A piano composer is a musician who scripts musical notations and codes that can be played by other artists using a keyboard. The original name of the piano is fortepianos and the terminology later metamorphosed into pianoforte, which was stylishly shortened to the piano, as it could be played softly and loudly. Bartolomeo Cristofori invented this device in the early eighteenth century. The performer can write jazz, blues, rock and roll, classical tunes, pop music, and other types of melodies without lyrics; it is merely instrumental music. Furthermore, keyboard musicians are gifted and talented as they can write melodious tunes, which will be played using musical instruments such as the piano. Various musicians have lived and died, and more are still performing, but among these great pianists who is known as one of the best composers for the piano of all time?
Classifications of Piano Composers of Different Eras
Several decades and centuries have gone by, and keyboard composers continue to embrace different transformations, innovations, and improvements in the industry to enlarge their repertoire. Meanwhile, the profession is still undergoing radical developments and changes until date leading to the various classifications below.
Let us take a critical view of the various categories of pianistic compositions, some of the pioneers, and the period they lived and performed.
The Baroque Piano Composers
A remarkable beginning of instrumental music could be associated and traceable to the baroque piano composers with François Couperin, a French pianist who was born in 1668 but died in 1733 championing the era. These composers lived and featured in the baroque period in the seventeenth century into the eighteenth century. However, there was a systematic and steady shift from sacred tunes to secular and continuous in that order.
The pianists that made this period thick and boisterous in addition to Couperin were Christoph Graupner, Baldassare Galuppi, Lodovico Giustini, Johann Sebastian Bach, and many others.
The Classical Piano Composers
After the baroque era, there was a shift in piano composition, as each period typified an attitudinal change in the profession. Keyboard tunes in this age were based on emotional and intellectual interplay that made it easy for them to express themselves rationally. This period ushered in the romantic composers.
The classical pianists that made this era exceptional and noteworthy were Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Anthon Ebert, Joseph Geek, and many others.
The Romantic Piano Composers
Most of the composers of this period were famous for their symphonies and concertos. This is the period where some beautiful and exciting piano music was written, and the experts said that piano composition came of age in the romantic era featuring philosophical, mythical, and artistic themes. They were very emotional and expressive in their approach as more instruments were used in their performances such as percussion instruments, string instruments, keyboards, and other electronic instruments.
This is around the beginning of the nineteenth century with geniuses like Fredric Chopin on stage. Other composers of this period with exceptional pianistic compositions were Charles Valentin Alkan, Amy Beach, Franz Bendel, Ludwig van Beethoven, Peter Hansel, Ferdinando Carulli, James Hewitt, Christian Heinrich Rinck, etc.
The Twentieth Century Piano Composers
The twentieth century began from 1900 to 2000 and featured high-quality piano compositions with themes of politics, sex, race, war, etc. framing their melodies. These composers rendered some emotional, soothing, baffling, and imaginative tunes that left us in bewilderment, puzzlement, and pondering. The pianistic compositions of this period featured solo instrumental works such as keyboard music, choral music, songs, operas, concertos, ballets, electronic music, and symphonies. Other forms of music associated with this genre include oratorios, chaconnes, variations, cantatas, rhapsodies, suites, and fantasies.
This era also showcased impressionism characterized by a display of emotions and moods of the subject using keyboard tunes, while modernism was about an aesthetic and philosophical attitude about the development of musical language in comparison to how it used to be. Post-romanticism is the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century featuring the cultural attitudes prevalent in that period. However, there was a dramatic turn leading to minimalism that began later in the century. Minimalist composers utilized minimal instruments in their works as opposed to the previous systems whereby more complex equipment was used. Some of the renowned composers of this era include Samuel Barber, Miguel del Aguilla, Theodor Adorno, Roy Agnew, and many others.
The Contemporary Piano Composers
This is twenty-1st century piano composition, which tends to portray an integration of the various musical genres like jazz, rock, pop, and all the accompanying dances. These composers have made notable contributions in the music industry since 2001 until date. Most of them featured in broadcast media, commercial records, and other festivities aimed at promoting contemporary music generally. However, these composers are using multimedia channels like the internet and its related tools such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. to promote their compositions.
Some of these composers include Peter Seabourne, Johann Johannsson, Eric Salzmann, John Maxwell Geddes, and many others.
Who is Known as One of the Best Composers for the Piano of All Times?
According to BBC Culture, Johann Sebastian Bach is a keyboard composer whose musical and pianistic compositions have imparted every area of our lives. Listening to Bach’s music is like being in a world of euphoria and ecstasy, as he literarily lifts up one’s soul and spirit into an intellectual milieu of entertainment. Most listeners and fans of Bach’s orchestrations have commented that he had an incredible knowledge of the Trinity based on his faith as he even acknowledged that human existence would ultimately end in futility and vanity.
The irresistibility of Bach’s performances transcends human comprehension as he tries to influence his listeners with the tenets of his Christian faith and spirituality. Moreover, his music is riddled with tones of griefs, losses, pains, and betrayals because he suffered several misfortunes in life.
On the other hand, you will find tones of joy, love, hope, friendship, and faith as he offers a greater consolation with the word of God. He encountered all the virtues and vices befalling humanity. Therefore, his music is all-encompassing, engaging, and soothing as he composed his emotive pianistic tunes based on his personal life experiences and overwhelming knowledge of human intrinsic values and of course, the providence of God for human beings.
Therefore, Johann Sebastian Bach who was born in 1685 is regarded as one of the best composers for the piano of all times due to his unequivocal and unmatchable classical piano compositions but died after eye surgery in 1750. His instrumental compositions include concertos, fugues, suites, and sonatas. Other works are an orchestra, flute, harpsichord, organ, cello, and lute. Bach made other significant contributions in music during his lifetime as evidenced in his works such as passions, motets, cantatas, four-part chorales, songs and arias, masses, and oratorios.
Who is the Best Piano Composer in Your Heart?
Nature endows every human being with various potentials meant to distinguish one from other persons. However, your ability to refine your character and charisma is the only parameter that can set you above your peers in life. Johann Sebastian Bach distinguished himself as an archetypal pianist par excellence during his era. His stellar musical qualities were recognized during his time, and posthumously, even contemporarily, he is rated as one of the best composers for the piano of all times.