Talk:Lists of composers

message: I wonder whether it's more useful to have the composers listed alphabetically as the periods are quite arbitrary. For example, Beethoven could be easily argued to be a classical composer, especially in his early period. Alternatively they could be classified by nationality or century of birth. --andrewthorne
:I would say by period or century. The whole "by country" thing opened a whole can of worms on "nationality" vs "culture" on the list of authors page, and as it currently stands is a hideous mess, which I can't fix for fear of edit wars -- Tarquin
::Yes, this is a chewy problem indeed. I don't think an alphabetical list is very useful - the search function (either wikipedia's or a browsers "search in page" thing) makes alphabetic lists redundant, it seems to me. But there are problems with other classifications, too - "by country" is a problem as Tarquin indicates: is Gustav Mahler Bohemian, Czech or Austrian? Is Igor Stravinsky Russian, Soviet, French or American? "By century" is fair enough, and non-controversial, but also not especially informative, particularly when you get to the twentieth century; Philip Glass and Arnold Schoenberg are/were both 20th century composers, but that's where the similiarity ends. "By period" or "style" or whatever you want to call it, is better, I think - most composers are pretty clear-cut cases (Wagner is clearly romantic, Bach is clearly baroque), and for those that do cross boundaries, I think it's not only acceptable, but very useful to put them in all suitable categories. So Beethoven should be listed under both Classical and Romantic, Schoenberg under Romantic and "modern", and so on. By the way, if anybody fancies trying to split that big "modern classical" group into more meaningful and managable classifications (minimalist, serial, etc), then that would be great (I'd do it myself, but I'm too lazy). --Camembert
:::It's not always easy to draw lines as to who should be in - and who not. However, I have included several of the French spectralists - Grisey, Leroux, Hurel, Murail in the modern list. Time will tell whether they should remain! David Martland 08:18 Dec 6, 2002 (UTC)
::OK, I'm going to go back on what I said earlier and say that we should divide the list up by century of birth. The reason is that the "period" or "style" divisions are too complicated. What is John Williams? Is Nielsen modern or romantic? Sibelius? I'd say they were both romantic, but chronologically, they're 20th century. Can Brian Eno be considered a classical composer? Better known for pop, certainly, but he did some things which are close to Christian Wolff, and he was classical for sure. So I'm going to rearrange the list according to century of birth and make no distinguishment between baroque and renaissance, popular and classical. If people want to make more style-specific lists, they can do it at baroque music, ragtime music, and so on. --Camembert
:::OK, but let's not completely lose the style/genre association.  How about listing the genre after the name?  If there is more than one they fit in or a similar ambiguity, list both.  --Amillar
::::Absolutely - what I'm planning to do is this: move the lists as given here now to their respective genre pages (I've started on this already); then rearrange this list in chronological order; then annotate the list so it will say "Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827), often regarded as the first Romantic composer" and "Terry Riley (dates), minimalist compsoer noted for works such as In C" or something similar. Sound OK? --Camembert
:::::I've added a first draft for an English Wikipedia article on the Austrian-German composer Franz Schreker. Since I'm not a professional musician, English is not my mother language and this is my first Wikipedia article at all, any improvement of the draft is appreciated. --Jürgen
:I've deleted the massive alphabetical list of composers. I believe it was redundant, at best, and served no use that was not already served better by the various listings by certain categories. It's not totally gone, of course. If anyone wishes to reference it, you'll find it here. Naturally, if anyone strongly objects to this removal and thinks this article ought consist of composers of all genres and eras in a single alphabetical list, then we can talk and work it out. Rohirok 04:25, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: By period or alphabetically?

message: Hi!
Suggest/advise you add Elmer Bernstein to  your list of Film Composers.  www.elmerbernstein.com
Thanks!
Lisa
:Done. Thanks. Isomorphic 00:37, 6 May 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Film Music Composers 

message: In English these days students are taught that a composer is anyone who creates a text of any form (print, film, audio, music etc). Do we need to expand this page to include that?
I don't think so. I've never heard of that and I don't think people will search composer looking for authors or filmmakers. PrettyMuchBryce 01:24, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Composer from a Humanities point of view 

message: I suggest the logo like this may be used at the end of the Composer articles:
----
 
This Composer article is part of the Composers Project
----
*(Meladina 00:17, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Logo "composer"

message: I don't agree with the distinction being made between "composer" and "songwriter". To quote the dictionary definitions in two standard dictionaries-
* Merriam-Webster = 
one that composes; especially : a person who writes music
* Cambridge Dictionary of American English =  A person who writes music
There is no distinction bectween the person writing and what is written.  So, someone who writes symphonies and someone who writes songs are both composers.  
Are Franz Schubert, Francis Poulenc, Charles Ives and Ned Rorem then "song writers"?  It seems to me that the distinction is not only false, but also creates a false hierarchy. Musikfabrik 09:37, 6 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Just to give people a fair chance to compare here are the dictionary definitions of songwriter-
* Merriam-Webster = 
a person who composes words or music or both especially for popular songs
* Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary = 
a person who writes the music and words of songs
Just so people can see those definitions as well. Dafoeberezin3494 20:16, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

text: While you're technically correct that a songwriter is a composer, colloquially speaking, a songwriter is generally understood to be a writer of (usually brief) popular songs within in certain genres, such as blues, rock, pop, country, etc. In contrast, a composer is generally understood to be someone who writes pieces or works (usually longer than "songs") within various classical genres, but also jazz or even ragtime. When's the last time you heard a pop songwriter referred to as a composer, or a classical composer referred to as a songwriter? The distinction exists in everyday speech, and I think it ought to reflected here, even if there are exceptional cases. Rohirok 02:59, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Definition of Composer 

message: Would it be too much to ask that deletions or additions not be made on the so-called "list of uncategorized composers" while this discussion is taking place?  While the usefulness of the list is being discussed, it would seem to me to be important that changes not be made until the issue is resolved, to avoid an unnecessary "edit war". Thank you.  Musikfabrik 19:26, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: A Favour

message: I would not object to creation of a comprehensive list of composers by name if it were given its own article under List of composers by name, and as long as the length were kept reasonable by splitting it up into alphabetically grouped chunks as needed. Such a list could be the first one linked at List of composers.
I would object to reclassifying all songwriters as composers on utilitarian grounds, since most readers looking for information about composers are unlikely to want information on people conventionally referred to as songwriters, and vice versa. The distinction that the general public makes between "composers" and "songwriters" is a real one, even if it is somewhat arbitrary, and even though there are certainly overlaps between the two categories. If a list of all those conventionally considered composers and songwriters were to made, I believe it ought to be called "List of composers and songwriters." Rohirok 16:26, 8 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Proposal concerning alphabetical list

message: Please indicate whether you Support or Oppose the following course of action:
Create List of composers by name and list this article as the first item in List of composers.
*Support. Rohirok 03:42, 9 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Vote on compromise

message: I vote that we remove the list of quotations in the article. They don't really add any new information and it's rather unencyclopaedic to keep them there. Is anyone opposed to this? --DearPrudence 17:22, 14 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I have now removed the section. --DearPrudence 22:13, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  List of quotations - should we remove it? 

message: Is there some reason why Satie is not listed, or was this just an oversight.  He didn't write a whole lot, but his Gymopedies are famousDrmrj (talk) 16:20, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Erik Satie 

message: Is there a list anywhere?  There are hundreds of such people.  Candidates would include:
*Henry Litolff - known for the scherzo movement of the Concerto Symphonique No. 4
*Christian Sinding - known for "Rustle of Spring"
*Hamish MacCunn - known for "The Land of the Mountain and the Flood" overture
*Ignace Leybach - known (if at all these days) for the "Fifth Nocturne"
*Emil Reznicek - known for the "Donna Diana" overture
* etc
--  JackofOz (talk) 03:21, 9 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Composers generally known for a single work

message: Since there is a list of Ragtime composers, why isn't there a list of Jazz composers? --66.81.159.156 (talk) 01:00, 23 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Jazz 

message: Why is there a list of Film Score composers and also a list of Soundtrack composers? Aren't they the same? --66.81.159.156 (talk) 01:07, 23 December 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: In fact List of soundtrack composers just redirects to List of film score composers, so it need not be listed on this page.  Well spotted!  --Deskford (talk) 01:14, 23 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Soundtrack or Film Score 

message: I would like to see Stanisław Skrowaczewski added to the articles "List of Composers" and "Category:20th-century conductors (music)." I'm assuming that it was only by oversight that he was left out, since he is quite prominent and is included in the articles "Polish conductors (music)" and "Minnesota Orchestra Music Directors," among others. KasperCat (talk) 18:56, 29 August 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Stanisław Skrowaczewski