Last Updated on 29 October 2023

I searched the Internet for lists of best “classical” composers of all time. Criteria included the composers being ranked, not just listed, and covering all time, not just a decade or from a certain genre. The lists were generally created by groups, whether teams or committees or based on general public voting (like Ranker.com).

I was able to find 22 lists. I took the 22 lists and added all their content into a spreadsheet, noting the rank of every person. I averaged the rankings each person got and divided that average by the number of lists that composer was on. The lowest score meant a high ranking average on many lists. At the bottom is the spreadsheet with all of these lists and calculations.

The composers that were on the most lists (out of 22) were:

  • Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) – all 22 lists
  • Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) – all 22 lists
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) – all 22 lists
  • Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) – 21 lists
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) – 20 lists
  • Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) – 20 lists
  • Richard Wagner (1813–1883) – 20 lists
  • Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) – 19 lists
  • Franz Schubert (1797-1828) – 18 lists
  • Claude Debussy (1862-1918) – 18 lists
  • Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) – 18 lists

Here are links to the lists I used along with dates the lists were created:

Best-Composers-of-All-TimeDownload

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