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 has been updated to aggegate 23 best-of lists focused on classical artists. Roughly the first half of the list is determined by putting all composers who reached at least 8 lists in order based on overall Dave’s Music Database. The remainder of the list is determined by taking all composers who reached between 2 and 7 lists and ranking them based on overall Dave’s Music Database status.
See other lists of Acts/Music Makers by Categories.
Ludwig van Beethoven
1. Ludwig van Beethoven
2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
3. Johann Sebastian Bach
4. Igor Stravinsky
5. Gustav Mahler
6. Béla Bartók
7. Frederic Chopin
8. Sergei Rachmaninoff
9. Felix Mendelssohn
10. Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
11. Dmitri Shostakovich
12. Antonin Dvorák
13. Maurice Ravel
14. Franz Schubert
15. Richard Wagner
16. Joseph Haydn
17. Hector Berlioz
18. Johannes Brahms
19. Robert Schumann
20. Antonio Vivaldi
21. George Friedrich Händel
22. Claude Debussy
23. Giusseppe Verdi
24. George Gershwin
25. John Philip Sousa
26. Franz Liszt
27. Claudio Monteverdi
28. Aaron Copland
29. Giacomo Puccini
30. Edward Elgar
31. Richard Strauss
32. Jean Sibelius
33. Kurt Weill
34. Modest Mussorgsky
35. Sergei Prokofiev
36. Arnold Schoenberg
37. Charles Ives
38. Giovanni Pierluigi de Palestrina
39. Anton Bruckner
40. Samuel Barber
41. Henry Purcell
42. Georges Bizet
43. Philip Glass
44. Ferde Grofe
45. Jean-Philippe Rameau
46. Ralph Vaughan Williams
47. John Cage
48. Camille Saint-Saëns
49. Pierre Boulez
50. Edvard Grieg
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 shortbios 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-longbios/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 6/29/2026. | 
