# List of music theorists

Music theory has existed since the advent of writing in ancient times. The earliest known practitioners include primarily Greek and some Chinese scholars. A few Indian sages such as Bharata Muni (Natya Shastra) are also credited with important treatises. Though much is lost, substantial treatises on ancient Greek music theory survive, including those by Aristoxenus, Nicomachus, Ptolemy and Porphyry. The influential Yue Jing Classic of Music from China is lost, though a few Ancient Chinese theorists from the Han dynasty and later have surviving contributions, such as Jing Fang and Xun Xu.
Writers of late antiquity—particularly Boethius, Cassiodorus and Isidore of Seville—were crucial in translating and transmitting much thought on music theory from classical antiquity to medieval Europe. However, the information relayed to the Post-classical era was minimal and European medieval theorists frequently misinterpreted what little Greek writings had been preserved. Important medieval European theorists include Hucbald, Guido of Arezzo, Johannes Cotto, Franco of Cologne, Philippe de Vitry. Many medieval music manuscripts of Europe were anonymous, and later compilers such as Martin Gerbert and Edmond de Coussemaker assigned names to unknown authors, such as 'Anonymous IV'. Concurrent with medieval Europe, scholars of the emerging Islamic Golden Age often more readily and thoroughly engaged with ancient Greek music treatises. Many Arab and Persian music theorists of this time have surviving works, such as Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, Safi al-Din al-Urmawi, Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi and Abd al-Qadir Maraghi. Theorists of the Byzantine Empire include George Pachymeres and Manuel Chrysaphes.
By the 15th century, European theorists were readily discussing the qualities of Renaissance music, with theorists such Johannes Tinctoris and Gioseffo Zarlino making important contributions to the study of counterpoint. Zarlino and Nicola Vicentino developed new theories on musical tuning, a topic which Vicentino publicly debated on with theorist Vicente Lusitano. At this time, the quality and quantity of Turkic musical sources increased, due to the rise of the Ottoman Empire. This laid the foundation of an 18th-century musical golden age in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, exemplified by composer-theorists such as Kasımpaşalı Osman Effendi, Dimitrie Cantemir and Abdülbaki Nasır Dede. Meanwhile, the Age of Enlightenment and the common practice period in Europe led to substantial changes in the nature of published music theory.

## Antiquity

| Name | Lifetime | Nationality | Major writing | Known for |
| Archytas | fl. early 4th century BCE | Greek | Only fragments and later citations surviveIn Barker 1989, pp. 39–52 | Naming the harmonic mean; a theory of acoustics correlating pitch with the speed of sound; may have been the first to describe the quadrivium |
| Aristoxenus | c. 375–360 BCE – ? | Greek | Ἁρμονικὰ στοιχεῖα [Elements of Harmony]In Barker 1989, pp. 119–189 and elsewhere | The oldest surviving substantial work of music theory. Foundational and comprehensive, though not completely extant |
| Archestratus | fl. early 3rd century BCE | Greek | Περὶ αὐλητῶν [On auletes]; quotations in Porphyry and PhilodemusIn Barker 2009, pp. 394–395, 410–411 | Tetrachord theory concerning the pyknon |
| Ptolemais of Cyrene | Perhaps fl. 250 BCE | Greek | Πυθαγορικὴ τῆς μουσικῆς στοιχείωσις [The Pythagorean Principles of Music] (lost) Quoted by PorphyryIn Barker 1989, pp. 239–242 | Theories on the proper roles of reason and sensory experience in the study of music. The only known female music theorist of antiquity. |
| Eratosthenes | c. 276 – c. 196 BCE | Greek | Only fragments and later citations surviveIn Barker 1989, pp. 364–369 | Calculating of the tuning of the tetrachord degrees |
| Didymos | fl. Late 1st century BCE | Greek | Only fragments and later citations survive; quoted by Porphyry, Ptolemy and Clement of AlexandriaIn Barker 1989, pp. 229–230, 242ff, 342ff | Theories on chromatic tetrachords |
| Jing Fang | 78–37 BCE | Chinese | 京式段嘉 [Jīng Shì Duàn Jiā]; excerpts in the 淮南子 Huainanzi and 隋書 Book of Sui | Discovered that 53 perfect fifths was approximate to 31 octaves while creating a musical scale of 60 tones |
| Bharata | fl. Early centuries CE | Indian | नाट्य शास्त्र [Natya Shastra] | Wrote a comprehensive overview of ancient Indian music |
| Dionysius the Areopagite | fl. 1st century CE | Roman | Concerning the Divine Hymns (lost); quoted by Dionysius | Purportedly one of the only treatises that discussed the Byzantine rite |
| Nicomachus of Gerasa | fl. late 1st – early 2nd century CE | Greek | Ἐγχειρίδιον ἁρμονικῆς [Manual of Harmonics]; Θεολογούμενα ἀριθμητικῆς [Theology of Arithmetic]In Barker 1989, pp. 245–269; Zanoncelli, pp. 133–204 | The only significant extant music theory works between Aristoxenus/Euclid and Ptolemy. |
| Ptolemy | after 83 – 161 CE | Greek | Ἁρμονικόν [Harmonics]In Barker 1989, pp. 270–391 | Among the most comprehensive and through music theory works of antiquity |
| Cleonides | After the 1st century CE | Greek | Εἰσαγωγὴ ἁρμονική [Introduction to Harmonics]In Strunk, pp. 35–46; Zanoncelli, pp. 71–132 | Introduces Aristoxenus' harmonic system. Influenced Manuel Bryennius considerably |
| Theon of Smyrna | fl. early 2nd century | Greek | On Mathematics Useful for the Understanding of PlatoIn Barker 1989, pp. 209–229 | Discusses music of numbers, instrumental music, and "music of the spheres" |
| Adrastus of Aphrodisias | fl. 2nd century | Greek | Περὶ Ἁρμονικῶν [On Harmonics] (lost); Quoted by Theon of SmyrnaIn Barker 1984, p. 210 | Writings on harmonics |
| Xun Xu | c. 221 – 289 | Chinese | Quoted in the 隋書 [Book of Song], vol. 6 | Linked the Heptatonic scale with the Shí-èr-lǜ. Developed a new finger-hole system for the dizi |
| Porphyry | c. 232/233 – c. 305 | Greek | Commentary on Ptolemy's HarmonicsIn Barker 1984, pp. 229–244 | Included substantial commentary on earlier theorists, sometimes quoting otherwise lost works. May have been the earliest Western writer to criticize secular music for its purported "sensual attraction" |
| Gaudentius | fl. 3rd – 4th century | Greek | Εἰσαγωγὴ ἁρμονική [Harmonic Introduction]In Strunk, pp. 66–85; Zanoncelli, pp. 305–369 | Synthesized the music theory of Pythagoras and Aristoxenus. Influenced Cassiodorus considerably |
| Alypius | fl. 4th century CE | Greek | Εἰσαγωγὴ Μουσική [Introduction to Music]In Zanoncelli, pp. 371–464 | Momprehensive explanation of ancient Greek musical notation |
| Aristides Quintilianus | fl. late 3rd and early 4th centuries | Greek | Περὶ Μουσικῆς [On Music]In Barker 1989, pp. 392–395 | Most comprehensive Greek writings on music's relationship to other topics |
| He Chengtian [ru] | 370–447 | Chinese | Treatise on Harmonics (lost) | Developed a theory of equal temperament |
| Bacchius [el] | fl. 4th century | Greek | Eisagōgē technēs mousikēs [Introduction to the Art of Music]In Zanoncelli, pp. 245–304 | General introductory text |
| Martianus Capella | fl. early 5th century | Roman | Book 9 of De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii [On the Marriage of Philology and Mercury] | Includes a translation of Aristides Quintilianus's On Music |
| Shen Yue | 441–513 | Chinese | Treatise on Harmonic and Celestial SystematicsEarlier version in the 隋書 [Book of Song] | Includes Xun Xu's developed dizi finger-hole system |

## 6th–14th centuries

| Name | Lifetime | Nationality | Major writing | Known for | Ref(s) |
| Boethius | c. 480 – 524 | Roman | De institutione musica | Transmission of ancient Greek music theory | |
| Cassiodorus | c. 485 – 585 | Roman | Institutiones Divinarum et Saecularium Litterarum | Helped formalize the seven liberal arts | |
| Isidore of Seville | c. 559 – 636 | Spanish | Etymologiarum sive Originum libri xx (chapters 15–23 deal with music) | | |
| Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi | 718 – 786 | Arab | | ʿArūḍ and its application to music | |
| Yunus al-Katib al-Mughanni | fl. late-8th century | Persian | Kitab al-Nagham | | |
| Al-Kindi | 801–873 | Arab | Al-risāla al-kubrā fī al-ta’līf (Grand treatise on composition) | | |
| Ibn Khordadbeh | 820–912 | Persian | Kitāb al-lahw wa-l-malahi | Description of music in pre-Islamic Persia | |
| Aurelian of Réôme | fl. 840–850 | Frankish | Musica disciplina | Earliest extant treatise on medieval music | [46][47] [48] |
| Johannes Scottus Eriugena | c. 810 – c. 877 | Irish | De divisione naturae and De divisione naturae | Mentions organum (scholars doubt this refers to polyphony) | |
| Hucbald | c. 850 – 930 | | De musica (formerly known as De harmonica institutione) | "One of the foremost expositors of music theory in the Carolingian era" | |
| Anonymous 8 | 9th century | | Musica enchiriadis | earliest extant discussion of polyphonic singing and the first chant melodies preserved in a precise pitch notation | |
| Abu Ahmad Monajjem | 855 or 866 – 912 | | Resāla fi’l-mūsīqī | Oldest extant Middle Eastern treatise with a detailed description of modal structure | |
| Regino of Prüm | c. 842 – 915 | | De synodalibus causis and Epistola de armonica institutione | "Correct the intonations and confirm the modes of the antiphons and responsories of the Mass and Office" | |
| Al-Farabi | 872–950 | Arab | Kitāb al-mūsīqī al-kabīr (Great book on music) | "most imposing of all Arabic works on music" | |
| Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani | 897–967 | Arab | Kitab al-Aghani (Book of Songs) | |
| Notker Labeo | 950–1022 | | | | |
| Anonymous, of the Brethren of Purity | second half of the 10th century | | Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa, Epistle 5: On Music | | |
| Guido of Arezzo | c. 991–992 | Italian | Micrologus | | |
| Avicenna (Ibn-Sīnā) | c. 980 – 1037 | Persian | Danishnama-i 'Alai | | |
| Abhinavagupta | fl. c. 1000 | Indian | Abhinavabharati | Important commentary on the Natya Shastra | |
| Berno of Reichenau | d. 1048 | | Musica Seu Prologus In Tonarium | He compiled a tonarius, dealing with the organisation of the church chants into ‘tones’ – eight modes of the Gregorian chant. | |
| Ibn Zaylah [fa] | d. 1048 | | al-Kāfī fī al-mūsīqī | | |
| Hermannus Contractus | 1013–1054 | | | | |
| Michael Psellos | 1018 – after 1078 | Byzantine | Eis tēn psychogonian tou Platōnos Prolambanomena eis tēn rhythmikēn epistēmēn On the Resounding Hall at Nicomedia | | |
| Aribo Scholasticus [ru] | fl. 1068–1078 | | De musica | also known as simply "Aribo." Created a "caprea," a diagram showing modal tetrachords superimposed on the gamut. | |
| Wilhelm of Hirsau | died 1091 | | De musica | | |
| Frutolf of Michelsberg | mid-11th century – 1103 | German | Brevarium | compiler of treatises, in particular Boethius and Berno of Reichenau. | |
| Theogerus of Metz [de] | c. 1050 – c. 1120 | | Musica | | |
| Johannes Cotto | fl. 1100 | | De musica | |
| Avempace | c. 1085 – 1138 | | Risālah fī l-alḥān | | |
| Cai Yuanding | 1135–1198 | Chinese | Lülü xinshu [New treatise of music theory] | Theories on scales, pitches and intervals | |
| Hermann of Carinthia | fl. 1138–43 | | De essentiis | Translating Arabic treatises into Latin | |
| Guido of Eu | fl. 1130s | | supposed author of Regule de arte musica | earliest Cistercian treatise on music theory. | |
| Jiang Kui | 1155–1221 | Chinese | Dayueyi and Qinse kaogutu | Two treatises, the Dayueyi on proper music (yayue) and the Qinse kaogutu on the qin and se zithers. Also created a popular 18 symbol form of music notation | |
| Theinred of Dover (Theinredus Doverensis) | 12th century | | De legitimis ordinibus pentachordorum et tetrachordorum | discussion of chromatically altered tones in plainsong | |
| Tanchi (堪智) | (1163 – 1237?) | Japanese | | Introduced strict music theory of shōmyō, based on that of gagaku. This included standards for modulation, rhythm, pitch and new five-tone notation system (goin-bakase) | |
| Śārṅgadeva | fl. early 13th century | Indian | Sangita Ratnakara [Ocean of Music] | Wrote the authoritative text for subsequent Indian music | |
| Ficker Anonymous | early 13th century | | Ars organi | | |
| Franco of Cologne | fl. mid to late 13th century | German | Ars cantus mensurabilis | Franconian Notation | |
| Safi al-Din al-Urmawi | c. 1216 – 1294 | Persian | Kitab al-Adwār and Risālah al-Sharafiyyah fi 'l-nisab al-taʾlifiyyah (The Sharafiyyah Letter on the Art of Composing) | | |
| Bartholomeus Anglicus | before 1203 – 1272 | French | | | |
| George Pachymeres | 1242 – c. 1310 | Byzantine | Syntagma tōn tessarōn mathēmatōn, arithmētikēs, mousikēs, geōmetrias kai astronomias | | |
| Egidius de Zamora | fl. 1260–1280 | | Ars musica | noted for inclusion of Spanish instruments and description of organ used in church. | |
| Amerus | fl. 1271 | English | Practica artis musice | | |
| Jerome of Moravia | died after 1272 | | Tractatus de musica | | |
| Anonymous IV | fl. 1270 – 1280 | | De mensuris et discantu | | |
| Magister Lambertus | fl. c. 1270 | | Tractatus de musica | | |
| Engelbert of Admont | c. 1250 – 1331 | | De musica tractatus | | |
| Jacob of Liège | c. 1260 – after 1330 | | Speculum musicae | | |
| Johannes de Garlandia | fl. 1270–1320 | French | De Mensurabili Musica | Explains the rhythmic modes, particularly that which the Notre-Dame school engaged in | |
| Petrus de Cruce | late 13th century | French | | | |
| Johannes Balox | late 13th century | | Gaudent brevitate moderni | | |
| Petrus Picardus [de] | mid-13th century | | Ars motettorum compilata breviter | | |
| Elias Salomo | late 13th century | | Scientia artis musice | | |
| Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi | c. 1236 - 1311 | Persian | Dorrat al-tāj fi ḡorrat al-dabbāj | | |
| Philippe de Vitry | 1291–1361 | French | Ars nova notandi (1322) | | |
| Hugo Spechtshart [de] | c. 1285 – 1359/60 | | Flores musicae omnis cantus Gregoriani | | |
| Johannes Vetulus de Anagnia | 1st half of 14th century] | | Liber de musica | | |
| Petrus frater dictus Palma ociosa | fl. early 14th century | | Compendium de discantu mensurabili | | |
| Johannes de Grocheio | fl. 1300 | French | Ars musicae | | |
| Manuel Bryennius | 14th century | Byzantine | Harmonika | | |
| Walter Odington | died 1330 | English | | | |
| Johannes de Muris | c. 1290 – after 1344 | French | | | |
| Marchetto da Padova | fl. 1305–19 | Italian | Lucidarium in arte musice plane and Pomerium in arte musice mensurate | | |
| Robert de Handlo | fl. 1326 | English | | | |
| John Hanboys | fl. c. 1370 | English | Summa | | |
| John of Tewkesbury | fl. 1351–92 | English | Quatuor principalia musice | Writings on ars nova | |
| al-Āmulī | died 1352 | Persian | Nafā’is al-funūn | His Nafā’is al-funūn on the quadrivium contains a chapter on music theory; it is one of the few surviving Persian sources dated in the time between the works of Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi and Abd al-Qadir Maraghi | |
| Ibn Kurr | Died 1357 | Arab | Ġāyat al-matḷūb fī 'ilm al-adwār wa-'l-dụrūb (The Enticing Roads to Rhythms and Modes) | Examines musical discourse of 14th-century Cario | |
| Johannes Boen [ru] | Died 1367 | Dutch | Ars [musicae]; Musica | Writings on ars nova | |
| Johannes Ciconia | 1360–1412 | Flemish | Nova musica [New Music] | Discusses music as an art | |
| Philippus de Caserta | fl. c. 1370 | Active in France | Tractatus figurarum (attributed) | | |
| Zhu Quan | 1378–1448 | Chinese | 神奇秘谱 [Wondrous and secret notation] (1425) and 太和正音譜 [Song Register of Great Harmony and Accurate Tones] (1398) | Studies on qin music; classification and analysis of over 300 melodies from Chinese dramas | |
| Ugolino of Forlì | c. 1380–1452 | Italian | Declaratio musicae disciplinae [Declaration of the Discipline of Music] | | |
| John Laskaris | fl. first half of 15th century | Byzantine | The Interpretation and Parallage of the Art of Music | Discusses the Byzantine modal system | |
| Gabriel Hieromonachos [de] | fl. first half of the 15 century | Byzantine | Discourse on the Signs of Chant | – | |
| Manuel Chrysaphes | fl. 1440–1463 | Byzantine | Peri tōn entheōroumenōn tē psaltikē technē kai hōn phronousi kakōs tines peri autōn [On the Theory of the Art of Chanting and On Certain Erroneous Views That Some Hold about It] | Includes otherwise unknown information on Byzantine singing, modal theory and general musical practice | |

## 15th and 16th centuries

| Name | Lifetime | Major writing | Known for |
| Fernand Estevan | fl. 1410 | Reglas de canto plano è de contrapunto, è de canto de organo | |
| Kırşehrî Yusuf | fl. 1411 | Kitâbü’l Edvâr | |
| Prosdocimus de Beldemandis | d. 1428 | | |
| Abd al-Qadir Maraghi | d. 1435 | Makâsıd al-Alhân | Corpus attributed to him was a seminal work of the 17th century renaissance of Ottoman music |
| Giorgio Anselmi | c. 1386 – c. 1440/43 | | |
| Ugolino of Forlì Also Ugolino of Orvieto | c. 1380 – c. 1452 | | |
| Fatḥallāh al-Shirwānī | d. approximately 1453 | Majalla fī 'l-mūsīqī [Codex on music] | |
| Antonius de Leno | early 15th century | Regulae de contrapunto (title created by Coussemaker from incomplete treatise) | |
| John Hothby | c. 1410 – 1487 | | |
| Johannes Gallicus [de; it] | c. 1415 – 1473 | Praefatio libelli musicalis de ritu canendi vetustissimo et novo | First 15th century theorist to describe attributes of Renaissance music. |
| Nicolaus Polonus | 15th-century | Tractatus musicalis ad cantum gregorialem brevis et utilis | Authored an introduction on singing |
| Ladikli Mehmet Chelebi | fl. 1483 | Zeynü’l-elḥân fî ʿilmi’t-teʾlîf ve’l-evzân | |
| Johannes Tinctoris | c. 1435 – 1511 | | |
| Bartolomeus Ramis de Pareia | c. 1440 – after 1491 | | |
| Muhammad al-Ladiqi | d. 1494 | Risâla al-fathiyya fi’l-al-müsïqï | |
| Janus Plousiadenos | d. approximately 1500 | | His system of parallage |
| Adam von Fulda | 1445–1505 | Musica | |
| Johannes Cochlaeus | 1449–1552 | | |
| Hızır bin Abdullah | fl. mid-15th century | Kitābü’l-edvār | His work on fragmentary modal structures (terkîb), in which he defined a total of 240 modes. |
| Hadji Büke | fl. mid-15th century | Mukaddimetü’l Usûl | Noted for his pioneering work on compound (mürekkep) makams. |
| Hace Abdülaziz | fl. mid-15th century | Nekavetü’l Edvâr | |
| Franchinus Gaffurius | 1451–1522 | Practica musicae, 1496 | |
| Nicolò Burzio [it] | 1453–1528 | Musices opusculum | |
| Giovanni Spataro [it; ca; no; ru] | 1458–1541 | Tractato di musica di Gioanni Spataro musico bolognese nel quale si tracta de la perfectione da la sesqualtera producta in la musica mensurata exercitate | |
| Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples (alias Jacobus Faber Stapulensis) | c. 1460 – 1536 | Musica libris demonstrata quattuor, Paris 1496 | |
| Domingo Marcos Durán | c. 1460 – 1529 | | |
| Erasmus Horicius | c. 1465 – early 16th century | Musica and Tractatus de sphera | |
| Michael Keinspeck [de] | c. 1470 – mid-16th century | Lilium musicae planae | |
| Lodovico Fogliano [de; fr; ru] | c. 1475 – 1542 | Musica theorica (Venice, 1529) | |
| Johannes Aventinus | 1477–1534 | | |
| Pietro Aaron | c. 1480 – c. 1550 | | |
| Nicolaus Wollick | c. 1480 – 1541 | Enchiridion musices (1512) | |
| Sebastian z Felsztyna | c. 1480/1490? – after 1543 | | |
| Melchior Schanppecher | born c. 1480 | Opus aurem musicae (Cologne, 1501) | |
| John Tucke | c. 1482 – after 1539 | His notebook (British Library, Additional Ms. 10336) | |
| Martin Agricola | 1486–1556 | | |
| Heinrich Glarean | 1488–1563 | | |
| Georg Rhau | 1488–1548 | | |
| Giovanni Del Lago | c. 1490 – 1544 | Correspondence with Giovanni Spataro and Pietro Aaron | |
| Giovanni Maria Lanfranco [it] | c. 1490 – 1545 | Scintille di musica | Author of the earliest treatise on music theory in Italian |
| Andreas Ornitoparchus [de] | born c. 1490 | Musicae activae micrologus (Leipzig, 1517) | |
| Bonaventura da Brescia | late 15th century | Breviloquium musicale (Brescia, 1497) (later editions known as Regula musicae planae) | |
| Guilielmus Monachus [de] | late 15th century | De preceptis artis musicae | |
| Guillermo de Podio [es] | late 15th century | Ars musicorum (Valencia, 1495); In enchiridion de principiis musicae | |
| Kadızade Mehmet Tirevî | late 15th century | Risâle-i Mûsîkî | |
| Silvestro Ganassi dal Fontego | c. 1492 – mid-16th century | Opera intitulata Fontegara (Venice, 1535) Regola Rubertina (Venice, 1542) Lettione Seconda (Venice, 1543) | |
| Henricus Grammateus (alias Heinrich Schreiber) | 1495–1525/6 | | |
| Sebald Heyden | 1499–1561 | De arte canendi (Nuremberg, 1532–40) | |
| Heinrich Faber | before 1500–1552 | Compendiolum musicae (1548) De musica poetica (1548) Ad musicam practicam introductio (1550) | |
| Simon de Quercu | early 16th century | Opusculum musices (Vienna, 1509) | |
| Vicente Lusitano | 16th century | Introdutione facilissima et novissima de canto fermo (Rome, 1553) | |
| Seydî | fl. early 16th century | Al-Matlah | |
| Auctor Lampadius | c. 1500 – 1559 | Compendium musices, tam figurati quam plani cantus, ad formam dialogi (Berne, 1537, 5/1554) | |
| Adrianus Petit Coclico | c. 1500 – 1562 | | |
| Juan Bermudo | c. 1510 – 1565 | Libro primero de la Declaración de instrumentos musicales (1549) Comiença el Arte Tripharia(1550) | |
| Nikolaus Listenius [de] | born c. 1510 | Rudimenta musicae (1533) | |
| Ghiselin Danckerts | c. 1510 – after 1565 | | |
| Diego Ortiz | c. 1510 – 1570 | | |
| Nicola Vicentino | 1511–1576 | | |
| Francisco de Salinas | 1513–1590 | | |
| Gioseffo Zarlino | 1517–1590 | | |
| Girolamo Mei | 1519–1594 | | |
| Illuminato Aiguino [it] | 1520–1581 | Illuminata de tutti i tuoni di canto fermo (Venice, 1562) | |
| Vincenzo Galilei | late 1520–1591 | | |
| Wei Liangfu [zh] | fl. 1522–72 | Qulü [Principles of arias] | Theories of singing and composition (in the Kunshan qiang tradition) |
| Hermann Finck | 1527–1558 | | |
| Francisco de Montanos [es] | c. 1528 – after 1592 | Arte de música (1592) | |
| Ercole Bottrigari | 1531–1612 | | |
| Pietro Pontio | 1532–1595 | | |
| Gallus Dressler | 1533 – c. 1580/89 | | |
| Orazio Tigrini [it] | c. 1535 – 1591 | Il compendio della musica nel quale si tratta dell’arte del contrapunto | |
| Zhu Zaiyu | 1536–1611 | Lüxue xinshuo and Lülü jingyi | Possibly the first person to accurately describe equal temperament |
| Giovanni Maria Artusi | c. 1540 – 1613 | | |
| Giulio Caccini | c. 1545 – 1618 | | |
| Cyriakus Schneegass | 1546–1597 | | |
| Philibert Jambe de Fer | fl. 1548–1564 | | |
| Simon Stevin | 1548–1620 | Two incomplete treatises | Theories of consonance |
| Ramamatya | fl. 1550 | Svaramelakalanidhi [Treasury of Musical Scales] c. 1550 | |
| Riccardo Rognoni | c. 1550 – 1620 | Passaggi per potersi esercitare nel diminuire, Venice 1592 | |
| Elway Bevin | c. 1554 – 1638 | | |
| Girolamo Diruta | c. 1554 – after 1610 | | |
| Lodovico Zacconi | 1555–1627 | | |
| Sethus Calvisius | 1556–1615 | | |
| Johannes Nucius | c. 1556 – 1620 | | |
| Thomas Morley | c. 1557 – 1602 | | |
| Adam Gumpelzhaimer | 1559–1625 | | |
| Giovanni Luca Conforti | c. 1560 – 1608 | Breve et facile maniera d’essercitarsi..., Rome 1593 | |
| Charles Butler | 1560–1647 | The Principles of Musik (1636) | |
| Giovanni Bassano | 1560/61–1617 | Ricercate, passaggi et cadentie, Venice 1585 | |
| Pietro Cerone | 1561–1625 | | |
| Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck | 1562–1621 | | |
| William Bathe | 1564–1614 | | |
| Joachim Burmeister | 1564–1629 | | |
| Johannes Christoph Demantius | 1567–1643 | | |
| Thomas Campion | 1567–1620 | | |
| Adriano Banchieri | 1568–1634 | | |
| Girolamo Dalla Casa | before 1568 – 1601 | Il vero modo di diminuir con tutte le sorti di stromenti di fiato, & corda, & di voce humana Venice: Angelo Gardano 1584 | |
| Michael Praetorius | c. 1569/73 – 1621 | | |
| Tomás de Santa María | died 1570 | Arte de tañer fantasía | |
| Eucharius Hoffmann | died 1588 | | |
| Rudolf Schlick | flourished 1588 | Exercitatio, qua musices origo prima, cultus antiquissimus, dignitas maxima et emolumenta ... breviter ac dilucide exponuntur, Speyer, 1588 | |
| Giovanni Battista Bovicelli [de; ca] | fl 1592–94 | Regole, passaggi di musica, madrigali et motetti passeggiati, Venice, 1594 | |

## 17th century

| Name | Lifetime | Major writing | Known for |
| John Coprario | c. 1570–80 – 1626 | Rules how to Compose (c. 1610–1616) | |
| Johannes Kepler | 1571–1630 | Harmonices Mundi | |
| Robert Fludd | 1574–1637 | | |
| Salomon de Caus | c. 1576 – 1626 | | |
| Gerhard Johann Vossius | 1577–1649 | | |
| Agostino Agazzari | 1578–1640 | Del sonare sopra il basso, 1607 | |
| Henricus Baryphonus [fr] | 1581–1655 | | |
| Severo Bonini | 1582–1663 | | |
| Thomas Ravenscroft | c. 1582 – 1635 | | |
| Johannes Lippius | 1585–1612 | Synopsis musicae novae (1612) [Synopsis of New Music] | Coined the term "harmonic triad" |
| Johann Heinrich Alsted | 1588–1638 | | |
| Johann Andreas Herbst | 1588–1666 | | |
| Marin Mersenne | 1588–1648 | | |
| Heinrich Grimm | 1593–1637 | | |
| Giovanni Battista Doni | 1595–1647 | | |
| René Descartes | 1596–1650 | | |
| Galeazzo Sabbatini | 1597–1662 | | |
| Joan Albert Ban | 1597–1644 | | |
| Johann Crüger | 1598–1662 | | |
| Antoine de Cousu | c. 1600 – 1658 | | |
| Marco Scacchi | c. 1600 – 1681/87 | | |
| Athanasius Kircher | 1601–1680 | | |
| Christopher Simpson | c. 1605 – 1669 | | |
| Wojciech Bobowski | c. 1610–1675 | Mecmûa-i Sâz ü Söz | Introduction of staff notation to Ottoman music, which would overtake abjad notation in the 19th century. |
| Hans Mikkelsen Ravn [da; sv] | c. 1610 – 1663 | | |
| Wolfgang Ebner | 1612–1665 | | |
| Otto Gibelius [de] | 1612–1682 | | |
| Thomas Mace | 1612/3 – c. 1706 | | |
| Lorenzo Penna | 1613–1693 | | |
| William Holder | 1616–1696 | | |
| John Wallis | 1616–1703 | | |
| Isaac Vossius | 1618–1689 | | |
| Matthew Locke | 1621–1677 | | |
| John Playford | 1623–1686 | | |
| Kasımpaşalı Osman Effendi | fl. c. 1623 | | |
| Andrés Lorente [de; ca] | 1624–1703 | | |
| René Ouvrard | 1624–1694 | | |
| Bénigne de Bacilly | c. 1625 – 1690 | | |
| Giovanni Andrea Bontempi | c. 1624 – 1705 | | |
| Christoph Bernhard | 1628–1692 | | |
| Christiaan Huygens | 1629–1695 | | |
| Venkatamakhin | fl. c. 1630 | Chaturdandiprakashika [The Illuminator of the Four Pillars of Music] | |
| Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers | c. 1632 – 1714 | | |
| Nikolay Diletsky | c. 1630 – after 1680 | | |
| Angelo Berardi | c. 1636 – 1694 | | |
| Daniel Speer | 1636–1707 | | |
| Francis North | 1637–1685 | | |
| Wolfgang Caspar Printz | 1641–1717 | | |
| Giovanni Maria Bononcini | 1642–1678 | | |
| Jean Rousseau | 1644–1700 | | |
| Andreas Werckmeister | 1645–1706 | | |
| Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz | 1646–1716 | | |
| Thomas Salmon | 1648–1706 | | |
| Çengi Yusuf Dede | fl. c. 1650 | | |
| Johann Georg Ahle | 1651–1706 | | |
| Giovanni Battista Chiodini | died 1652 | Arte pratica latina et volgare di far contrapunto à mente, & à penna, 1610 | |
| Joseph Sauveur | 1653–1716 | | |
| Georg Muffat | 1653–1704 | | |
| Nâyî Osman Dede [tr] | fl. c. 1680–1729 | Rabt-ı Tâbirât-ı Mûsikî | |
| Pier Francesco Tosi | c. 1653 – 1732 | | |
| Pablo Nassarre | c. 1654 – 1730 | | |
| Johann Baptist Samber [de] | 1654–1717 | | |
| Johann Beer | 1655–1700 | | |
| Sébastien de Brossard | 1655–1730 | | |
| Étienne Loulié | c. 1655 – 1707 | | |
| Nicola Matteis | fl. 1670–c. 1698 | | |
| Friedrich Erhard Niedt | 1674–1717 | | |
| Charles Masson | fl. 1680–1700 | | |
| De La Voye-Mignot [fr] | died 1684 | | |

## 18th century

| Name | Lifetime | Major writing | Known for |
| Johann Joseph Fux | 1660–1741 | Gradus ad Parnassum | Palestrinian style of Renaissance polyphony |
| Johann Kuhnau | 1660–1722 | | |
| Tomáš Baltazar Janovka [cs; ru] | 1669 –1741 | | |
| Francesco Gasparini | 1661–1727 | | |
| Johann Heinrich Buttstett | 1666–1727 | | |
| Johann Christoph Pepusch | 1667–1752 | | |
| David Kellner | c. 1670 – 1748 | | |
| Dimitrie Cantemir | 1673 – 1723 | Kitâbu 'İlmi'l-Mûsiki alâ Vechi'l-Hurûfât (or simply Edvâr) | The empirical school of Ottoman music theory, Cantemir notation, description of pseudo-makam |
| Georg Philipp Telemann | 1681–1767 | | |
| Johann Mattheson | 1681–1764 | | |
| Jean-Philippe Rameau | 1683–1764 | Treatise on Harmony reduced to its natural principles | |
| Johann David Heinichen | 1683–1729 | | |
| Meinrad Spieß [de; ca; it] | 1683–1761 | | |
| Johann Gottfried Walther | 1684–1748 | | |
| Alexander Malcolm | 1685–1763 | | |
| Johann Georg Neidhardt [de; ca; no; ru] | 1685–1739 | | |
| François Campion [fr] | c. 1686 – 1748 | | |
| Francesco Geminiani | 1687–1762 | | |
| Giuseppe Tartini | 1692–1770 | | |
| Francesco Antonio Vallotti | 1697–1780 | | |
| Jakob Adlung | 1699–1762 | | |
| Christoph Gottlieb Schröter | 1699–1782 | | |
| William Tans'ur | 1700–1783 | | |
| Georg Andreas Sorge | 1703–1778 | | |
| Gottfried Keller | died 1704 | | |
| Giovanni Battista Martini | 1706–1784 | | |
| Leonhard Euler | 1707–1783 | Tentamen novae theoriae musicae (Attempt at a New Theory of Music) | See Leonhard Euler#Music |
| Johann Adolph Scheibe | 1708–1776 | | |
| Joseph Riepel | 1709–1782 | | |
| Lorenz Christoph Mizler Kolof | 1711–1778 | | |
| Jean-Jacques Rousseau | 1712–1778 | | |
| Nicola Sala | 1713–1801 | | |
| Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach | 1714–1788 | | |
| Jean le Rond d'Alembert | 1717–1783 | | |
| Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg | 1718–1795 | | |
| Leopold Mozart | 1719–1787 | | |
| Johann Friedrich Agricola | 1720–1774 | | |
| Johann Georg Sulzer | 1720–1779 | | |
| Martin Gerbert | 1720–1793 | | |
| Kevserî | fl. 1720–1740 | Kevserî Mecmuası | |
| Johann Philipp Kirnberger | 1721–1783 | | |
| Giuseppe Paolucci | 1726–1776 | | |
| Antonio Soler | 1729–1783 | | |
| Luigi Antonio Sabbatini | c. 1732 – 1809 | | |
| Johann Georg Albrechtsberger | 1736–1809 | | |
| Vincenzo Manfredini | 1737–1799 | | |
| Panayotis Chalatzoglou | fl. 1740–1748 | | Comparative study of Ottoman and Byzantine modal systems. |
| Petros Peloponnesios | 1740–1788 | His codex of music | |
| Johann Abraham Peter Schulz | 1747–1800 | | |
| Maximilian Stadler | 1748–1833 | | |
| Georg Michael Telemann | 1748–1831 | | |
| Johann Nikolaus Forkel | 1749–1818 | | |
| Heinrich Christoph Koch | 1749–1816 | | |
| Abbé Vogler | 1749–1814 | | |
| Kyrillos Marmarinos | fl. 1749 | | |
| Augustus Frederic Christopher Kollmann | 1756–1829 | | |
| Daniel Gottlob Türk | 1756–1813 | | |
| Luigi Cherubini | 1760–1842 | | |
| Jérôme-Joseph de Momigny | 1762–1842 | | |
| Abdülbâki Nâsır Dede | 1765–1821 | Tedkîk u Tahkîk | |
| Bedřich Diviš Weber | 1766–1842 | | |
| Hampartsoum Limondjian | 1768–1839 | | Hampartsoum notation |
| Józef Elsner | 1769–1854 | | |
| Anton Reicha | 1770–1836 | | |
| Alexandre-Étienne Choron | 1771–1834 | | |
| Charles Simon Catel | 1773–1830 | | |
| Matthew Peter King | 1773–1823 | | |
| Johann Anton André | 1775–1842 | | |
| Johann Bernhard Logier | 1777–1846 | | |
| Gottfried Weber | 1779–1839 | | |

## 19th century

| Name | Lifetime | Major writing | Known for |
| Christian Theodor Weinlig | 1780–1842 | Theoretisch-praktische Anleitung zur Fuge für den Selbstunterricht (1842) | Fugue theory |
| François-Joseph Fétis | 1784–1871 | Traité complet de la théorie et de la pratique de l'harmonie (1844) | Frameworks of tonality and harmony |
| Simon Sechter | 1788–1867 | | |
| Carl Czerny | 1791–1857 | Theoretico-Practical Piano School Volume 4, Vienna, 1847 | |
| Moritz Hauptmann | 1792–1868 | | |
| Adolf Bernhard Marx | c. 1795–1866 | | |
| Sarah Mary Fitton | c. 1796–1874 | | |
| Johann Christian Lobe | 1797–1881 | | |
| Siegfried Dehn | 1799–1858 | | |
| Auguste Barbereau | 1799–1879 | | |
| Joseph d'Ortigue | 1802–1866 | | |
| Henri Reber | 1807–1880 | | |
| Carl Friedrich Weitzmann | 1808–1880 | | |
| Ernst Friedrich Richter | 1808–1879 | | |
| Alfred Day | 1810–1849 | A Treatise on Harmony | |
| George Alexander Macfarren | 1813–1887 | | |
| Hermann von Helmholtz | 1821–1894 | | |
| Anton Bruckner | 1824–1896 | | |
| Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley | 1825–1889 | | |
| Rudolf Westphal | 1826–1892 | | |
| François-Auguste Gevaert | 1828–1908 | | |
| František Zdeněk Skuherský | 1830–1892 | | |
| Salomon Jadassohn | 1831–1902 | | |
| Heinrich Bellermann | 1832–1903 | | |
| Arthur von Oettingen | 1836–1920 | | |
| Ebenezer Prout | 1835–1909 | | |
| Théodore Dubois | 1837–1924 | | |
| John Stainer | 1840–1901 | | |
| Bernhard Ziehn | 1845–1912 | | |
| Otakar Hostinský | 1847–1910 | | |
| Hugo Riemann | 1849–1919 | | |
| Percy Goetschius | 1853–1943 | | |
| Guido Adler | 1855–1941 | Umfang, Methode und Ziel der Musikwissenschaf (1885) | |
| Sergei Taneyev | 1856–1915 | Convertible Counterpoint in the Strict Style | |
| Ludwig Thuille | 1861–1907 | Harmonielehre (1907) | His textbook, written with Rudolf Louis, which analyzes music with an equal emphasis on vertical and horizontal harmony |

## 20th century – present

| Name | Lifetime | Major writing | Known for |
| Stephan Krehl | 1864–1924 | Kontrapunkt (1908) | Attempted to synthesize harmony and counterpoint |
| André Gedalge | 1868–1926 | Traité de la fugue (1901) | Fugue theory |
| Alfred Lorenz | 1868–1939 | Das Geheimnis der Form bei Richard Wagner (1924–1933) | Musical analysis, particularly of Richard Wagner's works |
| Heinrich Schenker | 1868–1935 | Free Composition, Counterpoint, Harmony | Founding Schenkerian analysis |
| August Halm | 1869–1929 | Die Symphonie Anton Bruckners (1914) | Musical analysis |
| Suphi Ezgi | 1869–1962 | Nazarî ve Amelî Türk Müzikisi (1933–1953) | |
| Rauf Yekta | 1871–1935 | La musique turque (1922) | |
| Arnold Schoenberg | 1874–1951 | Style and Idea | Twelve-tone technique, Serialism |
| Donald Tovey | 1875–1940 | Essays in Musical Analysis (1935–1939, 1944) | Musical analysis |
| Julián Carrillo | 1875–1965 | Sonido 13 (1948) | The Sonido 13 theory |
| Arnold Schering | 1877–1941 | | |
| Boleslav Yavorsky | 1877–1942 | | |
| Zdeněk Nejedlý | 1878–1962 | | |
| Hüseyin Sadeddin Arel [tr] | 1880–1955 | Türk Musikisi Kimindir? | The nationalist school of Ottoman classical music |
| Rudolph Reti | 1885–1957 | The Thematic Process in Music (1951) | Musical analysis |
| Ernst Kurth | 1886–1946 | | |
| Charles Seeger | 1886–1979 | | formulation of dissonant counterpoint |
| Adele T. Katz | 1887–1979 | "Heinrich Schenker's Method of Analysis" (1935) | Schenkerian analysis |
| Iurii Nikolaevich Tiulin [ru] | 1893-1978 | | |
| Nicolas Slonimsky | 1894–1995 | Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns (1947) | |
| Paul Hindemith | 1895–1963 | Unterweisung im Tonsatz [The Craft of Musical Composition] | |
| Joseph Schillinger | 1895–1943 | The Schillinger System of Musical Composition (1941) | System of music composition |
| Howard Hanson | 1896–1981 | Harmonic Materials of Modern Music: Resources of the Tempered Scale (1960) | Nascent development of set theory |
| Erwin Ratz | 1898–1973 | Einführung in die musikalische Formenlehre [Introduction to Musical Form] | Musical analysis of form and structure |
| Felix Salzer | 1904–1986 | | |
| Lev Abramovich Mazel' [ru] | born 1907 | O melodii (1952) | Elements of music; among the founders of the Soviet/Russian music theory tradition |
| Ernst Oster | 1908–1977 | English translation of Free Composition | Schenkerian analysis |
| George Perle | 1915–2009 | Serial Composition and Atonality (1962) | Methods of atonality |
| Milton Babbitt | 1916–2011 | Numerous; "Some Aspects of Twelve-Tone Composition" (1955); "Twelve-Tone Invariants as Compositional Determinants" (1960); and "Set Structure as a Compositional Determinant" (1961) | Serialism |
| Edward T. Cone | 1917–2004 | Musical Form and Musical Performance (1968) | Musical analysis |
| Muḥammad Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn | 1917–1965 | Taṣwīr al-Alḥān al-‘Arabiyyah (1950) [The transposition of Arab melodies] | Division of the octave into 24 quarter tones, transposition of the Arabic maqam |
| Rostislav Berberov | 1921–1984 | Spetsifika strukturï khorovogo proizvedeniya ('Specifics of the Structure of a Choral Work', Moscow, 1981) and Ėpicheskaya poėma’ Germana Galïnina: estetiko-analisticheskiye pazmïshleniya ('The Epic Poem of German Galïnin: Aesthetic-Analytic Reflections', Moscow, 1986) | Leading Soviet theorist who create a complex yet structurally integrated system of music analysis that was built on combining theories developed by Ernst Kurth, Boris Asafyev, Hugo Riemann, and Johannes Bobrowski. |
| Iannis Xenakis | 1922–2001 | Formalized Music (1963) | Writing on music composition based on math |
| George Russell | 1923–2009 | Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization (1953) | Pioneering music theory systems centered around jazz |
| Jaroslav Volek | 1923–1989 | | |
| Ernő Lendvai | 1925–1993 | Bartók's Style (1955) | Musical analysis, particularly of Béla Bartók's works, such as with the axis system |
| Allen Forte | 1926–2014 | Tonal Harmony (1962) | Musical analysis, Schenkerian analysis and set theory |
| William Ennis Thomson | 1927–2019 | "Pitch Frames as Melodic Archetypes" (2006) | Cognitive and perceptual foundations of music |
| Wallace Berry | 1928–1991 | Structural Functions in Music (1976); Musical Structure and Performance (1989) | Musical analysis, particularly on formal structure |
| Harold Powers | 1928–2007 | Mode and Raga (1958); "Mode" in Grove 1980 | Comparisons of the Western and Indian classical traditions, particularly on modes and ragas. Also research on the use of musical theory to convey drama in Italian opera |
| Carl Schachter | born 1932 | Harmony and Voice Leading (1979; with Edward Aldwell) | Schenkerian analysis |
| David Lewin | 1933–2003 | Generalized Musical Intervals and Transformations (1987) | Transformational theory |
| Benjamin Boretz | born 1934 | Language as a Music: Six Marginal Pretexts for Composition (1981) | |
| Robert Porter Morgan | born 1934 | Anthology of Twentieth-Century Music (1992) | Musical analysis of 20th-century classical music |
| Edward Aldwell | 1938–2006 | Harmony and Voice Leading (1979; with Carl Schachter) | |
| Edward Laufer | 1938–2014 | | Schenkerian analysis |
| Stefan Kostka | born 1939 | Tonal Harmony (1984) | |
| Fred Lerdahl | born 1943 | A Generative Theory Of Tonal Music (1983; with Ray Jackendoff) | Generative theory of tonal music |
| Maury Yeston | born 1945 | Readings in Schenker Analysis (1975); The Stratification of Musical Rhythm (1976) | Rhythmic stratification and Schenkerian analysis |
| James Hepokoski | born 1946 | Elements of Sonata Theory (2006; with Warren Darcy) | Sonata theory |
| William Caplin | born 1948 | Classical Form (1998) | Analysis of classical period music |
| Willie Anku | 1949–2010 | "Circles and time: a theory of structural organisation of rhythm in African music" (2000) | Studies on African rhythm, particularly using set theory |
| Laurence Dreyfus | born 1952 | | Analysis of the music of Bach |
| Richard Cohn | born 1955 | Audacious Euphony (2012) | Rhythm and atonal pitch-class theories |
| Victor Kofi Agawu | born 1956 | Playing with signs (1991); African Rhythm, A Northern Ewe Perspective (1995) | Musical semiotics and musical analysis |
| Timothy L. Jackson | born 1958 | | Schenkerian analysis |
| Miller Puckette | born 1959 | The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music (2007) | Max (software), Pure Data |
| Philip Ewell | born 1966 | Music Theory and the White Racial Frame (2020) | Race in music, Russian and twentieth century music, as well as rap and hip hop |
| Ellie Hisama | | Gendering Musical Modernism: The Music of Ruth Crawford, Marion Bauer, and Miriam Gideon (2007) | Gender, race, and sexuality in music theory. Popular music |
| Suzannah Clark | born 1969 | Music theory and natural order from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century (2001) | Franz Schubert, history of music theory, medieval music |
| Dmitri Tymoczko | born 1969 | A Geometry of Music (2010) | Proposed framework for considering tonality |