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In a world without recorded music, talent with an instrument was a valuable gift. But even more admired were the people who actually composed the music others would play; those so endowed could aspire to attain unending renown...and if not, at least a lucrative career.
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Joachim Raff

borndied
18221882
a German-Swiss composer, teacher and pianist. He sent some of his piano compositions to Felix Mendelssohn who recommended them to Breitkopf & Härtel for publication. They were published in 1844 and received a favourable review in more
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Pietro Raimondi

borndied
17861853
an Italian composer, transitional between the Classical and Romantic eras. While he was famous at the time as a composer of operas and sacred music, he was also as an innovator in contrapuntal technique as well as in creation of gigantic musical simultaneities.
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Jean-Philippe Rameau

borndied
16831764
one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François Couperin.
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Hermann Raupach

borndied
17281778
a German composer. In 1758 he was appointed a Kapellmeister and court composer. Some of his operas were performed in Russian. Later Raupach returned to St Petersburg, where he became the instructor of composition and singing at the Academy of Fine Arts from 1768 to 1778. He died in St Petersburg.
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Jean-Henri Ravina

borndied
18181906
a French virtuoso pianist, composer and teacher. Ravina published several pieces for piano: etudes, concertos, rondos, divertimentos, variations and fantasies. He also made a transcription of Ludwig van Beethoven's symphonies for piano four-hands.
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Madame Ravissa

bornactivedied
unknown1778-18071807
an Italian singer and composer. She was from Turin, but apparently lived in Paris from 1778 until 1783. She published six sonatas for harpsichord in Paris in 1778; her work was described in the Parisian Almanach Musical as "bold modulations that the Italians love and our timorous composers do not dare to allow themselves."
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Alexander Rea

borndied
18311909


Daniel Read

borndied
17571836
an American composer of the First New England School, and one of the primary figures in early American classical music. Read was influenced by the practices in European music in his later years, and later repudiated the compositions in the style that he exemplified and helped define. Three of the six works of his in the 1818 New Haven Collection were "correc...
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Francois Rebel

aka: François
borndied
1701, Jun 191775, Nov 7
a French composer of the Baroque era. Born in Paris, the son of the leading composer Jean-Féry Rebel, he was a child prodigy who became a violinist in the orchestra of the Paris Opera at the age of 13. As a composer he is best known for his close collaboration with François Francoeur.
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Jean-Fery Rebel

aka: Jean-Féry
borndied
1666, Apr 181747, Jan 2
an innovative French Baroque composer and violinist. Rebel was one of the first French musicians to compose sonatas in the Italian style. Many of his compositions are marked by striking originality that include complex counter-rhythms and audacious harmonies that were not fully appreciated by listeners of his time. His Les caractères de la danse combined mu...
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Cross-listed in Writers

John Redford

borndied
1486 ca1547
a major English composer, organist, and dramatist of the Tudor period. Redford is notable as one of the earliest composers, rather than improvisers, of organ music, having notated a significant quantity of keyboard music, all of it liturgical in function, based on plainchant melodies; a few vocal works by him also survive. As he held the post of Almoner and ...
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Anton Reicha

aka: Rejcha
borndied
17701836
a Czech-born, later naturalized French composer of music very much in the German style. A contemporary and lifelong friend of Ludwig van Beethoven, he is now best remembered for his substantial early contributions to the wind quintet literature and his role...
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Josef Reicha

borndied
17521795
a Czech cellist, composer and conductor. He was the uncle of composer and music theorist Anton Reicha. Reicha wrote music for orchestra and chamber ensembles of different kinds. His works include symphonies, various concertos including ten for cello, twelve partitas for wind instruments and miscellaneous other works. Most of Reicha's compositions were comple...
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Cross-listed in Writers

Johann Friedrich Reichardt

borndied
17521814
a German composer, writer and music critic. After Reichardt sent his opera Le feste galanti as a sample piece to Friedrich II, he was appointed to the position of the Royal Prussian Court Kapellmeister. Much of Reichardt's reputation as a composer rests on his Lieder that number about 1500, using texts by some 125 poets. Important among these are the setting...
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Juliane Reichardt

aka: Juliane Benda Reichardt
borndied
17521783
a Bohemian pianist, singer and composer. Reichardt was born in Potsdam. She took music lessons from her father and appeared in concerts in Berlin as a singer and pianist. She married writer and composer Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752–1815) in 1776 and had a three children, the second of which was Louise Reichardt (1779–1826). Juliane Reichardt died of ...
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Louise Reichardt

borndied
17791826
a German songwriter and composer. She was born in Berlin. Louise Reichardt took music lessons from her father, and in 1800 four of her songs were published in a collection of his songs. She taught singing, and in 1809 moved to Hamburg where she studied with Johann Frederich Clasing. Reichardt was active in Hamburg as a choral conductor and established a Gesa...
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Alexander Reinagle

bornactivedied
17561786-18071809
an English-born American composer, organist, and theater musician. His earliest compositions, from his days in Edinburgh, include a set of Duos for two ‘cellos, Opus 2, and Variations on Famous Scots Tunes, published in Glasgow and later in Philadelphia. He also composed Twenty-four Short and Easy Lessons, a series of teaching pieces for keyboard, which he...
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Jan Adams Reincken

aka: Johann, John, Adam, Reinken, Reinike
bornactivedied
1643, Dec1657-17221722, Nov 24
a Dutch/German organist and composer. He was one of the most important German composers of the 17th century, a friend of Dieterich Buxtehude and a major influence on Johann Sebastian Bach; however, very few of his works survive to this day.
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Carl Georg Reutter

borndied
17081772
an Austrian composer. According to Wyn Jones, in his prime he was "the single most influential musician in Vienna". According to Wyn Jones, the repertoire of church music "constituted a continually unfolding tradition that is poorly served by the familiar division of the (18th) century into Baroque and Classical." Much of this repertoire was by Reutter himse...
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Georg Reutter

borndied
16561738
an Austrian organist, theorbo player and composer. As a composer Reutter is best known for his collection of toccatas. He also composed a large number of so-called Versetteln or short organ preludes. Between 1696 and 1703 Reutter was employed in the Viennese court chapel as continuo player on the theorbo. As a composer Reutter is best known for his collectio...
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Jean-Baptiste Rey

borndied
17341810
a French conductor and composer. He remains the longest-serving conductor of the Paris Opera. He composed some of the Conservatoire's solfeges but was soon expelled along with the composer Jean-Francois Le Sueur, following internal dissensions. In 1803, both Le Sueur and Rey were called by Napoleon to join his chapel: Le Sueur replaced Paisiello as director,...
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Franz Xaver Richter

borndied
17091789
an Austro-Moravian singer, violinist, composer, conductor and music theoretician who spent most of his life first in Austria and later in Mannheim and in Strasbourg, where he was music director of the cathedral. Richter wrote chiefly symphonies, concertos for woodwinds, trumpet, chamber and church music, his masses receiving special praise. He was a man of a...
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Caroline Ridderstolpe

borndied
17931878
a Swedish composer and singer. Ridderstolpe was the daughter of the chapel conductor in Berlin, Carl Kolbe, and in 1816 married the Swedish governor, count Fredrik Ludvig Ridderstolpe. In 1832, she published the composition Sju Sånger (Seven Songs), dedicated to the Crown princess Josephine of Leuchtenberg. In 1834, Hvad är Glädjen? (What is Joy?) was pub...
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Ferdinand Ries

borndied
17841838
a German composer. Ries was a friend, pupil and secretary of Ludwig van Beethoven. He composed eight symphonies, a violin concerto, eight piano concertos and numerous other works in many genres, including 26 string quartets. In 1838 he published a collectio...
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Henri-Joseph Rigel

borndied
17411799
a German-born composer of the Classical era who spent most of his working life in France. He was born in Wertheim am Main where his father was musical intendant to the local prince. After an education in Germany, Rigel moved to Paris in 1767. He quickly acquired a reputation in musical circles and published harpsichord pieces, string quartets, symphonies an...
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Vincenzo Righini

borndied
17561812
an Italian composer, singer and kapellmeister. Righini was born in Bologna and studied singing and composition with Padre Martini in his home town. At the end of 1777 he moved to Vienna, where he was engaged as a music teacher and composer. His comic operas were often performed in Burgtheater. He is considered a skillful, but not very original composer, who ...
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Christian Heinrich Rinck

borndied
17701846
a German composer and organist of the late classical and early romantic eras. He composed prolifically, and an organ primer of his enjoyed wide popularity. Among his works is a set of Variations on ‘Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman’, Opus 90, published by Simrock in 1828. It is based on a tune made familiar by Mozart (K265) (and generally associated with the wor...
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Philipp Jakob Riotte

borndied
17761856
a German composer who lived primarily in Vienna. In the 1820s, his works were among the most-performed at the Theater an der Wien. Around 1823, he composed a variation on a waltz by Anton Diabelli, being one of the 50 composers who contributed to Vaterländischer Künstlerverein, an anthology that also included more
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Giovanni Alberto Ristori

borndied
16921753
an Italian opera composer and conductor. He is thought to have been born in Bologna. Calandro, his opera in three acts to a libretto by Stefano Benedetto Pallavicini, was both the first opera buffa written in Germany and also the first Italian opera performed in Russia. It was given under his, and his father’s direction, with thirteen actors and nin...
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Thomas Robinson

borndied
1588 ca1609+
an English renaissance composer and music teacher, who flourished around 1600. He taught and wrote music for lute, cittern, orpharion, bandora, viol, and singing. In 1603 Robinson published his first book, Medulla Musicke, of which no copy survived. Also in 1603, Robinson brought out his second book, The Schoole of Musicke, a tutor for lute and other instrum...
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Pierre Rode

borndied
17741830
a French violinist and composer. In all, Pierre Rode composed 13 violin concertos and many other works for violin, including at least four Quatuor brillant for violin and string trio. Although Rode's violin concertos have some significance in the development of the Romantic concerto, they are nowadays rarely performed, and his major contribution to music mus...
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Antonio Rodriguez de Hita

aka: Rodríguez de Hita
borndied
17221787
a Spanish composer. In August 1744 he became maestro de capilla at Palencia Cathedral. In 1747 he was ordained priest and remained at Palencia until at death of José Mir y Lusa, maestro at the Royal Convent of La Encarnación, Madrid. While at Palencia he wrote the treatise Diapasón instructivo (1757) in which he promoted the French and Italian homophonic ...
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Johann Theodor Roemhildt

borndied
16841756
a German Baroque composer. Roemhildt was born in Salzungen. He studied in Ruhla as a child with Johann Jacob Bach, then from the age of thirteen at St. Thomas' School, Leipzig under Johann Schelle and Johann Kuhnau. He was court kapellmeister to Heinrich Duke of Saxony (1661–1738) at Merseburg, where he later died. 236 cantatas survive, 50 of which are sol...
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Alessandro Rolla

borndied
17571841
an Italian viola and violin virtuoso, composer, conductor and teacher. Because of the technical innovations introduced, his work might be considered helpful for the development of viola technique. His style varies from the very melodic phrases, typically operatic in character, rich in fiorituras, to the extremely virtuoso writing, the style we are used to id...
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Antonio Rolla

borndied
17981837
an Italian violin and viola virtuoso and composer. In 1821, Rolla became the concertmaster of the Teatro Comunale in Bologna and performed along with his father at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1823. The same year, he accepted the position of concertmaster at the Staatskapelle in Dresden on the recommendation of more
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Johan Helmich Roman

borndied
16941758
a Swedish Baroque composer. He has been called "the father of Swedish music" or "the Swedish Handel." He was the leader of Swedish Opera through most of Swedish Opera's Age of Liberty. Roman's only work published during his lifetime, a collection of 12 sonatas for flute, violone and harpsichord, appeared in 1727.
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Andreas Romberg

borndied
17671821
a German violinist and composer. Romberg was born in Vechta, in the Duchy of Oldenburg. He learned the violin from his musician father Gerhard Heinrich Romberg and first performed in public at the age of six. In addition to touring Europe, Romberg also joined the Münster Court Orchestra. He moved to Hamburg in 1793 due to wartime upheavals and joined the H...
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Bernhard Romberg

borndied
17671841
a German cellist and composer. Romberg made several innovations in cello design and performance. He lengthened the cello's fingerboard and flattened the side under the C string, thus giving it more freedom to vibrate. He also invented what is known as the Romberg bevel. Several dozen works by him still survive.
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Mateo Romero

borndied
1575 ca1647
a Belgian-born Spanish composer of Baroque music and master of the royal chapel. Romero was one of the most appreciated composers of his time; he was known as "El Maestro Capitan". His service extended over the threshold of two musical eras, the Renaissance and Baroque. Although he was not part of the polyphonic school of the great Franco-Flemish school, he ...
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Cipriano de Rore

bornactivedied
1515/161542-15641565
a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance, active in Italy. Not only was he a central representative of the generation of Franco-Flemish composers after Josquin des Prez who went to live and work in Italy, but he was one of the most prominent composers of madrigals in the middle of the 16th century. His experimental, chromatic, and highly expressive style...
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Thomas Roseingrave

borndied
16881766
an Irish composer and organist. Roseingrave composed several works in Italy including an anthem and a cantata. He became known as an accomplished improviser, especially of fugues. He had a great admiration for the music of Palestrina and was highly skilled at contrapuntal writing.
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Antonio Rosetti

borndied
1750 ca1792
a classical era composer and double bass player. Rosetti wrote a great deal of instrumental music, including many symphonies and concertos. Rosetti also composed a significant number of vocal and choral works, particularly in the last few years of his life. He is perhaps best known today for his horn concertos.
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Jan Josef de Rosler

aka: Rösler, Ján, Johann Joseph Rösler
borndied
17711813


Philip Rosseter

borndied
15681623
an English composer and musician, as well as a theatrical manager. Rosseter's lute songs are generally short, homophonic, with minimal repetition or word painting (imitating textual meanings through music), while at the same time being rich in musical invention. Rosseter's only other book was Lessons for Consort (1609) for a broken consort of bandora, citter...
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Michelangelo Rossi

aka: Michel Angelo del Violino
borndied
1601/021656
an important Italian composer, violinist and organist of the Baroque era. Rossi's first known opera dates from his second period of Roman service, while in the retinue of the wealthy Taddeo Barberini. Although Rossi was famed as an outstanding violinist in his lifetime, no violin compositions survive and today his reputation rests chiefly on one surviving vo...
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Gioachino Rossini

aka: The Italian Mozart
bornactivedied
17921804-18641868
an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, chamber music, songs, and some instrumental and piano pieces. A tendency for inspired, song-like melodies is evident throughout his scores, which led to the nickname "The Italian Mozart". Until his retirement in 1829, Rossini had been the most popular opera composer in history. He is quoted as ...
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Cross-listed in Military

Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle

borndied
1760 , May 101836, Jun 26
a French army officer of the French Revolutionary Wars. He is known for writing the words and music of the Chant de guerre pour l'armée du Rhin in 1792, which would later be known as La Marseillaise and become the French national anthem.
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Cross-listed in Writers

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

bornactivedied
1712, Jun 281739-17761778, Jul 2
a philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th century. His political philosophy influenced the Enlightenment in France and across Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the overall development of modern political and educational thought. Rousseau was a successful composer of music, who wrote seven operas as well as music in other forms, an...
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Vaclav Karel Holan Rovensky

aka: Václav Karel Holan Rovenský
borndied
1644 ca1718
a Czech baroque composer and organist. His magnum opus is Cappella Regia Musicalis (Prague, 1693), containing 772 pieces, which was almost certainly the fruit of his 12-plus years as a provincial cantor. Unlike most other Czech hymnals, many pieces in Holan's collection also included basso continuo and even obbligato instruments such as violins, viols, and t...
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Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer

borndied
1705 ca1755, Jan 11
a French composer and harpsichordist. Born in Turin, Royer went to Paris in 1725, and in 1734 became maître de musique des enfants de France, responsible for the musical education of the children of the king, Louis XV. Royer is particularly known for his often extravagant and virtuosic harpsichord music, especially "La Marche des Scythes," which ends his fi...
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Anton Rubinstein

borndied
18291894
a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who became a pivotal figure in Russian culture when he founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. Rubinstein was also a prolific composer throughout much of his life. He wrote 20 operas, the best known of which is The Demon. He also composed a large number of other works, including five piano concertos, six symphonie...
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Christian Friedrich Ruppe

borndied
17531826


Giacomo Rust

borndied
17411786
an Italian opera composer, probably of German ancestry. Not a great deal is known about Rust. Between 1763 and 1777, Rust was active in Venice, where his first opera was performed in 1763. During this period, Rust acquired great fame as opera composer, not only in Italy, buy also abroad, which gained him an invitation to be employed in the service of the arc...
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Giovanni Marco Rutini

borndied
17231797
an Italian composer. In the beginnings of his career he devoted himself mainly to the kapellmeister activities, and composed predominantly the cembalo sonatas. Rutini performed his first "Prague opera" in 1750. He was also the piano teacher of Catherine II, the future Russian empress. In the early 1760s he came back to Florence, and continued composing opera...
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Jakub Jan Ryba

borndied
17651815
a Czech teacher and composer of classical music. His most famous work is Czech Christmas Mass "Hey, Master!" His works mainly include many pastorellas and masses, but few compositions beyond the Czech Christmas Mass are performed regularly today. This composition is popular in many countries.
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Jiri Rychnovsky

aka: Jirí Rychnovský, Georgius Rychnovius
borndied
15451616
a Czech composer of the Renaissance and early Baroque era. He was the mayor of Chrudim. His musical work consists of Czech and Latin sacred music with advanced vocal polyphony, revealing a knowledge of European designs, but also the efforts of self-expression. His compositions have been recorded in manuscripts of the Literary Society in St. Michael in New To...
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