Composers

People who create music. More specifically, people who put extremely careful craftsmanship into their music. These aren't just artists that "jam out" their songs. These are artists who usually use sheet music, or at the very least computer software to plan out their music.

Baroque (1600-1760)

 * Johann Sebastian Bach


 * Toccata and Fugue In D Minor


 * PDQ Bach (not actually a composer)
 * Antonio Vivaldi
 * George Frederick Handel

Classical (1730-1820)

 * Ludwig Van Beethoven
 * Joseph Haydn
 * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Romantic (1815-1910)

 * Hector Berlioz
 * Johannes Brahms
 * Fryderyk Chopin
 * Claude Debussy
 * Antonin Dvorak
 * Edward Elgar
 * Franz Liszt
 * Gustav Mahler
 * Felix Mendelssohn
 * Sergei Rachmaninoff
 * Maurice Ravel
 * Gioachino Rossini
 * Franz Schubert
 * Robert Schumann
 * Sir Arthur Sullivan
 * Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
 * Giuseppe Verdi
 * Richard Wagner: An inspiration and influence for many film composers to this day.

Contemporary

 * David Arnold
 * Eduard Artemyev: Pioneer of electronica since the 1960s, and film composer for Andrei Tarkovsky, Nikita Mikhalkov, and Andrei Konchalovsky.
 * Takanori Arisawa
 * John Barry: James Bond's music man.
 * Béla Bartók
 * Elmer Bernstein: Wearing a cowboy hat and riding a horse never sounded so "magnificent".
 * Leonard Bernstein
 * Carter Burwell
 * Bill Conti
 * Aaron Copland: Mentioned in a few spots on the Wiki. Fanfare For the Common Man is Crowning Music of Awesome in distilled form, but he's probably most famous for Rodeo which you've almost certainty heard, either in a western or in the background while someone told you what Beef is for.
 * Cos Mo
 * John Debney
 * Deco 27
 * Bob Dylan
 * Randy Edelman
 * Danny Elfman
 * Irving Berlin
 * Ilan Eshkeri
 * George Gershwin
 * Michael Giacchino
 * Murray Gold
 * Jerry Goldsmith: He has boldly gone where no other composer has ever gone before.
 * Yoshiki Hayashi. X Japan and related projects. Yoshiki has also has done film pieces for Saw IV (title track "IV" is his work), Catacombs, Repo the Genetic Opera, Goemon, and an Akira Kurosawa memorial project.
 * Bernard Herrmann: generally considered the father of the modern film score.
 * Joe Hisaishi
 * Gustav Holst: Born in England to Swedish parents, his suite "The Planets" has been an inspiration to composers for generations. If you've ever watched a movie, you've heard his influence.
 * James Horner: Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan and III. Titanic. Glory. Avatar. Are you beginning to realize the awesomeness??
 * Akira Ifukube: The official composer for Godzilla. The man created Godzilla's roar by himself.
 * Steve Jablonsky
 * Yuki Kajiura
 * Michael Kamen
 * Yuki Kajiura
 * Yoko Kanno
 * Erich Wolfgang Korngold
 * Yevgeny Krylatov
 * Leiber and Stoller
 * John Mackey
 * Henry Mancini
 * Clint Mansell: Formerly of Pop Will Eat Itself, now specializes in minimalistic, emotional, frequently creepy scores for films such as Requiem for A Dream and Moon.
 * Bear McCreary: Composer of scores to Battlestar Galactica and others.
 * Alan Menken
 * Olivier Messiaen
 * Ennio Morricone
 * Mark Mothersbaugh: Of Devo and a billion TV and movie ventures.
 * Mothy
 * Alfred Newman
 * David Newman
 * Emil Newman
 * Joey Newman
 * Lionel Newman
 * Maria Newman
 * Thomas Newman
 * Randy Newman
 * Basil Poledouris
 * Cole Porter
 * Miklos Rozsa
 * Alexei Rybnikov
 * Stephen Schwartz
 * The Sherman Brothers: Sibling Team responsible for many classic Disney song scores but arguably their biggest, most succesful hit was Mary Poppins.
 * Howard Shore
 * Dmitri Shostakovich
 * Alan Silvestri
 * Stephen Sondheim: A prolific composer of Broadway musicals.
 * Max Steiner
 * Igor Stravinsky
 * Viktor Tsoi: Composed and sang for his band, Kino.
 * Brian Tyler
 * Jeff Wayne, creator of the rock operas War of the Worlds and Spartacus.
 * Andrew Lloyd Webber: British composer of worldwide hit musicals including Cats and The Phantom of the Opera
 * Kurt Weill
 * John Williams: If you've ever seen Star Wars, you've heard his music, but that's only one of many, many films for which he has composed.
 * Frank Zappa
 * Hans Zimmer

Video Game

 * Alexander Brandon: Best-known for his work on Deus Ex.
 * Masashi Hamauzu: Composed for the SaGa series and the Final Fantasy series. Was a late-comer to both franchises, but helped redefine their music.
 * Miki Higashino: Composed for the Gradius series, the Suikoden series and two of Konami's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games.
 * Shinji Hosoe: One of the "Sampling Masters" behind the music for Ridge Racer.
 * Kenji Ito: Composed for the SaGa series and the World of Mana series.
 * Akari Kaida: Composed for several Mega Man games, and notably for Breath of Fire III, Resident Evil, Okami and the Luminous Arc series.
 * Hiroki Kikuta: Composed Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3 and Koudelka, and also founded the company that developed the Shadow Hearts games.
 * Koji Kondo: Main composer for the Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda series.
 * Mahito Yokota: Composer for those same franchises under Kondo's supervision; he's been in charge of composing for live orchestras.
 * Yuzo Koshiro
 * Masaharu Iwata: Most-often working in collaboration with Hitoshi Sakimoto.
 * Jesper Kyd: Assassin's Creed amongst others, started out in the Amiga scene.
 * Yasunori Mitsuda: Composed for the Chrono series, Xenogears, Xenosaga Episode 1, and various other games.
 * Manabu Namiki: Frequent collaborator with 8ing/Raizing and CAVE
 * Michiko Naruke: Composed the Tenshi No Uta and Wild Arms series.
 * Yoshihiro Sakaguchi: Composer for Capcom, under the pseudonym Yuukichan's Papa. Created the "sound" of Mega Man and contributed to the Street Fighter series.
 * Hitoshi Sakimoto: Uematsu's more or less 'successor' to the Final Fantasy series.
 * Motoi Sakuraba: Composer for most of the Tales Series, Baten Kaitos, Star Ocean, and Golden Sun, among others.
 * Yoko Shimomura: Composer for Gargoyles Quest, Street Fighter II, Breath of Fire I, Live a Live, Front Mission, Super Mario RPG, Parasite Eve, Legend of Mana, the Kingdom Hearts series, the Mario and Luigi series, among others. Long list.
 * Jeremy Soule: Airy atmospheric tracks, such as in Oblivion.
 * Koichi Sugiyama: Aside from his work on several famous Japanese TV series, he is also the man behind the music of Dragon Quest. Uematsu considers him an influence. He also composed the score for Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989).
 * Masafumi Takada: Longtime collaborator of Suda 51 for titles such as Killer 7 and No More Heroes
 * Tommy Tallarico: Responsible for the music of many, many games, such as Cool Spot and Earthworm Jim.
 * Hirokazu Tanaka: Composer for many early games for Nintendo, including Dr. Mario, Earthbound, Fire Emblem, Kid Icarus, Metroid, Super Mario Land and Tetris.
 * Nobuo Uematsu: When you think of video game music, his name typically comes up, because he did all the music for the first nine Final Fantasy games.
 * David Wise: Composer for Battletoads, Donkey Kong Country, Snake Rattle and Roll, Star Fox Adventures and Wizards and Warriors.
 * Michiru Yamane: Important composer in the Konami Kukeiha Club who did most of the Castlevania series music and eventually became independent.
 * Akira Yamaoka: Another Konami Kukeiha Club veteran who quickly achieved breakout success with Silent Hill