Classical music

Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach (b. 1750) and Johannes Brahms (d. 1897) are major Western musicians making up The Three Bs of Music.

Richard Wagner (b. 1813), Richard Strauss (1860's-1949) and Gustav Mahler (b. 1860) are notable innovators in Western music.

Johann Strauss I (1800's-1849) and Johann Strauss II (d. 1890's) are also music icons.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (b. 1750's), Robert Schumann (b. 1810's) and Johann Pachelbel are also famous icons in music.

Franz Schubert and Joseph Haydn (1730's-1809) are also famous symbols in music.

Claude Debussy (1862-1918), Camille Saint-Saens (d. 1921) and Erik Satie (1866-1925) are French music innovators.

Mikhail Glinka is the first composer with a Russian nationalist style in music.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (d. 1893) is the first Russian composer earning an international reputation.

Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev (1890's-1953) and Sergei Rachmaninoff are also music innovators.

Mily Balakirev, Cesar Cui (d. 1918), Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai-Rimsky Korsakov (d. 1900's) and Alexander Borodin are music innovators as well.

Dmitri Shostakovich (d. 1975) and Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849) are also music legends.

Bela Bartok (d. 1945), Antonin Dvorak (1841-1900's) and Jean Sibelius (1860's-1957) are also music innovators.

Arnold Schoenberg (d. 1950's), Alban Berg (d. 1930's) and Anton Webern (d. 1945) are in the Second Viennese School in the early-20th century, but are also the Three As of music.

Gioachino Rossini (d. 1860's), Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) and Giacomo Puccini (d. 1924) are major Italian composers making up The Three Gs of music.

Nadia Boulanger and Rubin Goldmark (d. 1936) are likewise some music innovators.

Aaron Copland (1900-1990) brings his distinctive Americana music style to the world.

Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, Nadia Boulanger, Rubin Goldmark. American music and others serve as influences for Aaron Copland's distinctive Americana music style.

What makes Aaron Copland's own music sound a modern one is his own formula: mixing European classical techniques with American music sounds.

Howard Hanson (1896-1981), Gyorgy Ligeti (b. 1920's), Ottorino Respighi (d. 1936) and John Cage (1912-1990's) are likewise music innovators.

Karlheinz Stockhausen (b. 1920's) and Pierre Boulez (1925-2010's) are also music innovators.

Antonio Carlos Gomes is the first music composer from the New World to achieve recognition and success in the Old World.

Darius Milhaud (1890's-1974) and Paul Dukas (1860's-1930's) are also music innovators.

Leos Janacek (d. 1920's), Bedrich Smetana, Ildebrando Pizzetti (d. 1960's) and Alexander Scriabin are music innovators as well.

W.C. Handy (d. 1950's) and Robert Johnson (d. 1938) are influential figures in pop music.

Thomas A. Dorsey (1890's-1993), Muddy Waters (1913-1980's) and Willie Dixon (d. 1990's) are also influential pop music figures.