558
  • A prolific composers responsible for the popular chanson and the development of the Parisian chanson. Wrote only 2 masses and a motet, but 250 chanson.
  • Programmatic chansons: long, sectional pieces with imitation of man-made sounds
  • Famous works: La bataille, La chasse, Le chant des oiseaux

Claudin de Sermisy

1490 - 1562
  • Renowned composer of French chanson and liturgical music for voices
  • Sacred Music: 12 complete masses (including a Requiem), 100 motets, Magnificats, and Lamentations. (Clear textures with alternating polyphonic and homophonic phrases. Short phrases and chordal passages)
  • Secular Music: 175 chansons (chordal, syllabic, graceful, dance-like quick repeated notes. Most are 4 voice texture).

Arnold von Bruck (1500-1554)

1500 - 1554
  • Famous in the German speaking countries and Hapsburg court.
  • All works are vocal: Magnificats, Chorales, Sacred and secular German songs
  • Sacred words in Latin (Te Deum, DIes Irae)
  • Textures are more in the style of Josquin - imitation, thinner textures, less ornamentation

Jacque Aracadelt (1507-1568)

1507 - 1568
  • Composer of Madrigals and chanson (all vocal)
  • One of the earliest madrigal writers: usually 4 voice but ranged 3-6, simple in structure, singable, diatonic, syllabic and through-composed
  • Chanson: strophic, singable, syllabic
  • Sacred music - 3 masses, 24 motets, Magnificat, Lamentations

G.P. da Palestrina (1525-1594)

1525 - 1594
  • Composer of Sacred Music of the Roman School of Composition
  • Hundreds of compositions of sacred music to secular madrigals.
  • Famous works: Missa Papae Marcelli, Missa sine nomine
  • Style Characteristics: controlled dissonances on the weak beats, making a more consonant polyphony, lyrical lines with mostly stepwise motion, flowing musical lines

Orlando de Lassus (1530/32-1594)

1530 - 1594
  • Wrote over 2,000 vocal works in Latin, French, German, and Italian. Sacred and Secular works are included.
  • Masses: often imitation masses, Musica reservata (includes chromaticism and dramatic text setting)
  • His works often had humor, were lyrical, cyclic, and syllabic text setting

Andrea Gabrieli (1533-1585)

1533 - 1585
  • Venetian School of Composers: wrote solo vocal music, vocal ensemble music, purely instrumental music, and a combination of voices and instruments
  • Wrote antiphonal music, often changing the combination of voices and instruments in the texture

William Byrd (1539/40/43-1623)

1539 - 1623
  • Wrote sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard music, and instrumental music
  • Elevated keyboard music, especially the fantasia.
  • Madrigals were simple in style but distinctive with they polyphony and sometimes instrumental accompaniment.
  • Church music is mostly in Latin and a high level of complexity and thicker textures.

Tomás Luis Victoria (1548-1611)

1548 - 1611
  • Composer of exclusively sacred music
  • "master at overlapping and dividing choirs with multiple parts with a gradual decreasing of rhythmic distance throughout. Not only does Victoria incorporate intricate parts for the voices, but the organ is almost treated like a soloist in many of his choral pieces"
  • Style Characteristics: often homophonic texture, rhythmically creative, more free dissonance, use of Major 6ths and diminished 4ths, word-painting, and polychoral works
  • Most famous works: Officium Defunctorum, O vos omnes

Luca Marenzio (1553-1599)

1553 - 1599
  • Most famous for madrigals of the late Renaissance style
  • Madrigal style included chromaticism (including circle of 5ths and enharmonic spellings), word-painting, 2-6 voice texture, text driven melody, pastoral and love poem texts
  • Also wrote sacred motets, masses, and madrigali spirituali

Thomas Morely (1557/58-1602)

1557 - 1602
  • Member of the English Madrigal School
  • Madrigal style characteristics: quick moving, singable, emotional, often light hearted
  • Also wrote some sacred music, instrumental music, and keyboard music
  • Famous works: It was a lover and his lass, Now is the month of maying, My bonny lass she smileth

Carlo Gesualdo (1560-1613)

1560 - 1613
  • Composer of sacred and secular vocal works, especially madrigals, and instrumental music
  • Style Characteristics: extreme and surprising chromaticism, dramatic text setting of impassioned words, rhythmic contrast, Equal voice texture, text driven melodic settings, sectional format (slow-fast)

Late Renaissance/Early Baroque

Giulio Caccini (1551-1618)

1551 - 1618
  • One of the founders of the new Baroque style
  • First composer of opera and the stile recitativo style. Also wrote solo songs with basso continuo accompaniment, strophic songs, through-composed madrigals, in songs he often writes several ornamentation options.
  • Euridice (Opera), Le nuove musiche (collection of songs with basso continuo), Amarilli, mia bella

Giovanni Gabrieli (1554-1612)

1554 - 1612
  • One of the final composers of the Venetian school at the turn of the Renaissance/Baroque period.
  • Wrote mostly sacred vocal and instrumental music
  • Style Characteristics: written dynamics, notated instrumentation, instrument clusters arranged spacially, polychoral style, unusual combinations of instruments and singers arranged for accoustic purposes
  • Famous works: In Ecclesiis

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

1567 - 1643
  • Central figure in the movement from Renaissance to Baroque periods
  • Wrote Madrigals, Operas, and sacred church music
  • His early works employ Renaissance techniques such as polyphony, strict counterpoint, controlled dissonance, even voices
  • His later style includes monody with basso continuo, polarized soprano and bass, more free movement, words in control of the Harmony
  • Famous works: L'Orfeo, L'incoronazione di Poppea, Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda

Thomas Campion (1567-1620)

1567 - 1620
  • Composer of Lute songs, Masques, and Ayres
  • Music was composed for court entertainment and often had rhymeless verse.
  • Famous works: Book of Ayres

Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643)

1583 - 1643
  • Prominent composer of keyboard music, but also wrote for instrumental and vocal ensemble.
  • His style and form are not consistent between works, innovations in tempi and tempo notation, made many innovations in the form of variations
  • Famous works: Fiori musicali, Ricercari, et canzone/Toccate e partite

Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)

1583 - 1625
  • English composers of Madrigals, keyboard works, chorale settings, and chamber music
  • Style characteristics: 3-4 voice polyphonic keyboard music, multi-sectional and multi-subject within a piece, dramatic development of simple musical ideas
  • Famous works: The silver Swan, Fairewell all joys, Fantasias, Pavane in D minor and Lord Salisbury's Pavan and Galliard

Baroque

Michael Praetorius (1571-1621)

1571 - 1621
  • Composer of Early Baroque Church music (both Latin and German)
  • Wrote Chorale hymns, instrumental dances
  • Style characteristics: Choral, polychoral, figured bass notation, fugal notation
  • Famous works: Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming), Terpsichore

Heinrich Schutz (1585-1672)

1585 - 1672
  • One of the most famous composers prior to Bach
  • Instrumental and vocal sacred music. Influenced by Gabrieli and Montiverdi
  • Style Characteristics: Poly choral style, modal and choral writing, contrapuntal motion of voices, intense dissonances although more tonal at the cadences, imitation, text driven
  • Famous works: Symphoniae sacrae, Kleine geistliche Konzerte,

Johann Schein (1586-1630)

1586 - 1630
  • German composer of the Italianate style of mostly vocal works
  • Wrote sacred and secular works alternately throughout his career.
  • Used italian characteristics of figured bass, concertando, and monody style. Text painting is vivid and songs vary widely from gentle devotional madrigals to baudy humorous songs.
  • Famous works: Banchetto musicale (book of instrumental suites - only one), Banchetto musicale

Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674)

1605 - 1674
  • A Master of the Roman School of Music
  • Prolific writing of motets, Latin oratorios, and cantatas. Developed the recitative and the solo cantata
  • Style Characterstics: development of variety of instrumental accopmaniments, recitative
  • Famous works: Jephte, Vittoria, mio core

Jean Baptiste Lully (1632-1687)

1632 - 1687
  • Master of the French Baroque Style - dance suites (passacaligias, chaccones), operas, motets
  • Style Charachertistics: basso continuo, lively fast movements, emotional slow movements, new balance of instruments including 5 voices of strings, harpsichord, organ, bassoon, oboe, recorder, brass and percussion. Began French overture style
  • Famous works: Armide,

Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1634-1704)

1634 - 1704
  • French composers of oratorios, masses, dance suites, ballets, and sacred vocal works
  • Famous works: Te Deum, Médée

Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)

1653 - 1713
  • Important in the development of the concerto and sonata, as well as the importance of the violin
  • Was an important violinist and teacher, kept the range of the instrument smaller in his writings
  • Wrote trio sonatas, sonatas, and concerti grossi
  • Famous works: Twelve concerti grossi, Op. 6

Henry Purcell (1659-1695)

1659 - 1695
  • Most famous English composer of mostly vocal works - choral and solo (sacred and secular)
  • Style Characteristics: wide vocal ranges, English language, ground bass,
  • Famous Works: Orpheus Britannicus, Dido and Aeneas, The Fairy Queen

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)

1660 - 1725
  • Father of the Neopolitan School of Composition
  • Wrote operas, chamber cantatas, masses
  • Style Characteristics: fluxuating phrase lengths, purposeful modulation, recitative and aria alternating in operas, use of continuo or small chamber ensemble accompaniment, ternary and da capo form
  • Famous works: Il pompeo, Mitridate Eupatore, St. Cecilia's Mass

Francois Couperin (1668-1733)

1668 - 1733
  • French composer of mainly keyboard music
  • Wrote sonatas, keyboard suites, organ works
  • Style Characteristics: descriptive titles in French, virtuosic writing, suites are called ordres, distinct mood and key changes,
  • Famous works: Pièces de clavecin, Le Parnasse, ou L'apothéose de Corelli

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

1678 - 1741
  • Composer of operas, instrumental concerti, and sacred choral works
  • Style Characteristics: lively, bright and energetic, melodic with harmonic contrasts, rhythmic
  • Famous works: Le quattro stagioni, Gloria, L'estro armonico

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)

1681 - 1767
  • One of the most prolific composers of all time and friends (and influenced by) with Bach and Handel
  • Sacred cantatas, suites, and instrumental cantatas (variety of instrumental pairings)
  • Music is straightforward yet harmonically complex, a composer of the galant style
  • Famous works:

Jean-Phillippe Rameau (1683-1761)

1683 - 1761
  • Leading composer of French Harpsichord music
  • Wrote suites, operas, cantatas, and motets
  • Style Characteristics: complex harmonies in old fashioned forms, imitative, virtuosity, recitative/aria combination
  • Famous Works: Hippolyte et Aricie, Pièces de clavecin en concert

Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)

1685 - 1757
  • Transitional figure between the Baroque and Classical period
  • Wrote many styles but is best known for keyboard sonatas
  • Style Characteristics: binary form, some early sonata form, mostly for harpsichord, modulations to unexpected keys, Phrysgian mode
  • Famous works:

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

1685 - 1759
  • German composer who spent most of his career in London
  • composed operas, oratorios, chorales, organ cantatas
  • Straightforward harmonic style, organized cadences, contrapuntal vocal and instrumental lines, Wrote in English, German, and Italian, Da Capo arias with recitatives, ornamentation
  • Famous works: Water Music, Messiah, Guilio Cesare

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

1685 - 1750
  • One of the most innovative composers of all time.
  • Wrote keyboard music, church music, oratorios, chorales
  • Style Characteristics: more complex orchestration and multiple melodies at one. Thick harmonies in lower octave below middle C (Couperin does this too). Planes of orchestration (mosaic of melody) Famous Works: Well-tempered Klavier, Magnificat,

Classical

Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714-1787)

1714 - 1787
  • Composer of operas, chamber music, keyboard music, orchestral music, ballets
  • Style Characteristics: classical forms, sonata form, diatonic harmonies, lyrical melodies
  • Famous works: Orfeo ed Euridice

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

1732 - 1809
  • Important in the development of the piano trio, string quartet, and symphony
  • Style Characteristics: use of simple and short musical motifs to develop a larger structure, formal construction, humor is incorporated, development of the exposition and recapitulation in relations to closely related keys and themes, Sturm und Drang, scoring includes timpani and trumpets
  • Famous works:

Carl Ditters von Ditersdorf (1739-1799)

1739 - 1799
  • Wrote opera buffe, singspiel, chamber music, symphonies, oratorios, cantatas, chamber music
  • Music is melodic yet not motivic,
  • Famous works: Doktor und Apotheker

Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816)

1740 - 1816
  • Primarily an opera composer but did compose chamber music and piano music'
  • Style Characteristics: Most works are vocally conceived with a level of dramatic intensity and timing,
  • Famous Works:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

1756 - 1791
  • Composer of all genres - instrumental and vocal
  • Style Characteristics: Sturm und Drang, Galant (early works), dynamic contrast, sudden change in tempo, pulsing rhythms and syncopation, development of harmonic material, independent instrumental sections, appogiaturas, singable melodies, Mannheim rocket theme, motivic treatment
  • Famous works:

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

1770 - 1827
  • Most forward thinking composer of the late classical period
  • Wrote in all forms including keyboard, instrumental, and vocal
  • Thicker textures, sf, extreme changes of dynamics, introduction of the mf and mp, two measure phrasing, extension and development of the V tonality, harmonic chromaticism and exploration of keys further away, two-three note groupings in phrases, motives
  • Famous works: 9th symphony, Sonata Op.2, Eroica Symphony, Fur Elise

Romantic

Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864)

1791 - 1864
  • A German opera composer who excelled at writing for the stage
  • Style Characteristics: Italianate vocal composition, singable melodies, rich harmonic texture, dramatic cohesion is not always achieved as his writing focuses on teh voice not text
  • Famous works: Les Hugenots, Robert le diable

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

1797 - 1828
  • Early Romantic composer who wrote in most styles for piano, instruments, and voice.
  • Best known for his piano works, Lieder, and symphonies
  • Style Characteristics: predictable cadences, text painting with the keyboard accompaniments, strophic text settings, arpeggiated left hand movement, memorable melodies, original sense of modulation
  • Famous works: String Quintet (D. 956), Erlkonig, Sonata in A minor

Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)

1797 - 1848
  • Italian composer of the Bel Canto vocal style although he wrote smaller numbers of many other styles
  • Wrote over 70 operas and his most success came with the comic operas
  • Style characteristics: secco recitative, cabeletta/cavatina style arias, melismatic vocal passages and relatively stable orchstral accompaniment, arpeggiatted style accompaniment
  • Famous Works: L'elisir d'amore, Don Pasquale, Anna Bolena

Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835)

1801 - 1835
  • Italian Bel Canto opera composer
  • Style Characteristics: long flowing melodic lines, excellent connection of music and text, relatively simple accopmaniment in support of long vocal lines, melodramatic
  • Norma, I capuletti e monitechi, I puritani,

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)

1803 - 1869
  • A leading composer of the development of the Romantic tradition. Influenced greatly by Beethoven
  • Style Characteristics: large orchestra, uneven phrase lengths, beautiful melodies, programmatic symphonies, small chromatic motion
  • Famous works: Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts, Damnation of Faust

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

1809 - 1847
  • German romantic composer of symphonies, piano music, chamber music, Lieder, oratorios and concerti
  • Style Characteristics: conservative style, harmonically creative if not innovative,
  • Famous works: Lieder ohne Worte, Elijah, String Quartet No. 6,

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)

1810 - 1849
  • Romantic composer of piano music
  • Style Characteristics: virtuosic, highly ornate, almost exclusive use of homophonic texture, embellished melody over rhythmically stable accompaniment, use of Pedal is develloped, folk like melodies and styles
  • Famous works:

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

1810 - 1856
  • Composer of piano works, symphonies, chamber works, Lieder,
  • Style Characteristics: Conservative style and harmonies, strophic Lieder, experimentation of harmony occurred later in his career
  • Famous works: Dichterlieder, Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra and the Violin Sonata No. 3,

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

1811 - 1886
  • Composer of piano music, song, chamber music, symphonic poems
  • Style Characteristics: Adventurous harmonic movement and chromaticism, full range of the keyboard use, extensive use of sequences, often bombastic, free form
  • Famous works: B Minor Sonata, Années de pèlerinage

Guiseppi Verdi (1813-1901)

1813 - 1901
  • Italian Opera Composer of the late bel canto era
  • Style Characteristics: more vocally dramatic and more variety than previous bel canto composers, large orchestra, sophisticated story telling, large choruses, lyrical melodies
  • Famous works: La Traviata, Rigoletto, Falstaff, Requiem

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

1813 - 1883
  • One of the most innovated and far reaching composers of all time
  • Style characteristics: enormous and thick orchestration, attention to texture and creative use of chromaticism, gesamptkunstwerk, synthesis of poetry, visual components, and music, leitmotifs, shifting tonality
  • Famous works: Tristan und Isolde, Ring cycle

Cesar Franck (1822-1890)

1822 - 1890
  • Composer of piano music, melodie, Symphonies, sonatas, chamber music
  • Style Characteristics: cyclic form, creative use of chromaticism, thematic approach to melody, modulation through pivot chords to harmonically distant keys
  • Famous works: Symphony in D Minor, Sonata in A major

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)

1824 - 1896
  • Austrian composer of symphonies, masses, and motets
  • Style Characteristics: harmonically experimental, lengthy compositions, polyphonic works, remote key modulations, symphonies are in four movements, standard orchestra instrumentation.

Alexander Borodin (1833-1887)

1833 - 1887
  • Russian composer of symphonies, string quartets, and operas
  • Style Characteristics: rich harmonies, extreme lyricism, Russian flavor of lower voice texture, thick instrumentation, romantic wash of sound
  • Famous works: Prince Igor, Symphony no. 1

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

1833 - 1897
  • German composer of most styles both instrumental and vocal
  • Style Characteristics: lower sonorities, folk characteristics, classical form and structure, romantic harmonies with a rich chromatic bass.
  • Famous works: A German REquiem, Hungarian Dances

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)

1835 - 1921
  • Composed symphonies, concertos, sacred music, melodies, operas
  • Style Characteristics: supple melodies, 3-4 bar phrasing, extravagant scoring, neo-classicism, often used triple or compound meter
  • Famous works: Carnival of Animals, Samson et Delilah, Danse macabre

Georges Bizet (1838-1875)

1838 - 1875
  • French composer of many styles, but especially vocal and piano works
  • Style Characteristics: gifted melodist, rather bel canto in style, piano works are extremely virtuosic and difficult
  • Famous works: Carmen

Modest Mussorsky (1839-1881)

1839 - 1881
  • Russian composer of piano music, opera, symphonies and chamber music
  • Style characteristics: folk elements, Russian folklore, lower sonorities, thicker textures, romantic melodies
  • Famous works: Pictures at an Exhibition, Night on Bald Mountain, Boris Gudonov

Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)

1841 - 1904
  • Czech composer of chamber music, symphonies, operas, and piano works
  • Style Characteristics: rhythmic dances, folk music qualities, rich harmonies, experimental harmonies, singable melodies, neoclassicist,
  • Famous works: Slavonic Dances, Rusulka, Symphony number 6

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)

1843 - 1907
  • Norwegian composer of symphonies, sonatas, incidental music, piano music
  • Style Characteristics: norwegian folk music and rhythms,
  • Famous Works: Peter Gynt, Sonata in A minor

Gabriel Faure (1845-1924)

1845 - 1924
  • Composer of piano works, melodies, orchestra and chamber works
  • Style Characteristics: Early works are accessible, accompaniments are arpeggiated, later works are harmonically and rhythmically adventurous with thinner textures
  • Famous works: Pavane, Requiem, Clair de lune

Vincent D'Indy (1851-1931)

1851 - 1931
  • French composer of piano, vocal, chamber, and church music
  • Style Characteristics: neo classicist, classical forms,
  • Famous works: Sympnony on a French Mountain Air, Fervaal

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

1860 - 1911
  • Composer of Symphonies, Lieder,
  • Stylistic Characteristics: thick textures, enormous orchestras, large voices, folk quality melodies, different styles for different expressions
  • Famous works: Symphony No. 2 & 6, Kindertoten Lieder

Hugo Wolf (1860-1903)

1860 - 1903
  • Composer of Lieder
  • Style Characteristics: Text driven, melody is not prominent, through composed, extremely chromatic
  • Famous works: Moricke Lieder, Italian Lieder

20th Century

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

1862 - 1918
  • Composer of piano music, melodies, ballet, orchestra, chamber music
  • Style Characteristics: parallel motion, use of whole tone and pentatonic scale, irregular phrase length, unprepared modulations, pedal tone,
  • FAmous works: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Deux arabesques, Clair de lune

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

1873 - 1943
  • Composer of piano music, song, orchestra and chamber music,
  • Style Characteristics: Rich orchestra colors and textures, folk idioms, lyric melody, thick harmony and thorough use of the entire piano, widely spaced chords, motifs
  • Famous works: Piano Concerto No. 2, Symphony no. 1

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)

1874 - 1951
  • German composer of some of the most innovative musical movements of all time in the second Viennese school - orchestra, voice, piano, chamber music
  • Stylistic characteristics: wide leaps, unusual rhythms, constant chromaticism, 12-tone, lack of melody, thinner texture, independent voices, sprechtstimme, wide dynamic range
  • Famous works: Erwartung, Pierrot lunaire

Charles Ives (1874-1954)

1874 - 1954
  • Composer of song, chamber works, orchestra works, and piano works
  • Style characteristics: traditional tonalities with polychords, polyrhythms, and tone clusters, use of American folk music and hymns (especially New England), small forms and irregular phrases
  • Famous works: The Circus Band, A symphony: New England Holiday

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

1875 - 1937
  • Composer of piano music, song, chamber works, ballets, operas
  • Style Characteristcis: periods of neo classicism, experimentation with impressionism and chromatic harmony, text driven music, influences of jazz, experimental musical form, repetition
  • Famous works: Boléro, Gaspard de la nuit

Manuel de Falla (1876-1946)

1876 - 1946
  • Composer of chamber music, piano music, zarzuela, song, ballet,
  • Style Characteristics: folk like melodies, dance rhythms, neo classism
  • El retablo de maese Pedro, siete populaires

Bela Bartok (1881-1945)

1881 - 1945
  • Composer of chamber music, opera, orchestra music, piano music
  • Style Characteristics: octatonic scale, clear phrase structure with pauses, mirror scale structure, motivic, imitation
  • Famous Works: Eight Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs, Mikrokosmos

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

1882 - 1971
  • Composer of ballets, orchestra, chamber, piano, and vocal works
  • Style Characteristics: exotic chromatic harmony, melody harmonized by polychords, simple rhythms and textures that alternate homophonic and polyphonic sections, neo-classicism, serialism
  • Famous works: Petrushka, The Rite of Spring, The Firebird

Anton Webern (1883-1945)

1883 - 1945
  • Composer of chamber, orchestra, piano, and vocal works
  • Style Characteristics: short, dramatic musical gestures, no pitch or tonal center, no triads, disjunct melody with little step-wise motion, string techniques (mute, near the bridge...)
  • Famous works: Drei Volkstexte

Alban Berg (1885-1935)

1885 - 1935
  • composer of opera, Lieder, Symphonies, chamber music, piano music
  • Style Characteristics: 19th-century romantic period musical gestures with 20th-century harmonies, atonal, non-serial harmonies, dense chords with some triadic structure, full range of instrument, wide range of dynamics, lyrical melody
  • Famous works: Lulu, wozzeck, Piano sonata op. 1

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)

1891 - 1953
  • Composer of ballets, chamber music, orchestra music, piano music, vocal music
  • Style Characteristics: Use of phrygian mode, parallelism, incomplete 7th chords, dance styles, classical phrase structure, use of hemiola's, neo-classical,
  • Famous works: Romeo and Juliet, Peter and the Wolf

Arthur Honegger (1892-1955)

1892 - 1955
  • Composer of vocal music, orchestral and chamber works, operas, oratorios
  • Style Characteristics: text painting, diatonic melody, tonal center found by repetition, isolated gestures in accompaniment, parallelism, use of many scales including pentatonic, dorian, terian chords, quartal harmonies
  • Famous Works: Pacific 231

Darius Milhaud (1892-1974)

1892 - 1974
  • composer of melodies, piano, orchestra, chamber music, ballets, operas (one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century.
  • Style Characteristics: poly-tonality, jazz and braziliam music, sparce textures
  • Famous works:

Paul Hindemith (1895 - 1963)

1895 - 1963
  • Composer of Lieder, opera, chamber music, symphonies, piano music
  • Style Characteristics: melody built on intervals of 4ths, sequences, two note-repeated motives, syncopation, ostinato
  • Famous works: Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber, Der Schwanendreher

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

1900 - 1990
  • Composer of all genres
  • Style Characteristics: folk melody, mostly disjunct melody, very angular, large range, modal, non-functional voice leading, two-note motives and simple accompaniments, open spaced chords and sonorities
  • Famous works: Appalacian Spring, Fanfaire for the Common Man, Billy the Kid

Dmitry Kabalevsky (1904-1987)

1904 - 1987
  • Composer of piano and chamber music
  • Style Characteristics: conventional diatonicism, major-minor interplay, functional chromaticism
  • Famous Works: The Comedian's Suite, PIano Concerto No. 3

Luigi Dallapiccola (1904-1975)

1904 - 1975
  • Composer of all styles
  • Style Characteristics: 12-tone technique, canon, mirror, disjunct melody, wide dynamic range, specific articulation and expression markings
  • Famous works: Canti di prigionia

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

1906 - 1975
  • Composer of piano, chamber, and orchestral works
  • Style Characteristics: poly-rhythms, poly-chords, sharp contrasts, elements of atonality and chromaticism, neo-classicism, neo-romanticism
  • Famous works: 5th and 7th Symphonies

Elliott Carter (1908-2012)

1908 - 2012
  • Composer of orchestral, chamber music, solo instrumental, and vocal works.
  • Style Characteristics: early neo-classicist, later atonality, rhythmic complexity, metric modulation
  • Famous works: third string quartet

William Schuman (1910-1992)

1910 - 1992
  • Composer of song, orchestral, chamber music, solo instrumental, and vocal works.
  • Style Characteristics:
  • Major works: violin concerto, The Mighty Casey

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

1913 - 1976
  • One of the most prolific British composers: song, masses, piano works, opera, orchestral music
  • Style Characteristics: neo-classicism, folk qualities, harmonic tension, variety of textues, higher vocal ranges, influence of Mahler
  • FAmous works: Turn of the Screw, War Requiem

George Rochberg (1918-2005)

1918 - 2005
  • Composer of symphonies and chamber music
  • Style Characteristics: earlier works are serial technique, later more tonal, quotations
  • Famous works: String Quartets Nos. 3–6

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

1918 - 1990
  • Composer of all genre's of music
  • Style Characteristics: elements of jazz, cultural music, tonal, 12-tone elements, eclectic style
  • Famous works: Candide, West Side Story, Serenade for Violin, Strings, Harp and Percussion

Gyorgy Ligeti (1923-2006)

1923 - 2006
  • Composer of orchestral works, operas, piano music, film music
  • Style Characteristics: lack of melody or harmony, texture of tone clusters, poly-tonality, extreme ranges and dynamics, textural music
  • Famous Works: Atmosphères, Le Grand macabre

Luciano Berio (1925-2003)

1925 - 2003
  • Composer of symphonies, electronic music, chamber works
  • Style Characteristics: experimental, electronic, atonal
  • Famous works: Thema, sinfonia

Pierre Boulez (1925-2016)

1925 - 2016
  • Composer of all genres and extremely influential in the 20th century
  • Style Characteristics: Pointillism, disjunct melody, lack of triads or tonality, no regular pulse, dynamic indication on each note, changing meter, varied rhythmic variations
  • Famous works: Le marteau sans maître, Pli selon pli and Répons

Morton Feldman (1926-1987)

1926 - 1987
  • Composer of indeterminate music
  • Style Characteristics: indeterminate regard to rhythm and duration, individual unrelated pitches, manuscript notation, unusual instrumental combinations.
  • Famous works:

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007)

1928 - 2007
  • Composer of electronic music, spacialization, and serial composition
  • Style Characteristics: pointiliism, disjunct melody, lack of triad or diatonic harmony, no meter, dynamic indication on every note, varied rhythmic durations
  • Famous works: Klavierstücke

George Crumb (b. 1929)

1929 - Present
  • Composer of avant-garde style
  • Style Characteristics: unusual timbres, alternative forms of vocal and instrumental technique, alternative notation,

Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933)

1933 - Present
  • Composer of many musical styles, instrumental and vocal
  • Style Characteristics: dense textures, tone clusters, lack of melody, disjunct rhythms
  • Famous Works: Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, St. Luke Passion