Memorize these and you could recognize 47.8% of all Composers clues.
| # | Answer | Appearances | Sample Clue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ludwig van Beethoven | 33 | He tried to get sole guardianship of his nephew Karl Beethoven after his brother Caspar's death |
| 2 | Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky | 27 | It was rumored that he committed suicide over the failure of his last symphony, the "Pathetique" |
| 3 | W.A. Mozart | 26 | His father, a Salzburg teacher, wrote a treatise on the fundamental principles of violin playing |
| 4 | Johann Sebastian Bach | 26 | 18th-century composer on whose compositionthe following, a 1965 No. 2 hit, is based:"How gentle is the rain /That falls softly on the meadow /Birds hi... |
| 5 | Frederic Chopin | 23 | This Polish composer's health began to deteriorate rapidly after he broke up with George Sand |
| 6 | Igor Stravinsky | 23 | He wrote "Petrushka" for Diaghilev & a circus polka for the Ringling Brothers |
| 7 | George Gershwin | 21 | The 1945 film "Rhapsody in Blue" is a biography of this composer |
| 8 | Richard Wagner | 19 | 1st held in 1876, the Bayreuth Festival was planned by this German opera composer to play his own works |
| 9 | Claude Debussy | 18 | This Frenchman dedicated his 1908 piano suite "Children's Corner" to his young daughter Claude-Emma |
| 10 | George Frideric Handel | 17 | One of his most famous works had its premiere on a barge in 1717 |
| 11 | Giuseppe Verdi | 16 | G. Strepponi sang in "Nabucco", the opera that made this composer famous, & later married him |
| 12 | Felix Mendelssohn | 16 | His music for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" includes the familiar "Wedding March" |
| 13 | Franz Schubert | 15 | This Austrian composer wrote over 140 songs in 1815, including 8 lieder in a single day |
| 14 | Edvard Grieg | 15 | This composer's great-grandfather immigrated from Scotland to Norway in the 18th century |
| 15 | Franz Liszt | 15 | Serving as conductor, this great Hungarian composer premiered several of Wagner's operas |
| 16 | Aaron Copland | 14 | In 1945 this American won the Pulitzer Prize for "Appalachian Spring" |
| 17 | Johannes Brahms | 14 | Tchaikovsky once referred to this "Lullaby" composer as "giftless" & a "mediocrity" |
| 18 | Giacomo Puccini | 12 | He revised "Madama Butterfly" in the weeks following its less-than-successful La Scala premiere |
| 19 | Maurice Ravel | 12 | Ralph Vaughn Williams studied in Paris under this composer of "Bolero" |
| 20 | Franz Joseph Haydn | 12 | Once forced by poverty to sleep in the streets of Vienna, he went on to create "The Creation" |
| 21 | Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov | 11 | Mussorgsky once lived with this "Scheherazade" composer who re-edited "Boris Godunov" after his death |
| 22 | Sousa | 11 | This native of Washington, D.C. wrote several novels & an autobiography called "Marching Along" |
| 23 | Rossini | 11 | He wrote "William Tell" at age 37, but no other operas during the remaining 39 years of his life |
| 24 | Richard Strauss | 11 | On a U.S. tour this "Salome" composer gave 2 concerts at Wanamaker's dep't store in New York |
| 25 | Edward Elgar | 11 | This "Pomp And Circumstance" composer never finished his opera "The Spanish Lady" |
| 26 | Cole Porter | 9 | This "I Get A Kick Out Of You" composer was born in Peru--Indiana |
| 27 | Antonio Vivaldi | 9 | This composer of "The Four Seasons" wrote 46 operas, but only 21 of the scores survive |
| 28 | Antonio Salieri | 9 | In 1774, he became court composer to Emperor Joseph II of Austria |
| 29 | Scott Joplin | 8 | "Treemonisha";"Maple Leaf Rag";"The Ragtime Dance";"The Entertainer" |
| 30 | Leonard Bernstein | 8 | He recently conducted a recording of his "West Side Story" with opera singers |
| 31 | J.S. Bach | 8 | Since his sons were musicians, this greatest Baroque composer could have written a family fugue |
| 32 | Robert Schumann | 8 | This German wrote many of his most famous lieder in 1840, the year he married pianist Clara Wieck |
| 33 | Vienna | 7 | Antonio Salieri moved to this city in 1766 & became court composer there 8 years later |
| 34 | Bizet | 7 | On the eve of the premiere of "Carmen", he was named a chevalier of the Legion of Honor |
| 35 | Jean Sibelius | 7 | In 1939 the Helsinki Music Institute changed its name to honor this famed graduate |
| 36 | Modest Mussorgsky | 7 | "While I was writing Boris, I was Boris", said this composer of "Boris Godunov" |
| 37 | Johann Strauss | 6 | He introduced his first waltzes at a Viennese restaurant where he conducted a dance band |
| 38 | John Williams | 6 | In the 2000s alone, 13 of his movie scores have been Oscar nominated, including "War Horse" & "The Book Thief" |
| 39 | Antonin Dvorak | 6 | Holst wrote "The Planets" & he wrote a symphony "From the New World" |
| 40 | Stephen Foster | 5 | His wife Jane may have inspired his song "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" |
| 41 | Russia | 5 | A. Khachaturian wrote his "2nd Symphony" for the 25th anniversary of this country's 1917 revolution |
| 42 | Sergei Rachmaninoff | 5 | One of this Russian's best-known works is the fiendishly difficult Piano Concerto No. 3 of 1909 |
| 43 | Richard Rodgers | 5 | Tom Drake in "Words and Music" (Hint: Mickey Rooney played his partner Lorenz Hart) |
| 44 | Jacques Offenbach | 5 | Son of a Cologne cantor, he wrote such works as "The Tales of Hoffmann" |
| 45 | Paganini | 4 | Some of his 24 caprices for violin were adapted for piano by Schumann & Liszt |
| 46 | Duke Ellington | 4 | This "noble" jazzman wrote "Sophisticated Lady" & "Mood Indigo" |
| 47 | (Gustav) Mahler | 4 | Due to the huge number of performers required, his 8th symphony was dubbed "Symphony of a Thousand" |
| 48 | the harpsichord | 4 | Domenico Scarlatti wrote over 550 pieces for this piano predecessor |
| 49 | Hector Berlioz | 4 | Wagner called this "Symphonie Fantastique" composer the "savior of our modern world of absolute music" |