Here is a list of 10 composers you should know. Of each of them it can be said with certainty that he is the greatest composer who ever lived, although in fact it is impossible, and indeed impossible, to compare music written over several centuries. However, all of these composers stand out among their contemporaries as composers who composed music of the highest caliber and strived to push boundaries classical music to new limits. The list does not contain any order, such as importance or personal preference. Just 10 great composers you should know.
Each composer is accompanied by a quotable fact of his life, remembering which you will look like an expert. And by clicking on the link to the last name, you will recognize him full biography. And of course, you can listen to one of the significant works of each master.
The most important figure in world classical music. One of the most performed and respected composers in the world. He created in all genres that existed in his time, including opera, ballet, music for dramatic performances, and choral works. The most significant in his legacy are considered instrumental works: piano, violin and cello sonatas, concertos for piano, violin, quartets, overtures, symphonies. The founder of the romantic period in classical music.
Beethoven first wanted to dedicate his third symphony (1804) to Napoleon; the composer was captivated by the personality of this man, who seemed to many at the beginning of his reign a real hero. But when Napoleon proclaimed himself emperor, Beethoven crossed out his dedication on the title page and wrote only one word - “Heroic”.
"Moonlight Sonata" by L. Beethoven, listen:
2. (1685-1750)
German composer and organist, representative of the Baroque era. One of greatest composers in the history of music. During his life, Bach wrote more than 1000 works. His work represents everything significant genres of that time, except opera; he summarized the achievements musical art Baroque period. The founder of the most famous musical dynasty.
Interesting fact.
During his lifetime, Bach was so underrated that less than a dozen of his works were published.
Toccata and Fugue in D minor by J. S. Bach, listen:
3. (1756-1791)
The great Austrian composer, instrumentalist and conductor, representative of the Vienna Classical School, virtuoso violinist, harpsichordist, organist, conductor, he had a phenomenal musical ear, memory and ability to improvise. As a composer who excelled in any genre, he is rightfully considered one of the greatest composers in the history of classical music.
Interesting fact.
While still a child, Mozart memorized and recorded the Miserere (cat. chant on the text of the 50th Psalm of David) by the Italian Gregorio Allegri, having listened to it only once.
"Small night serenade" W.A. Mozart, listen:
4. (1813-1883)
German composer, conductor, playwright, philosopher. Had a significant influence on European culture turn of XIX-XX centuries, especially modernism. Wagner's operas are stunning in their grandiose scale and eternal human values.
Interesting fact.
Wagner took part in the failed revolution of 1848-1849 in Germany and was forced to hide from arrest by Franz Liszt.
"Ride of the Valkyries" from R. Wagner's opera "Walkyrie", listen
5. (1840-1893)
Italian composer, central figure Italian opera school. Verdi had a sense of the stage, temperament and impeccable skill. He did not deny operatic traditions (unlike Wagner), but on the contrary developed them (the traditions of Italian opera), he transformed Italian opera, filled it with realism, and gave it the unity of the whole.
Interesting fact.
Verdi was an Italian nationalist and was elected to the first Italian parliament in 1860, following the declaration of Italian independence from Austria.
Overture to D. Verdi's opera "La Traviata", listen:
7. Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Russian (American - after emigration) composer, conductor, pianist. One of the most important composers twentieth century. Stravinsky's work is consistent throughout his entire career, although in different periods the style of his works was different, but the core and Russian roots remained, which were evident in all his works, he is considered one of the leading innovators of the twentieth century. His innovative use of rhythm and harmony has inspired and continues to inspire many musicians, not just in classical music.
Interesting fact.
During World War I, Roman customs officers confiscated Pablo Picasso's portrait of Stravinsky as the composer was leaving Italy. The portrait was painted in a futuristic manner, and customs officers mistook these circles and lines for some kind of encrypted secret materials.
Suite from the ballet by I.F. Stravinsky " Firebird",
listen:
8. Johann Strauss (1825-1899)
Austrian composer of light music, conductor and violinist. "King of Waltzes", he worked in the genre dance music and operettas. In his musical heritage more than 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and ballets. Thanks to him, the waltz became extremely popular in Vienna in the 19th century.
Interesting fact.
Johann Strauss's father is also Johann and also famous musician, which is why the “Waltz King” is called the youngest or son; his brothers Joseph and Eduard were also famous composers.
Waltz by J. Strauss "On the Beautiful Blue Danube", listen:
9. Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
Austrian composer, one of the outstanding representatives of Viennese classical music school and one of the founders of romanticism in music. For my short life Schubert made significant contributions to orchestral, chamber and piano music, which influenced an entire generation of composers. However, his most striking contribution was to the development of German romances, of which he created more than 600.
Interesting fact.
Schubert's friends and fellow musicians would get together and perform Schubert's music. These meetings were called "Schubertiads". Some first fan club!
"Ave Maria" by F.P.Schubert, listen:
Continuing the theme of great composers you should know, new material.
Pyotr Tchaikovsky is one of the most famous music creators in the world. He lived 53 years and became an author greatest works. His biography is full of interesting events. He made a huge contribution not only to Russian, but also world culture.
Childhood
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in the village of Votkinsk, Vyatka province (Udmurtia) in 1840. He grew up in a large family of an engineer: besides him there were three more children - two brothers and one sister. The boy's parents were fond of music; they knew how to play the flute and piano. So little Tchaikovsky is already with early childhood loved the melodic sound musical instruments. At the age of 5 the boy had already mastered the piano, and after another 2 years I played the notes. In 1850 the whole family moved to St. Petersburg. In 1854, the mother of the future composer died of cholera. The children were left in the care of their father, who also fell ill but managed to recover.
Painting by artist A. Parkhomenko “Petya Tchaikovsky”.
Study and beginning of musical activity
Pyotr Ilyich first studied at home, where he was helped by a governess. Education continued at the boarding school, and then the young man entered the school, where he taught law. Musical creativity at this time Tchaikovsky was studying as an elective. He I began to take a serious interest in opera and ballet and went to theaters. For some time the young man works as a lawyer, but then enters the conservatory. During his studies, the composer created his first great musical works. Some of them were included in the ballet “Swan Lake”.
Creativity flourishes
After completing his education, Tchaikovsky moved to Moscow, where he became a teacher at the conservatory. In 1878 he left Russia for Italy, and then to Switzerland. There he creates his own famous operas“Eugene Onegin” and “Oprichnik”, writes plays that were included in the collection “Children’s Album”, composes the cycle “Seasons” and many others. He constantly travels different countries, Where his concerts delight the audience.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is a great Russian composer.
Later years and death
At the end of his life, P.I. Tchaikovsky returns to Moscow. Later he settles in the small town of Klin, where after his death the composer’s museum will open. He's in the city creates a school for peasants and composes compositions, writes music to the ballet "The Nutcracker", the operas "Iolanta" and " Queen of Spades" In 1893 in St. Petersburg he died of cholera. This is where he was buried.
House-museum in the city of Klin.
Much is known about Tchaikovsky’s life, but not everyone knows about some facts.
- He created not only musical works, but also wrote poems, as well as texts for his operas.
- The music teachers who gave lessons to Tchaikovsky did not see any special talent in him.
- The composer loved listening to Mozart's music.
- Pyotr Ilyich traveled all his life. If he spent a long time in other countries, he missed his homeland. But even in Russia he could not live in one place for long.
- The musician was a bad conductor. Even at school he had the lowest grade in this subject.
- The great composer helped put out a fire in the city of Klin, while other people just stood and watched.
- For several years, Pyotr Ilyich worked as a journalist in a newspaper. He wrote notes and messages for publishing houses, but did not sign his real name.
- In honor of the great composer in 1956, at the request of the residents, the city of Tchaikovsky was named. Previously, it was a small settlement of workers called Saigatka. Gradually it grew into a city. It is located 37 kilometers from the village where the musician was born.
Monument to the composer in the city named after him.
The legacy of a great composer
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky made a huge contribution to Russian and world culture. His works are performed and loved in all countries. The work of the great composer changed the style of symphonic music and concerts for violin and orchestra. Streets, conservatories, music schools and colleges and schools, theaters and symphony orchestra, monuments were erected to him. There is a museum named after Tchaikovsky in Tchaikovsky’s house near Moscow.
The life of absolutely every person is somehow connected with music and sounds. passes like a thin thread next to us throughout our lives. Today we have made for you a selection of interesting facts about music, because it has no boundaries.
Have you noticed changes in yourself after listening to your favorite music? Did you know that music can influence not only the human body?
- Music has life-giving power. If you see a wilting plant, place speakers nearby and turn on calm, unobtrusive music. The flower will come to life before your eyes.
- Musicians hear better than people who are not into music.
- If a person experiences heart problems, then music for relaxation has a beneficial effect on his condition. By the way, listening to music after major operations helps to rehabilitate faster.
- It has been noticed that music during training increases performance by 20 percent.
- How more people listens to music, the better his mental abilities and memory become.
- People who regularly listen to their favorite songs are more responsive and good-natured than other people.
- An interesting fact about music is that it can not only improve your mood. When listening to positive melodies, a person is able to believe in himself and achieve his goals, even the most difficult ones.
- When breaking up, psychologists recommend listening to music - this helps to cope with negative emotions.
- Music can reduce pain, distract from depressive thoughts and reduce anxiety.
- During his lifetime, Bach wrote more than a thousand works, but he was not particularly appreciated at that time, so less than ten of his works were published.
- As a child, Mozart memorized a Catholic chant based on the text of one of the psalms and wrote it down after listening to it once.
- Giuseppe Verdi was an Italian nationalist.
- Johann Strauss's father and brothers were also famous composers.
Facts about rock music
- Hit group Deep Purple “Smoke on the water” is included in the Guinness Book of Records, this song was performed by huge amount rock musicians.
- Back in the 80s, Ozzy Osbourne bit off his head bat at a concert, after which he was hospitalized with suspected rabies.
- The name of the group “Bi-2” stands for “Coast of Truth”.
- The Kino group was recognized by the KGB as ideologically harmful.
- John Lenon slept in a coffin instead of a bed.
According to the great Russian composer P. Tchaikovsky, Mozart appeared highest point beauty in music.
Birth, difficult childhood and adolescence
He was born on the twenty-seventh of January 1756 in Salzburg, and his arrival almost cost his mother’s life. He was named Johann Chrysostomus Wolfgang Theophilus. Mozart's elder sister Maria Anna, under the guidance of her father Leopold Mozart, began playing the clavier quite early. Little Mozart really liked playing music. The four-year-old boy was learning minuets with his father, playing them with amazing purity and sense of rhythm. A year later, Wolfgang began composing small musical plays. A gifted boy at the age of six played the most complex works without leaving the instrument all day.
Seeing his son’s amazing abilities, the father decided to go with him and his talented daughter on a concert trip. Munich, Vienna, Paris, The Hague, Amsterdam, London heard the game young virtuoso. During this time, Mozart wrote many musical works, including a symphony and 6 sonatas for violin and harpsichord. A small, thin, pale boy in an embroidered gold court suit and a powdered wig, in accordance with the fashion of that time, captivated the public with his talent.
Concerts lasting 4-5 hours tired the child. But my father was also actively involved musical education son. It was a difficult but happy time.
In 1766, tired of long tours, the family returned to Salzburg. However, the long-awaited vacation quickly ended. Preparing to consolidate Wolfgang's success, his father prepared him for new concert performances. This time it was decided to go to Italy. In Rome, Milan, Naples, Venice, Florence, concerts of the fourteen-year-old musician are held with triumph. He performs as a violinist, organist, accompanist, virtuoso harpsichordist, singer-improviser, and conductor. Thanks to his extraordinary talent, he was elected a member of the Bologna Academy. It seemed that everything was going more than wonderful.
However, his father’s hopes for Wolfgang getting a job in Italy were not destined to come true. The brilliant young man was just another amusement for the Italians. I had to return to the gray everyday life of Salzburg.
Creative achievements and unfulfilled hopes
The young musician becomes the conductor of the orchestra of Count Colorado, a cruel and domineering man. Feeling Mozart’s free-thinking and intolerance of rudeness, the ruler of the city humiliated the young man in every possible way, considering him his servant. Wolfgang could not come to terms with this.
At the age of 22, he went to Paris with his mother. However, in the capital of France, which once applauded young talent, there was no place for Mozart. The mother died because of her worries about her son. Mozart fell into deep despondency. There was nothing left to do but return to Salzburg, where he lived 1775-1777. The life of a humiliated court musician weighed heavily on the talented composer. And in Munich his opera “Idomeneo, King of Crete” was a huge success.
Having decided to end his dependent position, Mozart submits his resignation. A series of humiliations from the archbishop almost led him to mental breakdown. The composer made a firm decision to stay in Vienna. From 1781 until the end of his life he lived in this beautiful city.
The blossoming of talent
The last decade of his life was a time of brilliant creations for the composer. Although, in order to earn a living, he was forced to work as a musician. In addition, he married Constance Weber. True, difficulties awaited him here too. The girl’s parents did not want their daughter to marry like that, so the young people had to get married in secret.
By this time there are six string quartets, dedicated to Haydn, the operas “The Marriage of Figaro”, “Don Giovanni” and other brilliant creations.
Material deprivation and constant hard work gradually worsened the composer's health. Attempts at concert performances brought little income. All this undermined Mozart's vitality. He passed away in December 1791. Legendary story Salieri did not find documentary evidence of Mozart's poisoning. The exact place of his burial is unknown, because he was buried in a common grave due to lack of funds.
However, his works, especially refined, delightfully simple and excitingly deep, still delight.
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in 1756 in Salzburg. Under the guidance of his father Leopold, the boy studied and studied foreign languages. Leopold Mozart was a famous Salzburg violinist. He wanted his son to become a composer, so he decided to introduce his son to the world of music as a virtuoso. Traveling with concerts began in the courts of high-ranking people throughout Europe, which lasted more than eight years. Leopold Mozart had great hopes for Vienna. This city at that time was the cultural center of Europe, where enormous prospects and opportunities for self-realization opened up for musicians. And indeed, success awaited Wolfgang there: giving numerous concerts in the houses of the Viennese nobility, listeners over and over again admired the excellent playing and virtuosity of the young genius.
Soon after returning to Salzburg, Leopold Mozart again decided to conquer large cities associated with European culture, together with her son and daughter Anna-Maria, or Nannerl, as people close to her called her. In Paris, the Mozarts caused a stir among the local nobility and reached amazing heights in performance. Impressed by the French capital, Wolfgang wrote his first four symphonies for harpsichord and violin, which were later published.
The next city the Mozarts went to was London, where the boy met such major composers as Johann Sebastian Bach, whose music he turned to, and his son Johann Christian Bach, who became Wolfgang's friend and mentor. In the same city, the young composer developed an interest in vocal and symphonic music. His childhood years coincided with the adolescence of such a genre as the symphony, and Mozart grew up and matured along with the new style. He created his first symphony (Symphony No. 1 in Es major) at the age of eight. Mozart's works cannot help but amaze in that even from a very young age the boy did not try to imitate any model, but tries, by grasping the basic principles of the symphony genre, to create something unique, even if at first it did not work out so masterfully.
In 1766 the family returned to Salzburg. Over several years of travel, seeing the world and making new acquaintances, Wolfgang acquired new professional skills, and, awakening the composer within himself, became a master of his craft. A year later, the premiere of his first opera-interlude “Apollo and Hyacinth” (KV38) took place. Mozart spent the 70s-80s of the 18th century in Italy, France, Germany. Several of his operas were staged, written large number sonatas and concerts.
After his marriage to Constance Weber, Mozart began the peak of his creativity. The composer receives huge fees for his compositions and establishes friendly relations with Joseph Haydn, to whom he dedicated a separate collection of six quartets. Later, the premiere of Concerto No. 20 in d-moll (K466), the opera “The Marriage of Figaro” and “The Theater Director” took place, which later became a huge success in Prague; in 1788, the opera Don Giovanni, written under contract, was staged in Vienna.
Writing music was not easy for him. Mozart, without imitating anyone, wrote only his own music, unlike the music of other composers, which cost him enormous stress. But over time, the public cooled towards him, things got worse financial situation. Despite this, Mozart wrote several more symphonies, the most famous of which is Symphony No. 40 in g minor (K550). The composer also paid a lot of attention to sacred music. Among his most famous creations are the universally recognizable Requiem (KV626) and the motet to the Latin text "Ave verum corpus".
All this time, Mozart was very seriously ill, it was impossible to save him, and on the night of December 5, 1791, he died. It was in the person of Mozart Viennese classicism reached incredible heights. His creations reflect all the lightness, charm and musicality characteristic of this era. Having conquered all of Europe with his memorable symphonies and unique operas, he left a huge mark on the history of music.
