Major Musicians and Composers Flashcards
Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685-1750) Well-known German Baroque composer of ‘The Brandenberg Concertos’ and many pieces for organ.
Ludwig von Beethoven
(1770-1827) Late 18th-, early 19th-century composer is widely considered among the greatest ever. He composed nine symphonies and scores of concertos.
Hector Berlioz
(1803-1869) French composer of innovative pieces, including ‘Symphonie Fantastique’.
Leonard Bernstein
(1918-1990) Contemporary American composer and conductor who wrote the musical ‘West Side Story’.
Johannes Brahms
(1833-1897) German composer and pianist well known for his chamber music.
Enrico Caruso
(1873-1921) Popular Italian tenor of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Pablo Casals
(1876-1973) Popular 20th-century Spanish cellist.
Frederic Chopin
(1810-1849) Polish music composer of the 19th century known for his piano compositions.
John Coltrane
(1926-1967) American jazz innovator and saxophonist who composed experimental and far-reaching pieces of “bop” jazz.
Aaron Copland
(1900-1990) 20th-century American composer who utilized folk and jazz in his compositions, which include ‘Rodeo’ and ‘Appalachian Spring’.
Miles Davis
(1926-1992) American trumpet player whose free form and experimental style changed jazz music forever.
Claude Debussy
(1862-1918) French Impressionist composer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Antonin Dvorak
(1841-1904) 19th-century Czech composer of symphonies, including ‘New World Symphony’.
George Gershwin
(1898-1937) Prominent American composer of symphony and jazz music, as well as musicals. Among his most famous compositions are ‘Porgy ad Bess’, ‘Rhapsody in Blue’, and ‘An American in Paris’.
George Frideric Handel
(1685-1759) German Baroque composer of oratorio and other music in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Handel’s ‘Messiah’ is frequently performed.
Franz Liszt
(1811-1886) 19th-century Hungarian composer and virtuoso pianist.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756-1791) Important Austrian composer of the 18th century whose operas (‘The Marriage of Figaro’ and ‘The Magic Flute’) and concertos are amongst the most famous in history.
Charlie Parker
(1920-1955) American saxophonist nicknamed “Bird.” One of jazz’s true innovators.
Sergei Prokofiev
(1891-1953) 20th-century composer who wrote ‘Peter and the Wolf’.
Giacomo Puccini
(1858-1924) Italian composer of operas, including ‘La Bohème’ and ‘Madame Butterfly’.
Henry Purcell
(1659-1695) English composer of opera and church music, known for his ‘Dido and Aeneas’.
Maurice Ravel
(1857-1937) French composer known for nationalistic symphonies. Major work is ‘Bolero’.
Richard Rodgers
(1902-1979) American composer who worked first with lyricist Lorenz Hart and later with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein on some of 20th-century’s best-loved musicals, including ‘The Sound of Music’ and ‘Oklahoma!’
Gioacchino Rossini
(1792-1868) Italian composer of operas, including ‘The Barber of Seville’.
Franz Schubert
(1797-1828) 19th-century Austrian composer primarily of piano and vocal pieces.
Dmitri Shostakovich
(1906-1974) Russian composer of the 20th-century, known for his political motivations.
John Phillip Sousa
(1854-1932) Early 20th-century American band conductor and composer of marches such as the classic ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’.
Johann Strauss
(1825-1899) Austrian composer known for waltzes such as ‘The Blue Danube’.
Richard Strauss
(1864-1949) German composer known for his tone poems, operas, and songs (‘Lieder’).
Igor Stravinsky
(1882-1971) Russian-born composer is best known for his conducting and for his compositions for ballets.
Shin’ichi Suzuki
(1898-1998) Japanese music educator who promoted learning by repetition as well as by instruction.
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
(1840-1893) Prominent 19th-century Russian composer who wrote the ballets ‘Swan Lake’ and ‘The Nutcracker’, among others.
Giuseppe Verdi
(1813-1901) Italian composer of operas, including ‘Rigoletto’, ‘La Traviata’, and ‘Aïda’.
Antonio Vivaldi
(1678-1741) Late 17th- early 18th-century composer and violinist who wrote the well-known ‘The Four Seasons’.
Richard Wagner
(1813-1883) 19th-century German composer whose use of leitmotif revolutionized opera. Among his contributions are ‘Tristan and Isolde’ and ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’.
