Top 10 Classical Music Composers

We often hear the term Classical Music for describing most of the orchestral, chamber, or solo instrument music of countries in the Western World (basically, any music that is not pop, folk or jazz). However, this is a misconception: the concept classical music is used by musical experts to talk specifically about the music composed from about 1750 to 1820, exactly between the Baroque period and the Romanticism. The music of this period is lighter, with clearer textures than the music from the Baroque, and it is considered to be less complex. It is mainly homofonic, which means that there is a clear melody over a subordinate accompaniment. While vocal music such as comic opera was still popular, instrumental music took more importance. The sonata form developed to become the most important form of this period, and most symphonies, quartets and solo pieces were constructed under this form.

One last important thing to mention about this period is that the harpsichord was replaced as the main keyboard instrument by the piano, which enabled the player to be more expressive by playing softer or louder, something that the harpsichord didn’t allow due to its plucked string mechanism.

There were many important musicians in this time, but these are the top 10 you should not miss:

1. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

This Austrian composer was admired even from his childhood. At the age of 5 he was already a keyboard and violin prodigy, performing and composing for the European elites and royalties. After being court musician in Salzburg, his hometown, he decided to travel for a better position. He settled in Vienna in 1781, where he became famous, but not financially stable. He composed over 600 pieces, including symphonic pieces, concertos, operas , chamber and choral music. He died young, at the age of 35, but his influence is profound on all actual and past western music.

2. Franz Joseph Haydn

He was a really prolific Austrian composer.  His innovations on chamber music and contribution to establishing sonata form earned him the title of “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String quartet”. He is probably also responsible for the piano trio as a standard chamber group. His estimated creative output is close to 1,000 pieces, of which 108 are symphonies.

Romantic-era composer. However, due to his early work, he can be considered an important part of the Classical period. He was a virtuoso pianist and a great composer. He was a student of Joseph Haydn. He started having hearing problems at his late 20s, and in 1811 he became almost deaf, quit playing piano and conducting and dedicated the rest of his life to composition. Among his most famous pieces we can mention his Fifth Symphony.

4. Muzio Clementi

This Italian born English composer, pianist, educator, publisher, editor and conductior is one of the most important piano manufacturers of the classical period. As composer of classical piano sonata, Clementi was the first to create adequate keyboard pieces for the Fortepiano. Therefore, he’s been called “The father of the Piano”. In fact, lots of composers used his sonatas as models for their keyboard compositions.

5. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

He was the fifth son of the great Baroque period composer Johann Sebastian Bach. One of his most important contributions to the music world is his publication “An Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments”, which became one of the musts of piano technique. He composed over 800 pieces during his life.

6. Christoph Willibald Gluck

Born in Upper Palatine (now part of Germany), and raised in Bohemia, this composer wrote over 30 French Operas. He also wrote eight ballets, nine symphonies and other chamber and vocal music.

7. Antonio Salieri

This Italian composer is probably most known for his relationship with Mozart. Though they were in fact competitors for some works, there is little evidence that they rivals. His valuable work was very important in his time, but he was largely forgotten until the late 20th century.

8. Domenico Cimarosa

This Neapolitan composer wrote more than eighty operas in his life. The most known of these is Il matrimonio segreto (The Secret Marriage) composed in 1792. He also wrote instrumental religious and secular works, such as his famous keyboard sonatas.

9. Antonio Soler

Known as Padre (“Father”, as he was not only a musician but also a priet), this Spanish composer of the late-Baroque and early Classical Era, left a series of renowned keyboard sonatas. He was born in Olot (Catalonia, Spain) but moved at the age of 23, and embarked on an extremely busy routine as a Hieronymite in El Escorial, Madrid with 20-hour workdays, in the course of which he produced more than 500 compositions.

10. Luigi Boccherini

Boccherini was an Italian composer and cellist. He wrote more than 500 pieces for different instruments and orchestras. One of his most widely known pieces is the minuet from his String Quintet in E, Op. 11, nº 5, and his Cello Concerto in B flat major.