COMPOSER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does composer mean? 

• COMPOSER (noun)
  The noun COMPOSER has 1 sense:

1. someone who composes music as a profession

  Familiarity information: COMPOSER used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COMPOSER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who composes music as a profession

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("composer" is a kind of...):

musician (artist who composes or conducts music as a profession)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "composer"):

contrapuntist (a composer who specializes in counterpoint)

psalmist (a composer of sacred songs)

ballad maker; songster; songwriter (a composer of words or music for popular songs)

symphonist (a composer of symphonies)

Instance hyponyms:

Ambrose; Saint Ambrose; St. Ambrose ((Roman Catholic Church) Roman priest who became bishop of Milan; the first Church Father born and raised in the Christian faith; composer of hymns; imposed orthodoxy on the early Christian church and built up its secular power; a saint and Doctor of the Church (340?-397))

Bach; Johann Sebastian Bach (German baroque organist and contrapuntist; composed mostly keyboard music; one of the greatest creators of western music (1685-1750))

Barber; Samuel Barber (United States composer (1910-1981))

Bartok; Bela Bartok (Hungarian composer and pianist who collected Hungarian folk music; in 1940 he moved to the United States (1881-1945))

Beethoven; Ludwig van Beethoven; van Beethoven (German composer of instrumental music (especially symphonic and chamber music); continued to compose after he lost his hearing (1770-1827))

Bellini; Vincenzo Bellini (Italian composer of operas (1801-1835))

Alban Berg; Berg (Austrian composer in Schoenberg's twelve-tone music system (1885-1935))

Berlioz; Hector Berlioz; Louis-Hector Berlioz (French composer of romantic works (1803-1869))

Bernstein; Leonard Bernstein (United States conductor and composer (1918-1990))

Bizet; Georges Bizet (French composer best known for his operas (1838-1875))

Blitzstein; Marc Blitzstein (United States pianist and composer of operas and musical plays (1905-1964))

Bloch; Ernest Bloch (United States composer (born in Switzerland) who composed symphonies and chamber music and choral music and a piano sonata and an opera (1880-1959))

Aleksandr Borodin; Aleksandr Porfirevich Borodin; Borodin (Russian composer (1833-1887))

Boulez; Pierre Boulez (French composer of serial music (born in 1925))

Brahms; Johannes Brahms (German composer who developed the romantic style of both lyrical and classical music (1833-1897))

Benjamin Britten; Britten; Edward Benjamin Britten; Lord Britten of Aldeburgh (major English composer of the 20th century; noted for his operas (1913-1976))

Bruch; Max Bruch (German composer (1838-1920))

Anton Bruckner; Bruckner (Austrian organist and composer of romantic music (1824-1896))

Byrd; William Byrd (English organist and composer of church music; master of 16th century polyphony; was granted a monopoly in music printing with Thomas Tallis (1543-1623))

Cage; John Cage; John Milton Cage Jr. (United States composer of avant-garde music (1912-1992))

Carlos Chavez; Chavez (Mexican composer of nationalistic works using themes from Indian folk music (1899-1978))

Cherubini; Luigi Cherubini; Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Cherubini (Italian composer of church music and operas (1760-1842))

Chopin; Frederic Francois Chopin (French composer (born in Poland) and pianist of the romantic school (1810-1849))

Aaron Copland; Copland (United States composer who developed a distinctly American music (1900-1990))

Arcangelo Corelli; Corelli (Italian violinist and composer of violin concertos (1653-1713))

Couperin; Francois Couperin (French composer of music for organ and a member of a family of distinguished organists (1668-1733))

Coward; Noel Coward; Sir Noel Pierce Coward (English dramatist and actor and composer noted for his witty and sophisticated comedies (1899-1973))

Czerny; Karl Czerny (Austrian virtuoso pianist and composer of many works for the piano; studied with Beethoven and was a teacher of Liszt (1791-1857))

Claude Achille Debussy; Claude Debussy; Debussy (French composer who is said to have created Impressionism in music (1862-1918))

Clement Philibert Leo Delibes; Delibes; Leo Delibes (French composer of operas (1836-1891))

Delius; Frederick Delius (English composer of orchestral works (1862-1934))

Donizetti; Gaetano Donizetti (Italian composer of operas (1797-1848))

Dowland; John Dowland (English lutenist and composer of songs for the lute (1563-1626))

Dukas; Paul Dukas (French composer (1865-1935))

Antonin Dvorak; Dvorak (Czech composer who combined folk elements with traditional forms (1841-1904))

Elgar; Sir Edward Elgar; Sir Edward William Elgar (British composer of choral and orchestral works including two symphonies as well as songs and chamber music and music for brass band (1857-1934))

Enesco; George Enescu; Georges Enesco (Romanian violinist and composer (1881-1955))

Falla; Manuel de Falla (Spanish composer and pianist (1876-1946))

Cesar Franck; Franck (French composer and teacher who influenced a generation of composers (1822-1890))

George Gershwin; Gershwin (United States composer who incorporated jazz into classical forms and composed scores for musical comedies (1898-1937))

Glinka; Mikhail Glinka; Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (Russian composer (1804-1857))

Christoph Willibald von Gluck; Gluck (German composer of more than 100 operas (1714-1787))

Charles Francois Gounod; Gounod (French composer best remembered for his operas (1818-1893))

George Percy Aldridge Grainger; Grainger; Percy Aldridge Grainger; Percy Grainger (United States composer (born in Australia) who lived in London and collected English folk songs (1882-1961))

Edvard Grieg; Edvard Hagerup Grieg; Grieg (Norwegian composer whose work was often inspired by Norwegian folk music (1843-1907))

Fromental Halevy; Halevy; Jacques Francois Fromental Elie Halevy (French operatic composer (1799-1862))

Georg Friedrich Handel; George Frederick Handel; George Frideric Handel; Handel (a prolific British baroque composer (born in Germany) remembered best for his oratorio Messiah (1685-1759))

Handy; W. C. Handy; William Christopher Handy (United States blues musician who transcribed and published traditional blues music (1873-1958))

Franz Joseph Haydn; Haydn; Joseph Haydn (prolific Austrian composer who influenced the classical form of the symphony (1732-1809))

Hindemith; Paul Hindemith (German neoclassical composer and conductor who believed that music should have a social purpose (1895-1963))

Arthur Honegger; Honegger (Swiss composer (born in France) who was the founding member of a group in Paris that included Erik Satie and Darius Milhaud and Francis Poulenc and Jean Cocteau (1892-1955))

Engelbert Humperdinck; Humperdinck (German composer of six operas and other incidental music (1854-1921))

Ibert; Jacques Francois Antoine Ibert (French composer (1890-1962))

Charles Edward Ives; Ives (United States composer noted for his innovative use of polytonality (1874-1954))

Joachim; Joseph Joachim (Hungarian violinist and composer (1831-1907))

Joplin; Scott Joplin (United States composer who was the first creator of ragtime to write down his compositions (1868-1917))

Aram Kachaturian; Kachaturian (Armenian composer who incorporated oriental folk music (1903-1978))

Jerome David Kern; Jerome Kern; Kern (United States composer of musical comedies (1885-1945))

Aram Ilich Khachaturian; Aram Khachaturian; Khachaturian (Russian composer (born in Armenia) whose works are romantic and reflect his interest in folk music (1903-1978))

Constant Lambert; Lambert; Leonard Constant Lambert (English composer and conductor (1905-1951))

Lasso; Orlando di Lasso; Roland de Lassus (Belgian composer (1532-1594))

Huddie Leadbetter; Leadbelly; Ledbetter (United States folk singer and composer (1885-1949))

Franz Lehar; Lehar (Hungarian composer of light operas (1870-1948))

Franz Liszt; Liszt (Hungarian composer and piano virtuoso (1811-1886))

Andrew Lloyd Webber; Baron Lloyd Webber of Sydmonton; Lloyd Webber (English composer of many successful musicals (some in collaboration with Sir Tim Rice) (born in 1948))

Frederick Loewe; Loewe (United States composer (born in Austria) who collaborated with Lerner on several musicals (1901-1987))

Giambattista Lulli; Jean Baptiste Lully; Lulli; Lully (French composer (born in Italy) who was the court composer to Louis XIV and founded the national French opera (1632-1687))

Edward MacDowell; MacDowell (United States composer best remembered as a composer of works for the piano (1860-1908))

Gustav Mahler; Mahler (Austrian composer and conductor (1860-1911))

Jules Emile Frederic Massenet; Massenet (French composer best remembered for his pop operas (1842-1912))

Felix Mendelssohn; Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy; Mendelssohn (German musician and romantic composer of orchestral and choral works (1809-1847))

Gian Carlo Menotti; Menotti (United States composer (born in Italy) of operas (born in 1911))

Giacomo Meyerbeer; Jakob Liebmann Beer; Meyerbeer (German composer of operas in a style that influenced Richard Wagner (1791-1864))

Darius Milhaud; Milhaud (French composer of works that combine jazz and polytonality and Brazilian music (1892-1974))

Claudio Monteverdi; Monteverdi (Italian composer (1567-1643))

Douglas Moore; Moore (United States composer of works noted for their use of the American vernacular (1893-1969))

Mozart; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (prolific Austrian composer and child prodigy; master of the classical style in all its forms of his time (1756-1791))

Modest Moussorgsky; Modest Mussorgsky; Modest Petrovich Moussorgsky; Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky; Moussorgsky; Mussorgsky (Russian composer of operas and orchestral works (1839-1881))

Carl August Nielsen; Carl Nielsen; Nielsen (Danish composer (1865-1931))

Jacques Offenbach; Offenbach (French composer of many operettas and an opera (1819-1880))

Orbison; Roy Orbison (United States composer and rockabilly tenor popular in the 1950s (1936-1988))

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina; Palestrina (Italian composer (1526-1594))

Piston; Walter Piston (United States neoclassical composer (1894-1976))

Cole Albert Porter; Cole Porter; Porter (United States composer and lyricist of musical comedies (1891-1946))

Francis Poulenc; Poulenc (French pianist and composer (1899-1963))

Prokofiev; Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (Russian composer of ballets and symphonies and operas (1891-1953))

Giacomo Puccini; Puccini (Italian operatic composer noted for the dramatic realism of his operas (1858-1924))

Henry Purcell; Purcell (English organist at Westminster Abbey and composer of many theatrical pieces (1659-1695))

Rachmaninoff; Rachmaninov; Sergei Rachmaninoff; Sergei Rachmaninov; Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff; Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninov (composer and piano virtuoso born in Russia (1873-1943))

Jean-Philippe Rameau; Rameau (French composer of operas whose writings laid the foundation for the modern theory of harmony (1683-1764))

Maurice Ravel; Ravel (French composer and exponent of Impressionism (1875-1937))

Reich; Stephen Michael Reich; Steve Reich (United States composer (born in 1936))

Ottorino Respighi; Respighi (Italian composer remembered for his symphonic poems (1879-1936))

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimski-Korsakov; Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov; Rimski-Korsakov; Rimsky-Korsakov (Russian composer of operas and orchestral works; often used themes from folk music (1844-1908))

Richard Rodgers; Rodgers (United States composer of musical comedies (especially in collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein II and with Lorenz Hart) (1902-1979))

Romberg; Sigmund Romberg (United States composer (born in Hungary) who composed operettas (1887-1951))

Giloacchino Antonio Rossini; Rossini (Italian composer remembered for his operas (1792-1868))

Anton Gregor Rubinstein; Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein; Anton Rubenstein; Rubinstein (Russian composer and pianist (1829-1894))

Charles Camille Saint-Saens; Saint-Saens (French pianist and composer (1835-1921))

Erik Alfred Leslie Satie; Erik Satie; Satie (French composer noted for his experimentalism and rejection of Romanticism (1866-1925))

Artur Schnabel; Schnabel (United States composer (born in Austria) and pianist noted for his interpretations of the works of Mozart and Beethoven and Schubert (1882-1951))

Arnold Schoenberg; Arnold Schonberg; Schoenberg; Schonberg (United States composer and musical theorist (born in Austria) who developed atonal composition (1874-1951))

Franz Peter Schubert; Franz Schubert; Franz Seraph Peter Schubert; Schubert (Austrian composer known for his compositions for voice and piano (1797-1828))

Robert Alexander Schumann; Robert Schumann; Schumann (German romantic composer known for piano music and songs (1810-1856))

Clara Josephine Schumann; Schumann (German pianist and composer of piano music; renowned for her interpretation of music, especially the music of her husband Robert Schumann (1819-1896))

Aleksandr Nikolayevich Scriabin; Aleksandr Scriabin; Scriabin (Russian composer of orchestral and piano music (1872-1915))

Andres Segovia; Segovia (Spanish guitarist who made classical guitar a concert instrument (1893-1987))

Roger Huntington Sessions; Roger Sessions; Sessions (United States composer who promoted 20th century music (1896-1985))

Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich; Dmitri Shostakovich; Shostakovich (Russian composer best known for his fifteen symphonies (1906-1975))

Jean Sibelius; Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; Sibelius (Finnish composer (1865-1957))

Bedrich Smetana; Smetana (Czech composer (1824-1884))

Sondheim; Stephen Sondheim (United States composer of musicals (born in 1930))

John Philip Sousa; March King; Sousa (a United States bandmaster and composer of military marches (1854-1932))

Johann Strauss; Strauss; Strauss the Elder (Austrian composer of waltzes (1804-1849))

Johann Strauss; Strauss; Strauss the Younger (Austrian composer and son of Strauss the Elder; composed many famous waltzes and became known as the 'waltz king' (1825-1899))

Richard Strauss; Strauss (German composer of many operas; collaborated with librettist Hugo von Hoffmannsthal to produce several operas (1864-1949))

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky; Igor Stravinsky; Stravinsky (composer who was born in Russia but lived in the United States after 1939 (1882-1971))

Arthur Seymour Sullivan; Arthur Sullivan; Sir Arthur Sullivan; Sullivan (English composer of operettas who collaborated with the librettist William Gilbert (1842-1900))

Tallis; Thomas Tallis (English organist and composer of church and secular music; was granted a monopoly in music printing with William Byrd (1505-1585))

Deems Taylor; Joseph Deems Taylor; Taylor (United States composer and music critic (1885-1966))

Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky; Peter Tchaikovsky; Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky; Pyotr Tchaikovsky; Tchaikovsky (important Russian composer whose works are noted for their expressive melodies (1840-1893))

Georg Philipp Telemann; Telemann (German baroque composer (1681-1767))

Thomson; Virgil Garnett Thomson; Virgil Thomson (United States composer who collaborated with Gertrude Stein (1896-1989))

Edgar Varese; Varese (United States composer (born in France) whose music combines dissonance with complex rhythms and the use of electronic techniques (1883-1965))

Ralph Vaughan Williams; Vaughan Williams (English composer influenced by folk tunes and music of the Tudor period (1872-1958))

Giuseppe Verdi; Guiseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi; Verdi (Italian operatic composer (1813-1901))

Heitor Villa-Lobos; Villa-Lobos (Brazilian composer (1887-1959))

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi; Antonio Vivaldi; Vivaldi (Italian baroque composer and violinist (1675-1741))

Richard Wagner; Wagner; Wilhelm Richard Wagner (German composer of operas and inventor of the musical drama in which drama and spectacle and music are fused (1813-1883))

Sir William Turner Walton; Sir William Walton; Walton; William Walton (English composer (1902-1983))

Baron Karl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber; Carl Maria von Weber; Weber (German conductor and composer of romantic operas (1786-1826))

Kurt Weill; Weill (German composer; collaborated with Bertolt Brecht (1900-1950))

Hugo Wolf; Wolf (Austrian composer (1860-1903))

Derivation:

compose (write music)

 Context examples 

My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If you work as an artist, composer, chorographer, makeup artist, designer, or in any other artistic profession, you will find Neptune’s turn direct a big help for generating new ideas.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Whatever it was, it simmered to some purpose, for he grew more and more discontented with his desultory life, began to long for some real and earnest work to go at, soul and body, and finally came to the wise conclusion that everyone who loved music was not a composer.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Jo wouldn't be put into the opera at any price, and he had to give her up with a "Bless that girl, what a torment she is!" and a clutch at his hair, as became a distracted composer.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)