# Rank the Classical Era Composers



## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Hope I didn't forget anyone. 

Beethoven
Boccherini
CPE Bach
Clementi
Giuliiani 
Haydn
Hummel
J.C Bach
M. Haydn
Mozart
Sallieri
Sor
Stamitz
W.F Bach


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

There were many, many more. But to answer your thread literally, out of those listed, I would rank as follows:-

Mozart
Beethoven
Franz Joseph Haydn
Michael Haydn
CPE Bach
Johann Christian Bach
Hummel
Boccherini
Clementi
Carl Stamitz (presumably you meant Carl)
Mauro Giuliani
Salieri
Fernando Sor


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

Beethoven
F.J.Haydn
Mozart
Boccherini

Others are unknown to me.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

I need to know more about the lesser Classical Composers. Right my list would be...
CPE Bach
Beethoven
Boccherini
Haydn
Mozart
Giuliani
Hummel


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## StevenOBrien (Jun 27, 2011)

Mozart
Beethoven
Haydn
CPE Bach
J.C Bach
Hummel
M. Haydn
Clementi
Boccherini
W.F Bach
Sallieri
Giuliiani 
Sor
Stamitz


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

neoshredder said:


> Hope I didn't forget anyone.
> 
> Beethoven
> Boccherini
> ...


Which Mozart? and what, no Francesco Zappa?  (Also, thanks for not putting Schubert in there :3)


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

BurningDesire said:


> Which Mozart? and what, no Francesco Zappa?  (Also, thanks for not putting Schubert in there :3)


The overrated Mozart of course.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

My list would look something like this:

W.A. Mozart
L.v. Beethoven
Joseph Haydn
C.W. Gluck
Gaetano Donizetti
Gioachino Rossini
Luigi Boccherini
Carl Maria von Weber
Johann Nepomuk Hummel
Johann Christian Bach
Giovanni Pergolesi
Giovanni Paisiello
C.P.E. Bach
Luigi Cherubini
Michael Haydn
Franz Anton Hoffmeister
Louis Spohr

Donizetti, Rossini, Paganini, Weber, Hummel, and certainly Beethoven all all clearly transitional figures leading from Classicism to Romanticism... but they are still listed under "Classical Era Composers". The absence of Gluck in all the above lists is absolutely egregious, and cause for member HarpsichordConcerto to be stripped of his Jedi-Master status and forced to return his secret decoder ring... at least until he has taken 6 credit hours of continuing education courses on _Alceste, Paride ed Elena, Iphigénie en Aulide, Iphigénie en Tauride, Orfeo ed Euridice_ and _Orphée et Euridice_.

Beyond the above composers, I am somewhat less familiar with the following... having heard perhaps a few works or a disc or two by each:

Joseph Martin Kraus
Carl Stamitz
Franz Krommer
François-Joseph Gossec
Josef Mysliveček
Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf
Domenico Cimarosa
Muzio Clementi 
Paul Wranitzky
Ignaz Pleyel
Johann Ladislaus Dussek
Anton Reicha
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Two really obscure fellows I like a lot are

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Kozeluch

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri-Joseph_Rigel

In my opinion, HC's list puts Michael Haydn too high,
Clementi(should be above Boccherini) too low, and CPE Bach one too low. I have not heard Michael Haydn's vocal music which is said to be sublime, but his symphonies are less than his brother's, easily. Other than that, I agree with his list.

Composers like Salieri, are considerably less interesting than almost anyone else on the list. I put Dittersdorf above Salieri, easily. Probably competent for his time, but some of it is just weak.


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

Ranked in order of coolest names:

Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf
Domenico Cimarosa
Luigi Cherubini
Josef Mysliveček
Johann Nepomuk Hummel
Luigi Boccherini
Paul Wranitzky
C.W. Gluck
Gaetano Donizetti
Gioachino Rossini
Giovanni Paisiello
Franz Anton Hoffmeister
Carl Stamitz
François-Joseph Gossec
Muzio Clementi 
Ignaz Pleyel
Johann Ladislaus Dussek
Anton Reicha

I don't know much about their music, but it certainly was the Golden Age of names.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

CPE Bach
JC Bach
WF Bach
Haydn
Beethoven
Schubert
Soler
Salieri
Rossini
Giuliani
Weber
Dittersdorf
Sor
Boccherini
Gluck
Gossec
Cherubini
Stamitz
M. Haydn
Clementi
Mozart
Paganini
Donizetti
L. Mozart


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## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

1. Beethoven



8. Mozart


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## Morgante (Jul 26, 2012)

Non riesco a fare una lista.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

neoshredder said:


> Hope I didn't forget anyone.
> 
> Beethoven
> Boccherini
> ...


Too many important names are missing from this list to make your question meaningful:

Cherubini
Cimarosa (only the most successful opera composer of his (ie 'Classical') time!)
Kraus (the 'Swedish Mozart')
Krommer
Myslíveček
Reicha
Wesley (Samuel - the 'English Mozart')


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## Rinaldino (Aug 2, 2012)

Kraus is the most underrated composer ever: the immensely dramatic C sharp minor symphony and Symphonie Funebre, with the elegant lyrism of the concertante symphony for violin in C major are easily among the best works of the 18th century in my opinion. Clementi is just another italian forgotten glory, and Cherubini too (I don't really like the latter's oeuvre, though). I think that Beethoven's best works were written in his mature style, which - I believe - is too peculiar to be defined as "classical", so I'm not putting him on my list:
Mozart 
Haydn 
Kraus
Clementi
Gluck
CPE Bach


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

1 Mozart
2 Schubert
3 Beethoven
4 Haydn J
5 Hayd M
6 CPE Bach
7 JC Bach
8 Gluck
9 Clementi
10 Salieri


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## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

Beethoven
Haydn
Mozart
Clementi
CPE Bach
Dussek
Hummel


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I can't believe I forgot Cherubini... especially after I went an bought that EMI 250th Anniversary box set of his choral works and two different Maria Callas performances of Medea earlier this year.

Revised list:

W.A. Mozart
L.v. Beethoven
Joseph Haydn
C.W. Gluck
Gaetano Donizetti
Gioachino Rossini
Luigi Boccherini
Carl Maria von Weber
Johann Nepomuk Hummel
*Luigi Cherubini*
Johann Christian Bach
Giovanni Pergolesi
Giovanni Paisiello
C.P.E. Bach
Luigi Cherubini
Michael Haydn
Franz Anton Hoffmeister
Louis Spohr


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Kraus is the most underrated composer ever: the immensely dramatic C sharp minor symphony and Symphonie Funebre, with the elegant lyrism of the concertante symphony for violin in C major are easily among the best works of the 18th century in my opinion. Clementi is just another italian forgotten glory, and Cherubini too (I don't really like the latter's oeuvre, though). I think that Beethoven's best works were written in his mature style, which - I believe - is too peculiar to be defined as "classical", so I'm not putting him on my list:
Mozart 
Haydn 
Kraus
Clementi
Gluck
CPE Bach

Its always nice the see someone who recommends a work or a composer outside the "core repertoire" actually give some examples and reasoning behind this. And its equally refreshing to find someone can call attention to a composer he or she believes is underrated without coming off as an ignorant adolescent needing to lavish excessive praise upon his or her hero of the week while demeaning such masters as Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, etc...

Kraus is certainly one composer of the period that I recognize the need for further exploration. Thanks for the recommendations. I'll surely look into his work on Spotify. :tiphat:


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## Rinaldino (Aug 2, 2012)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> Its always nice the see someone who recommends a work or a composer outside the "core repertoire" actually give some examples and reasoning behind this. And its equally refreshing to find someone can call attention to a composer he or she believes is underrated without coming off as an ignorant adolescent needing to lavish excessive praise upon his or her hero of the week while demeaning such masters as Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, etc...
> 
> Kraus is certainly one composer of the period that I recognize the need for further exploration. Thanks for the recommendations. I'll surely look into his work on Spotify. :tiphat:


Thank you for your kindness. I'm sure you won't be disappointed by Kraus.

BTW: I actually am an adolescent, just not that ignorant, I hope.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Beethoven.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

No need to put the guitar composers, Guiliani and Sor, so painfully low. Especially beneath Salieri, or Carl Stamitz, or Michael Haydn for that matter. It says something about germanic bias when one can't hear how inventive and fresh these works are and thinks they are so trifling as to be beneath a mediocrity like Salieri or Carl Stamitz(only said harshly out of context, because they were clearly still standing out enough in their time). Johann Stamitz is another matter, a very fresh and inventive composer. Writing for and playing on the guitar is an entirely different world. Simple things can be written very deliberately with an ear for how beautiful they would sound on that instrument. A mediocre composer's surface lines might translate well to the expressiveness of that instrument, though unwittingly. Giuliani and Sor knew what they were doing. I feel the same about Abel when he composed for the Viola de Gamba. His symphonies don't hold up so well for me, sounding more formulaic than JC Bach's, but he knew how to write Viola de Gamba music.


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## John Kiunke (Mar 25, 2016)

I'm not including the Galant or the Classical-Romantic transition periods, only about 1770-1800

1. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
2. Franz Joseph Haydn
3. Muzio Clementi
4. Joseph Martin Kraus
5. Leopold Kozeluch
6. Johann Christian Bach
7. Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf
8. Carl Philipp Stamitz
9. Johann Baptist Vanhal
10. Antonio Salieri


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Haydn, Mozart, CPE Bach.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

John Kiunke said:


> I'm not including the Galant or the Classical-Romantic transition periods, only about 1770-1800
> 
> 1. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
> 2. Franz Joseph Haydn
> ...


It definitely makes more sense to hone in on a 30 year window like that. I think your list is well ranked considering the names included and the cultural circles that you've honed in on. But I think there are outliers around the periphery of the most known european classicist music, that have better music to me than the names beneath JC Bach. Different things were happening in France with Gossec and Henri Joseph Rigel(highly obscure in these days, but the symphonies recorded by Concerto Koln are very witty and amusing) Different things were also happening in sequestered parts of Italy(look at Boccherini). More provincial German composers like Ernst Wilhelm Wolf honed very refined music that evolved little from CPE Bach, but was still being actively composed from the 1760s-1790s. In Spain, Antonio Soler was not much older than Haydn, his Scarlattiisms transition nicely into multi movement sonatas as his career went on. While stylistically not a part of the mainstream of the time, these were composers born in those times contributing beautiful and vital music(not too different from JS Bach in that regard, apart from the scope of his achievement)

Rigel, Gossec, Wolf, Soler, and others are all composers I would comfortably consider around Dittersdorf level or even a bit higher(Wolf and Soler are easily around JC Bach level of quality, if not breadth, and Boccherini has all that to put him alongside JC)

Maybe the one thing I'm not sure about is Kozeluch. A czech composer who certainly suffered some unfair judgement and scorn from his greater german contemporaries, Mozart and Beethoven. His symphonies contain grace and attractive lines. I can never decide if they are missing something that JC Bach and Dittersdorf even have, despite his consistent wit and shapeliness.


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

BurningDesire said:


> Which Mozart? and what, no Francesco Zappa?  (Also, thanks for not putting Schubert in there :3)


Francesco is busy being obscure and time traveling and getting with the dukes girl, if you've heard this: (somewhere after 40 minutes if I remember correctly)


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## John Kiunke (Mar 25, 2016)

W.A. Mozart
L.V. Beethoven
F.J. Haydn 
C.P.E. Bach
L. Kozeluch
M. Clementi
J.B. Vanhal
J.C. Bach
J.M. Kraus
J. Schobert
C. Ditters
C.W. Gluck
A. Eberl
J.M. Haydn 
F. Krommer


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Mozart
Haydn
Weber
Spohr 
Reicha
Crussel
Krommer
Boccherini


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

John Kiunke said:


> W.A. Mozart
> L.V. Beethoven
> F.J. Haydn
> C.P.E. Bach
> ...


Rare mix, nice though .


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## Poodle (Aug 7, 2016)

Pugg said:


> Rare mix, nice though .


Yes, I like it :tiphat:


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## musicrom (Dec 29, 2013)

Based on some listening statistics that I've compiled, these are my top 10/11 composers from the Classical Era:

1. Ludwig van Beethoven
2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
3. Gioachino Rossini
4. Franz Schubert
5. Niccolo Paganini
6. Franz Joseph Haydn
7. Johann Nepomuk Hummel
8. George Frideric Handel
9. Franz Anton Hoffmeister
10. Antonio Salieri/C.P.E. Bach

However, without regard to statistics, I would certainly include Cherubini and Weber, and possibly Carl Stamitz in the list.


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## John Kiunke (Mar 25, 2016)

> Maybe the one thing I'm not sure about is Kozeluch. A czech composer who certainly suffered some unfair judgement and scorn from his greater german contemporaries, Mozart and Beethoven. His symphonies contain grace and attractive lines. I can never decide if they are missing something that JC Bach and Dittersdorf even have, despite his consistent wit and shapeliness.


His Trio Sonata in G minor and many piano sonatas are what I consider to be what gets him a high spot. The symphonies are not extremely impressive, I must admit.


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## jdec (Mar 23, 2013)

From the 1700-1800 period:

1. Mozart
2. Beethoven
3. Haydn
.
.
.
then the order with the rest of composers does not matter (to me at least).


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

There was a series of games on another site to identify the top ten works by decade. The composers during the "classical period" were:

1760s: Haydn 9, JC Bach 1
1770s: Haydn 6, Mozart 4
1780s: Mozart, 10
1790s: Haydn 6, Mozart 2, Beethoven 2
1800s: Beethoven, 10
1810s: Beethoven9, Schubert 1
1820s: Beethoven 5, Schubert 5

If we disqualify Schubert as not being a "classical"composer, it looks like only three people need apply.


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