Who are the 3 famous piano composers?

Answer 1

Schoolchildren used to be given the memory aid, "The 3 Bs -- Bach, Beethoven and Brahms." As with many old-fashioned and simplistic rules, there are both good and bad reasons to follow it. These three German composers conveniently represent three major periods of Classical Music. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) helped bring the Baroque period to a splendid conclusion at the time of his death, and he was adept at borrowing attractive ideas from foreign composers, particularly Italians and Frenchmen. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) built upon the accomplishments of the Viennese Classicists like Mozart and Haydn and brought music to a more expressive, often quite exciting level For some people, he is the most successful composer on account of his unmatched popularity. Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) likewise learned from the earlier two and capitalized on the expanded capabilities of musicians in the Romantic period to leave a rich legacy of beautiful but sometimes technically difficult music.

Limiting it to three composers, you could do worse, but this leaves out A LOT of worthy musicians, including those from earlier and later periods of music. It also leaves unmentioned many composers who specialized in certain genres like opera, Ballet, educational music and sacred music. Perhaps it should be clarified that we're talking about "art music" of so-called "Western civilization," meaning that accomplished musicians in the popular or commercial fields are omitted, as are those in non-European-based cultures.

And in the end, of course, everyone has his or her favorites that may or may not be universally admired. If your heart has a special place for a neighborhood garage band, a forgotten blues singer, or even the lady down the road who sings while she sells strawberries, you need not apologize.

Answer 2

There are hundreds of composers of piano music. This really depends on what time period you are speaking about. Some of the notable composers of piano music include: Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Grieg, Ravel, Poulenc, Bartok, Debussy, Brahms, Schubert, Schumann and Scarlatti. Though the piano was in its infancy, all of Bach's works for harpsichord can be (and are quite commonly) played on the piano.