Who are the greatest English Composers of classical music to have ever lived?
I just love classical music. However it's a pity how little I know about some of the composers. Apart from Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, I know very little bout the rest. So I turn to you.
Ah, you asked for English, not British.
Try - William Cornysh, Henry Stoninges, John Playford, Thomas Simpson, Thomas Weelkes, and probably one of the greatest English composers, Henry Purcell.
Thanks Mick...don't really know how to to distinguish the English from the Brittish. Am looking up your suggestions. Oh, By the way, if u don't mind me asking, were Mozart and Handel English/British?
Ah, I'm just listening to Playford, Nottingham Castle, British/English, it's complicated, but after the union of the British Isles, there was, I think, some Act passed naming the place Great Briain. M and H, H considered British, M, Austrian?
cuttler: Mozart was German. Handel was born in Germany, but was British.
Ah, Mozart's birthplacem Salzberg, Austria, Bavaria, independent state? Now, I beleve it may be part of Germany, It ain't important, it's the Ausrian/Germany part of the world.
Heh, I say Mozart was German because he self-identified as German. It was not Austria then, but the Holy Roman Empire. Many Austrians before World War II identified as German. He referenced Germany as his beloved fatherland (geliebtem Vaterland).
Thanks guys for the information..I greatly appreciate it
Edward Elgar, Benjamin Britten, and Gustav Holst are my favorite English composers.
Personally, I don't like Henry Purcell that much. But he is historically important to Classical music. Benjamin Britten and Ralph Vaughan Williams are tops in my book. I never get tired of listening to the latter's "Fantasia on Greensleeves"
Great question! The English are great in literature, philosophy and poetry, but have always fallen short to the Germans in music. ...all said, my personal favorite English composer of all times is Edward Elgar. Henry Purcell is typically considered to be one of the greatest, but he lived a long time ago...
By English I'm guessing your looking for classical composers from Great Britain. In Britain they had a number of great composers stemming from the Medieval and Baroque eras of classical music, but then there was (arguably) a drought of great British classical composers until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Here are some of the most famous British composers.
Baroque/Medieval composers:
John Dowland
William Byrd
Henry Purcell
George Frederic Handel (was actually a German, but resided in England for a large portion of his career)
More Modern Composers:
Gustav Holst
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Benjamin Britten
To answer your question about Mozart and Handel. Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria and Handel was a german-born British baroque composer. His most famous work being " Messiah."
For the piano, my favourite composer is Chopin. For the violin, it's Sarasate. But you specified English...so it'll have to be Holst and Elgar.
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