The Top 50 Classical Composers

Classical Composers: Top 50

This list was originally presented as a note on the DMDB Facebook page on February 2, 2011. That original post was prompted by Anthony Tommasini, who in January 2011, undertook the two-week task in the New York Times of selecting the top 10 classical music composers in history. That list, and 13 others (see sources below), have been aggregated to create the official Dave’s Music Database list below. As always, the goal is to present an objective list based on others’ opinions. Besides, I’m less informed on classical music than any other genre, so I couldn’t compose a list of my own if I wanted to. My apologies for any misspellings. Note: this list was updated on March 9, 2012 to aggregate a total of 22 lists focused on classical composers. See other lists of Acts/Music Makers by Categories. 1. Ludwig van Beethoven 2. Johann Sebastian Bach 3. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 4. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky 5. George Gershwin 6. Franz Schubert 7. Richard Wagner 8. Joseph Haydn 9. Johannes Brahms 10. Igor Stravinsky 11. Frederic Chopin 12. Gustav Mahler 13. George Frideric Handel 14. Antonio Vivaldi 15. Giusseppe Verdi 16. Claude Debussy 17. Robert Schumann 18. Sergei Rachmaninoff 19. Dmitri Shostakovich 20. Antonin Dvorák 21. Felix Mendelssohn 22. Béla Bartók 23. Hector Berlioz 24. Kurt Weill 25. Maurice Ravel 26. Franz Liszt 27. John Phillip Sousa 28. Edward Elgar 29. Jean Sibelius 30. Sergei Prokofiev 31. Giovanni Pierluigi de Palestrina 32. Anton Bruckner 33. Claudio Monteverdi 34. Arnold Schoenberg 35. Modest Mussorgsky 36. Richard Strauss 37. Ralph Vaughan Williams 38. Henry Purcell 39. Charles Ives 40. Giacomo Puccini 41. Domenico Scarlatti 42. Gioacchino Rossini 43. Jean-Philippe Rameau 44. Oliver Messiaen 45. Gaetano Donizetti 46. Ferde Grofe 47. Aaron Copland 48. Camille Saint-Saens 49. Georges Bizet 50. Samuel Barber Resources/Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: Lists of Acts/Music Makers by Categories Amazon.com: Essential Artists Consists of two lists: one of popular music’s essential artists and another of classical composers. Links take you to short bios and more links to works by the artist/composer. Classical list has 52 entries, unranked. Answers.com Greatest Classical Composers. By del_icious_manager (date?) A user posted a question asking for people to list 7 of the greatest classical composers and state reasons for choices. The best answer, as chosen by the asker, was from del_icious_manager who listed seven composers chronologically with sentence-long bios/justifications. BiographyOnline.net Greatest Classical Music Composers of All Time. (date?) Top ten ranked list with brief paragraphs on each entry. Cleveland.com Who are the 10 greatest classical-music composers of all time? You decide. By Donald Rosenberg. (1/30/2011) Response to Anthony Tommasini’s top 10 list in the New York Times. Picks seven composers himself, but doesn’t rank them. DigitalDreamDoor.com The 100 Greatest Classical Music Composers. Edited by Guy/Brian. (12/31/2006) Top 100 ranked list. No commentary. eHow.com 10 Most Famous Classical Composers. By Amber D. Walker. (1/3/2010) This article focuses on ten composers with paragraph entries on each. No ranking. HubPages.com Top 5 Classical Composers of All Time. By Isabella Snow. (date?) This article focuses on five composers with paragraph entries on each. No ranking. Jaltcoh.blogspot.com The Top 10 Greatest Classical Composers. By John Althouse Cohen. (1/22/2011) A personal top ten ranking with detailed entries on each composer. Inspired by the New York Times article. Legends of American Music stamp series (1993-1999) This series of stamps started in 1993 covering various genres. Eight classical composers/conductors were introduced in 1997. Listverse.com Top 15 Greatest Composers of All Time. By FlameHorse. (12/17/2009) Top 15 ranked list with detailed entries and video posts. NYTimes.com The Greatest. By Anthony Tommasini. (1/21/2011) The original post which inspired the DMDB list and several of the other entries in this category. He undertook a two-week series to select the top 10 classical musical composers in history. He laid out the list via articles, videos, and blog posts which garnered more than 1500 responses. Squidoo.com The Best Classical Composers of All Time. By ?. (date?) Unranked list of five composers with links to purchase music and other related products. Writer and date unidentified. The-Top-Tens.com Greatest Classical Composers. By ?. (date?) Users post lists here and then others vote on them. This top ten list has expanded to 23 entries as added by users. Original list generator and date of creation unidentified. Very few commentaries. First posted 7/28/2012; last updated 1/26/2022.