Talk:List of Classical-era composers

Authenticity check

A search reveals that the phrase "regarded by many" appears in the text. Is the phrase a symptom of a dubious statement? Could a source be quoted instead? Perhaps the "many" could be identified? Might text be edited to more genuinely reflect specific facts? Wetman

Untitled

Not that I know of. Music is funny that way... Beethoven is indeed regarded by many to be first romantic composer, but generally he is classified as a classical composer in music history textbooks. The problem arises from the fact that all musical period classifications are somewhat arbitrary. For example, there are also a lot of people who regard Franz Shubert or Carl Maria von Weber as the first romantic composer. --feldmahler

Mondonville?

I came to WP this time to see where Mondonville fits re baroque->classical -- but not much luck: He's in the baroque WP category but it's not mentioned in his article and he's not on the sub-period lists. If anyone knows more, i and others would appreciate something more detailed being added. (Posted to his article and Talk:List_of_Baroque_composers and Talk:List_of_Classical_era_composers.) "alyosha" (talk) 20:27, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

What do you do if the date of birth is unknown?

This file (not this talk file, the other file) is organized in sections. The inclusion into a given section is determined by the date of birth. And on top of that the sections are ordered from the earliest to the latest dates of birth within that section. Great. And what do you do if the date of birth is unknown? Not include the guy in the file? His fault? He should have watched over his birth certificate better? I included Francesco Zappa, active 1763-1788, into the 1710-1730 section, and I put him with the composers born around 1730, that is at the very end of that section, because that seemed to me to be the most likely. Any of these choices is debatable and I do not know a "reliable source" that says anything about the most likely year of birth. Without a "reliable source" putting him into any section would be just as shaky. So what can you do? This being Wikipedia is there an "official policy" on such matters? Should we argue for the next year if he should go say with the 1730-1750 bunch or the before 1710 crowd, or maybe let him stay where he is but move him with composers born ca. 1720? Looking forward to some fun. Signed: Basemetal (write to me here) 06:56, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

jbb

Should baroque composers really be listed here?

I am wondering if it is not time for a major cleanup of this list? I don´t know enough to say who belongs where, but it seems to me there are a lot of baroque composers here. Do they all really have to do with the transition to the classical era? It is very confusing for somebody like me who wants to learn more. 21:39, 5 January 2015 (UTC)Fotiu (talk)

Composers who maybe shouldn't be in bold? I presume bold means very famous.

• Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762)
• Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783)
• Giovanni Battista Sammartini (1700-1775)
• Franz Krommer (1759–1831)
• Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842)
• Franz Xaver Süssmayr (1766–1803)
• Friedrich Kuhlau (1786–1832)
• Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791–1864)
• Ignaz Moscheles
• Fromental Halévy (1799–1862)

I attend 100+ classical concerts a year and listen to an hour or more of classical music on radio per day, and the only name of these I recognize is Cherubini, but I can't name a piece by him. My standard for bolding would be whether someone such as myself can name or hum a couple of pieces by the composer. I will confess to limited knowledge of exclusively operatic and choral composers, and maybe some of these fall in those categories.Tetsuo (talk) 01:33, 20 March 2017 (UTC)

They are very famous composers. For example both Hasse and Meyerbeer are two important composers in the opera history and Sammartini is one of the earliest composers of symphonies and an important composer for the development of symphonies. This list have been a big mess for several years and is in need of a major clean up. 15:47, 17 March 2018 (UTC)Fotiu (talk)

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bold?

Which composers are honoured by having their names in bold. The page doesn't state the criteria at all, let alone provide some evidence. Right now it has no more meaning than the author's personal preferences (which perhaps is what it is).

Perhaps a good criteria would be "composers who have more than 50 recordings of their works listed on say prestoclassical.co.uk. Thus Richard Leveridge (1670-1758) would not be in bold as he only has 2 recordings there (https://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/classical/composers/1199--leveridge). Whereas Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) would be listed as he has far more than 50 (https://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/classical/composers/981--hummel-j)

This would reflect current interest in the works of that composer. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Boiledspaghetti (talk • contribs) 14:32, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

Term classicism in music (1730 to 1820, aprox.)

• ast Música del Clasicismu
• bg Класицизъм (музика)
• ca Classicisme musical
• cs Klasicismus (hudba)
• da Klassicisme (musik)
• es Música del Clasicismo
• et Klassitsism (muusika)
• eu Klasizismo (musika)
• fi Klassismin musiikki
• gl Música do Clasicismohe
• it Classicismo (musica)
• lv Klasicisms (mūzika)
• nl Classicisme (muziek)
• no Klassisismen (musikk)
• pl Klasycyzm w muzycept
• ru Музыка эпохи классицизм
• sh Klasicizam (muzika)
• sk Hudobný klasicizmus
• sl Glasbeni klasicizem
• sr Класицизам (музика)
• uk Музика епохи класицизму

--Opus88888 (talk) 19:32, 11 June 2021 (UTC)

In English, however, Classicism "in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthetic attitude dependent on principles based in the culture, art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome, with the emphasis on form, simplicity, proportion, clarity of structure, perfection, restrained emotion, as well as explicit appeal to the intellect." and "Classicism is a specific genre of philosophy, expressing itself in literature, architecture, art, and music, which has Ancient Greek and Roman sources ...". Classical music and the Classical period are unrelated to those ideas, despite the (poorly sourced) 1st section there. Searching for classicism in music returns nothing. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 10:11, 12 June 2021 (UTC)

Hi. I mentioned this topic in relation to the term "classicist composers". Searching for classicist music, it returns various results. --Opus88888 (talk) 15:23, 15 June 2021 (UTC)

Tabulation

I have changed the lists to a sortable table, similar to that used on other Composer list pages. Agrestis (talk) 05:18, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

Ranking

I have added a column for 'ranking' to draw attention to the most important composers. Needless to say this is highly subjective. I used the lists on Template:Classical music as a starting point, but doubtless the finer points of who should or should not be highlighted in this way will cause much discussion amongst those with greater knowledge than I.

As a simple way to organise the sorting I used the number of recordings available for that composer on [Presto Music]. Star ratings were then assigned on the simple divisions:

• less than 100 recordings
• between 100 and 1,000 recordings
• over 1,000 recordings

Agrestis (talk) 05:19, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

The number of recordings is a good indication of how significantly the composer is favoured by the musical community as a whole. If musicians go to the effort to record and release that piece then they must consider it worthwhile. Collectively they are thus passing judgement. This is therefore along the lines of an opinion poll of the global musical community, which is about as close as we can get to an objective answer to the question 'which composers are best?'. It also has the advantage of being verifiable and easily available.

It is worthwhile to have these ratings because it draws attention to those composers for readers of the list. Not every reader is an experienced musician or will know much about classical music so they may have no idea who the important composers in that era are. These lists have become very long and are overwhelming. Without the rating column they are really only of interest to those who care about articles on very minor composers. With the rating column they become of use to the general reader. Agrestis (talk) 05:45, 18 October 2024 (UTC)