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Jean Sibelius
A Finnish composer who wrote symphonies, concertos, chamber music, and tone poems. -
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Enrique Granados
A Catalan composer who wrote piano pieces and stage works. He best represents Spain in the 19th century. -
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Scott Joplin
An American composer who was one of the pioneers of ragtime in the US. He popularized the genre by writing piano pieces, an opera, marches, and waltzes. -
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Sergei Rachmaninov
A Russian composer who wrote piano concertos, operas, choral music, songs, and symphonies. He was considered a virtuosic pianist and toured the US. -
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Arnold Schoenberg
An important innovator that created 12-tone music. He composed symphonies, operas, choral and chamber music, canons, piano works, songs, and writings. -
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Gustav Holst
An English composer who wrote "The Planets" orchestral suite. He was known for his orchestral, stage, and chamber works as well as choral music and songs. -
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Béla Bartok
Bartok was a Hungarian composer who integrated folk music from his culture into his music. He wrote pieces for piano, orchestra, and choirs as well as concertos, chamber music, and songs. -
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Igor Stravinsky
One of the most interesting and versatile composers of the 20th century. He created rhythmic style and harmonically interesting pieces. He composed symphonies, chamber music, piano works, ballets, choral music, and operas. -
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Sergei Prokofiev
A Russian composer and pianist that is mostly known for his orchestral piece "Peter and the Wolf" (1936). He composed symphonies, concertos, operas, film scores, dramatic music, ballets, choral music, piano works, songs, and chamber music. -
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William Grant Still
The first African- American composer to have his symphony performed by a leading orchestra, the first Black American to conduct a major orchestra, and the first Black American to write for radio, films, and TV. He incorporated folk idioms, spirituals, and jazz. He composed 5 symphonies, ballets, vocal and instrumental works, 9 operas, and songs. -
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Ira Gershwin
Brother of American composer George Gershwin and used the name Arthur Francis (which were the names of two other siblings.) He was a lyricist. -
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Henry Cowell
American composer that innovated indeterminacy. His experimental enthusiasm helped create modern music. He composed 21 symphonies, choral music, piano works, stage works, other orchestral works, choral music, and writings. -
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George Gershwin
An American composer, who brought together jazz and pop music. He was also a pianist and conductor and wrote songs, instrumental pieces, film scores, and pieces for piano. -
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Duke Ellington
Ellington was an American jazz composer and one of the first African-American composers to appeal to other races with his music. He introduced an interesting style for big-band jazz bands. -
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Aaron Copland
Considered the most popular American composer of the 20th century, he was a conduction, author, and teacher. He wrote ballets, operas, symphonies, choral music, and pieces for piano. -
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Louis Armstrong
Armstrong was an African-American trumpet player and singer who published music for trumpet. He frequently lead bands and combo groups. -
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Dimitri Shostakovich
Russian composer who wrote symphonies, operas, ballets, orchestral and piano pieces, and songs. He was a very influential composer in Russia. -
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Elliott Carter
American composer who pioneered new concepts in rhythm and form. He is known for string quartets, chamber music, and orchestral pieces. -
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Olivier Messiaen
Messiaen was a French composer who included nature sounds into his music. He furthered serialism and wrote piano, organ, orchestral, vocal, and instrumental works. -
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Samuel Barber
Barber was a child prodigy who stayed true to a more conservative method of composition while others explored with newer methods. He wrote ballets, orchestral, vocal, and chamber works as well as songs and operas. -
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Pierre Schaeffer
French composer that was the innovator of musique concrete. He composed works for tape alone and other writings. -
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John Cage
An American composer now known for his piece 4'33". He was an advocate to the concept of indeterminacy, in which the performer makes choices on the spot and no performance is the same. -
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Benjamin Britten
Best known English composer of the 20th century. He kept opera alive in English speaking countries. Britten composed 17 operas, choral music, orchestral music, vocal music, chamber music, incidental music, and writings. -
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Benjamin Britten
Britten was a popular English composer who wrote many operas, vocal music, and orchestral and incidental music. -
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Milton Babbitt
Babbitt was an American composer who used serialism. He published an article titled "Who Cares if You Listen," which argued the unimportance of audience. He wrote orchestral, vocal, and chamber works. -
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Leonard Bernstein
American composer who filmed lectures and documentaries and so brought music to the media. He is considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century in America and wrote film scores, choral music, songs, and chamber pieces. -
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Louis Barron
Composer of the first commercially released film to have an entire electronic soundtrack. Considered to be a pioneer in electo-electronic music. He composed film scores and electronic works. -
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Lukas Foss
American composer that was known for his experimentation of improvising and aleatoric (chance) music. -
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György Ligeti
Ligeti was a Hungarian-born Austrian composer who wrote textural music through electronic works, choral and orchestral music, and chamber music. -
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Luciano Berio
An Italian composer who wrote orchestral, vocal, chamber, and dramatic works. He used new techniques and styles for tonality. -
Thea Musgrave
Musgrave is a Scottish composer who has written stage works, orchestral, choral, chamber, and vocal pieces. She is still alive today. -
George Crumb
An American composer who is known for his works that express emotions from the Vietnam War. He has written string quartets, sonatas, chamber and vocal music, and madrigals. He is still alive. -
The Great Depression
A harsh worldwide economic depression that created a decline in consumer spending and employment for citizens. It began by a huge stock market crash in Wall Street. -
John Williams
American film score composer most known for the scores for the Star Wars movies, Indiana Jones movies, and many more. He has also written orchestra works. He is still alive today. -
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Krzysztof Penderecki
A Polish composer that wrote textural music using sound blocks. He is considered to be Poland's greatest composer. He has composed vocal and orchestral works, chamber music, tape music, and dramatic works. -
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Henryk Gorecki
A Polish composer that focused on tonal consonance. He composed vocal and orchestral works, chamber and choral pieces, symphonies, and piano works. -
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World War 2
A global war that begun for many reasons, but mostly for the German invasion of Poland. France and Great Britain declared war on Germany when the invasion happened which then started WW2. -
Musique Concrete
Pierre Schaeffer developed this technique using a tape recorder. Musique concrete are recorded natural sounds that was then manipulated by tape-spicing it, mixing it, and adding more sounds on top of another. -
Aleatoric
A new concept that let composers leave musical elements "up to chance" during a performance. Charles Ives and Henry Cowell are prime examples of composers using this technique. -
Electronische Musik (electronic music)
This genre of music was developed in Germany after Stockhausen had worked in Schaeffer's studio. This innovation has been staggering ever since then and still is relevant to modern music today. -
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The Korean War
A war between North and South Korea that began when North Koreans invaded South Korea. The war unofficially ended because of armistice. -
Totalism
A term used to describe music developed in NYC as a response to minimalism. This music style aims for complex features for aesthetic goals. Still present till this day.