Entertainment/Composers

Adolphe Adam (1803 – 1856) was a French composer of operas and ballets

Giselle – ballet. Characters include Duke Albrecht of Silesia, Hilarion and Bathilde. Giselle is a peasant girl who dies of a broken heart

Le Corsaire is a ballet based on the poem The Corsair by Lord Byron

Mark Adamo (born 1962) is an American composer

Little Women (1998) - first opera

John Adams (born 1947) is an American composer

Nixon in China is an opera with music about the visit of Richard Nixon to China in 1972

Doctor Atomic Symphony is an opera about Robert Oppenheimer

The Death of Klinghoffer is an opera based on the hijacking of the passenger liner Achille Lauro by the Palestine Liberation Front in 1985, and the resulting murder of Jewish-American passenger Leon Klinghoffer

Richard Addinsell (1904 – 1977) was a British composer, best known for film music, primarily his Warsaw Concerto, composed for the 1941 film Dangerous Moonlight

Isaac Albeniz (1860 – 1909) was a Spanish pianist and composer best known for his piano works based on folk music idioms, many of which have been transcribed for guitar. Many of his pieces such as Asturias and the Tango in D are amongst the most important pieces for classical guitar

Iberia

Tomaso Albinoni (1671 – 1751)

Adagio in G minor for violin, strings and organ

Gregorio Allegri (1582 – 1652) was an Italian composer

Miserere, (full title: Miserere mei, Deus, Latin for ‘Have mercy on me, O God’) is a setting of Psalm 51 composed during the reign of Pope Urban VIII, probably during the 1630s, for use in the Sistine Chapel during matins, as part of the exclusive Tenebrae service on Holy Wednesday and Good Friday of Holy Week. It is written for two choirs, the one of five and the other of four voices

George Antheil (1900 – 1959) was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author and inventor In 1941 he co-patented a "Secret Communications System" with actress Hedy Lamarr that used a code to synchronize random frequencies, referred to as frequency hopping, with a receiver and transmitter

Ballet Mecanique

Jacques Arcadelt (1507 – 1568) was one of the most famous of the early composers of madrigals

Thomas Arne (1710 – 1778)

Rule, Britannia! originated from the poem by James Thomson and was set to music in 1740

Malcolm Arnold (1921 – 2006) composed nine symphonies and a number of film scores including The Bridge on the River Kwai

English Dances was used as the theme tune to What the Papers Say

Daniel Auber (1782 – 1871)

La muette de Portici (The Mute Girl of Portici) is an 1829 opera in five acts. The work has an important place in musical history, as it is generally regarded as the earliest French grand opera

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) became organist at the church in Arnstadt at the age of 18. From 1717 to 1723, Bach served as court composer to Prince Leopold of Anhalt. In 1723, Bach was appointed Cantor of the Thomasschule at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, as well as Director of Music in the principal churches in the town

Bach married twice and had 20 children, including Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714 – 1788) who was known as the "Berlin Bach" or the "Hamburg Bach", and Johann Christian Bach (1735 – 1782) , who moved to London and became known as the “London Bach” or the “English Bach”

Bach’s music lay forgotten for 50 years after his death. It was not until 1829 when Mendelssohn conducted the St Matthew Passion that Bach’s work returned to the repertoire once more. Bach’s works are indexed with BWV numbers, an initialism for Bach Werke Verzeichnis (Bach Works Catalogue). The catalogue, published in 1950, was compiled by Wolfgang Schmieder

Brandenburg concertos (six). Dedicated to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenbur

Goldberg Variations (30 variations for harpsichord)

English Suites, French Suites, Partitas

Mass in B Minor

The Art of Fugue

Sonatas and partitas for violin solo; the cello suites; more than 200 cantatas; and a similar number of organ works

St. Matthew Passion, St Mark Passion, St Luke Passion, St. John Passion

Well-Tempered Clavier is known as ‘The Forty-Eight’

Italian concerto, Christmas Oratorio

A Musical Offering - offering to Frederick the Great of Prussia

Where Sheep May Safely Graze – cantata

Coffee Cantata

Sleepers Wake – church cantata

Air on a G String – part of Suite for Orchestra No. 3

Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring

Toccata and Fugue is played on the organ

Mily Balakirev (1837 – 1910) is known today primarily for his work promoting musical nationalism and his encouragement of more famous Russian composers. Balakirev brought together the composers now known as The Five – the others were Alexander Borodin, Cesar Cui, Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. For several years, Balakirev was the only professional musician of the group

Samuel Barber (1910 – 1981) was an American composer

Adagio for Strings

Agnes Dei is a reworking of Adagio for Strings

Vanessa, Hand of Bridge, Antony and Cleopatra - operas

Bela Bartok (1881 – 1945) was a Hungarian composer. Bartok’s anti-fascist political views caused him a great deal of trouble with the establishment in Hungary

Bluebeard’s Castle. Judith was Duke Bluebeard’s wife

Mikrokosmos – 153 progressive piano pieces

The Wooden Prince, The Miraculous Mandarin – ballets

The Miraculous Mandarin

Arnold Bax (1883 – 1953) was an English composer and poet. His musical style blended elements of Romanticism and Impressionism, always with a strong Celtic influence. Bax wrote poetry and stories under the pseudonym of Dermot O’Byrne. In 1942, Bax was appointed Master of the King's Musick

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827) was born in Bonn. Around 1796, Beethoven began to lose his hearing. Beethoven was a student of Haydn. Buried in Vienna, next to Schubert. Composed nine symphonies

Symphony No. 3, Eroica was originally dedicated to Napoleon, but in 1804 Napoleon declared himself Emperor, and Beethoven felt betrayed. The second movement, a funeral march, is frequently performed on memorial occasions

“From today, everything is different” – Beethoven, when Eroica was first performed

Symphony No. 5 and Symphony No. 6 premiered together in Vienna in 1808. Both dedicated to Prince Lobkowitz

Symphony No. 5 is one of the best-known compositions in classical music. It begins with a a distinctive four-note motif

Symphony No. 6, Pastoral is the only Beethoven symphony with five movements. Pastoral Symphony contains a cadenza for woodwind instruments that imitates bird calls: nightingale (flute), quail (oboe), and cuckoo (two clarinets)

Thanksgiving After the Storm, incorporating an Alpine horn call or yodel, is the title of the last movement of Pastoral

Symphony No. 7 – the second movement, Allegretto, was the most popular movement

Symphony No. 8 – Beethoven referred to this as “my little symphony in F”. There is a widespread belief that the second movement is an affectionate parody of the metronome

Symphony No. 9, Choral

The fourth movement of the Choral features an elaborate choral setting of Schiller's Ode An die Freude (Ode to Joy)

Piano Sonata No. 8, Pathetique was dedicated to Prince Karl von Lichnowsky

Piano Sonata No. 14, Moonlight Sonata was named by German poet Ludwig Rellstab

Piano Sonata No. 23, Appassionata

Piano Sonata No. 29, Hammerklavier

Egmont Overture – the subject of the music and dramatic narrative is the life and heroism of a 16th century Dutch nobleman, the Count of Egmont

Egmont – a set of incidental music pieces for the 1787 play of the same name by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It consists of an overture followed by a sequence of nine additional pieces

Wellington's Victory, or The Battle of Vitoria is also known as the Battle Symphony. Dedicated to George IV

Violin Sonata No. 9, commonly known as the Kreutzer Sonata, is dedicated to violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer

Fidelio – Beethoven’s only opera. Leonore, disguised as a prison guard named Fidelio, rescues her husband Florestan from death. Set in a prison in Seville

Prisoner’s Chorus – from Fidelio

Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor – Fur Elise

The Creatures of Prometheus – Beethoven’s only ballet score

Beethoven only wrote one violin concerto

Christ on the Mount of Olives – Beethoven’s only oratorio

Archduke Trio is dedicated to Archduke Rudolf of Austria

Piano Concerto No. 5, popularly known as the Emperor Concerto, was Beethoven's last piano concerto. It was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf, Beethoven's patron and pupil. The epithet of Emperor for this concerto, was not Beethoven's own, but was coined by Johann Baptist Cramer, the English publisher of the concerto

Coriolan Overture

Waldstein Sonata

Rasumovsky string quartets

Vincenzo Bellini (1801 – 1835) was an Italian opera composer. His most famous works are La Sonnambula (1831) and Norma (1831). Known for his long flowing melodic lines for which he was named ‘The Swan of Catania’, Bellini was the quintessential composer of Bel canto opera. His father and grandfather were both composers

Norma – 1831 opera. Norma is the daughter of Oroveso, High-priestess of the Celts. She has an affair with a Roman officer, Pollione, which results in two children

La sonnambula (The Sleepwalker)

I Puritani (The Puritans) is set during the English Civil War

Alban Berg (1885 – 1935)

Lulu - opera based on a woman who moves from Vienna to London. She works as a prostitute and is killed by Jack the Ripper

Wozzeck – opera based on a play by Georg Buchner. A poor man murders his wife, Marie, then kills himself

Hector Berlioz (1803 – 1869) was a French Romantic composer. Berlioz made great contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. Berlioz was the first to use the term ‘choral symphony’ for a musical composition - his Romeo et Juliette

Symphonie fantastique was premiered in 1830 during one of Berlioz’s periods of intense infatuation with Irish actress Harriet Smithson, who he eventually married

An Episode in the Life of an Artist, in Five Parts was first performed in 1830

Grande Messe des Morts (Requiem)

Benvenuto Cellini

Beatrice and Benedict is based on Much Ado about Nothing

The Capture of Troy, The Trojans at Carthage – two halves of Les Troyens. Based on Virgil’s Aeneid

Harold en Italie - symphony. Paganini encouraged Berlioz to write this symphony

The Damnation of Faust includes the Hungarian March

La Marseillaise was composed by Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle in 1792. It became the song of the French revolution. Berlioz later arranged the song for a chorus and orchestra

Roman Carnival

L’Enfance du Christ – oratorio

Le Corsaire was inspired by Byron’s poem The Corsair

Leonard Bernstein (1918 – 1990) was an American composer and conductor

Jeremiah - symphony

Kaddish - symphony

Candide (1956) is a comic operetta based on the novella of the same name by Voltaire. The original libretto was written by Lillian Hellman

Ronald Binge (1910 – 1979) arranged many of Mantovani's most famous pieces before composing his own music that included Elizabethan Serenade and Sailing By

Harrison Birtwhistle (born 1934) was born in Accrington. He gained notoriety in 1995 when Panic was premiered on a live BBC television broadcast on the second half of the Last Night of the Proms

Punch and Judy

The Mask of Orpheus

The Minotaur – opera

Georges Bizet (1838 – 1875)

Carmen is based on the story of the same title by Prosper Merimee. Set in a cigarette factory. Carmen is stabbed to death by her lover Don Jose. Escamillo is a toreador

Habanera, Toreador song – from Carmen

Carmen was first performed at the Opera-Comique in Paris in March 1875, and was not at first particularly successful. Before the initial run was concluded, Bizet died suddenly, and thus knew nothing of the opera's later celebrity

The Pearl Fishers is based in Sri Lanka. Zurga and Nadir fall in love with Leila

Au fond du temple saint (In the depths of the temple) is a duet from The Pearl Fishers

The Fair Maid of Perth is an opera, after the novel by Sir Walter Scott

L’Arlesienne (The Girl from Arles) includes Carillon and Farandole

Petit suite d’orchestre

Arthur Bliss (1891 – 1975) was knighted in1950. After the death of Sir Arnold Bax he was appointed Master of the Queen's Music in 1953

Colour Symphony

Checkmate

Miracle in the Gorbals

Luigi Boccherini (1743 – 1805) was an Italian composer and cellist whose music retained a courtly and galante style. Boccherini was Influenced by Haydn

String Quintet in E major

Cello Concerto in B flat major

Alexander Borodin (1833 – 1887) was a Russian who made his living as a chemist. He provided the musical inspiration for the musical Kismet in a string quartet

Prince Igor was left unfinished upon Borodin’s death and was edited and completed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov

Polovtsian Dances are from Prince Igor. The Polovtsian leader Khan Konchak entertains his prisoner Prince Igor with a series of oriental dances

In the Steppes of Central Asia

Nadia Boulanger (1887 – 1979) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher who taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century. Her sister, Lili, was also a composer

Pierre Boulez (born 1925) is a French composer of contemporary classical music and conductor. Boulez said “the world's opera houses should be burned down”

The Hammer without a Master

Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897) wrote four symphonies

First symphony is known as ‘Beethoven’s tenth’ as it sounds like Beethoven’s ninth symphony

Academic Festival Overture was one of a pair of contrasting orchestral overtures (the other being the Tragic Overture) written by Johannes Brahms. Brahms composed the Academic Festival Overture during the summer of 1880 as a musical ‘thank you’ to the University of Breslau

German requiem

21 Hungarian Dances

The St. Anthony Choral

Wiegenlied (Cradle Song)

Frank Bridge (1879 – 1941)

Sir Roger de Coverley was always the last dance to be played at country house balls

The Sea

Benjamin Britten (1913 – 1976) was the first British composer to be made a life peer, in 1976. Britten and Peter Pears lived in USA from 1939 to 1942

War Requiem is based on poems of Wilfred Owen. Features Anthem for Doomed Youth. Commissioned for the reconsecration of Coventry Cathedral in 1962

The Turn of the Screw is a chamber opera with a libretto by Myfanwy Piper, based on the novella The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra was composed in1946 to accompany Instruments of the Orchestra, an educational film produced by the British government, narrated and conducted by Malcolm Sargent. It has the subtitle ‘Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell’, and takes a melody from Henry Purcell's Abdelazar as its central theme

Peter Grimes is an opera with a libretto adapted by Montagu Slater from the Peter Grimes section of George Crabbe's poem The Borough. Story of a misfit fisherman set in Aldeburgh, Suffolk

Billy Budd is an opera from a libretto by EM Forster and Eric Crozier. It is based on the short novel Billy Budd by Herman Melville. The action takes place during the French Revolutionary Wars, in 1797, on board the battleship HMS Indomitable

Death in Venice – last opera, tells the story of dying composer Aschenbach and his obsession with a young boy, Tadzio. Based on the book by Thomas Mann

Paul Bunyan – book and lyrics by WH Auden

Let’s Make an Opera

Albert Herring

The Rape of Lucretia

Noah’s Flood

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Gloriana was written for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Gloriana was the name given by the 16th century poet Edmund Spenser to his character representing Queen Elizabeth I in his poem The Faerie Queene. Gloriana depicts the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and the Earl of Essex

A Ceremony of Carols

Simple Symphony

The Prince of the Pagodas is a ballet created for The Royal Ballet in 1957, by choreographer John Cranko, with music commissioned from Benjamin Britten. The ballet was later revived in a new production by Kenneth MacMillan in 1989, achieving widespread acclaim for Darcey Bussell's premiere in a principal role

Alpine Suite for recorder trio

Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo

Max Bruch (1838 – 1920) was a German Romantic composer and conductor who wrote over 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a staple of the violin repertory. Max Bruch was conductor of Liverpool Philharmonic from 1880 to 1883

Violin Concerto No.1 was voted the number one work in the Classic FM Hall of Fame by the station's listeners in 1996

Scottish Fantasy

Anton Bruckner (1824 – 1896) was an Austrian who composed nine monumental symphonies. Bruckner played the organ

Symphony No. 3 is dedicated to Wagner

Symphony No. 7 is the most popular

Symphony No. 9 was unfinished

Symphony in D minor was not assigned a number by its composer, and is known as Symphony No. 0

George Butterworth (1885 – 1916)

The Banks of Green Willow

Song settings of A. E. Housman's poems from A Shropshire Lad

William Byrd (1540 – 1623) was an English composer of the Renaissance. He wrote in many of the forms current in England at the time, including various types of sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard (the so-called Virginalist school), and consort music

The Triumphs of Oriana

John Cage (1912–1992) was an American composer and music theorist

4’33” is a three-movement composition composed in 1952, for any instrument or combination of instruments, and the score instructs the performer(s) not to play their instrument(s) during the entire duration of the piece throughout the three movements

Imaginary Landscape is the title of several pieces by John Cage

Music of Changes

Organ²/ASLSP (As SLow aS Possible) – the performance of the organ version at St. Burchardi church in Halberstadt, Germany, began in 2001 and is scheduled to have a duration of 639 years

Joseph Canteloube (1879 – 1957)

Songs of the Auvergne is a collection of orchestrated folksongs

Wendy Carlos (born Walter Carlos, 1939) raised public awareness of transgender issues

Switched-On Bach played a key role in popularizing classical music performed on electronic synthesizers

Alfredo Catalani (1854 – 1893) was an Italian composer

La Wally is a four-act opera. Wally is a young girl who refuses to marry the man her father has chosen for her. Theme music to A Single Man

Loreley - opera based on the German legend of the Lorelei

Francesco Cavalli (1602 – 1676)

L’Ormindo - opera

La Calisto – opera

Emmanuel Chabrier (1841 – 1894) was a French Romantic composer and pianist

Le Roi malge lui - orchestral work

Joyeuse Marche - orchestral work

Suite Pastorale

Gwendoline – opera

Espana

Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643 – 1704) was a French composer of the Baroque era. The prelude to his Te Deum is well-known as the signature tune for the European Broadcasting Union, heard in the opening credits of the Vienna New Year's Concert and the Eurovision Song Contest

Frederic Chopin (1810 – 1849) had an affair with George Sand. Died of tuberculosis. Chopin wrote 21 nocturnes, 16 polonaises, 24 preludes, and 52 mazurkas. Chopin’s heart is preserved in cognac, in a church in Warsaw

Revolutionary Etude

Minute Waltz

Funeral March

The Raindrop

Les Sylphides is a short ballet. Its original choreography was by Michel Fokine, with music by Frederic Chopin

Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante

Fantaisie-inpromptu

Jeremiah Clarke (1674 – 1707) was an English baroque composer and organist

Trumpet Voluntary - for many years the piece was attributed incorrectly to Henry Purcell. Correct title is Prince of Denmark’s March

Eric Coates (1886 – 1957) is well known for his contribution to the film score for The Dam Busters

London Suite consists of three movements: Covent Garden (Tarentelle), Westminster (Meditation), and Knightsbridge (March)

BBC used Calling All Workers as the theme for the radio programme Music While You Work, and By the Sleepy Lagoon is still used to introduce the long-running radio programme Desert Island Discs

Aaron Copland (1900 – 1990) was teacher to Leonard Bernstein, and they became close friends

Appalachian Spring – title taken from a poem by Hart Crane. Scenario devised by Martha Graham. Known as the Shaker Melody, Shaker Song, and the Shaker Hymn, the music Copland based his ending variations on, was actually called Simple Gifts. This same Shaker tune was used by Sydney Carter in a widely recognized hymn entitled Lord of the Dance

Rodeo was choreographed by Agnes de Mille (niece of Cecil B DeMille)

Billy the Kid – ballet

Fanfare for the Common Man was used in his Symphony No. 3

Quiet City is a musical picture of early morning in lower Manhattan

Arcangelo Corelli (1653 – 1713) is referred to frequently in the novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin

Twelve concerti grossi

Bernhard Crusell (1775 – 1838) was a Swedish-Finnish clarinettist, composer and translator, and the outstanding Finnish composer before Sibelius

Cesar Cui (1835 – 1918) was an army officer and composer of French and Lithuanian descent. He was a member of The Five

Louis-Claude Daquin (1694 – 1772)

The Cuckoo – written for the harpsichord

Peter Maxwell Davies (1934 – 2016) was made Master of the Queen's Music in 2004

Eight Songs for a Mad King is based on words of George III

Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he disliked the term. Debussy had a daughter known as Chou-Chou

Compositions by Debussy are categorized by L (Lesure) number

Claire de Lune is the third movement of the Suite bergamasque. Its name comes from Paul Verlaine's poem of the same name

Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faun is a symphonic poem based on a poem by Mallarme

The Snow is Dancing – from Children’s’ Corner Suite

Clouds, Festivals, Sirens – nocturnes

Petite Suite

Arabesque

La Mer

Dialogue du Vent et de la Mer

Pelleas et Melisande – only finished opera

The Girl with the Flaxen Hair

Estampes – piano pieces. Includes Pagodas, La Soire dans Grenade and Jardins sous la Pluie

Leo Delibes (1836 – 1891)

Flower Duet from Lakme. Lakme is the daughter of a Brahman. Flower Duet is sung by Lakme and her maidservant Mallika. Music for BA adverts

Bell Song – in Lakme

Coppelia – tells the tale of Swanilda, a village beauty who tries to thwart the fancy of her fiancé (Frantz) for a life-sized doll. Based upon two stories by ETA Hoffmann: Der Sandmann (The Sandman), and Die Puppe (The Doll). Includes Festive Dance and Waltz of the Hours

The Girl with Enamel Eyes – alternative title for Coppelia

Sylvia – ballet with music by Delibes. Sylvia is a nymph of Diana

Frederick Delius (1862 – 1934) was born in Bradford. Lived most of his life in France. Thomas Beecham was Delius’s greatest champion

On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring

In a Summer Garden

The Magic Fountain

La Calinda – from the opera Koanga

Florida Suite. Delius moved to Florida in 1884

Three Small Tone Poems

Brigg Fair was inspired by a music festival in Brigg, Lincs

A Village Romeo and Juliet. Lovers are Sali and Vreli, who are warned by the Dark Fiddler

Gaetano Donizetti (1797 – 1848) was born in poverty in Bergamo

L’Elisir d’amore (Potion of love) is a ittersweet story of lovesick Nemorino and cold-hearted Adina

Una furtiva lagrima (a secret tear) – aria in L’Elisir d’amore

La Fille du Regiment is famous for the aria Ah! mes amis, quel jour de fête! (sometimes referred to as Pour mon âme), which has been called the ‘Mount Everest’ for tenors. It features nine high Cs

Maria Stuarda (Mary Stuart) is an opera about the downfall of Mary, Queen of Scots

Anna Bolena

Don Pasquale

Lucia di Lammermoor

Lucrezia Borgia

Don Sebastien

Donizetti wrote 67 operas

John Dowland (1563 – 1626) was an English Renaissance composer, singer, and lutenist. He is best known today for his melancholy songs such as Come, heavy sleep

Paul Dukas (1865 – 1935). was born in Paris

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was used in the Disney film Fantasia

Antonin Dvorak (1841 – 1904) was born in Czechoslovakia. Dvorak was director of the National Conservatory of Music of America from 1891 to 1895. He had nine children, three of whom died in infancy

Symphony No. 9 may be better known by its subtitle, From the New World, and is also called the New World Symphony. Dvorak wrote it in 1893, while he was in New York, and it premiered at Carnegie Hall. Final symphony writen by Dvorak

Symphony No. 1 is subtitled The Bells of Zlonice

Rusalka – opera, Rusalka is a water sprite who wants to become human so that she can experience true love. Includes Song to the Moon

Slavonic Dances –a series of 16 orchestral pieces

Dvorak wrote eight Humoresques

Carnival Overture

Ludovico Einaudi (born 1955) has composed the scores for a number of television programmes and films, including Nomadland and The Father

I Giorno (The Days)

Divenire (To Become)

Edward Elgar (1857 – 1934) was born in Lower Broadheath, near Worcester.Elgar’s third symphony was unfinished. Elgar married Caroline Alice Roberts. Elgar war first Professor of Music at Birmingham University. Elgar was Master of the King’s Music from 1924 to 1934

Enigma Variations – so called because the melody on which they are based is supposed to conceal another, ‘enigmatic’, theme.14 Variations. Variation 1 is C.A.E., Caroline Alice Elgar, Elgar's wife. Nimrod is Variation IX and is named after August Jaeger. Variation XIII is titled ‘***’. Dedicated to Elgar's “friends pictured within”

The Dream of Gerontius is based on a poem by Cardinal Newman

Land of Hope and Glory – also known as Pomp and Circumstance. Music. Words by AC Benson

There are five Pomp and Circumstance marches – Land of Hope and Glory is No. 1

Coronation Ode was written for the Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in 1902

Coronation March was written for the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911

Sea Pictures – a song cycle

Salut d’amour (Love’s Greeting)

Serenade for Strings

The Wand of Youth suite

Sospiri

Elegy for Strings is dedicated to R.H. Haddon

Nursery Suite

Chanson de Nuit

Chansons de Matin

Manuel de Falla (1876 – 1946) was a Spanish composer

The Three-Cornered Hat – a magistrate infatuated with a miller's faithful wife attempts to seduce her – derives from the novella by Pedro Antonio de Alarcon

Nights in the Gardens of Spain

Spanish Dance

Ritual Fire Dance

La vida breve (Life is Short)

Gabriel Faure (1845 – 1924) was a French composer. He served in the Franco-Prussian War

Pavane is named after the slow processional Spanish court dance

Pie Jesu is a motet derived from the final couplet of the Dies irae and often included in musical settings of the Requiem Mass. The best known is the Pie Jesu from Faure's Requiem

Pelleas et Melisande was written for the London production of Maurice Maeterlinck's play in 1898

Masques et bergamasques

Apres un reve

Elegie

Dolly Suite

Morton Feldman (1926 – 1987) was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School of composers

Rothko Chapel was written for the building of the same name

John Field (1782 – 1837) was an Irish pianist and composer. He is best known today for originating the piano nocturne, a form later made famous by Chopin, as well as for his substantial contribution to the development of the Russian piano school

Cesar Franck (1822 – 1890) was born in Liege, which was under French rule. Became known as an organist and a teacher

Symphony in D minor

Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra

Prelude, Chorale and Fugue for solo piano

Le Chasseur maudit - a symphonic poem

Rudolf Friml (1879 – 1972) was a Czech-born composer of operettas, musicals, songs and piano pieces

The Vagabond King is a fictionalized episode in the life of the 15th century poet and thief Francois Villon, centering on his wooing of Katherine De Vaucelles

Rose-Marie is an operetta set in the Canadian Rocky Mountains

Niels Gade (1817 – 1890) was a Danish composer, conductor, violinist, organist and teacher. He is considered the most important Danish musician of his day

Edward German (1862 – 1936) was an English composer of Welsh descent

The Emerald Isle (1901) - completion of the opera left unfinished by Arthur Sullivan at his death

A Princess of Kensington (1903)

Tom Jones (1907)

Fallen Fairies (1909)

Merrie England is an English comic opera in two acts to a libretto by Basil Hood

George Gershwin (1898 – 1937) was an American composer whose compositions spanned both popular and classical genres

Porgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. Based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy. Crippled beggar Porgy takes in prostitute Bess, who has been abandoned by her lover Crown. Set on Catfish Row, in South Carolina

It Ain’t Necessarily So – song from Porgy and Bess, casts doubt on literal truth of Bible

Summertime, Oh I Got Plenty of Nothing – songs from Porgy and Bess

Philip Glass (born 1937) is an American minimalist composer

Galileo Galilei - opera

Kepler - opera

Satyagraha, based loosely on the life of Gandhi, forms the second part of the ‘Portrait Trilogy’ of operas about men who changed the world, which also includes Einstein on the Beach and Akhnaten

Einstein on the Beach is Glass's first and longest opera score, taking approximately five hours in full performance without intermission; given the length, the audience is permitted to enter and leave as desired. In 1933, Albert Einstein was brought to live in a small hut on Roughton Heath, near Cromer, after fleeing Nazi Germany. Einstein’s visit was the inspiration for the opera

Symphony No. 1 (Low), Symphony No. 4 (Heroes), Symphony No. 12 (Lodger) – symphonies based on David Bowie's Berlin Triptych

Waiting for the Barbarians is based on a book by JM Coetzee

The Perfect American covers the final months of the life of Walt Disney

Alexander Glazunov (1865 – 1936) was a Russian composer of the late Russian Romantic period, music teacher and conductor. He served as director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory between 1905 and 1928

The Seasons – one-act ballet

Reinhold Gliere (1875 – 1956) was born in Kiev

he Red Poppy - first heroic Soviet ballet

Mikhail Glinka (1804 – 1857) was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition within his own country

A Life for the Czar is set in the 17th century. A peasant, Ivan Susanin, heroically saves the life of Czar Mikhail from invading Polish troops

Ruslan and Lyudmila is based on a fairy tale poem by Pushkin. Princess Lyudmila is abducted by the evil dwarf and sorcerer Chernomor. Ruslan obtains a magic sword from a gigantic talking head and slays Chernomor

Christoph Gluck (1714 – 1787) was born in Bavaria

Orfeo ed Euridice (Orpheus and Eurydice) is an opera based on the myth of Orpheus

Iphigenie en Tauride – opera, The drama is based on the play Iphigeneia in Tauris by the ancient Greek dramatist Euripides which deals with Greek mythological stories concerning the family of Agamemnon in the aftermath of the Trojan War

Henryk Gorecki (1933 – 2010) was a Polish composer of contemporary classical music

Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs)

Copernican symphony

Charles Gounod (1818 – 1893) was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria

Faust is an opera in five acts based on the play by Goethe. Faust sells his soul to Mephistopheles, the Devil, in return for his youth. He is persuaded to do so on seeing a vision of a beautiful young woman, Marguerite, at a spinning wheel

Soldier’s Chorus – song from Faust

Romeo et Juliette - opera in five acts

Funeral March of a Marionette (1872) is well-known for being the theme music to the TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour

Saint Cecilia Mass

Percy Grainger (1882 – 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist

Brigg Fair

Sentimentals

Country Gardens

Molly on the Shore

Enrique Granados (1867 – 1916) was a Spanish composer

Goyescas is a piano suite usually considered Granados's crowning creation and was inspired by the paintings of Francisco Goya

Edvard Grieg (1843 – 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist who composed in the romantic period

Incidental music to Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt (which includes Morning Mood , In the Hall of the Mountain King, Death of Ase, Anrita’s Song and Solveig’s Song)

Lyric Pieces - collection of piano miniatures

Holberg Suite was composed to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Danish-Norwegian playwright Ludvig Holberg

Piano Concerto in A minor - famously used in a Morecambe and Wise sketch with Andre Previn

March of the Trolls

In Autumn

Homage March

Two Elegiac Melodies

Wedding Day at Troldhaugen

Ivor Gurney (1890 – 1937) was an English poet and composer who suffered shell shock after World War I

Five Elizabethan Songs

George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759) was a German-born British Baroque composer. Handel decided to settle permanently in England in 1712. In 1750 Handel arranged a performance of Messiah to benefit the Foundling Hospital in London. Handel was master of orchestra of the Royal Academy of Music. Handel’s works are indexed with HWV numbers, initialism for Handel Werke Verzeichnis (Handel Works Catalogue)

Water Music is a collection of orchestral movements, often considered as three suites. It premiered in the summer on 17 July 1717 when King George I requested a concert on the River Thames

Zadok the Priest was composed for coronation of George II in 1727. Coronation Anthem No 4. Theme music for Uefa Champions League

Music for the Royal Fireworks celebrated the treaty of Aix La Chapelle (1748, ending the war of Austrian succession). First performed in 1749 in Green Park for George II

Messiah – first performed in Dublin in 1742. An oratorio set to texts from the King James Bible. Includes the Hallelujah Chorus, For Unto us a Child is Born and I Know That My Redeemer Liveth. The custom of standing for the Hallelujah Chorus originates from a belief that, at the London premiere, King George II did so, which would have obliged all to stand

Arrival of the Queen of Sheba – from the oratorio Solomon

Rinaldo was composed in 1711. It is the first Italian language opera written specifically for the London stage

Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Julius Caesar in Egypt) is an Italian opera in three acts written for the Royal Academy of Music

Rodrigo, Rodelinda, Partenope, Agrippina, Semele, Tamerlano – operas

Thine be the Glory

Acis and Galatea – the work is set to a libretto by John Gay which is based on Ovid's Metamorphoses

Ode for St Cecilia’s Day

The opening aria of Serse (Xerxes), Ombra mai fu, is set to one of Handel's best-known melodies, and is often played in an orchestral arrangement, known as Handel's Largo

Let the Bright Seraphim – aria from Samson

Israel in Egypt – biblical oratorio

Alexander's Feast is an ode with music

Judas Maccabaeus – oratorio devised as a compliment to the victorious Duke of Cumberland upon his return from the Battle of Culloden

The Harmonious Blacksmith is the popular name of the final movement, Air and variations, of Suite No. 5, for harpsichord

Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809) was one of the most prominent composers of the Classical period, and is called by some the “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet”. Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, Austria, a village near the border with Hungary. The ethnicity of Haydn was a controversial matter in Haydn scholarship during a period lasting from the late 19th to the mid 20th century. The principal contending ethnicities were Croatian and German. Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Hungarian aristocratic Esterhazy family. Johann Salomon brought Haydn to London in 1791–92 and 1794–95, and together with Haydn led the first performances of many of the works that Haydn composed while in England.  Haydn wrote his symphonies numbers 93 to 104 for these trips, which are sometimes known as the Salomon symphonies

The Hoboken-Verzeichnis is the catalogue of over 750 works by Joseph Haydn as compiled by Anthony van Hoboken

Haydn wrote 104 numbered symphonies, and two other symphonies, and 74 string quartets

Symphonies by Haydn include -

Symphony No. 6, Le Matin

Symphony No.7, Le Midi

Symphony No. 8, Le Soir

Symphony No.22, Philosopher

Symphony No. 45, Farewell

Symphony No. 47, Palindrome

Symphony No.53, Imperial

Symphony No. 82, The Bear

Symphony No. 83, The Hen

Symphony No. 92, Oxford

Symphony No. 94, The Surprise

Symphony No. 96, The Miracle

Symphony No. 100, Military

Symphony No. 101, The Clock

Symphony No. 103, Drumroll

Symphony No. 104, London

Farewell (Symphony No. 45) was written for Haydn's patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy, while he, Haydn and the court orchestra were at the Prince's summer palace in Eszterhaza. The stay there had been longer than expected, and most of the musicians had been forced to leave their wives back at home in Eisenstadt, so in the last movement of the symphony, Haydn subtly hinted to his patron that perhaps he might like to allow the musicians to return home: during the final adagio each musician stops playing, snuffs out the candle on his music stand, and leaves in turn, so that at the end, there are just two muted violins left

The Surprise (Symphony No. 94) has a sudden fortissimo chord at the end of the otherwise piano opening theme in the variation-form second movement

Paris symphonies – symphonies 82 to 87

London symphonies - symphonies 93 to 104

The Creation – oratorio depicting and celebrating the creation of the world as described in the biblical Book of Genesis and in Paradise Lost

Trumpet Concerto

German national anthem (Emperor Hymn) was written by Haydn in 1797 as an anthem for the birthday of the Austrian Emperor Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire

Paul Hindemith (1895 – 1963) was a German composer who was denounced by Goebbels as an "atonal noisemaker”

Gustav Holst (1874 – 1934) was born in Cheltenham and taught at St Paul’s Girls School in Hammersmith. Lived in Thaxted in Essex. Holst had hoped to partly build his career as a pianist, but stricken with a nerve condition that increasingly affected the movement of his right hand from adolescence; he eventually gave up the piano for the trombone.Holst’s daughter Imogen was a composer and conductor

The Planets was written between 1914 and 1916 (before the discovery of Pluto). First public performance in 1918

Seven movements –

• Mars, the Bringer of War
• Venus, the Bringer of Peace
• Mercury, the Winged Messenger
• Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity
• Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age
• Uranus, the Magician
• Neptune, the Mystic

World in Union, I Vow to Thee my Country – from Jupiter in The Planets

St Paul’s Suite takes its name from St Paul’s Girls’ School in Hammersmith. Holst was the school's music master from 1905 to 1934

The Cotswolds – symphony

The Perfect Fool - opera

Arthur Honegger (1892 – 1955) was a Swiss composer, who was born in France. He was a member of Les Six

Pacific 231 is interpreted as imitating the sound of a steam locomotive

Joan of Arc at the Stake – oratorio

Engelbert Humperdinck (1854 – 1921) was a German composer

Hansel und Gretel - opera based on the Grimm brothers' fairy tale

John Ireland (1879 – 1962) wrote the film score for The Overlanders

A Downland Suite

Charles Ives (1874 – 1954) was an American modernist composer. He was among the first composers to engage in a systematic program of experimental music

The Unanswered Question

Universe Symphony – unfinished work

Holiday Symphony

Three Places in New England

Leos Janacek (1854 – 1928) was a Czech composer. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style

The Cunning Little Vixen

Taras Bulba is based on the novel by Gogol

Jenufa – opera

Katya Kabanova

Sinfonietta

String Quartet No. 1, subtitled Kreutzer Sonata

The Makropulos Affair – Janacek. Adapted from a play by Karel Capek

Karl Jenkins (born 1944) was born in Wales

The Armed Man is the name of a Mass, subtitled ‘A Mass for Peace’. The piece was commissioned by the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds for the Millennium celebrations and was initially dedicated to victims of the Kosovo crisis

Adiemus is a series of new age music albums

Joseph Joachim (1831 – 1907) was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century

Josquin (c. 1450 – 1521) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. Josquin is widely considered by music scholars to be the first master of the high Renaissance style of polyphonic vocal music

Albert Ketelbey (1875 – 1959) is frequently quoted as becoming Britain's first millionaire composer

In A Monastery Garden sold over a million copies

Aram Khachaturian (1903 – 1978) was an Armenian composer whose works were often influenced by Armenian folk music.

Sabre Dance is a movement in the final act of the ballet Gayane, completed in 1942. It evokes a whirling war dance

Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia from the ballet Spartacus was used as the theme music to The Onedin Line

Masquerade is based on a play by Mikhail Lermontov

Franz Lehar (1870 – 1948) was an Austro-Hungarian composer mainly known for his operettas

The Merry Widow – the widow is Hanna Glawari, who wishes to marry Count Danilo of Pontevedro

Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857 – 1919) was an Italian opera composer and librettist

Pagliacci (Italian for ‘players’ or ‘clowns’) recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe. Canio stabs Silvio and declares: La Commedia è finita! – "The play is over!" at the end of Pagliacci

Beppe, Nedda – characters in Pagliacci

Gyorgy Ligeti (1923 – 2006) was an avant-garde composer born in Hungary

La Grand Macabre – only opera

Franz Liszt (1811 – 1886) was born in Hungary. Liszt was the greatest pianist of his day. Wrote symphonic poems in Weimar. Liszt conducted world premiere of Lohengrin, composed by Wagner, his future son-in-law

Liszt’s works are catalogued by S or G numbers, derived from the catalogue compiled by Humphrey Searle

19 Hungarian Rhapsodies

12 Transcendental Etudes

6 Consolations

Liebestraume or Dreams of Love

Dante – symphony

Faust – symphony dedicated to Berlioz

Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632 – 1687), was a French composer of Italian birth, who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. Born in Florence. Lully died from gangrene, having struck his foot with his long conducting staff during a performance of his Te Deum to celebrate Louis XIV's recovery from surgery. Lully created French-style opera as a musical genre (tragedie en musique or tragedie lyrique)

Operas include Armide, Alceste and Phaeton

Le Bourgeois gentilhomme is based on the play of the same name by Moliere

Hans Christian Lumbye (1810 – 1894) was known as “The Strauss of the North” or “The Waltz King of the North”. Born in Denmark

Champagne Galop

Copenhagen Steam Train Galop

Hamish MacCunn (1868 – 1916) was a Scottish late Romantic composer

The Land of the Mountain and the Flood is a concert overture for orchestra

Edward MacDowell (1860 – 1908) was an American composer and pianist of the Romantic period

Woodland Sketches includes his most popular short piece, To a Wild Rose

Gustav Mahler (1860 – 1911) was Jewish, but converted to Catholicism to become musical director of the Vienna Court Opera. Born in Bohemia. Married Alma Schlinder. Mahler was one of the leading conductors of his generation, and was director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra

Symphony No. 1, Titan was originally in five movements, but the movement known as Blumine (Flower Blossoms) was discarded

Symphony No. 2, Resurrection

Symphony No. 3 is a long symphony with six movements. Mahler called this symphony ‘my great nature symphony’

Symphony No. 5 – the fourth movement is arguably Mahler's most famous single piece of music, and is the most frequently performed extract from Mahler's works. It is perhaps best known for its use in the 1971 Luchino Visconti film Death in Venice

Symphony No. 6, Tragic

Symphony No. 7, Song of the Night

Symphony No. 8, Symphony of a Thousand is scored for a very large orchestra

Symphony No. 10 was unfinished

Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) comprises six songs for two singers. Described as a symphony when published

Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children) is a song cycle for voice and orchestra

Pietro Mascagni (1863 – 1945) was an Italian composer. Mascagni was a rival of Puccini

Cavalleria Rusticana (Rustic Chivalry) in an 1890 opera in one act. It has often been performed in a so-called Cav/Pag double-bill with Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Features Santuzza, Lola, Alfio and Turiddu. Set in Sicily in 19th century, when it was united in a kingdom with Naples ruled by Bourbon kings

Easter Hymn – from Cavalleria Rusticana

Jules Massenet (1842 – 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era

Thais is an opera set in Egypt in the early days of Christianity. Thais is a dancer and courtesan

Manon is an opera based on a novel by Abbe Prevost (Manon Lescaut)

Werther – opera based on the German novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe

Le Cid – opera based on the play of the same name by Pierre Corneille

Felix Mendelssohn (1809 – 1847) was a German composer of the eary Romantic period. Fanny Mendelssohn, the sister of Felix, was a pianist and composer

The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) was written in 1830

The incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream, including the well-known Wedding March, was written in 1843

Symphony No. 3, Scottish was dedicated to Queen Victoria

Symphony No. 4, Italian

Symphony No. 5, Reformation was composed in honour of the 300th anniversary of Martin Luther’s Augsburg Confession which had established the founding doctrines of Lutheranism

Songs Without Words – 48 piano pieces. Include Spring Song

Camacho’s Wedding – only opera

Elijah – oratorio

St. Paul – oratorio

Hear My Prayer is a Christian anthem for soprano solo, chorus and organ or orchestra

Gian Carlo Menotti (1911 – 2007) was an American composer. Born in Italy. Many of his operas enjoyed successful runs on Broadway

Amahl and the Night Visitors was first performed on Christmas Day, 1951. Menotti was inspired by Bosch’s painting The Adoration of the Magi

Oliver Messiaen (1908 – 1992) was appointed professor of composition in 1966 at the Paris Conservatoire, a position he held until his retirement in 1978. His many distinguished pupils included Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen. He believed birds to be the greatest musicians and considered himself as much an ornithologist as a composer

Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791 – 1864) was a German opera composer of Jewish birth who has been described as perhaps the most successful stage composer of the nineteenth century

Robert le diable (Robert the Devil) is regarded as one of the first grand operas at the Paris Opera

Les Huguenots

Le Prophete

Darius Milhaud (1892 – 1974) was a member of Les Six. Friend of Jean Cocteau. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality

Scaramouche

Le boeuf sur le toit

La creation du monde

Claudio Monteverdi (1567 – 1643) was a pioneer in the development of opera. Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period

L’Orfeo was written in 1607. Based on the legend of Orpheus. It is the earliest opera that is still regularly performed

L’Arianna (Ariadne) is the lost second opera

L'incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea) – opera

Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (The Return of Ulysses to his Homeland) – opera

Monteverdi wrote many madrigals and vespers

Vittorio Monti (1868 – 1922) was an Italian composer

Csardas is a rhapsodical concert piece written in 1904, it is a well-known folk piece based on a Hungarian csardas

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791) was born in Salzburg. Full baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. His father, Leopold, was a gifted composer and violin teacher. Mozart wrote his first symphony aged eight. In 1770, Mozart received the Order of the Golden Spur from Pope Clement XIV in Rome. There is a story that Salieri caused Mozart's death by poisoning him because they were rivals for musical success and Salieri bitterly resented Mozart's musical superiority. Music historians have completely rejected this story, but it lives on in literature, as in the popular play and film Amadeus. Constanze Weber – wife of Mozart

Mozart’s works are categorized by K numbers, after Ludwig Kochel

Lorenzo Da Ponte wrote the librettos to three Mozart operas, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte

Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti (All Women Do It, or The School for Lovers) is an opera buffa in two acts first performed in 1790. Two soldiers (Guglielmo and Ferrando) disguise themselves as Albanians to test the fidelity of their lovers (Fiordiligi and Dorabella). Don Alfonso is a philosopher who makes a bet that all women are fickle

Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) is Mozart’s last opera, in two acts to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered in 1791. Tamino rescues Pamina, the daughter of the Queen of the Night, from the High Priest. Papageno is a bird-catcher

Der Holle Rache – Queen of the Night’s aria in The Magic Flute

Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) is an opera buffa (comic opera) composed in 1786, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais. Cherubino, a page boy in the household of Count Almaviva, is dressed up as Susanna, the Countess’s maidservant

Non Piu Andrai, Porgi amor – arias in The Marriage of Figaro

Don Giovanni (full title Don Giovanni or The Libertine Punished) is an opera in two acts based on the legends of Don Juan. The opera concludes with the title character being dragged into hell by the statue of the Commendatore. Leporello is Don Giovanni’s manservant

Champagne Aria – in Don Giovanni

La ci darem la mano (There we will give each other our hands) is a duet for the characters Don Giovanni (baritone) and Zerlina (soprano) in Don Giovanni

Apollo et Hyacinthus is an opera written by Mozart at the age of 11

Idomeneo is an opera based on the legend of a Cretan king. Set shortly after the Trojan War

La clemenza di Tito (The Clemency of Titus) is an opera based on the life of the Roman emperor Titus

The Impresario – comic opera by Mozart

The Abduction from the Seraglio – opera set in Ottoman Empire

Symphonies 14 - 30 were composed from 1771 - 1777 and are known as the Salzburg-era Symphonies. Example of divertimento

Symphony No 31, Paris

Symphony No. 35, Haffner. It was commissioned by the Haffners, a prominent Salzburg family

Symphony No, 36, Linz

Symphony No. 38, Prague

Symphony No. 40 in G minor is sometimes referred to as the ‘Great G minor symphony,’ to distinguish it from the ‘Little G minor symphony,’ No. 25

Symphony No. 41, Jupiter was the last symphony composed by Mozart

Mozart’s Requiem was his last composition (K626) and was completed after his death by Franz Sussmayr

Elvira Madigan was a Danish tightrope walker and trick rider, whose illicit affair and dramatic death at the hands of her lover were the subject of a famous Swedish film from 1967. The soundtrack features the Andante from Piano Concerto No. 21 by Mozart, which is now popularly known as Theme from Elvira Madigan

Solemn Vespers

Eine kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music). Theme music of Brian of Britain

Exultate, jubilate - a religious solo motet

Mozart wrote concertos for almost every instrument

Haydn Quartets. Mozart was a friend of Haydn

Thea Musgrave (born1928) is a Scottish composer. She has lived in the United States since 1972

The Seasons

Turbulent Landscapes

Simon Bolivar – opera

Mary, Queen of Scots – opera

Modest Mussorgsky (1839 – 1881) was a Russian composer and a member of 'The Five'

Boris Gudonov is based on the drama by Pushkin. Gudonov was a Tsar of Russia. Only completed opera

Night on a Bald (Bare) Mountain is a tone poem inspired by a witch in the Gogol story St John’s Eve

Pictures at an Exhibition is a suite of ten pieces composed for piano. It was inspired by an exhibition by artist Victor Hartman. Includes The Old Castle, The Gnome, The Hut on Fowl’s Legs (Baba Yaga) and The Great Gate of Kiev. Linked by a theme called Promenade

Khovanshchina – opera

Nikolai Myaskovsky (1881 – 1950) is sometimes referred to as the “Father of the Soviet Symphony”. Friend of Prokofiev. Myaskovsky was awarded the Stalin Prize five times, more than any other composer

Carl Nielsen (1865 – 1931) was the most internationally known composer from Denmark. Nielsen wrote six symphonies. Born on the island of Funen

Symphony No. 4, Inextinguishable

Commotio – organ work

Saul and David – opera

Masquerade – comic opera

Otto Nicolai (1810 – 1849) was a German composer, conductor, and founder of the Vienna Philharmonic

The Merry Wives of Windsor – opera in three acts

Michael Nyman (born 1944) is an English composer of minimalist music, and is known for numerous film scores (many written during his collaboration with Peter Greenaway), and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to The Piano

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat – opera based on the case study of the same name by Oliver Sacks

Jacques Offenbach (1819 – 1880) was a German-born French composer known for his comic operas

Orpheus in the Underworld – opera bouffon first performed in 1858. Orpheus is not the son of Apollo but a violin teacher

The Galop from Orpheus in the Underworld is the tune most associated with the can-can

The Tales of Hoffmann was Offenbach's final work; he died four months before the premiere. Based on three short stories by E.T.A. Hoffmann. The Barcarolle, Belle nuit, o nuit d'amour is the opera's most famous number

La Belle Helene is a parody of Helen's elopement with Paris

La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein

Carl Orff (1895 – 1982) was born in Munich. In addition to his career as a composer, he developed an influential approach of music education for children

Carmina Burana is a cantata based on a medieval collection of bawdy songs. It is part of Trionfi, a musical triptych that also includes Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite

The chorus O fortuna (O fate) forms the opening to Carmina Burana

Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706) was a German composer, organist, and teacher

Pachelbels's Canon is the first movement of Canon and Gigue in D major

Niccolo Paganini (1782 – 1840) was born in Genoa

Caprice No. 24 in A minor is the final caprice of Paganini's 24 Caprices, and a famous work for solo violin

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525 – 1594) was an Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and the best-known 16th century representative of the Roman School of musical composition. He has had a lasting influence on the development of church music

Hubert Parry (1848 – 1918) was born in Bournemouth

“And did those feet in ancient time” is a short poem by William Blake from the preface to his epic Milton: a Poem (1804). Today it is best known as the hymn Jerusalem, with music written by Parry in 1916

I was Glad is a coronation anthem

Repton is a hymn tune which sets the words “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind”

Symphony No.2, Cambridge

Symphony No. 3, English

Arvo Part (born 1935) is an Estonian composer and a composer of sacred music. Since the late 1970s, Part has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-invented compositional technique, tintinnabuli. His music also takes inspiration from Gregorian chant

Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in the mirror) is written in the tintinnabular style

Fratres (Brothers)

Tabula Rasa

Krzysztof Penderecki (1933 – 2020) was born in Poland

Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima was written for 52 string instruments

St. Luke Passion

Polish Requiem

Anaklasis

Jacopo Peri (1561 – 1633) known under the pseudonym Il Zazzerino, is sometimes called the inventor of opera

Daphne, composed c. 1597, is the first work to be called an opera today

Perotin lived around the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century. He was the most famous member of the Notre Dame School of polyphony and the ars antiqua style

Amilcare Ponchielli (1834 – 1886) was an Italian opera composer

La Gioconda is an opera in four acts based on a play by Victor Hugo

Dance of the Hours is a short ballet from Act 3 of La Gioconda. It is used in the Walt Disney animated film Fantasia

Manuel Ponce (1882 – 1948) was a Mexican composer

Estrellita is the best known work of Ponce

Francis Poulenc (1899 – 1963) was a member of Les Six. Known as ‘half monk, half delinquent’ for his playful, irreverent side. Known for his ‘galante’ style. A great many of the chansons and melodies Poulenc wrote were composed for the baritone Pierre Bernac

Mouvements perpetuels is a suite for solo piano

Les Biches (The Hinds) is a ballet

Michael Praetorius (1571 – 1621) was a German composer, organist, and music theorist. He was particularly significant in the development of musical forms based on Protestant hymns, which reflect an effort to improve the relationship between Protestants and Catholics

Sergei Prokofiev (1891 – 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous musical genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. Prokofiev lived in Paris from 1920 to 1933. Married Lina Llubera. He wrote seven symphonies

In 1938, Prokofiev collaborated with the Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein on the historical epic Alexander Nevsky

Cinderella – ballet. Premiered in 1945

The Gambler – opera based on the story of the same name by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

War and Peace – opera based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy

Peter and the Wolf is a symphonic fairy tale. Each animal represented by a different instrument. Cat – clarinet, duck – oboe, wolf – French horn, bird – flute

Lieutenant Kije – score for the film of the same name. A part of the Troika movement is used in the 1974 song I Believe in Father Christmas by Greg Lake

The Love for Three Oranges is a satirical opera. Concerns a king convinced his melancholic son will die if he cannot be made to laugh. Prince is cursed by Fata Morgana

Symphony No. 1, Classical

Symphony No. 2 was said to be a work of "iron and steel"

Romeo and Juliet – ballet. Dance of the Knights is used as the opening theme music to The Apprentice

Giacomo Puccini (1858 – 1924) was born in Lucca, in Tuscany. Leading exponent of the verismo style of opera

La Boheme (1896) is based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger

Your tiny hand is frozen – aria from La Boheme

Mimi – seamstress in La Boheme. Dies of consumption

Rodolfo – poet in La Boheme

Tosca (1900) – Floria Tosca, a singer, throws herself off the roof of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome after she discovers that her lover Mario Cavaradossi has been executed. Tosca was tricked by Baron Scarpia, the evil Chief of Police

Vissi d’arte (I have lived for art) – aria in Tosca

Madame Butterfly (1904) – Madame Butterfly (Cio-Cio San) marries Lieutenant Pinkerton. Her maid is Suzuki. Contains Star Spangled Banner. Set in Nagasaki

Cio-Cio San sings Un Bel Di (“One fine Day”) in Madame Butterfly

Sorrow – Cio-Cio San’s son

Humming Chorus – in Madame Butterfly

Turandot (1924) was unfinished at the time of Puccini's death, and was completed by Franco Alfano in 1926

The story, set in China, involves prince Calaf who falls in love with the cold princess Turandot. To obtain permission to marry her, a suitor has to solve three riddles; any false answer results in death. Calaf passes the test, but Turandot still hesitates to marry him. He offers her a way out: he agrees to die should she be able to guess his real name. Turandot announces to the people thst his name is – Love

Hope, blood, and Turandot – answers to Turandot’s three riddles to the Prince

Nessun Dorma (none shall sleep) is an aria from Turandot. Sung by Calaf

Ping, Pang, and Pong – courtiers in Turandot

Manon Lescaut (1893) – Manon meets the Chevalier des Grieux in Amiens. She is taken by her brother, Lescaut, to a convent. She dies in Louisiana

La fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West) (1910) – bar girl Minnie falls in love with Mexican bandit Ramirez

Gianni Schicchi (1917) – is based on a story from The Divine Comedy. Gianni Schicchi impersonates Buoso Donati so that he can rewrite his will

O mio babbino caro (Oh My Beloved Father) is a soprano aria from Gianni Schicchi

La Rondine – (The swallow) (1917) – opera in three acts

Henry Purcell (1659 – 1695) was an English Baroque composer

Purcell’s works are catalogued by Z (Zimmerman) number

Henry Purcell’s brother, Daniel, wrote some of the music for his final work, The Indian Queen

Dido and Aeneas is an opera in a prologue and three acts with a libretto by Nahum Tate. The most famous aria of the work is When I am laid in earth, popularly known as Dido's Lament

King Arthur is a semi-opera with a libretto by John Dryden

The Fairy-Queen is a semi-opera. Following Purcell's death, the score was lost and only rediscovered early in the twentieth century

Lillibullero is a march that sets the words of a satirical ballad generally said to be by Lord Thomas Wharton to music attributed to Henry Purcell

Nymphs and Shepherds is a song written by Purcell

Hail! Bright Cecilia, also known as Ode to St. Cecilia, was composed in honour of the feast day of Saint Cecilia, patron saint of musicians

Sergei Rachmaninov (1873 – 1943) (also spelled Rachmaninoff) was a Russian composer and pianist. The 1917 Russian Revolution meant the end of Russia as the composer had known it. Rachmaninov was a member of the Russian bourgeoisie, and the Revolution led to the loss of his estate, his way of life, and his livelihood

Symphony No. 1 was so poorly received that he waited 10 years before composing Symphony No. 2

Piano Concerto No. 2 is used in the film Brief Encounter

Piano Concerto No. 3 is used in the film Shine

Piano Concerto No. 4 has a distinctive jazzy quality and a theme in the second movement partially based on the nursery rhyme Three Blind Mice

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini was written for piano and orchestra, closely resembling a piano concerto

Symphonic Dances is an orchestral suite. Last major composition

Aleko – opera

The Miserly Knight – opera

Franchesca da Rimini – opera

Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683 – 1764) replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time

Hippolyte et Aricle – first opera

Les Indes galantes is an opera-ballet consisting of a prologue and four entrees (acts)

Castor et Pollux – opera

Platee – comic opera. The plot concerns an ugly water nymph who believes that Jupiter, the king of the gods, is in love with her

Maurice Ravel (1875 – 1937) was a French composer associated with Impressionism. Ravel received as honorary doctorate from Oxford University

Bolero is a one-movement orchestral piece. Originally composed as a ballet commissioned by Russian actress and dancer Ida Rubinstein, the piece premiered in 1928

Daphnis et Chloe concerns the love between the goatherd Daphnis and the shepherdess Chloe. The ballet is in one act and three scenes

Pavane pour une infante defunte (Pavane for a Dead Princess) is a work for solo piano

L’Heure Espagnole (The Spanish Hour) – short opera

L'enfant et les sortileges (The Child and the Spells) – short opera

Ma mere l’oye (Mother Goose)

Scheherazade – title of both an overture and a song cycle

Rapsodie Espagnole was one of Ravel's first major works for orchestra

Tzigane is a rhapsody. The name of the piece is derived from the generic European term for "gypsy"

Steve Reich (born 1936) is an American composer who is one of the pioneering composers of minimal music. His innovations include using tape loops to create phasing patterns

It's Gonna Rain is a minimalist composition for magnetic tape written in 1965. It was Reich's first major work and a landmark in minimalism and process music

Radio Rewrite is based on two songs by Radiohead

Music for 18 Musicians

Different Trains

Ottorino Respighi (1879 – 1936) was an Italian composer and musicoligist

'Roman Trilogy' of symphonic poems: Fountains of Rome, Pines of Rome, and Roman Festivals

The Birds – orchestral suite. An attempt to transcribe birdsong into musical notation

Ancient Airs and Dances

Trittico Botticelliano – three movements inspired by Botticelli paintings in the Uffizi Gallery

Terry Riley (born 1935) is an American composer and a pioneer of minimalism

In C is often cited as the first minimalist composition

A Rainbow in Curved Air

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 – 1908) was a master of orchestration and a member of The Five. His editing of works by The Five are significant. This work included the completion of Alexander Borodin's opera Prince Igor

Scheherazade is a symphonic suite based on One Thousand and One Nights, sometimes known as The Arabian Nights

Capriccio Espagnole is an orchestral suite, based on Spanish folk melodies

Russian Easter Festival Overture is a concert overture dedicated to the memories of Modest Mussorgsky and Alexander Borodin

The Snow Maiden – opera. The snow maiden is Snegurochka, the daughter of King Frost and Fairy Spring. Based on a play by Alexander Ostrovsky

Dance of the Tumblers – from The Snow Maiden

The Tale of Tsar Saltan is an opera based on a poem by Alexander Pushkin. The Tsar marries Militrissa

Flight of the Bumblebee – from The Tale of Tsar Saltan

Sadko – opera. Sadko is a minstrel from Novgorod

Mozart and Salieri is an opera based on a verse drama by Alexander Pushkin

The Golden Cockerel – last opera

The Tsar’s Bride – opera

Christmas Eve – opera based on a short story by Nikolai Gogol

Mlada – opera-ballet in four acts. A fantasy tale about ancient pagan Slavs

Joaquín Rodrigo (1901 – 1999) was a Spanish composer

Concierto de Aranjuez is a composition for classical guitar and orchestra. Written in 1939, it is Rodrigo's best-known work

Johan Roman (1694 – 1758) was a Swedish Baroque composer. He has been called “the father of Swedish music” or “the Swedish Handel”

Gioachino Rossini (1792 – 1868) was an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, chamber music, songs, and some instrumental and piano pieces

William Tell – last opera by Rossini. Gessler ordered William Tell to shoot the apple from his son’s head. Based on Friedrich Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell. Story of Switzerland’s fight for independence from Austria

La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie) – Ninetta hopes to marry Giannetto, returning from the war. She tries to shelter her father Fernando Villabella, who has deserted from the army, and is troubled by the attentions of the mayor, Gottardo

The Barber of Seville – features Rosina, Doctor Bartolo, Count Almaviva, and Figaro (the Barber of Seville). The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais’s comedy Le Barbier de Seville

Largo al Factotum – barber’s introductory song

La Cenerentola (Cinderella) – opera based on the fairy tale by Charles Perrault

La donna del lago is an opera by Rossini, based on The Lady of the Lake, a poem by Sir Walter Scott

Moses in Egypt – opera

La Danza – song in Tarantella napoletana time

Il turco in Italia (The Turk in Italy) – opera buffa

Il viaggio a Reims (The Journey to Reims) was written to celebrate the coronation of French King Charles X in 1825

Anton Rubinstein (1829 – 1894) was a Russian pianist, composer, conductor, and founder of the St Petersburg Conservatory. His brother, Nikolay, was also a pianist, and founded the Moscow Conservatory

Demon – opera. Best known work

Erik Satie (1866 – 1925) was a French composer and pianist

The Gymnopedies are three piano compositions which were published in Paris starting in 1888

Gnossiennes are several piano compositions

Satie wrote the music to a ballet, Parade, with scenery and costumes designed by Picasso

Camille Saint-Saens (1835 – 1921) was a French composer of the Romantic era

The Carnival of the Animals is in 14 movements. The first movement is known as Introduction and Royal March of the Lion

Tortoises move to a slow rendition of the famous 'Galop infernal' (commonly called the Can-can) from Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in the Underworld in Carnival of the Animals

Music critics are described as donkeys in Carnival of the Animals

The Swan in Carnival of the Animals is played on the cello

Danse Macabre is a tone poem for orchestra. Theme music for Jonathan Creek

Symphony No. 3, Organ was dedicated to Liszt

Samson and Delilah is the only opera by Saint-Saëns that is regularly performed

Pablo de Sarasate (1844 – 1908) was a Spanish composer and violinist

Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs) is a composition for violin and orchestra written in 1878. It is based on themes of the Roma people

Spanish Dances are a collection of eight pieces for violin and piano

Carmen Fantasy

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660 – 1725) was a Baroque composer especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera. His son, Domenico, is considered to be the father of modern keyboard technique

Mitridate Eupatore is an opera seria based on Mithridates the Great of Pontus

Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951) was born in Vienna to an Ashkenazi Jewish family. Schoenberg moved to Los Angeles in 1934. He was the leader of the Second Viennese School. Developed twelve-tone technique, a widely influential compositional method of manipulating an ordered series of all twelve notes in the chromatic scale

Moses und Aron – unfinished opera

Pelleas und Melisande – symphonic poem

Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828) was a pupil of Salieri. Born in Austria. Possibly died of syphilis or mercury poisoning. Died aged 31. Buried in Vienna. Composed 10 symphonies and wrote 600 Lieder (songs)

Schubert’s works are categorized by D numbers, after Otto Deutsch

Symphony No. 8 is commonly known as the Unfinished Symphony. Schubert started it in 1822 but left with only two movements

Trout Quintet – piano quintet

String Quartet No. 14, Death and the Maiden

Rosamunde is set on Cyprus where Princess Rosamunde lives in the guise of a shepherdess. Based on a play by Helmina von Chezy

Winterreise (Winter Journey) – song cycle

Three Marches Militaire – written for piano four-hands

An die musik – lied for solo voice and piano

Robert Schumann (1810 – 1856) was born in Germany. Married pianist Clara Wieck in 1840. Clara Schumann was a lifelong friend of Brahms. After a suicide attempt in 1854, Schumann was admitted to a mental asylum, at his own request, in Endenich near Bonn. Diagnosed with ‘psychotic melancholia,' Schumann died two years later

Carnaval – written for piano solo

Symphonic Etudes

Fantasie in C – written for piano solo. Dedicated to Franz Liszt

Kinderzenen (Scenes from Childhood)

Papillons (Butterflies) – a suite of piano pieces. The work is meant to represent a masked ball

Symphony No. 1, Spring

Symphony No. 3, Rhenish

Alexander Scriabin (1872 – 1915) was a Russian composer and pianist who initially developed a highly lyrical and idiosyncratic tonal language inspired by the music of Frederic Chopin. Quite independent of the innovations of Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed, as a sort of mysticism, an increasingly atonal musical system

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 – 1975) had a complex relationship with the Soviet government, suffering two official denunciations of his music, in 1936 and 1948, and the periodic banning of his work. He won numerous state awards. Shostakovich graduated from St Petersburg Conservatory

Symphony No. 2, To October

Symphony No. 3, The First of May

Symphony No. 7, Leningrad is dedicated to the city of Leningrad and was completed on 27 December 1941

Symphony No. 9 is an ironic Haydnesque parody, which failed to satisfy demands for a ‘hymn of victory.’ The war was won, and unfortunately Shostakovich’s ‘pretty’ symphony was interpreted as a mockery of the Soviet Union’s victory rather than a celebratory piece

Symphony No. 11, The Year 1905

Symphony No. 12, The Year 1917

Symphony No. 13, Babi Yar

Lady Macbeth of the Mtsenck District – opera based on a novel of the same name by Nikolai Leskov. It tells the story of a lonely woman in 19th century Russia, who falls in love with one of her husband's workers and is driven to murder

The Golden Age – ballet that revolves around the visit of a Soviet football team to a Western city (referred to as 'U-town'). Shostakovich is said to have coined the expression "Football is the ballet of the masses"

The Nose – opera based on Nikolai Gogol's 1836 story of the same name

Jean Sibelius (1865 – 1957) is the best-known composer from Finland and was the cultural figurehead of Finnish nationalism

Finlandia is a tone poem composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the Russian Empire

Sibelius was one of a number of composers to compose music based on Maurice Maeterlinck's 1892 drama Pelleas et Melisande. While Debussy composed a five act opera, Sibelius was content with an eight movement orchestral suite

Kullervo is a choral symphony

Symphony No. 7 was the final published symphony of Sibelius. Completed in 1924, it is notable for being a one-movement symphony

Sibelius wrote an Eighth symphony but burned all traces of the score

Karelia Suite is a subset of pieces from the Karelia Music

The Swan of Tuonela is part of the Lemminkäinen Suite (Four Legends from the Kalevala)

Valse Triste (Tragic Waltz)

King Christian II Suite

Christian Sinding (1856 – 1941) was born in Norway and regarded as the successor to Edvard Grieg

Rustle of Spring – best-known work

Bedrich Smetana (1824 – 1884) was a Czech composer. Smetana became deaf due to syphilis and died in a lunatic asylum

Ma Vlast (My Country) is a set of six symphonic poems

Vltava (The Moldau) is the second symphonic poem in Ma Vlast. Vltava is the river that flows through Prague

The Bartered Bride is a comic opera. Marenka is the title character

Ethel Smyth (1858 – 1944) was an English composer and a member of the women's suffrage movement, In 1922 Smyth became the first female composer to be awarded a damehood

Der Wald (The Forest) – opera

The Wreckers – opera

John Philip Sousa (1854 – 1932) was an American bandmaster and composer, known as the "The March King"

The sousaphone is named after Sousa, who popularized its use in his band

The Liberty Bell is used as the signature tune of Monty Python's Flying Circus

The Stars and Stripes Forever is the official National March of the USA

The Washington Post is a march composed for the newspaper's essay contest awards ceremony

El Capitan – operetta. El Capitan also refers to the march of the same name, composed of themes from the operetta

Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871 – 1927) was a Swedish composer, conductor and pianist. Descended from the Vasa kings

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928 – 2007) was a German composer known for his ground-breaking work in electronic music

Helicopter String Quartet involves four helicopters with pilots. It also forms the third scene of Stockhausen's opera Mittwoch aus Licht (Wednesday from Light)

Johann Strauss I (1804 – 1849) was the father of Johann Strauss II

Radetzky March was written to commemorate Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky von Radetzy's victory at the Battle of Custoza

Johann Strauss II (1825 – 1899) was born in Vienna. Known as “The Waltz King”. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet

The Blue Danube is a waltz composed in 1866

Emperor Waltz was written for Emperor Franz Joseph I

Tritsch-Tratsch Polka – Tritsch-Tratsch (chit-chat) refers to the Viennese passion for gossip

Tales from the Vienna Woods – waltz

Die Fledermaus (The Bat) is an operetta featuring Gabriel von Eisenstein and his wife, Rosalinde. Dr Falke is known as ‘the bat’

Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron) is an operetta

Richard Strauss (1864 – 1949) was born in Munich. Strauss wrote a series of tone poems and operas. Hugo von Hofmannsthal wrote libretti for several of Strauss’s operas

Thus Spake Zarathustra is a tone poem inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's novel. The opening section is used in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey

Don Juan – tone poem

Alpine Symphony – tone poem for a large orchestra (125 players)

Ein Heldenleben – symphonic poem

Salome is an opera based on the play Salome by Oscar Wilde

Dance of the Seven Veils is Salome's dance performed before Herod II

Der Rosenkavalier (The Cavalier of the Rose) – the opera has four main characters: the aristocratic Marschallin, her very young lover Count Octavian Rofrano, her coarse cousin Baron Ochs, and Ochs' prospective fiancee Sophie von Faninal. A silver rose is delivered as a form of marriage proposal. Set in Vienna

Elektra is an opera based on Sophocles' tragedy Electra

Ariadne auf Naxos – opera. Ariadne lies outside a cave on the island of Naxos, having been abandoned there by her lover Theseus

Intermezzo is an opera based on an actual incident in Strauss's life

Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman without a Shadow) – opera

Arabella – opera

Capriccio – Strauss's final opera. Subtitled "A Conversation Piece for Music"

Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971) was a Russian composer. He was a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov

Stravinsky first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresario Serge Diaghilev and performed by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes (Russian Ballet): L'Oiseau de feu (The Firebird) (1910), Petrushka (1911), and Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) (1913)

The Firebird tells the story of Prince Ivan who kills the evil magician Kashchei with the help of the Firebird. Mikhail Fokine wrote the libretto

Petrushka is the story of a Russian traditional puppet, Petrushka, who is made of straw and with a bag of sawdust as his body, but who comes to life and develops emotions. Both Petrushka and a Moor fall in love with a Ballerina. Petrushka was danced by Nijinsky at the premiere in 1911

The Rite of Spring is in two parts – Adoration of the Earth, and The Sacrifice. There was a riot at first performance, in Paris

The Rake’s Progress is an opera based on the paintings of William Hogarth. Libretto by WH Auden

Concerto in E-flat, Dumbarton Oaks is a chamber concerto named for the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Washington D.C.

Oedipus Rex is an opera-oratorio based on Sophocles's tragedy, and written by Jean Cocteau

Les noces (The Wedding) is a dance cantata, or ballet with vocalists

Symphony of Psalms – choral symphony

Josef Suk (1874 – 1935) was a Czech composer. He married the daughter of his teacher, Antonin Dvorak. Suk won the silver medal for music at the Art competitions at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles

Asrael Symphony was written by in memory of Suk's father-in-law and teacher, Antonín Dvorak, and his wife (Dvorak's daughter) Otilie Sukova. Asrael is the Angel of Death in Islam

Franz von Suppe (1819 – 1895) was an Austrian composer of light operas

Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna – overture

Light Cavalry Overture

The Beautiful Galatea Overture

Johan Svendsen (1840 – 1911) was a Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist who lived most his life in Copenhagen. He was a close friend of Wagner

Norwegian Artists’ Carnival

Romance for Violin and Orchestra

Germaine Tailleferre (1892 – 1983) was a French composer and the only female member of Les Six

Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 – 1585) was an English Renaissance composer of choral music. He worked with William Byrd

Spem in alium (Hope in any other) is written for eight five-voice choirs

Lamentations of Jeremiah was written for the Holy Week services

Salvator Mundi was a joint venture with William Byrd

Francisco Tarrega (1852 – 1909) was a Spanish composer and classical guitarist known as the “father of modern guitar playing”

Recuerdos de la Alhambra (Memories of the Alhambra) is a classical guitar piece

Guiseppe Tartini (1692 – 1770) was an Italian Baroque composer and violinist

The Devil’s Trill is a work for solo violin that is technically demanding

John Tavener (1944 – 2013) was a composer of choral religious works

The Whale is an early cantata based on the story of Jonah and the Whale

The Protecting Veil is a composition for cello and strings that was shortlisted for the 1992 Mercury Prize

Song for Athene was written as a tribute to Athene Hariades, a young half-Greek actress who was killed in a cycling accident

The Lamb is a setting to music of a William Blake poem

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893) was born in Votkinsk in the Russian Empire. He is buried in Alexander Nevsky cemetery in St Petersburg. He married Antonina Miliukova. Nadezhda von Meck was a patroness of Tchaikovsky

Swan Lake is a ballet. It tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. Lover of Prince Siegfried. Includes Lake in Moonlight

The Nutcracker Suite is a two-act ballet. Tchaikovsky's adaptation of the story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E. T. A. Hoffmann was commissioned by the director of the Imperial Theatres, Ivan Vsevolozhsky in 1891. Children – Clara and Fritz

Waltz of the Snowflakes, Waltz of the Flowers – in The Nutcracker Suite

Dance of the Reed Flutes – one of The Four Dances in The Nutcracker Suite

The Nutcracker Suite is noted especially for its use of the celesta as solo instrument in the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

The Sleeping Beauty is a ballet and the longest work by Tchaikovsky

In 1922, Sergei Diaghilev arranged a 45-minute version of the final act of The Sleeping Beauty for his Ballets Russes, entitled Aurora's Wedding

Symphony No. 1, Winter Daydreams

Symphony No. 2, Little Russian

Symphony No. 6, Pathetique (Passionate) was composed in 1893. First performed nine days before his death

1812 Overture – Tchaikovsky’s festival overture Opus 49. Composed in 1880 to commemorate Russia's defence of its motherland against Napoleon's invading Grande Armee in 1812. Performed at the opening celebrations for Carnegie Hall in 1891

Eugene Onegin is an opera based on the novel by Pushkin

Maid of Orleans is an opera about Joan of Arc based on several sources: Friedrich Schiller's The Maid of Orleans

The Queen of Spades is an opera based on a novella of Alexander Pushkin, but with a dramatically altered plot

Iolanta was the last opera Tchaikovsky composed. The libretto was written by the composer's brother. Modest

Romeo and Juliet is an Overture-Fantasy

Slavonic March is a tone poem written to celebrate Russia's intervention in the Serbo-Turkish War

Capriccio Italien is a fantasy for orchestra

The Tempest – symphonic poem. Based on the Shakespeare play

Hans von Bulow gave the first performance of Piano Concerto No. 1 following the refusal of Nikolay Rubinstein

Piano Concerto No. 3 was unfinished

Georg Telemann (1681 – 1767) was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Telemann was one of the most prolific composers in history: his oeuvre comprises more than 3,000 pieces

Michael Tippett (1905 – 1998) was an English composer. He was imprisoned as a conscientious objector in World War II

A Child of Our Time is an oratorio inspired by Kristallnacht

The Midsummer Marriage is an opera based on The Magic Flute

The Ice Break – opera

Concerto for Double String Orchestra

Edgard Varese (1883 – 1965) was a French-born composer who spent most of his life in America. Coined the term "organized sound"

Ameriques was first work Varese composed in America

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 – 1958) was born in Down Ampney, Gloucestershire. He served in the Army in World War I

The Lark Ascending is a work for solo violin and orchestra. It is dedicated to English violinist Marie Hall. Inspired by a poem by George Meredith. The piece has been voted number one in the Classic FM annual Hall of Fame poll eleven times

Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis is a work for string orchestra

Fantasia on Greensleeves

Vaughan Williams composed nine symphonies

Symphony No. 1, A Sea Symphony. The text of A Sea Symphony comes from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass

Symphony No. 2, A London Symphony

Symphony No. 3, Pastoral Symphony

Symphony No. 7, Sinfonia antartica (Antarctic Symphony) is based on the film Scott of the Antarctic

On Wenlock Edge is a song cycle comprising of settings of six poems from A. E. Housman's 1896 collection A Shropshire Lad

Sir John in Love is an opera. The libretto, by the composer himself, is based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor

Hugh the Drover – opera

The Pilgrim’s Progress – final opera

Guiseppe Verdi (1813 – 1901) was an Italian Romantic composer who dominated the Italian opera scene. He was born near Busseto in Emilia-Romagna. His second wife was the operatic soprano Giuseppina Strepponi

Francesco Maria Piave was the librettist of ten Verdi operas

After Italy was unified in 1861, many of Verdi's early operas were re-interpreted as Risorgimento works with hidden Revolutionary messages that probably had not been intended by either the composer or librettist. Beginning in Naples in 1859 and spreading throughout Italy, the slogan ‘Viva VERDI’ was used as an acronym for Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia (Viva Victor Emmanuel King of Italy), referring to Victor Emmanuel II, then king of Sardinia

La traviata (The Fallen Woman) is based on the Alexander Dumas fils play The Lady of the Camellias. Violetta Valery is the heroine who dies of TB. Other characters include Alfredo (her lover) and Germont

Libiamo ne' lieti calici (Let's drink from the joyful cups) is a duet with chorus from La traviata

Il Trovatore (The Troubadour) – Leonora falls in love with Manrico, the troubadour. Features a gypsy, Azucena. Leonora poisons herself

Il Trovatore contains the Anvil Chorus

Rigoletto – the title character is a humpbacked jester of the Duke of Mantua. Gilda is the Duke’s daughter. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo

La Donna e Mobile (women are fickle) – song in Rigoletto

Aida is an opera in four acts to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette. It was first performed at the Khedivial Opera House in Cairo on December 24, 1871. Includes the Triumphal March

Aida is the handmaid of Amneris, Princess of Egypt. She is an Ethiopian princess in love with Radames. Set during the 25th Dynasty

Don Carlos is a grand opera based on the dramatic play Don Carlos, Infante of Spain by Friedrich Schiller. The story is based on conflicts in the life of Carlos, Prince of Asturias (1545 – 1568), after his betrothed Elisabeth of Valois was married instead to his father Philip II of Spain as part of the peace treaty ending the Italian War of 1551 – 1559 between the Houses of Habsburg and Valois

Nabucco is an opera that follows the plight of the Jews as they are exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian king Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar II)

Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves is a chorus in Nabucco

Simon Boccanegra is an opera about the first Doge of Genoa

Macbeth was the first Shakespeare play that Verdi adapted for the operatic stage

Otello – opera based on Othello

Falstaff – Verdi’s last opera. Based on The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV

Messa da Requiem (commonly known as Verdi's Requiem) was composed in memory of Italian poet and novelist Alessandro Manzoni

Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball) is an opera concerning the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden in 1792

La Forza del destino (The Force of Destiny) is an opera. Characters include Don Alvaro. Leonora, Marquis of Calatrava, Brother Melitone, Don Carlo

I vespri siciliani (The Sicilian Vespers) – opera written for the Paris Opera

Ernani is an opera based on the play Hernani by Victor Hugo

Tomas Luis de Victoria (c. 1548 – 1611) was the most famous composer of the 16th century in Spain, and one of the most important composers of the Counter-Reformation, along with Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso. Victoria was not only a composer, but also an accomplished organist and singer

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887 – 1959) was a Brazilian composer, possibly the best-known classical composer born in South America

Choros (Weeping)

The Mountains of Brazil

Tales of the Caboclo

Antonio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741), nicknamed “Il Prete Rosso” (The Red Priest), was a Venetian priest and baroque music composer, as well as a famous violinist. Wrote a number of operas for soprano Anna Giraud

Vivaldi’s works are categorized by RV number, named after Peter Ryom

Le Quattro Stagioni (The Four Seasons) is a set of four violin concertos composed by Vivaldi c. 1720

Concerto No. 1 in E major, "Spring" (La primavera)

Concerto No. 2 in G minor, "Summer" (L'estate)

Concerto No. 3 in F major, "Autumn" (L'autunno)

Concerto No. 4 in F minor, "Winter" (L'inverno)

Vivaldi wrote 46 operas. First opera Ottone in villa

L’Olimpiade (The Olympiad) is a libretto

Gloria is a setting of the hymn Gloria in excelsis Deo

Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883) was born in Leipzig. His first marriage was to Minna Planer. Wagner married Liszt’s daughter, Cosima, who was previously married to Hans von Bulow. Wagner was anti-Semitic. Hitler was obsessed with his operas. King Ludwig II of Bavaria was a patron of Wagner

Wagner’s works are indexed with WWV numbers, initialism for Wagner Werke Verzeichnis (Wagner Works Catalogue)

Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) is a four-opera cycle. Wagner wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. Although individual operas of the sequence are sometimes performed separately, Wagner intended them to be performed in series. The first performance as a cycle opened the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876. The complete Rimg cycle lasts 17 hours

Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold) In the depths of the Rhine, the three Rhinemaidens guard the Rhinegold, a treasure of immeasurable value. The Nibelung dwarf Alberich is dazzled by the sight of it. The girls explain that whoever wins the gold and forges it into a ring will gain power over the world, but must first renounce love. Frustrated by his unsuccessful attempts to catch one of the girls, Alberich curses love and steals the gold

Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) Siegmund and Sieglinde have an incestuous relationship. Seigmund is killed by Hunding. Sieglinde has a child, Siegfried

Die Walkure – best-known excerpt is the Ride of the Valkyries

Siegfried – Siegfried, brought up by Mime, kills the dragon Fafner with the sword Nothung

Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods) Siegfried is killed by Hagen, a Nibelung. Brunhilde rides her horse into Siegfried’s funeral pyre in Gotterdammerung. It ends with a fire and a flood

Brunhilde is Wotan’s daughter. Fricka is Wotan’s wife. Tarnhelm is a magic helmet in Der Ring des Nibelungen. It is used as a cloak of invisibility by Alberich in Das Rheingold. It also allows one to change one's form

Tannhauser is an opera based on a knight and poet who goes to Rome to ask pope Urban IV to be absolved of his sins, after he falls under the spell of Venus and goes to live in her realm, Venusberg

Pilgrim’s Chorus is from Tannhauser

Tannhauser is one of the most frequently performed work at The Proms

Parsifal was the last completed opera by Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival (Percival) and his quest for the Holy Grail

Lohengrin is the story of a knight of the Holy Grail coming to the rescue of a falsely accused maiden – riding on a swan

Bridal Chorus (Here Comes the Bride) – from Lohengrin

Tristan and Isolde – Isolde, wife of King Mark of Cornwall, and Tristan, Mark’s champion and friend, fall hopelessly in love

Tristan chord – heard in the opening phrase of Tristan and Isolde as part of the leitmotif relating to Tristan

Liebestod (Love-Death) is the final music in Tristan and Isolde. Isolde sings over Tristan's dead body

Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg (The Master-Singers of Nuremberg) takes four and a half hours to perform. The cobbler-poet Hans Sachs, is based on a historical figure, Hans Sachs, the most famous of the master-singers

'Der fliegende Hollander' (The Flying Dutchman) is based on the legend of a Dutch sea captain who pledges to round the Cape of Good Hope. He is doomed to sail for ever, until Senta, the daughter of Daland, sacrifices herself to release him from the curse

Rienzi is based on an Edward Bulwer-Lytton novel. Rienzi is an Italian medieval politician and popular leader, who styled himself as "tribune of the Roman people"

Emile Waldteufel (1837 – 1915) was born in Strasbourg

Les Patineurs Valse (The Skaters’ Waltz) is Waldteufel's best-known work

William Walton (1902 – 1983) was born in Oldham. Died on the island of Ischia

Belshazzar’s Feast is a cantata Osbert Sitwell selected the text from the Bible

Crown Imperial was performed at the coronation of King George VI in 1937. At the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, the march was also used (along with a further Coronation March written by Walton, Orb and Sceptre)

Façade is a series of poems by Edith Sitwell, in which the poems are recited over an instrumental accompaniment by William Walton

Troilus and Cressida is the only full-length opera by Walton

Scores for Shakespeare films including Henry V, Hamlet and Richard III

Score for Battle of Britain

Spitfire Prelude and Fugue was arranged and extracted in 1942 from music he had written for the motion picture The First of the Few

Carl Maria von Weber (1786 – 1826) was one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school. Weber's works, especially his operas, greatly influenced the development of the Romantic opera in Germany

Der Freischutz (The Marksman) is considered the first German Romantic opera

Euryanthe is based on a13th-century French romance

Oberon, or The Elf King's Oath is Weber's only English opera

Invitation to the Dance is a piano piece orchestrated by Hector Berlioz

Anton Webern (1883 – 1945) was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique

Kurt Weill (1900 – 1950) was a German composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht. Married to Lotte Lenya

The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht was adapted from an 18th century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera and offers a Socialist critique of the capitalist world. Includes the song Mack the Knife

Judith Weir (born 1954) was appointed as the first female Master of the Queen’s Music in 2014

A Night at the Chinese Opera is Weir's first full-scale opera

Charles-Marie Widor (1844 – 1937) was a French compser. Wrote ten organ symphonies

Symphony for Organ No. 5 was composed by in 1879. The fifth movement is often referred to as just Widor's Toccata, which is often played as a recessional at wedding ceremonies

Iannis Xenakis (1922 – 2001) was a Greek-French composer, born in Romania. He pioneered the use of mathematical models in music.

Metastaseis is an orchestral work that introduced independent parts for every musician of the orchestra

Domenico Zipoli (1688 – 1726) was an Italian Baroque composer. He became a Jesuit in order to work in the Reductions of Paraguay. He is remembered as the most accomplished musician among Jesuit missionaries

Groups of composers

The Five or The Mighty Five was the loose collection of five Russian composers in St Petersburg. Known in Russian as The Mighty Handful, the group label was applied in 1867 by the critic Vladimir Stasov. The group had the aim of producing a specifically Russian kind of art music, rather than one that imitated older European music or relied on European-style conservatory training. The formation of the group began in 1856, with the first meeting of Mily Balakirev and Cesar Cui; Modest Mussorgsky joined them in 1857, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1861, and Alexander Borodin in 1862

Les Six is a name, inspired by The Five, given in 1923 by critic Henri Collet to a group of six composers working in Montparnasse whose music is often seen as a reaction against the musical style of Richard Wagner and impressionist music. The members were: Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, and Germaine Tailleferre

Belyayev circle was a society of Russian musicians who met in Saint Petersburg between 1885 and 1908, and whose members included Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov. The circle was named after Mitrofan Belyayev, a timber merchant and amateur musician who became a music philanthropist and publisher

Darmstadt School refers to a loose group of compositional styles created by composers who attended the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music from the early 1950s to the early 1960s. Coined by Luigi Nono, Darmstadt School describes the uncompromisingly serial music written by composers such as Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen