References

Group A – General References:

 A1. Kaufmann, Helen L. 1940. The Story of 100 Great Composers. The Listener’s Music Library. Grosset and Dunlap. NY. (used in top 100 analysis)

 A2. Goulding, Phil. 1992. Classical Music: The 50 Greatest Composers and their 1000 Greatest Works. (used in top 100 analysis)

 A3. Smook, Gary A, 2019. The 100 Greatest Composers and Their Musical Works: An Introduction to the Fascinating World of Classical Music. (used in top 100 analysis)

                A3.1. Composers on Smook’s top 100 that did not make the consensus list.

                A3.2. Secondary composers from Smook’s text

A4. Copland, Aaron (1939, 1999). What to Listen for in Music. McGraw-Hill/Signet.

 A5. Miller, Hugh M. (1947, 1953, 1960). History of Music. Barnes and Noble.

A6. Taruskin, Richard (2013). Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York.

 

Group B – Additional sources for top 100 analysis:

 B1. (top 10) The History List. (https://historylists.org/people/top-10-most-famous-classical-music-composers.html). This is a website devoted to ranking, with a historical bent.  Aside from their list of classical composers, they’ve covered great painters, architects, generals, nasty dictators, and even a list of the 9 greatest Viking leaders (I guess they couldn’t find 10). They don’t state specific criteria for their selection, or who really did the selecting, only the mission to “point out some of the most important, interesting, entertaining, inspiring and mysterious historical figures.”

B2. (top 10) The Top Tens.  https://www.thetoptens.com/greatest-classical-composers/  

This list appears to have been generated by people voting for their favorites, and there are no stated criteria.

 B3. (top 10) Britannica - 10 Classical Music Composers to Know. https://www.britannica.com/list/10-classical-music-composers-to-know. Evidently editorial picks, this list is largely consistent with our consensus list, except that Chopin and Vivaldi displace Schubert and Handel from the top-10.

B4. (top 10) Tommasini, Anthony. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/arts/music/23composers.html  Chief Classical Music Critic for the New York Times, drew upon his own experience in reviewing music, along with responses from his readers His is perhaps the most well thought-out and insightful list of the bunch.   His top-10 are consistent with the top 16 of our consensus list, but in a rather different order. except he puts Schubert, Debussy, and Stravinsky ahead of Brahms, and inserts Verdi ahead of Wagner. His most idiosyncratic placement is to put Bela Bartok, who only appears at #26 on our consensus list, at #10. Top-10 placers, Haydn, Handel, and Tchaikovsky do not appear on his list.

 B5. (top 10) Bigthink.com  - https://bigthink.com/high-culture/classical-music-composer-ranking/

 B6. (top 10) William C White, Musician - https://www.willcwhite.com/2011/03/top-10-best-composers/

 B7. (top 10) The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra conducted a survey in 1950, as cited by Phil Goulding. The survey was taken from its season pass holders of that year, asking about their favorite composers.  The results show general congruence with our more recent polls, but also some interesting differences due to changing tastes over time.

 B8. (top 15) A Czech List https://jartym.blog.idnes.cz/blog.aspx?c=505774

 B9. (top 20) U Discover Music. https://www.udiscovermusic.com/classical-features/best-classical-composers-top-20/. Criteria listed for this were stated as “We’ve discussed and debated and compiled our list of the greatest and most influential classical composers. The site has a team of respected authors and journalists who are passionate about what they do, with decades’ worth of experience in print, online, radio and TV journalism.” Perhaps the most in line of all the lists with our consensus. Aside from putting Bach at #1 and Beethoven at #3, the top 7 are identical. The next 13 are also in agreement, but in different order.

 B10. (top 20) A German list-The 20 best and most popular classical composers of all time https://popkultur.de/die-besten-klassischen-komponisten-aller-zeiten/

 B11. (top 25, unranked) The 25 Greatest Classical Composers of all Time. https://www.ripeinsurance.co.uk/the-juice/greatest-classical-composers/

B12. (top 30) France https://www.fnac.com/Les-plus-grands-compositeurs-de-musique-classique/sa352689

B13. (top 30) 2021 Classic FM https://www.classicfm.com/composers/greatest-classical-music-history/

B14. (top 50) Classical Music, BBC Music Magazine, https://www.classical-music.com/features/composers/50-greatest-composers-all-time/. Criteria: “We asked 174 composers to choose the 50 greatest composers of all time.” As might be expected, these professionals tend to favor more recent composers, with Stravinsky at #2 and Ligeti at #6.

B16. (top 100)Top 100, Digital Dream. https://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best-classic-comp.html

The lists here are said to be “created by knowledgeable people and visitors…. Composers are ranked for their innovation and influence, as well as their aesthetic importance and historical significance.”

 B17. (top 100) Mahler, David. Talk Classical (https://talkclassical.com/17774-my-list-100-greatest.html) The personal list of David Mahler, organizer of an online discussion group, who "tried to be as impartial as I could"  His results are similar to others, but he includes a number of renaissance and early baroque composers relatively high on his lists, including Palestrina at #5 and des Prez at #7. He does not care so much for Tchaikovsky or Verdi, putting them at #17 and 23 respectively.

B18. (top 100) Classical Music Only. Classical Music Only (https://classicalmusiconly.com/lists/top/composers

This site provides a pure popularity poll of great composers, ranked according to the number of followers on the Classical Music Only website.

 B19. (top 100) List Challenge -Top 100 Greatest Classical Composers. “Composers are ranked for their innovation and influence, as well as their aesthetic importance and historical significance.”https://www.listchallenges.com/top-100-greatest-classical-composers

B20. (top 100) An Australian  list posted on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation website, which has been removed.  Contains many recent Australian composers.  https://www.abc.net.au/classic/classic-100/composer/1-100/

 B23. Beyond the Usual Suspects (top 10,unranked, not used in consensus ranking).  Beyond the Usual Suspects .https://www.wqxr.org/story/110230-ten-greatest-composers-beyond-usual-suspects/. A set of three top-10 lists by musical professionals, posted by a classical music radio station. Olivia Giovetti chose to list the 10 greatest composers from different eras, starting with Hildegard von Bingen and ending with contemporary David Lang. Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven do, however occupy the middle of her list. Judd Greenstein, a composer himself, starts with Monteverdi at #1, followed by Bach, Beethoven, and Wagner. The remainder are all from the 20^th Century. Fred Plotkin, writer of several books on classical music, puts Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven at the top (the only ranker of the bunch to eliminate Bach altogether!), followed by Schubert, Berlioz, and Bellini, then Chopin, Wagner, and Tchaikovsky, and ending with Richard Strauss.

 B24. The 474 Notable composers is a list I created from the following two sites, combining the 384 composers of Classical Net with the short 316 notable composers list included in the Classical Archives:

B24A. Classical Net (384 listings) (http://www.classical.net/music/composer/masterindex.php ) is an interactive guide to notable composers, with short bios, lists of major works, and recommended recordings – kind of a web equivalent of Goulding’s ink-on-paper relic.  It describes itself as “The Internet's Premier Classical Music Source.”

B24B. Classical Archives (18666 listings) (https://www.classicalarchives.com/composer/17493.html) is the “largest classical music site in the world.” Thankfully, the site also provide a short list of 316 “notable” composers, (which makes me wonder what the point is of listing so many un-notable composers!).

B25. The Wikipedia list (4757 listings) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_composers_by_name) is similar to the Classical Net, but with more than a ten-fold larger number of composers, and with linked articles that include biographic information, lists of the composer’s works, and other information.  They profess to include “only music composers of significant fame, notability or importance.”

B26. Primephonics (6350 listings) (https://play.primephonic.com/ claims to be “classical music done right,” where “classical music lovers can finally stream and download nearly all classical music that has ever been recorded in CD-quality.”

B27. Alexander Street: Music Online (10,000 listings) https://alexanderstreet.com/products/music-online-listening bills itself as “the most comprehensive and highest quality streaming audio collection to support the teaching and research of music.”

B28. The Musicalics list, “The Classical Composers Database,” (29117 listings) (https://musicalics.com/en/composers_alphabet/) is the most ambitious of the lot, with the aim of listing all known composers, from the earliest recorded to those active today. Musicalics also includes a useful list of about 1000 female composers , a list of movie score composers, and some other specialized lists. It includes pop song writers like Lennon-McCartney, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, etc., so it really takes almost the broadest possible definition of composer.  I say almost, because it seems to not include a number of people who wrote TV theme songs, such as Eliot Daniel (I love Lucy), Hugo Montenegro (I Dream of Jeannie), Jack Keller (Bewitched),  and Merv Griffin (Jeopardy), to name just a few. Maybe the Musicalics editors just haven’t gotten around to them yet.

 B29. top 50 film scores compiled  by UDiscoverMusic (https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/the-50-best-film-scores-of-all-time/)

 

Group C . Women composers

 C1. Georg Predota. 2021 (August 14^th – September 11^th).  INTERLUDE, a series of articles highlighting the greatest symphonies of women composers: https://interlude.hk/symphonies-by-women-composers-farrenc-gubaidulina-price-senfter-and-zaimont/; https://interlude.hk/symphonies-by-women-composers-kapralova-beach-auner-mayer-larsen-and-pavlova/; https://interlude.hk/symphonies-by-women-composers-ethel-smyth-lera-auerbach-augusta-holmes-chen-yi-and-ellen-taaffe-zwilich/ Included Lea Auerbach, Amy Beach, Chen Yi, Mary Dickenson Auner, Louise Farrenc, Sofia Gubaidulina, Augusta Holmès, Vítězslava Kaprálová, Libby Larsen, Emilie Mayer, Alla Pavlova, Johanna Senfter, Florence Price, Ethyl Smyth, Judith Lang Zaimont, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich  

C2. UDiscoverMusic. 2022. Best Female Composers Of All Time: 22 For 2022. https://www.udiscovermusic.com/classical-features/best-female-composers/ (Included Grazyna Bacewicz, Amy Beach, Lili Boulanger, Unsuk Chin, Rebecca Clarke, Louise Farrenc, Sofia Gubaidulina, Hildegard von Bingen, Margaret Ruthven Lang, Elizabeth Maconchy, Marianne Martines, Fanny Mendelssohn, Maria Anna Mozart  (removed from list as there are no surviving compositions), Roxanna Panufnik, Florence Price, Ethyl Smyth, ‘Poldowski’ (Regine Wieniawski), Kaija Saariaho, Barbara Strozzi, Pauline Viardot, Errollyn Wallen

C3. BBC Music Magazine. 2021. The best female composers of all time.https://www.classical-music.com/composers/most-famous-female-composers/ (Hildegard, Caccini, Strozzi, Jacquet de la Guerre, Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, Farrenc, F. Mendelssohn, C. Schumann, Smyth, Seeger, Casulana, Martines, Szymanowska, Ohe, Chaminade, Beach, Clarke, L Boulanger, Price, Maconchy, Gipps.)

C4. Classical Music by BBC Music. 2020. Six of the most inspiring women in classical music. https://www.classical-music.com/features/artists/six-most-inspiring-women-music/ - an excellent overview of female pioneers in classical music; the note concerning discrimination against women playing in orchestras is under Rebecca Clarke. 

C6. Lili Boulanger https://seattlesymphony.org/watch-listen/beyondthestage/lili-boulanger

C7. Musicalics - Female composers. https://musicalics.com/en/female-composers?page=11

C8.  Six of the best: works by Fanny Mendelssohn, BBC, Classical Music. https://www.classical-music.com/features/articles/six-best-works-fanny-mendelssohn/

C9. Five of the best works by Clara Schumann, BBC, Classical Music. https://www.classical-music.com/features/articles/5-best-works-clara-schumann/

C10. Best Female Composers Of All Time: 22 For 2022 https://www.udiscovermusic.com/classical-features/best-female-composers/

C11. 9 of the best contemporary female composers By BBC Music Magazine, March 8, 2017 https://www.classical-music.com/composers/best-contemporary-female-composers/

 C12. 21 of the greatest women composers in classical music. Discover Music, Classic FM. Undated. Author not attributed. https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/latest/great-women-composers/ (Hildegard, Caccini, Strozzi, Isabella Leonarda, Ferrenc, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Teresa Carreno, Chaminade, Beach, Clarke, Tailleferre, Boulanger, Smyth, Weir, Dudley, Pook, Portman, Wiseman, Panufnik, Gow)

C13. The top 35 female composers in classical music, the Washington Post, Anne Midgette, Aug 4, 2017: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/the-top-women-composers-in-classical-music/2017/08/04/319274d4-76f2-11e7-803f-a6c989606ac7_story.html Meredith Monk,  Caroline Shaw, Joan Tower, Kaija Saariaho (N) -Pauline Oliveros (N), Julia Wolfe (N), Sofia Gubaidulina (N), Missy Mazzoli, Jennifer Higdon Lily Boulanger, Augusta Read Thomas, Germaine Tailleferre, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Du Yun, Anna Clyne, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Lera Auerbach, Paola Prestini, Unsuk Chin, Eve Beglarian, Sarah Kirkland Snider,  Laura Kaminsky,  Gabriela Lena Frank, Lisa Bielawa, Melinda Wagner, Shulamit Ran, Chen Yi, Amy Beach, Valerie Coleman, Libby Larsen, Florence Price, Gloria Coates, Judith Weir,  Cécile Chaminade

C14. Liane Curtis. 1996. A case of identity. Rescuing Rebecca Clarke. The Musical Times, reposted at www.rebeccaclarke.org

C15. Parr, Freya. 2020. Six of the most inspiring women in classical music. BBC Music. https://www.classical-music.com/features/artists/six-most-inspiring-women-music

C16. Contemporary women composers you should know. 3/1/2020 by Ariana Avena https://www.allclassical.org/10-contemporary-women-composers-you-should-know/

C17. Robert Greenburg, 2019. Music History Monday: Barbara Strozzi, Now You Know https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-barbara-strozzi-now-you-know/

C18. Gates, Eugene (2006), "Damned If You Do and Damned If You Don't: Sexual Aesthetics and the Music of Dame Ethel Smyth", Kapralova Society Journal 4, no. 1, 2006: 1–5.

C19.Presser, Theodore. 1910. Cécile Chaminade. The Etude. Philadelphia. http://etudemagazine.com/etude/mobi/1910/10/etude-gallery-of-musical-celebrities-1.html

 

 Group D. Other Miscellaneous references

D1. The Londonist. 2021. Top 10 Contemporary Classical Music Composers. Londonist.https://londonist.com/2012/02/top-10-contemporary-classical-music-composers (already removed from internet) Included Thomas Ades, John Cage, George Crumb, James Dillon, György Ligeti, Arvo Pärt, Steve Reich, John Tavener

D2. BBC - Culture - Who are the 20th Century’s 10 best composers?  http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20141015-20th-centurys-10-best-composers (Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Gershwin, Ellington, Shostakovitch, Cage, Britten, Bernstein, Boulez, Glass)

 D3. Classical Music by BBC Music. 2019. Five of the best twelve-tone works. https://www.classical-music.com/features/articles/five-best-twelve-tone-works/

 D4. The 11 most underrated composers in classical music. Classic FM, Discover Music (no author cited) E 17 July 2014,  Updated: 6 January 2017 https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/latest/most-underrated-composers/ (Moszkowski, Finzi, Arnold, Korngold, Fanny Mendelssohn, Scriabin, Zelenka, Respighi, Meyerbeer, Salieri, Sullivan)

D5.  The 10 most underrated composers. ABC Classics. https://www.abc.net.au/classic/read-and-watch/music-reads/the-10-most-underrated-composers/12818558 (Chaminade, Sullivan, Vasili Kallinikov, Zelenka, Dora Pejačević, Hummel, Caccini, Bruch, Finzi, Saint-Saens)

 D6. Emmanuelle Fonsny, 2021 10 of the most underrated romantic composers. https://www.pianosightreading.com.au/underrated-romantic-composers/ Anton Arensky (1861–1906), Georg Martin Adolf von Henselt (1814–1889), Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860–1941), Mélanie Hélène Bonis (1858–1937), Cécile Louise Stéphanie Chaminade (1857–1944), Louise Farrenc (1804–1875), Alexander Tikhonovich Gretchaninov (1864–1956), Viktor Stepanovych Kosenko (1896–1938), Moritz Moszkowski (1854–1925), Sergei Bortkiewicz (1877–1952)

D7. Uncredited. 2014. Earliest known piece of polyphonic music discovered. University of Cambridge Research News. https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/earliest-known-piece-of-polyphonic-music-discovered

D8.. Pantheon. Michael Haydn https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Michael_Haydn

D9. Theresia Blog. 2019. Michael Haydn https://theresia.blog/2019/03/rediscovering-michael-haydn-an-interview-with-david-wyn-jones/

D10. Bryan, Paul. 2024. Jan Baptiste Vanhal. https://www.aso.org/composer/detail/johann-baptist-vanhal

D11, Salazar, David. 2018. Composer Profile: Otto Nicolai, A Remarkable Story & One Masterpiece. https://operawire.com/composer-profile-otto-nicolai-a-remarkable-story-one-masterpiece/

D12.  Desert Island Disks BBC Radio 4 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/26v4KfMLDfnJQ8n4mB2fWr0/facts-and-figures

D13. Teachont, Terry. 2002. What was the Matter with Rachmaninoff?

D14. The Ten Most Famous Melodies in Ancient China.  https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/culture/top-classical-melodies.htm

D15. Uncredited 2017. How did Bernstein's 'West Side Story' bridge the gap between musical theatre and opera? Classic FM https://www.classicfm.com/composers/bernstein-l/news/west-side-story-musical-opera-gap/

D16. Battisti, Cindy. 2015. Opera, operetta or musical? Opera Bracelets. https://www.operabracelets.com/blog/opera-operetta-or-musical/

D17. Lynch, Chris. 2015. The Ryder Magazine & Film Series. https://www.theryder.com/magazine/feature-articles/south-pacific/

D18. Claire Kohda Hazelton. 2015. Boulez in his own words. 
 https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/mar/26/boulez-in-his-own-words#:~:text=%E2%80%9CIt%20is%20not%20enough%20to,the%20past%20must%20be%20destroyed.%E2%80%9D