Orchestral music, like other art forms, has exibited a wide variety of both experimental and traditional forms during the 20th century.
-
Aaron Copland (born 1900, died 1990)
American composer.
- Composed Appalachian Spring and Billy the Kid
-
Gian-Carlo Menotti (born 1911)
American composer.
- Composed Amahl and the Night Visitors
-
Howard Hanson (born 1896, died 1981)
American composer.
-
Karlheinz Stockhausen (born 1928)
German avant-garde composer.
-
Norman Dello Joio (born 1913)
American composer.
- Composed The Triumph of St. Joan
-
Virgil Thomson (born 1896, died 1989)
American composer, musician and critic.
- Composed Four Saints in Three Acts
-
William Schuman (born 1910, died 1992)
American composer and educator.
-
Maurice Jarre (born 1924)
French composer.
- Won Oscars for the scores of Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago
-
Fritz Kreisler (born 1875, died 1962)
Austrian composer.
- Composed Caprice Viennois
-
Maurice Ravel (born 1875, died 1937)
French Impressionist composer.
-
Samuel Barber (born 1910, died 1981)
American composer.
- Composed Adagio for Strings
-
Sergei Prokofiev (born 1891, died 1953)
Russian composer.
- Composed Peter and the Wolf
-
Erik Satie (born 1866, died 1925)
French avant-garde composer.
-
Igor Stravinsky (born 1882, died 1971)
Russian ballet composer.
- Composed The Rite of Spring
-
Carl Orff (born 1895, died 1982)
German composer.
-
Claude Debussy (born 1862, died 1918)
French Impressionist composer and pianist.
-
Leonard Bernstein (born 1918, died 1990)
American conductor and composer.
- Composed Chichester Psalms and West Side Story
-
Darius Milhaud (born 1892, died 1974)
French composer.
- Composed Le Boeuf sur le Toit
-
Arnold Schoenberg (born 1874, died 1951)
Austrian-American composer.
- Composed Pierrot Lunaire; devised 12-tone musical system
-
Benjamin Britten (born 1913, died 1976)
English composer of operas, orchestral works, and choral music.
- Composed the opera Gloriana for the coronation of Elizabeth II
-
Manuel de Falla (born 1876, died 1946)
Spanish composer.
-
Ralph Vaughan Williams (born 1872, died 1958)
English composer.
- Composer of symphonies and vocal music
-
Charles Ives (born 1874, died 1954)
American composer.
- Composer of orchestral, choral, and chamber music, including Concord Sonata
-
George Gershwin (born 1898, died 1937)
American composer and pianist.
- Composed Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris
-
Alan Hovhaness (born 1911)
American composer.
- Wrote ''''And God Created Great Whales,'''' featuring the songs of humpback whales
-
Roy Harris (born 1898, died 1979)
American composer.
- Composed Folk-song Symphony
-
Alban Berg (born 1885, died 1935)
Austrian composer.
-
Heitor Villa-Lobos (born 1887, died 1959)
Brazilian composer.
- Composed Bachianas Brasileiras
-
Béla Bartók (born 1881, died 1945)
Hungarian composer.
- Incorporated Hungarian folk music into his compositions
-
Zoltán Kodaly (born 1882, died 1967)
Hungarian composer.
-
Ignace Jan Paderewski (born 1860, died 1941)
Polish composer, pianist and statesman.
-
Witold Lutoslawski (born 1913, died 1994)
Polish composer.
- Composer of orchestral works and chamber music
-
Aram Khachaturian (born 1903, died 1978)
Russian composer.
- Composer of ballets and piano pieces
-
Sergei Rachmaninov (born 1873, died 1943)
Russian composer and pianist.
- Composer of concertos, piano pieces and symphonies
-
Dimitri Shostakovich (born 1906, died 1975)
Russian composer.
- Composer of symphonies, operas, ballets and chamber music
-
Ernest Bloch (born 1880, died 1959)
Swiss-American composer.
-
Francis Poulenc (born 1899, died 1963)
French composer.
- Composed Dialogues des Carmélites
-
Arthur Honegger (born 1892, died 1955)
French composer.
- Composer of oratorios, orchestral works, and chamber music
-
David Diamond (born 1915)
American composer.
- Known for his popular and critically acclaimed symphonies and string quartets
-
Morton Feldman (born 1926, died 1987)
American avant-garde composer.
-
Carlisle Sessions Floyd (born 1926)
American composer.
- Wrote the opera Wuthering Heights
-
Graham Elias George (born 1912)
English composer.
- Wrote the opera Evangeline
-
Vittorio Giannini (born 1903, died 1966)
American composer.
- Wrote the opera The Scarlett Letter
-
Alberto Ginastera (born 1916, died 1983)
Argentine-American composer of modernistic operas.
-
Philip Glass (born 1937)
American avant-garde composer.
- Known for his use of electric wind instruments
-
Ferde Grofe (born 1892, died 1972)
American composer.
-
John Cage (born 1912, died 1992)
American experimental composer.
- Composed 4''33'' -- a work of ''''chance music'''' consisting of four and a half minutes of silence filled only with the noise of the audience
-
Bernard Herrmann (born 1911, died 1975)
American composer.
- Composed the theme for Hitchcock''s movie thriller Psycho
-
Giselher Klebe (born 1925)
German composer.
- Wrote Das Marchen von der Schonen Lilie
-
Ernst Krenek (born 1900)
Austrian-American composer.
- Wrote the first jazz opera, Johnny Spielt Auf
-
Krzysztof Penderecki (born 1933)
Polish avant-garde composer.
- Wrote the opera Devils of Loudun
-
Ravi Shankar (born 1920)
Indian musician and composer.
- His popular performances brought the sitar to the international stage
-
Rodion K. Shchedrin (born 1932)
Russian composer. Husband of ballerina Maya Plisetskaya.
- Wrote a ballet version of Carmen
-
William Grant Still (born 1895, died 1978)
American composer and conductor.
- Wrote ''''Afro-American Symphony''''
-
Mikis Theodorakis (born 1925)
Greek composer.
- Wrote the score for Zorba the Greek
-
Jaromir Weinberger (born 1896, died 1967)
Czech-born American composer.
- Wrote Schwanda the Bagpiper
-
Egon Wellesz (born 1885, died 1974)
Austrian opera composer and musicologist.
- An authority on Byzantine music
-
John Towner Williams (born 1932)
American composer and conductor.
- Wrote the Oscar-winning scores for Jaws and Star Wars
-
Iannis Xenakis (born 1922)
Rumanian-born French composer and musical theorist.
- Early proponent of computerized music
-
Sholom Secunda (born 1894, died 1974)
Russian-American conductor and composer.
- Wrote numerous operettas for the New York Yiddish Theater
