He is the godfather of 20th-century music.” There are not many composers since who have not been influenced by his creative imagination. Part of the same poll, Edward Gregson added that Stravisnky’s The Rite of Spring “has proved to be the true birth of modernism (…) rather like Picasso, Stravinsky constantly reinvented himself and his musical language, though his style remained constant – his 12-tone music sounds as Stravinskian as any of his earlier work. “As a composer he’s there in my life,” Mark-Anthony Turnage remarked in BBC Music Magazine’s poll, which placed Stravinsky at the number 2 spot, “looming over me but never an overwhelming presence always cheeky and encouraging.” He had a knack for developing permutations of his motifs, adding or subtracting notes regardless of changes in meter. In his early years, he explored many different styles. Stravinsky’s greatest strength was perhaps his versatility. He went on to compose ballets and operas, and went down in history as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Stravinsky briefly enrolled in law school, only to end up pursuing a career in music instead. His father, a bass singer at the Mariinsky Theater, expected him to become a civil servant. Born in Saint Petersburg, he later emigrated to France followed by the United States. Rather, it is a distillation of various internet lists drawn up by authoritative sources such as music blogs and radio stations, not to mention publications like The New York Times and BBC Music Magazine, which polled 174 of the world’s leading composers. This is by no means a definitive ranking.
Below, readers will find an overview of the 10 greatest classical composers of all time. Hundreds of musicians have managed to do so with great success. When they compose, their highest aim is to realize that potential.
Inquiry, because they know - as Arthur Schopenhauer once said - that music has the potential to be a direct embodiment of the human experience. “What all classical music has in common,” Davison concludes, “is something intangible, more an essence than anything else: a set of values.” These values are “excellence” and “inquiry.” Excellence, because classical composers display unparalleled technique. However, these were just restrictions of the times in which the musicians lived, not the style in which they worked the living composer Steve Reich, for example, incorporates electric guitars and other electronic sounds into his music, which is still recognized as unmistakably classical by listeners.
Classical orchestras mostly consist of old-school instruments like pianos, cellos, violins, trumpets, and tubas. Others prefer to focus on the instrumentation.