Chronological list of English classical composers

This is a chronological list of classical music composers living or working in England or originating from there. Entries are alphabetical within each year.

Medieval

• Godric (c. 1065–1170)
• W. de Wycombe (fl. c. 1275–1279)
• John Hanboys (14th century); may be J. de Alto Bosco (fl. c. 1370)
• Johannes Alanus (14th century; died 1373?)
• Aleyn (fl. c. 1400)
• Byttering (fl. c. 1410–1420)
• Pycard (fl. c. 1410)
• Roy Henry (fl. c. 1410)

Renaissance

Main article: List of English Renaissance composers

• Leonel Power (c. 1370/1385–1445)
• John Dunstaple (c. 1390–1453)
• John Hothby (c. 1410–1487)
• John Plummer (c. 1410 – c. 1483)
• Henry Abyngdon (c. 1418–1497)
• William Haute (c. 1430–1497)
• Robert Morton (c. 1430 – post-1479)
• Richard Hygons (c. 1435 – c. 1509)
• Walter Frye (fl. c. 1443 – c. 1474)
• Gilbert Banester (c. 1445–1487)
• Walter Lambe (c. 1450 – c. 1504)
• John Browne (b. c. 1453, fl. c. 1490)
• Robert Fayrfax (1464–1521)
• Richard Davy (c. 1465 – c. 1538)
• William Cornysh the younger (1468–1523)
• Robert Johnson (c. 1470 – post-1554)^[1]
• Thomas Ashewell (c. 1478 – post-1513)
• John Redford (c. 1486–1547)
• Nicholas Ludford (c. 1490–1557)
• Henry VIII (1491–1547)
• John Taverner (1495–1545)
• Christopher Tye (c. 1505 – c. 1572)
• Anthony de Countie (died 1579)
• Thomas Tallis (c. 1505–1585)
• John Merbecke (c. 1510 – c. 1585)
• John Sheppard (c. 1515–1559)
• Richard Farrant (c. 1525–1580)
• William Mundy (c. 1528 – pre-1591)
• Robert Parsons (c. 1535–1572)
• Robert White (c. 1538–1574)
• William Byrd (c. 1540–1623)
• Anthony Holborne (c. 1545–1602)
• Francis Cutting (c. 1550–1595/1596)
• John Mundy (c. 1555–1630)
• Thomas Morley (1557–1602)
• Peter Philips (c. 1560–1628)
• William Brade (1560–1630)
• John Bull (c. 1562–1628)
• John Dowland (1563–1626)
• Giles Farnaby (c. 1563–1640)
• William Leighton (c. 1565–1622)
• Thomas Campion (1567–1620)
• Philip Rosseter (1568–1623)
• Tobias Hume (c. 1569–1645)
• John Coprario (John Cooper; Giovanni Coperario) (1570–1626)
• John Farmer (c. 1570 – c. 1601)
• Thomas Lupo (1571–1627)
• Martin Peerson (1571/1573–1650)
• John Ward (1571–1638)
• Daniel Bacheler (1572–1618)
• Thomas Tomkins (1572–1656)
• Ellis Gibbons (1573–1603)
• John Wilbye (1574–1638)
• John Bennet (c. 1575 – post-1614)
• Thomas Cutting (late 16th c. lutenist to Arbella Stuart, Christian IV and Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales)
• Alfonso Ferrabosco the younger (c. 1575–1628)
• Thomas Weelkes (1576–1623)
• John Maynard (c. 1577 – c. 1633)
• Richard Dering (c. 1580–1630)
• Michael East (c. 1580–1648)
• Thomas Ford (c. 1580–1648)
• Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625)
• Robert Johnson (1583–1633)
• Thomas Robinson (c. 1588 – post-1609)

Baroque

Main article: List of English Baroque composers

• Nicholas Lanier (1588–1666)
• Richard Mico (1590–1661)
• John Jenkins (1592–1678)
• Henry Lawes (1595–1662)
• John Wilson (1595–1674)
• John Hilton (1599–1657)
• William Lawes (1602–1645)
• Christopher Simpson (c. 1602/1606–1669)
• William Child (1606–1697)
• Thomas Brewer (1611 – c. 1660)
• Henry Cooke (c. 1616–1672)
• Christopher Gibbons (1615–1676)
• Matthew Locke (c. 1621–1677)
• John Banister (c. 1624/1630–1679)
• Pelham Humphrey (1647–1674)
• Michael Wise (1647–1687)
• John Blow (1649–1708)
• William Turner (1651–1740)
• Henry Purcell (1659–1695)
• Daniel Purcell (1664–1717)
• Johann Christoph Pepusch (John Christopher, 1667–1742)
• John Eccles (1668–1735)
• Henry Eccles (1670–1742)
• Jeremiah Clarke (c. 1674–1707)
• John Weldon (1676–1736)
• William Croft (1678–1727)
• William Corbett (1680–1748)
• Abiell Whichello (1683–1747)
• George Frideric Handel (1685–1759)
• Thomas Roseingrave (1688–1766)
• William Babell (1689/1690–1723)
• Robert Woodcock (c. 1690–1728)
• Maurice Greene (1696–1755)
• Richard Jones (late 17th c. – 1744)
• Joseph Gibbs (1699–1788)

Classical era

• Thomas Chilcot (c. 1707–1766)
• Charles Avison (1709–1770)
• Thomas Arne (1710–1778)
• Thomas Gladwin (1710–1799)
• William Boyce (1711–1779)
• John Hebden (1712–1765)
• John Stanley (1712–1786)
• James Nares (1715–1783)
• John Garth (1721–1810)
• Charles Burney (1726–1814)
• Capel Bond (1730–1790)
• William Jackson (1730–1803)
• Thomas Sanders Dupuis (1733–1796)
• Thomas Linley the elder (1733–1795)
• Benjamin Cooke (1734–1793)
• John Bennett (c. 1735–1784)
• Philip Hayes (1738–1797)
• William Herschel (1738–1822)
• Michael Arne (1740/1741–1786)
• Samuel Arnold (1740–1802)
• Samuel Webbe (1740–1816)
• James Hook (1746–1827)
• William Shield (1748–1829)
• John Stafford Smith (1750–1836)
• John Marsh (1752–1828)
• Thomas Linley the younger (1756–1778)
• Stephen Storace (1762–1796)
• Matthew Camidge (1764–1844)
• John Addison (c. 1765–1844)
• Thomas Attwood (1765–1838)
• Samuel Wesley (1766–1837)

Romantic

• William Crotch (1775–1847)
• Thomas Adams (1785–1858)
• George Pinto (1785–1806)
• Sir Henry Bishop (1787–1856)
• Cipriani Potter (1792–1871)
• Robert Lucas de Pearsall (1795–1856)
• John Goss (1800–1880)
• John Lodge Ellerton (1801–1873)
• Elias Parish Alvars (1808–1849)
• Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810–1876)
• George Alexander Macfarren (1813–1887)
• William Christian Sellé (1813–1898)
• Henry Smart (1813–1879)
• William Sterndale Bennett (1816–1875)
• Henry Charles Litolff (1818–1891)
• Edmund Chipp (1823–1886)
• Henry Hiles (1826–1904)
• John Baptiste Calkin (1827–1905)
• George Tolhurst (1827–1877)
• Francis Edward Bache (1833–1858)
• Ebenezer Prout (1835–1909)
• Joseph Barnby (1838–1896)
• Alice Mary Smith (1839–1884)
• Sydney Smith (1839–1889)
• John Stainer (1840–1901)
• Michael Maybrick (Stephen Adams) (1841–1913)
• Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900)
• Hubert Parry (1848–1918)
• Arthur Goring Thomas (1850–1892)
• Frederick Corder (1852–1932)
• Frederic Cowen (1852–1935)
• Bertram Luard-Selby (1853–1918)
• Maude Valérie White (French-born, 1855–1937)
• Frederic Cliffe (1857–1931)
• Rosalind Ellicott (1857–1924)
• Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
• Isidore de Lara (1858–1935)
• Ethel Smyth (1858–1944)
• John Henry Maunder (1858–1920)
• Basil Harwood (1859–1949)

Modern

• Frederick Delius (1862–1934)
• Edward German (1862–1936)
• Liza Lehmann (1862–1918)
• Arthur Somervell (1863–1937)
• Edwin Lemare (1866–1934)
• Granville Bantock (1868–1946)
• Haldane Stewart (1868–1942)
• Walford Davies (1869–1941)
• Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
• Ethel Barns (1874–1948)
• Gustav Holst (1874–1934)
• Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912)
• Donald Tovey (1875–1940)
• Havergal Brian (1876–1972)
• William Hurlstone (1876–1906)
• Thomas Dunhill (1877–1946)
• Henry Balfour Gardiner (1877–1950)
• Roger Quilter (1877–1953)
• Rutland Boughton (1878–1960)
• Adam Carse (1878–1958)
• Joseph Holbrooke (1878–1958)
• Theodore Holland (1878–1947)
• Frank Bridge (1879–1941)
• John Ireland (1879–1962)
• Cyril Scott (1879–1970)
• Edgar Bainton (1880–1956)
• John Foulds (1880–1939)
• Hubert Bath (1883–1945)
• Arnold Bax (1883–1953)
• George Dyson (1883–1964)
• William Henry Harris (1883–1973)
• Lord Berners (1883–1950)
• York Bowen (1884–1961)
• George Butterworth (1885–1916)
• Ernest Farrar (1885–1918)
• Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979)
• Eric Coates (1886–1957)
• Armstrong Gibbs (1889–1960)
• Ivor Gurney (1890–1937)
• Arthur Bliss (1891–1975)
• Herbert Howells (1892–1983)
• Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (1892–1988)
• Eugene Goossens (1893–1962)
• Peter Warlock (1894–1930)
• Ernest John Moeran (1894–1950)
• Gordon Jacob (1895–1984)
• George Thalben-Ball (1896–1987)
• William Baines (1899–1922)
• Herbert Sumsion (1899–1995)
• Alan Bush (1900–1995)
• Gerald Finzi (1901–1956)
• Victor Hely-Hutchinson (1901–1947)
• Edmund Rubbra (1901–1986)
• William Walton (1902–1983)
• Lennox Berkeley (1903–1989)
• Leighton Lucas (1903–1982)
• Robin Milford (1903–1959)
• Thomas Pitfield (1903–1999)
• Percy Whitlock (1903–1946)
• Richard Addinsell (1904–1977)
• William Alwyn (1905–1985)
• Constant Lambert (1905–1951)
• Walter Leigh (1905–1942)
• Alan Rawsthorne (1905–1971)
• Michael Tippett (1905–1998)
• Arnold Cooke (1906–2005)
• Eric Fenby (1906–1997)
• Benjamin Frankel (1906–1973)
• Elisabeth Lutyens (1906–1983)
• Roy Douglas (1907–2015)
• Imogen Holst (1907–1984)
• Elizabeth Maconchy (1907–1994)
• Brian Easdale (1909–1995)
• Ronald Binge (1910–1979)
• Stanley Bate (1911–1959)
• Phyllis Tate (1911–1987)
• Percy M. Young (1912–2004)
• Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)
• George Lloyd (1913–1998)
• Harold Truscott (1914–1992)
• William Lloyd Webber (1914–1982)
• Humphrey Searle (1915–1982)
• Denis ApIvor (1916–2004)
• Bernard Stevens (1916–1983)
• Richard Arnell (1917–2009)
• John Gardner (1917–2011)
• Francis Jackson (1917—2022)
• John W. Duarte (1919–2004)
• Geoffrey Bush (1920–1998)
• Peter Racine Fricker (1920–1990)
• Malcolm Arnold (1921–2006)
• Ruth Gipps (1921–1999)
• Robert Simpson (1921–1997)
• Peter Wishart (1921–1984)
• Raffaello de Banfield (1922–2008)
• Doreen Carwithen (1922–2003)
• Arthur Butterworth (1923–2014)
• Madeleine Dring (1923–1977)
• Stephen Dodgson (1924–2013)
• Angela Morley (1924–2009)
• Buxton Orr (1924–1997)
• Ernest Tomlinson (1924–2015)
• Daphne Oram (1925–2003)
• Christopher Shaw (1925–1995)
• Arthur Wills (1926–2020)
• Wilfred Josephs (1927–1997)
• John Joubert (1927–2019)
• Graham Whettam (1927–2007)
• Geoffrey Winters (born 1928)
• Kenneth Leighton (1929–1988)
• Betty Roe (born 1930)
• Alexander Goehr (1932–2024)
• George Newson (1932-2024)
• Justin Connolly (1933–2020)
• Harrison Birtwistle (1934–2022)
• Peter Maxwell Davies (1934–2016)
• Peter Dickinson (1934-2023)
• Anthony Gilbert (composer) (1934-2023)
• Nicholas Maw (1935–2009)
• Richard Rodney Bennett (1936–2012)
• Nigel Brooks (1936-2024)
• Cornelius Cardew (1936–1981)
• Patrick Gowers (1936–2014)
• Colin Mawby (1936–2019)
• Anthony Payne (1936–2021)
• John White (1936–2024)
• David Bedford (1937–2011)
• Gordon Crosse (1937–2021)
• Edwin Roxburgh (born 1937)
• Michael Parsons (born 1938)
• Christopher Steel (1938–1991)
• Andrew Carter (born 1939)
• Jonathan Harvey (1939–2012)
• John McCabe (1939–2015)
• Patric Standford (1939–2014)
• Geoffrey Burgon (1941–2010)
• Derek Bourgeois (1941–2017)
• Timothy Salter (born 1942)
• Gavin Bryars (born 1943)
• Edward Cowie (born 1943)
• Frank Denyer (born 1943)
• Brian Ferneyhough (born 1943)
• Robin Holloway (born 1943)
• Bill Hopkins (1943–1981)
• David Matthews (born 1943)
• Michael Nyman (born 1944)
• John Tavener (1944–2013)

Contemporary

• John Rutter (born 1945)
• Michael Finnissy (born 1946)
• Colin Matthews (born 1946)
• Giles Swayne (born 1946)
• Paul Patterson (born 1947)
• Hugh Shrapnel (born 1947)
• Howard Skempton (born 1947)
• Michael Berkeley (born 1948)
• Diana Burrell (born 1948)
• Grayston Ives (born 1948)
• John Casken (born 1949)
• Sam Richards (born 1949)
• Dave Smith (born 1949)
• Philip Wilby (born 1949)
• Nicholas Sackman (born 1950)
• Ronald Corp (born 1951)
• Cecilia McDowall (born 1951)
• Judith Bingham (born 1952)
• Oliver Knussen (1952–2018)
• Dominic Muldowney (born 1952)
• Patrick Doyle (born 1953)
• Peter McGarr (born 1953)
• Robert Saxton (born 1953)
• Richard Blackford (born 1954)
• Benedict Mason (born 1954)
• Judith Weir (born 1954)
• John Woolrich (born 1954)
• Ian Venables (born 1955)
• Sally Beamish (born 1956)
• Philip Grange (born 1956)
• Steve Elcock (born 1957)
• Francis Pott (composer) (born 1957)
• Janet Wheeler (born 1957)
• Howard Goodall (born 1958)
• Lionel Sainsbury (born 1958)
• Patrick Hawes (born 1958)
• Simon Holt (born 1958)
• Errollyn Wallen (born 1958)
• Jonathan Dove (born 1959)
• Steve Martland (1959–2013)
• John Palmer (born 1959)
• Peter Seabourne (born 1960)
• George Benjamin (born 1960)
• Mark-Anthony Turnage (born 1960)
• Paul Carr(born 1961)
• David Sawer (born 1961)
• Jack Gibbons (born 1962)
• Philip Cashian (born 1963)
• Graham Fitkin (born 1963)
• Michael Zev Gordon (born 1963)
• John Pickard (born 1963)
• John Powell (born 1963)
• James Whitbourn (born 1963)
• Debbie Wiseman (born 1963)
• Ivan Moody (1964–2024)
• Matthew Taylor (born 1964)
• Julian Anderson (born 1967)
• Rebecca Saunders (born 1967)
• Joe Cutler (born 1968)
• Roxanna Panufnik (born 1968)
• James Francis Brown (born 1969)
• Patrick Nunn (born 1969)
• Jonathan Powell (born 1969)
• Thomas Adès (born 1971)
• Joby Talbot (born 1971)
• David Jennings (born 1972)
• Tansy Davies (born 1973)
• Andrew March (born 1973)
• Julian Cochran (born 1974)
• Sophie Viney (born 1974)^[2]
• Tim Benjamin (born 1975)
• Luke Bedford (born 1978)
• Charlotte Bray (born 1982)
• Sasha Siem (born 1984)
• Freya Waley-Cohen (born 1989)
• Lucy Armstrong (born 1991)
• Anna Appleby (born 1993)
• Grace Evangeline Mason (born 1994)

See also

• Classical music of the United Kingdom