GREAT COMPOSER

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750 ) German Composer

Ludwig van Beethoven ( 1770-1827 ) German Composer

Johannes Brahms ( 1833-1897 ) German Composer

Benjamin Britten ( 1913-1976 ) British 20th-century composer

Fredrick Chopin (1841-1904 ) Polish Composer

Edward Elgar ( 1857-1934 ) British Composer

George Gershwin ( 1898-1937 ) American 20th-century composer

Edvard Grieg ( 1843-1907 ) Norwegian 19th- century composer

George Frederic Handel ( 1685-1759 ) German/British composer

Joseph Haydn ( 1732-1809 ) Austrian Composer

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ( 1756-1791 ) Austrian composer, who wrote more than 40

symphonies

Franz Peter Schubert ( 1797-1828 ) Austrian Composer

Igor Stravinsky ( 1882-1971 ) Russian 20th-century composer, most

celebrated work was The Rite of Spring

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( 1840-1893 ) Russian composer, famous for symphonies and

ballet scores

Giuseppe Verdi ( 1813-1904 ) Italian 19th-centuryopera composer

Richard Wagner ( 1818-1883 ) German Composer

German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750 ) wrote music to be played on organs and
sung by church choirs. He also composed chamber music. He was musical director at the church of
Thomas in Leipzing , north Germany. Bach’s works are still perfomed , and greatly, admired today.

Ludwig van Beethoven ( 1770-1827 ), who lived and worked in Germany, was the greatest
composer of his day. He composed many passionate works for solo piano and for the orchestra.
Extra players were needed to perfrom many of his compositions, which were considered very
advanced and difficult for their time. Tragically, Beethoven went dear and had to stop perfoming,
but he went on composing until the end his life.
Born is Austria, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ( 1756-1791 )was a child prodigy who began
composing when he was only five years old, Soon, he began to write concertos (pieces for solo
instrumentalist plus orchestra), symphonies (works fur full orchestra ), church music, and operas.
Mozart became famous throughout Europe, but died aged only 35, in povery.

Richard Wagner (1818-1883 ) wrote the world’s longest operas. Each one runs for over five hours.
To stage them, Wagner built a huge opera house in his home town, Bayreuth, in Bavaria (southern
Germany ). He also founded an annual opera festival there that still held today.

Piano

Pianos were invented in Europe in the early 1700s. Their name came from two Italian words: piano
soft and forte (loud). Because they could producea very wide range of sounds. From quiet and gentle
to very noisy. The first pianos were made of wood. but today most piano frames are made of metal.
Older new , all pianos produce sound in the same way. When the player presses a key with their
finger , a set of levers moves a wooden hammer. This hits a wire and makes is vibrate to sound a
note. The longer the wire, the lower the note that is played. Players can increase the sound made by
the piano , or make each note last longer , by pressing pedals , connected to the wires by more
levers, with their feet.