It is often useful to have a listing of the main composers of a particular era. This list is of course not complete, and never will be. Some dates are speculative, and there may be disagreement in the sources, or new discoveries which change our knowledge. Period divisions can always be argued over, and differed from region to region.

Mediaeval [c.1000 - c.1450]

Peter Abelard (1079 - 1142)
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen (1098 - 1179)
Leonin (fl. 1150 - 1240)
Perotin (c. 1160 - 1240)
Adam de la Halle (1245 - after 1306)
Philippe de Vitry (1291 - 1361)
Guillaume de Machaut (1300 - 1377)
Francesco Landini (c. 1325 - 1397)
John Dunstable (1380 - 1453)
Leonel Power (? - 1445)
Gilles Binchois (c. 1400 - 1460)
Guillaume Dufay (1400 - 1477)

Renaissance [c. 1450 - c. 1600]

Johannes Ockeghem (1430 - 1494)
Josquin des Prez (c. 1440 - 1521)
Pierre de la Rue (c. 1460 - 1518)
Heinrich Isaac (c. 1450 - 1517)
Jacob Obrecht (1452 - 1505)
Robert Fayrfax (1464 - 1521)
William Cornysh (c. 1465 - 1523)
Glareanus (1488 - 1563)
Clement Janequin (c. 1485 - c. 1560)
Adrian Willaert (1490 - 1562)
Ludwig Senfl (c. 1490 - 1543)
John Taverner (c. 1490 - 1545)
Christopher Tye (c. 1500 - 1573)
Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 - 1585)
Andrea Gabrieli (1510 - 1586)
Jacobus Clemens (Clemens non Papa) (c.1510 - c. 1556)
Jacques Arcadelt (c. 1510 - 1568)
Cipriano de Rore (1516 - 1565)
Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina ( 1525 - 1594)
Claude Le Jeune (1528 - 1600)
Robert White ( c.1530 - 1574)
Luca Marenzio (1533 - 1599)
Orlando de Lasso (Roland de Lassus) (1538 - 1594)
Tomas Luis de Victoria (c. 1540 - 1611)
William Byrd (1543 - 1623)
Giovanni Gabrieli (1557 - 1612) (Andrea Gabrieli's nephew)
Thomas Morley (1558 - 1603)
Carlo Gesualdo (Price of Venosa) (c. 1560 - 1613)
John Bull (1563 - 1628)
Giles Farnaby (c. 1565 - 1640)
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562 - 1621)
John Dowland (1563 - 1626)
Giovanni Coprario (John Cooper) (c. 1570 - 1627)
Michael Praetorius (1571 - 1621)
Anthony Holborne (? - 1602)
Thomas Tomkins (1572 - 1656)
John Wilbye (1574 - 1638)
Thomas Weelkes (c. 1575 - 1623)
Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583 - 1643)
Orlando Gibbons (1585 - 1625)
Johann Hermann Schein (1586 - 1630)
Samuel Scheidt (1587 - 1654)
John Jenkins (1592 - 1678)
William Lawes (1602 - 1645)
Johann Jacob Froberger (1616 - 1667)
Matthew Locke (c. 1630 - 1677)

Baroque [c. 1600 - c. 1750]

Giulio Caccini (c. 1546 - 1618)
Jacopo Peri (1561 - 1633)
Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643)
Heinrich Schutz (1585 - 1672)
Luigi Rossi (1597 - 1659)
Francesco Cavalli (1602 - 1676)
Giovanni Carissimi (1605 - 1674)
Marc'Antonio Cesti (1623 - 1669)
Giovanni Battista Lully (c. 1632 - 1687)
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1634 - 1704)
John Blow (1647 - 1708)
Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695)
Dietrich Buxtehude (1637 - 1707)
Heinrich von Biber (1644 - 1704)
Johann Pachelbel (1653 - 1706)
Arcangelo Corelli (1653 - 1713)
Marin Marais (1656 - 1728)
Giuseppe Torelli (1658 - 1709)
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660 - 1725)
Francois Couperin (1668 - 1733)
Antoine Forqueray (1672 - 1745)
Louis Nicholas Clerambault (1676 - 1749)
Antonio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741)
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681 - 1767)
Jean Philippe Rameau (1683 - 1764)
Domenico Scarlatti (1685 - 1725)
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)
George Frideric Handel (1685 - 1759)
Francesco Geminiani (1687 - 1762)
Jean Marie Leclair (1697 - 1764)

Rococo/Classical [c.1740 - c. 1810]

Johann Joachim Quantz (1697 -1773)
Michel Corrette (1707 - 1795)
Thomas Arne (1710 - 1778)
William Boyce (1710 - 1779)
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710 - 1736)
Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714 - 1787)
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714 - 1788)
Johann Stamitz (1717 - 1757)
Leopold Mozart (W.A. Mozart's father) (1719 - 1787)
Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809)
Johann Christoph Bach (1735 - 1782)
Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739 - 1799)
Karl Stamitz (Johann's son) (1745 - 1801)
Muzio Clementi (1752 - 1832)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)
Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778 - 1837)
John Field (1782 - 1837)
Fernando Sor (1778 - 1839)
Niccolo Paganini (1782 - 1840)

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