MUSIC
Ballets are in bold, musical titles are in italics, and operas are underlined. Songs and other
musical works (concertos, oratorios, etc.) are in quotation marks.
3 B’s of classical music – Bach, Beethoven and Brahms
Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685-1750) German Baroque; “Brandenburg Concertos,” “Christmas
Oratorio,” “Goldberg Variations,” “Mass in B Minor,” sons also composers – CPE, JC and
WF Bach
Bartok, Bela (1881-1945) Hungarian Modernist; Bluebeard’s Castle
Beethoven, Ludwig van (1770-1827) German Classicist; 9 symphonies – “Ode to Joy” a part of the
9th symphony – deaf when he composer this, Fidelio (only opera), “Moonlight Sonata”
Berlin, Irving (1888-1989) Russian-born American Modernist; “God Bless America,” “White
Christmas”
Berlioz, Hector (1803-1869) French Romantic; “Symphonie Fantastique”
Bernstein, Leonard (1918-1990) American Modernist composer & conductor; musical director at
New York Philharmonic Orchestra 1958-1969, West Side Story
Bizet, Georges (1838-1875) French Romantic; Carmen
Brahms, Johannes (1833-1897) German Romantic; “Lullaby”
Carmichael, Hoagy (1899-1981) American Modernist; “Georgia on My Mind,” “Lazy River,”
“Stardust”
Chopin, Frederic (1810-1849) Polish Romantic; “Fantaisie Polonaise,” “Minute Waltz”
Cohan, George M. (1878-1942) American Modernist songwriter; “Give My Regards to
Broadway,” “Give My Regards to Broadway,” “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy,” “You’re a
Grand Old Flag”
Copland, Aaron (1900-1990) American Modernist; Appalachian Spring, “Fanfare for the Common
Man”
Debussy, Claude (1862-1918) French Impressionist; “Claire de Lune,” “La Mer,” “Prelude to the
Afternoon of a Fawn”
Dvorak, Antonin (1841-1904) Czech Romantic; “New World Symphony”
Elgar, Sir Edward (1857-1934) English Modernist; “Pomp and Circumstance (graduation march)”
Ellington, Duke (1899-1974) American Jazz; “Mood Indigo,” “Sophisticated Lady”
Foster, Stephen (1826-1864) American; “Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair,” “My Old Kentucky
Home,” “Oh, Susannah,” “Old Folks at Home (AKA “Swanee River”)”
Gershwin, George (1897-1937) American Modernist; “An American in Paris,” Of Thee I Sing, Porgy
and Bess, “Rhapsody in Blue”
Gilbert and Sullivan – produced comic operettas in late 19th century; H.M.S. Pinafore, The Mikado,
The Pirates of Penzance
Grieg, Edvard (1843-1907) Norwegian Romantic; “In The Hall of the Mountain King,” “Peer Gynt
Suites”
Handel, George Frideric (1685-1759) German Baroque; “Firework Music,” “The Messiah
(oratorio, includes the “Halleleujah Chorus”),” “Water Music”
Haydn, Joseph (1732-1809) Austrian Classicist; known as Father of the Symphony, “The
Creation,” “The Seasons,” “The Surprise Symphony”
Holst, Gustav (1874-1934) English; “The Planets” – “Mars” and “Jupiter” most famous
Humperdinck, Engelbert (1854-1921) German; Hansel and Gretel
Joplin, Scott (1868-1917) American pianist and composer of ragtime music; “The Entertainer,”
“Maple Leaf Rag,” Treemonisha
Kern, Jerome (1885-1945) American; Show Boat (1st musical – written w/ Hammerstein, includes
“Old Man River”),” “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”
Key, Francis Scott (1779-1843) American; “The Star Spangled Banner” – based on battle of Ft.
McHenry
Lerner, Jay and Lowe, Alan – 20th century American; Brigadoon, Camelot, My Fair Lady
Lizst, Franz (1811-1886) Hungarian Romantic; most brilliant pianist of his time, “Dante
Symphony,” “Faust Symphony”
Mahler, Gustav (1860-1911) Austrian Romantic; Director of Imperial Opera of Vienna “Resurrection Symphony,” “”The Song of the Earth,” “Symphony of a Thousand”
Mendelssohn, Felix (1809-1847) German Romantic; “Elijah,” “Song Without Words,” “The
Wedding March”
Monteverdi, Claudio (1567-1643) Italian; L’Orfeo – first opera
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-1791) Austrian Classicist; toured Europe at age 6, had his 1st
opera performed at age 12, Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro,
“Requiem”
Mussorgsky, Modest (1839-1881) Russian Romantic; Boris Gudonov, “St. John’s Night on the Bare
Mountain”
Paganini, Niccolo (1782-1840) Italian Classicist; One of greatest violinists of all time, “Perpetual
Motion”
Porter, Cole (1893-1964) American; “Anything Goes” Kiss Me Kate (based on “The Taming of the
Shrew”)
Prokofiev, Sergei (1891-1953) Russian; Cinderella, “Peter and the Wolf,” Romeo and Juliet, War
and Peace
Puccini, Gaicomo (1858-1924) Italian Romantic; La Boheme, La Tosca, Madame Butterfly
Purcell, Henry (1659-1695) English Baroque; The Fairy Queen, “Music on the Death of Queen
Mary”
Rachmaninoff, Sergei (1873-1943) Russian Romantic; great pianist, “Prelude in C Sharp Minor,”
“Second Piano Concerto”
Ravel, Maurice (1875-1937) French Impressionist; “Bolero”
Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai (1844-1908) Russian Romantic; “Flight of the Bumblebee,”
Scheherazade
Rodgers, Richard (composer) and Hammerstein, Oscar (lyricist) – 20th century American musical
writing team; Carousel, The King and I, Oklahoma!, The Sound of Music, South Pacific
Rossini, Giacchino (1782-1868) Italian Romantic; The Barber of Seville, “William Tell Overture”
Saint-Saens, Camille (1835-1921) French Romantic; “Danse Macabre,” Samson and Delilah
Schubert, Franz (1797-1828) Austrian Romantic; “Ave Maria,” “Unfinished Symphony”
Shostakovitch, Dimitri (1906-1975) Russian; “Symphony No. 7” – depicted German siege of
Leningrad during WWII
Sibelius, Jean (1865-1957) Finnish Romantic; “Finlandia,” much of his work based on Finnish
national mythology, the Kalevala
Sondheim, Stephen (1930 - ) American; A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To the Forum, Gypsy,
A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park With George, West Side Story
Sousa, John Phillip (1854-1932) American; AKA the March King, “Semper Fidelis,” “Stars and
Stripes Forever,” “Washington Post March”: Sousaphone named for him because he
suggested the idea for the instrument
Strauss, Johann (1825-1899) Austrian Romantic; AKA The Waltz King, “The Blue Danube Waltz,”
“Die Fledermaus” (The Bat)
Stravinsky, Igor (1882-1971) Russian Neo-classicist; The Firebird, Oedipus Rex, Rite of Spring
Tchaikovsky, Peter (1840-1893) Russian Romantic; “1812 Overture,” The Nutcracker, “Romeo
and Juliet,” Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake
Verdi, Giuseppe (1813-1901) Italian Romantic; Aida, La Traviata, Rigoletto
Vivaldi, Antonio (1678-1741) Italian Romantic; “The Four Seasons”
Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) German Romantic; The Ring of the Nibelung (Das Rheingold,
Lohengrin, Parsifal, The Ride of the Valkyries), Tannhauser, Tristan and Isolde
Webber, Andrew Lloys (1948 -) British; (with lyricist Tim Rice) Cats, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar,
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Phantom of the Opera