Overview
America has a rich heritage of composers that are American-born and/or migrated to America to engage in the musical cultural fabric of this land. Coming from diverse educational, racial, spiritual, regional, and family backgrounds these American composers have created a unique tapestry of musical offerings. The following are a representative group of some of America's most renowned composers:
John Philip Sousa (November 6, 1854 - March 6, 1932)
John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor known primarily for the American military march. He started his musical career as a member of the United States Marine Band followed by a period of touring as a violin recitalist. Then he rejoined the Marine Band as their conductor; it was at this time he began writing marches, mainly for the Marine Band. Among his best-known marches are Semper Fidelis, The Liberty Bell, The Washington Post, High School Cadets, El Capitan, and The Gallant Seventh. But the march that he is most known for is The Stars and Stripes Forever. It must also be noted that Sousa aided in the development of a marching version of the tuba which before production was named after him: the sousaphone.
Sousa not only restricted his writing to marches but he also wrote six operas, and many popular songs and waltzes. Most recognition for his contributions to the American musical landscape did not occur during his life but rather posthumously. In 1952, the movie Stars and Stripes Forever was made about his life, and in 1976 he was enshrined in the Hall of Fame For Great Americans on the campus of New York University.
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (September 5, 1867 - December 27, 1944)
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach was an American composer and pianist. She was the first successful American female composer of large-scale works. Her “Gaelic” Symphony, premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1866, was the first symphony composed and published by an American woman. As a pianist, she was acclaimed for performing concerts featuring her own music in the United States and in Germany.
Her first major compositional success came in 1892 when her Mass in E-flat major, was performed by Boston's Handel and Haydn Society. Then in 1900, the Boston Symphony premiered Beach's Piano Concerto with Beach as the soloist. The later part of her life she dedicated to music education. In fact she served as leader of some organizations focused on music education and women, including the Society of American Women Composers as its first president. She received very little recognition for her achievements during her lifetime.
Scott Joplin (November 24, 1868 - April 1, 1917)
Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Joplin was also known as the “King of Ragtime '' because of his fame achieved from his ragtime compositions, a musical style born out of the Southern African American community. He developed his own style of Dixieland-type piano sound while traveling as an itinerant musician throughout the South. He went to Chicago in 1893 for the World's Fair playing his new style of music, and by 1897 Ragtime was the craze throughout America. The two most famous Joplin ragtime tunes are The Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer.
At some point, Joplin turned to writing operas. He wrote two: A Guest of Honor which has been lost and Treemonisha which was never staged during his lifetime. Joplin received very little recognition during his lifetime from his musical achievements. However, in 1970, Joplin was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame by the National Academy of Popular Music, and was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize “bestowed posthumously in this Bicentennial Year, for his contributions to American music.”
Charles Ives (October 20, 1874 - May 19, 1954)
Charles Ives was an American modernist composer, and one of the first composers of international renown. His music was largely ignored during his early life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Later in life, the quality of his music was publicly recognized, and he came to be regarded as an “American Original.” He was among the first composers to engage in a systematic program of experimental music, with music techniques including polytonality, polyrhythm tone clusters, aleatory elements, and quarter tones. He is often regarded as the leading American composer of art music of the 20th century. Sources of Ives's tonal imagery included hymn tunes and traditional songs. He also incorporated melodies of the town band at holiday parades, the fiddlers at Saturday night dances, patriotic songs, sentimental parlor ballads, and the melodies of Stephen Foster.
In 1940 he won a Pulitzer Prize for Music for his Symphony No. 3, The Camp Meeting. And in 2020 Gustavo Dudamel, Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic won a Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance for Ives Complete Symphonies.
Florence Beatrice Price (April 9, 1887 - June 3, 1953)
Florence Beatrice Price was an African American classical composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher. She was educated at the New England Conservatory of Music and was active in Chicago from 1927 until her death in 1953. Price is noted as the first African American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and the first to have a composition performed by a major orchestra. Price composed over 300 works: four symphonies, four concertos, as well as choral works, plus art songs, and music for chamber and solo instruments.
In 1940, Price was inducted into the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers for her work as a composer. In 1949, Price published two of her spiritual arrangements, “I Am Bound for the Kingdom,” and “I'm Workin' on My Buildin',” and dedicated them to Marian Anderson, who performed them on a regular basis.
Cole Porter (June 9, 1891 - October 15, 1964)
Cole Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his sources found success on Broadway and in film. He began to achieve success in the 1920s, and by the 1930s he was one of the major songwriters for the Broadway musical theater. Porter wrote the lyrics as well as the music for his songs. In 1948 he realized even greater success when his musical Kiss Me Kate won the first Tony Award for Best Musical. Porter's other musicals include Fifty Million Frenchmen, DuBarry Was a Lady, Anything Goes, Can-Can, and Silk Stockings. His popular hit songs included Night and Day, Begin the Beguine, I Get a Kick Out of You, I've Got You Under My Skin, My Heart Belongs to Daddy, and You're the Top.
Porter's songs have been recorded by such performers as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Yo-Yo Ma, Judy Garland, and Lady Gaga.
Irving Berlin (May 11, 1888 - September 22, 1989)
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in history. His music forms a great part of the Great American Songbook. He had his first major international hit, Alexander's Ragtime Band, in 1911. Alexander's Ragtime Band sparked an international dance craze and was the first song in history described as bordering on mania. Over the years he was known for writing music and lyrics in the American vernacular: uncomplicated, simple and direct. His stated aim was to “reach the heart of the average American,” whom he saw as the “real soul of the country.”
During his 60-year career he wrote an estimated 1,500 songs, including the scores for 20 original Broadway shows and 15 original Hollywood films. His songs were nominated 8 times for Academy Awards. His musical Annie Get Your Gun produced many Broadway standards. He toured America during World War II with his musical This is The Army for the purpose of selling war bonds. Many of his songs became major hits including Alexander's Ragtime Band, Easter Parade, Puttin' on the Ritz, Cheek to Cheek, White Christmas, Happy Holiday, Anything You Can Do, and There's No Business Like Show Business. But it was his God Bless America that elevated him to the highest esteem of the American people. Berlin is also noted as one of the founders of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).
He won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for White Christmas written for the 1943 film Holiday Inn. He won a Tony Award in 1951 for Best Score for the musical Call Me Madam and a special Tony Award in 1963 for Lifetime Achievement in the American Theater. Berlin was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1954 from President Dwight D. Eisenhower for contributing many patriotic songs, especially God Bless America, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 given by President Gerald Ford. A Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award was given to him in 1968.
George Gershwin (September 26, 1898 - July 11, 1937)
George Gershwin was an American pianist and composer whose compositions spanned both popular and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris, the songs Swanee and Fascinating Rhythm, the jazz standards Embraceable You and I Got Rhythm and the opera Porgy and Bess. He also wrote for solo piano and Broadway musicals.
Gershwin moved to Hollywood and composed numerous film scores. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song at the 1937 Oscars for “They Can't Take That Away from Me.” He was also honored with a Congressional Gold Medal and a special Pulitzer Prize.
Duke Ellington (April 29, 1899 - May, 1974)
Duke Ellington was an American composer, pianist and leader of a jazz orchestra. He was a pivotal figure in the history of Jazz and the most significant composer of the genre. Some of his best known works are as follows: Take the A Train, Mood Indigo, Sophisticated Lady, It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got that Swing), In A Sentimental Mood, I Got It Bad, Prelude to a Kiss, Cotton Tail, and Satin Doll. He was often the bandleader and pianist in movies that featured Big Band Club scenes.
He was the recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a Pulitzer Prize.
Aaron Copland (November 14, 1900 - December 2, 1990)
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Composers.” The open, slowly changing harmonies in much of his music are typical of what many people consider to be the sound of American music, evoking the vast American landscape and pioneer spirit. He is best known for the works he wrote in the 1930s and 1940s in a deliberately accessible style. Works in this vein include the ballets Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid, and Rodeo, along with his Fanfare for the Common Man, and his strongest through the composed orchestral work, Third Symphony. In addition to his ballets and orchestral works, he produced music in many other genres, including chamber music, vocal works, opera, and film scores.
Copland was widely recognized for his accomplishments. He was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon Johnson. He was awarded the New York Music Critics' Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize in composition for Appalachian Spring. He won an Academy Award for his film score to The Heiress for Best Music in 1950. He was also awarded the National Medal of Arts and the Congressional Gold Medal.
William Grant Still (May 11, 1895 - December 3, 1978)
William Grant Still was an American composer of nearly 200 works including five symphonies, nine operas, over thirty choral works, plus art songs, chamber music, and works for solo instruments. Because of his close association and collaboration with prominent African American literary and cultural figures, Still is considered to have been a key contributor to the Harlem Renaissance. Still was often referred to as the “Dean of African-American Composers.” He was the first American composer to have an opera produced by the New York City Opera. Still was the first African American to conduct a major American orchestra, and the first to have an opera, A Bayou Legend, performed on national television.
Still's first major orchestral composition, Symphony No. 1 “Afro-American”, was performed in 1931 by the Rochester Philharmonic conducted by Howard Hanson. Still also arranged music for films and television. He received a citation for Outstanding Service to American Music from the National Association for American Composers and Conductors. He was awarded honorary doctorates from Oberlin College, Wilberforce University, Howard University, Bates College, the University of Arkansas, Pepperdine University, the New England Conservatory of Music, the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Southern California.
Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 - December 30, 1979)
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer, known largely for his work in musical theater. With 43 Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers was one of the most significant American composers of the 20th century, and his compositions had a significant influence on popular music. The musicals that he is most known for are as follows: Pal Joey, A Connecticut Yankee, Oklahoma, Flower Drum Song, Carousel, South Pacific, and The King and I. But by far, he is best known for his songs and the musical score for The Sound of Music.
Rodgers was the first person to win all of what are now considered the top American entertainment awards in theater, film, recording, and television - a Tony, and Oscar, a Grammy, and an Emmy - now known collectively as an EGOT. In addition, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize and was in the inaugural group to those awarded Kennedy Center Honors for his Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award.
Samuel Osmond Barber (March 9, 1910 - January 23, 1981)
Samuel Osmond Barber was an American composer, pianist, conductor, baritone, music educator, and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. Principally influenced by nine years of composition studies at the Curtis Institute and more than twenty-five years of study with his uncle, the composer Sidney Homer, Barber's music usually eschewed the experimental trends of musical modernism in favor of utilizing traditional 19th-century harmonic language and formal structure that embraced lyricism and emotional expression. Barber was adept at writing both instrumental and vocal music. His works became successful on the international stage and many of his compositions enjoyed rapid adoption into the classical performance canon. In particular, his Adagio for Strings has earned a permanent place in the concert repertory of orchestras, as has that work's adaptation for chorus, Agnus Dei. While Barber composed a significant body of purely instrumental music, two-thirds of his compositional output was dedicated to writing art songs for voice and piano, choral music, and songs for voice and orchestra.
He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music twice: for his opera Vanessa and for the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.
Alan Hovhaness (March 8, 1911 - June 21, 2000)
Alan Hovhaness was an American composer. He was one of the most prolific 20th-century composers, with his official catalog comprising 67 numbered symphonies (surviving manuscripts indicate over 70) and 434 opus numbers. The true tally is well over 500 surviving works, since many opus numbers comprise two or more distinct works.
For a period of time he taught theory and composition at the Boston Conservatory before he moved to New York City to work for Voice of America radio where he became their Director of Music. The move was mainly for connecting Hovhaness with America's elite composing community center in the city. As he was looking for ensembles to perform his symphonies, he often had to pay for a contracted orchestra to perform his works in a recording studio. He released his works recorded under his own label, Poseidon Society Records. It was one of these recordings that found its way to the desk of the famous American choreographer, Martha Graham. She was taken by his compositions and she commissioned him to compose the music for three of her ballets. This exposure catapulted his compositions to be performed by orchestras across America, but it was collegiate music ensembles where his compositions saw their greatest exposure. He also did the film scores to eight feature films.
John Milton Cage (September 5, 1912 - August 12, 1992)
John Milton Cage was an American composer, music theorist, and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy of music (or commonly known as music by chance), electroacoustic music, and the non-standard use of musical instruments. Cage was one of the leaders of the avant-garde movement in musical composition. He was also instrumental in the development of American modern dance, mostly through his association with choreographer Merce Cunningham.
Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4'33'', which is performed in the absence of deliberate sound; musicians who present the work do nothing aside from being present for the duration specified by the title. He was also a pioneer of the prepared piano (a piano with its sounds altered by objects placed between the strings or hammers), for which he wrote numerous dance-related works and a few concert pieces. The best known of these works is Sonatas and Interludes.
Cage entered the faculty at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut in 1950 and stayed associated with the faculty until his death in 1992. Thus, the majority of his works are promoted by collegiate communities.
Leonard Bernstein (August 25, 1918 - October 14, 1990)
Leonard Bernstein was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Among the most important conductors of his time, he was also the first American conductor to receive international acclaim. Bernstein was the recipient of many honors, including seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, sixteen Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement, and the Kennedy Center Honor.
As a composer he wrote in many styles for symphonic orchestra, ballet, film, theater, choir, opera, chamber ensemble, and piano. His best-known work is the Broadway musical West Side Story, which continues to be regularly performed worldwide, and has been adapted into two (1961 and 2021) feature films.
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (March 22, 1930 - November 26, 2021)
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (March 22, 1930 - November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. The majority of his work centers around the American musical theater and is considered one of the most important contributors in 20th century musical theater. In fact, he alone was praised for having reinvented the American musical with shows that tackled unexpected themes that range far beyond traditional subjects with music and lyrics of unprecedented complexity and sophistication. As a teenager Sondheim formed a relationship with Oscar Hammerstein who became his surrogate father, but more importantly his mentor in developing his talent for musical theater writing.
Sondheim started his theater career by writing lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy before becoming a composer and lyricist. Sondheim's best-known works include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Sunday in the Park with George, Merrily We Roll Along, and Into the Woods. He also wrote film music, contributing Goodbye for Now for the movie Reds and five songs for the movie Dick Tracy.
Over Sondheim's prolific career in stage and film, he received an Academy Award, 8 Tony Awards, and 8 Grammy Awards. He also received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Sunday in the Park with George, was awarded with a Kennedy Center Honor for Lifetime Achievement, as well as becoming a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame, and receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. In addition, the Henry Miller Theater, on West 43rd Street in New York City, was renamed the Stephen Sondheim Theater on September 15, 2010.
John Towner Williams (February 8, 1932)
John Towner Williams (February 8, 1932) is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career that has spanned seven decades, he has composed some of the most popular, recognizable, and critically acclaimed film scores in cinematic history. Some of his film scores are for the following movies: Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Schindler's List, Empire of the Sun, Saving Private Ryan, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Smallville, and War Horse just to denote an acclaimed list, but is in no way the complete list of his film scores. However, it is his film scores to all of the Star Wars films that he is most noted for. In fact, in 2005, the American Film Institute selected Williams' score to the 1977 Star Wars as the greatest film score of all time. And the Library of Congress also entered the Star Wars soundtrack into the National Recording Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
Williams has won 25 Grammy Awards, 7 British Academy Film Awards, 5 Academy Awards, and 4 Golden Globe Awards. He was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl's Hall of Fame and received a Kennedy Center Honor Award.
Philip Morris Glass (January 31, 1937)
Philip Morris Glass (January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimalism, being built up from repetitive phrases and shifting layers. He has written numerous operas and musical theater works, along with 12 symphonies, 11 concertos, 8 string quartets, and numerous chamber works. He is also noted for his film scores; four have been nominated for Academy Awards.
Glass has received a Kennedy Center Honors Award, Musical America Musician of the Year Award, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for The Truman Show.