Composer

A composer is someone who writes music. The term originates from Latin, meaning "one who puts together." Composers can create music in various ways and may also be skilled performers. In Western classical music, composers often provide detailed instructions for interpretation while popular music relies more on songwriters or singer-songwriters.

223 articles related to Composer:

FILM

Sirtaki: folk dances arranged by Mikis Theodorakis

The Sirtaki dance—a lively and energetic expression of Greek culture—has become an iconic image associated with the...
PIANO

Wiegenlied: folk poem behind Brahms' Lullaby

Wiegenlied (Eng: Lullaby or Cradle Song) is one of Johannes Brahms' best-known pieces and probably the most famous...
FLUTE

Badinerie: origins of Bach's famous flute suite

Badinerie—the final movement of Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor—is rightfully recognized as one of the...
ORCHESTRA

Greensleeves: the folk melody behind Vaughan Williams' Fantasia

Greensleeves is one of the best-known English folk melodies, first published in 1580 as a broadside ballad titled A Newe...
PIANO

Estampes: the world cultures of Debussy's imagination

Estampes, conceived as a three-piece piano suite by the French Impressionist Claude Debussy, is rightfully recognized as...
Choir

Ave verum corpus: influential Mozart score for the crucial Catholic chant

Ave verum corpus is one of the best-known sacramental chants that originated in the Medieval period and has since been...
PIANO

Je te veux: Satie's love song refashioned as piano piece

Je te veux is one of the best-known pieces by the French Romantic composer Erik Satie, famous for popularizing his...
PIANO

Für Elise: 2 versions of Beethoven's best-known piano piece

Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor, commonly known as Für Elise, is undoubtedly Beethoven's best-known piano work as well as...
PIANO

Two Arabesques: the fledgling impressionism of Debussy's early work

Deux arabesques are two piano pieces written by Claude Debussy in the late 1880s and are now considered to be one of the...
PIANO

Ständchen from Schwanengesang serenade as Schubert's last testament

Originating in Europe in the Middle Ages, the serenade (ger. ständchen) is a love song composed for one vocal line and a...
Composer

Music for a While: Purcell's entrancing appeasement of Alecto

Music for a While is one of the best-known tunes written by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell. First published...
Violin

Méditation from Thaïs: Massenet's intermezzo as the best violin encore

Méditation is one of the best-known orchestral works by the Romantic-era composer Jules Massenet which appears as an...
PIANO

La fille aux cheveux de lin: Parnassian poem behind Debussy's most recorded piece

La fille aux cheveux de lin or The Girl with the Flaxen Hair is the best-known piano prelude by the French impressionist...
ORCHESTRA

Pachelbel's Canon: the harmonic sequence that flooded pop music

Pachelbel's Canon, also known as Canon and Gigue in D, is the best-known piece by German composer Johann Pachelbel which...
ORCHESTRA

Valse triste: why wasn't Sibelius' famous piece performed on his 150th birthday?

Valse triste or Sad Waltz is a short orchestral composition written by Jean Sibelius in 1903 for Kuolema, a drama by the...
PIANO

Berceuse: Chopin's variations on his mother's favorite lullaby

Berceuse is a lyrical piano piece written by Frédéric Chopin late in his career and first published in 1844. The work...
FLUTE

Flute Sonata: canonical performance of Poulenc's best-known piece

The Sonate pour flûte et piano or Flute Sonata is among Francis Poulenc's best-known works, a French composer whose...
PIANO

Le Tombeau de Couperin: Ravel's only wartime piece shaped by Baroque canons

The musical output of the leading French impressionist Maurice Ravel was almost completely halted by the arrival of...
OBOE

Marcello's Oboe Concerto arranged by Bach and mistakenly attributed to Vivaldi

Concerto in D minor for oboe, strings, and continuo, also known as Marcello's Oboe Concerto, can rightfully be called a...
ORCHESTRA

Dido's Lament: sadness and simplicity of Purcell's best-known song

When I Am Laid In Earth or Dido's Lament is probably one of the saddest songs of the Baroque era, written by the English...
Xylophone

Danse Macabre: skeletal images in Saint Saens' iconic xylophone

The concept of the Danse Macabre (literally meaning the Dance of Death) dates back to the Medieval period when European...
PIANO

Suite bergamasque: did Debussy record his best-known piano piece?

Suite bergamasque is one of the best-known piano works of the French impressionist Claude Debussy written in 1890 and... 1 comment
PIANO

Pavane for a Dead Princess: who inspired Ravel's early piano piece?

Pavane pour une infante défunte or Pavane for a Dead Princess is a well-known piano piece with a leisurely and charming...
ORCHESTRA

Handel's Sarabande: obscure keyboard suite that found its iconic orchestration in Barry Lyndon movie

The sarabande is a fiery carnival dance that originated in the 16th century in Central America and then spread to Spain...
ORCHESTRA

Les Indes Galantes: Rameau's controversial opera as the essence of Rococo style

Les Indes Galantes is Jean-Philippe Rameau's first stage work in the opéra-ballet form with a prologue and four entrées...
PIANO

Kinderszenen and Schumann's metronome mystery

Kinderszenen or Scenes from Childhood is a set of short piano pieces written by Robert Schumann in 1838. Although these...
ORCHESTRA

La Marcho di Rei: L'Arlesienne opening theme harks back to Provencal Christmas carol

The origin of the iconic theme in the energetic opening of Georges Bizet's L'Arlésienne is still unclear. Presumably,...
ORCHESTRA

Ombra mai fu: Handel's best-known melody of failed Serse opera

The highly acclaimed instrumental composition known as Handel's Largo comes from the opening aria of his 1738 opera...
ORCHESTRA

Lully's Passacaglia of Armide revised by Bear McCreary in Outlander score

The passacaglia is a slow dance that originated in Spain at the very beginning of the Baroque era, initially performed a...
ORCHESTRA

Gabriel Faure's Pavane as the key to modern revival of early genre

The pavane—a slow processional dance of Italian origin—was quite common in Europe during the transition period from the...

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