Composer is a person who writes music. A composer creates a musical composition by arranging the elements of music in a meaningful order. These elements include harmony, melody, rhythm, tone, and timbre (tone color).
The role of the composer has varied greatly throughout history. For example, composers in the 1300’s worked either for the church or for noble or royal patrons. By the 1600’s, however, composers were also writing music for public concerts. Composers in the 1600’s often performed their music as well. However, during the late 1700’s and the 1800’s, conductors and virtuosos (highly skilled performers) became important in presenting music to large audiences. Most composers mainly provided music for others to interpret in performance. During the 1900’s, composers began to write music for motion pictures. Today, universities employ many composers to teach composition as well as to compose.
During the 1900’s, the development of electronic music and aleatory music offered new possibilities for the performance of a composer’s work. For a discussion of these types of music, see Aleatory music and Electronic music.
