Music composers of the world

Composer

A composer (Latin com+ponere, literally "one who puts together") is a person who creates , music either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music. In the development of Eouropian music, the function of composing music initially did not have much greater importance than that of performing it. The preservation of individual compositions did not receive enormous attention and musicians generally had no qualms about modifying compositions for performance. Over time, however, the written notation of the composer came to be treated as strict instructions from which performers should not deviate without good practical or artistic reason. Performers do, however, play the music and interpret it in a way that is all their own. In fact, in the concerto form, the soloist would often compose and perform a cadenza as a way to express their individual interpretation of the piece.

In as much as the role of the composer in westwern art music has seen continued solidification, in alternative idioms (i.e. jazz, experimental music) it has in some ways become increasingly complex or vague. For instance, in certain contexts - the line between composer and performer, sound designer, arrenger, producer, and other roles - can be quite blurred.

The term "composer" is often used to refer to composers of instrumental music, such as those found in classical, jazz other forms of art and traditional music. In popular and folk music, the composer is usually called a songwriter, since the music generally takes the form of a song. Since the mid-20th century, the term has expanded to accommodate creators of electronic music, in which composers directly create sonic material in any of the various electronic media. This is distinct from instrumental composition, where the work is represented by a musical score to be interpreted by performers.
Lists of composers

By genre

List of Carnatic composers

* Annama (1408 – 1503 CE)
* Purandaradasa (1484 – 1564 CE)
* Muthu Thandavar (1525 – 1625)
* Kshetragna (1600 – 1680 )
* Bhadrachala Ramdas (1620 – 1688)
* Papanasa Mudaliar (1650 – 1725)
* Sarangapani (17th century)
* Paidala Gurumurti Sastri (17th century)
* Arunachala Kavi (1711 – 1788)
* Marimutthu Pillai (?1717 – ?1787 CE)
* Pacchimiriam Adiyappa (18th century)
* Sadasiva Brahmendra (18th century)
* Oottukkadu Venkata Kavi (18th century)
* Tyagaraja (1767 – 1847)
* Muthuswami Dikshitar (1775 – 1835)
* Syama Sastri (1762 – 1827)
* Thanjavur Quartet (18th century)
* Iraiyamman Tampi (1782 – 1856)
* Ghanam Krishna Iyer (1790 – 1854)
* Veena Kuppayyar (1798 – 1860)
* Tiruvarur Ramaswami Pillai (1798 – 1852)
* Gopalakrishna Bharathi (1811 – 1896)
* Swati Tirunal (1813 – 1847)
* Anai Ayya brothers (19th century)
* Kavi Kunjara Bharati (1810 – 1896)
* Subbaraya Sastri (1803 – 1862)
* Subbarama Dikshitar (1839 – 1906)
* Neelakanta Sivan (1839 – 1900)
* Kurainadu Natesa Pillai (1830 – 1925)
* Pallavi Seshayyar (1842 – 1905)
* Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer (1844 – 1893)
* Patnam Subramania Iyer (1845 – 1902)
* Tiruvottriyur Tyagayyar (1845 – 1917)
* Manambuchavadi Venkatasubbayyar (19th century)
* Dharmapuri Subbarayar (19th century)
* Pattabhiramayya(19th century)
* Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar (1860 – 1919)
* Annamalai Reddiyar (1865 – 1891)
* Koteeswara Iyer (1870 – 1940)
* Ennappadam Venkatarama Bhagavatar (1880 – 1961)[1]
* Papanasam Sivan (1890 – 1973)
* Mayuram Viswanatha Sastri (1893 – 1958)
* Rallapalli Anantha Krishna Sharma (1893 – 1979) [1]
* Dandapani Desikar (1908 – 1972)
* Periyasaamy Thooran (1908 – 1987)
* K.M. Soundaryavalli (July 22, 1914 – October 8, 1994)
* S. Ramanathan (1917 – 1988)
* Prof. Mysore Sri V. Ramarathnam (1917 – 2008)
* M. D. Ramanathan (1923 – 1984)
* Mangalam Ganapathy
* N. S. Ramachandran
* Tanjavur Sankara Iyer
* M. Balamuralikrishna (b. 1930)
* K. R. Kumaraswamy Iyer
* K. R. Kedaranathan (1925 – 2007)
* Lalgudi Jayaraman
* N. Ramani (b. 1934)
* L. Subramaniam (b. 1947)
* N. Ravikiran (b. 1967)
* Tanjavur S.Kalyanaraman
* Tirupati Narayanaswami Naidu
* Kadaloor M. Subramaniam
* Sri Swami Dayananda Saraswati

Composers in Mysore Kingdom
See also: Musicians of Mysore Kingdom

* Vaikunta Dasaru (1680)
* Krishnaraja Wodeyar III (1799 – 1868)
* Mysore Sadashiva Rao (1790)
* Veena Venkata Subbiah (1750)
* Shunti Venkataramaniah (1780)
* Aliya Lingaraja Urs (1823 – 1874)
* Chinniah (1902)
* Krishnappa
* Veena Chikka Lakshminaranappa
* Veene Krishnappa
* Piteelu Seenappa
* Bhairavi Lakshminaranappa (1878 – 1934)
* Pedda Lakshminaranappa
* Devalapurada Nanjunda
* Veena Shamanna (1832 – 1908)
* Veena Padmanabiah (1842 – 1900)
* Veene Sheshanna (1852 – 1926)
* Mysore Karigiri Rao (1853 – 1927)
* Veena Subbanna (1861 – 1939)
* Mysore Vasudevachar (1865 – 1961)
* Bidaram Krishnappa (1866 – 1931)
* Tiruppunandal Pattabhiramiah (1863)
* Sosale Ayya Shastry (1854 – 1934)
* Rallapalli Anantha Krishna Sharma (1893 – 1979)[2]
* Jayarayacharya (d. 1910)
* Giribhattara Tammayya (1865 – 1920)
* Nanjangud Subba Shastry (1834 – 1906)
* Chandrashekara Shastry
* Veena Subramanya Iyer (1864 – 1919)
* Harikesanallur Muthaiah Bhagavatar (1877 – 1945)
* Veena Shivaramiah (1886 – 1946)
* Veena Venkatagiriappa (1887 – 1952)
* Belakawadi Srinivasa Iyengar (1888 – 1952)
* Chikka Ramarao (1891 – 1945)
* Mysore T. Chowdiah (1894 – 1967)
* Jayachamaraja Wodeyar (1919 – 1974)
* Dr. B. Devendrappa (1899 – 1986)
* Gotuvadyam Narayana Iyengar (1903 – 1959)
* Tiruvayyar Subramanya Iyer
* Anavatti Rama Rao (1860)
* Tiger Varadachariar (1876 – 1950)
* Chennakeshaviah (1895 – 1986)
* Titte Krishna Iyengar (1902 – 1997)
* S.N. Mariappa (1914 – 1986)
* Chintalapalli Ramachandra Rao (1916 – 1985)
* R.N.Doreswamy (1916 – 2002)
* Prof. Mysore Sri V. Ramarathnam (1917 – 2008)
* H.M. Vaidyalinga Bhagavatar (1924 – 1999)

Bhakti Saints

In addition to the above composers, various Bhakti saints of medieval India also composed devotional hymns, verses and songs. These compositions, though strictly not of Carnatic or classical character, have contributed to the gradual evolution of the Carnatic musical tradition over the centuries.

* Karaikkal Ammeiyar (5th century)
* Thirunavukkarasar (7th century)
* Thirugnana Sambanthar (7th century)
* Sundaramurti (7th century)
* Andal (9th century)
* Manikkavasagar (10th century)
* Jayadeva (12th century)
* Basavanna (12th century)
* Akka Mahadevi (12th century)
* Allama Prabhu (12th century)
* Muthu Thandavar (14th century)
* Arunagirinathar (15th century)
* Sripadaraya (1404 – 1502)
* Vyasatirtha (1460 &nddsh; 1539)
* Vadirajatirtha (1480 &nddsh; 1600)
* Narayana Teertha (1580 – 1660)
* Kanakadasa (1509 – 1609)
* Raghavendra Swami (1595 – 1671)
* Mahipathidasa (1611 – 1681)
* Vijaya Dasa (1682 – 1755)
* Prasanna Venkatadasa (1680 – 1752)
* Gopaladasa (1722 – 1762)
* Jagannathadasa (1727 – 1809)
* Praneshadasa (1736 – 1822)
* Venugopaladasa (1728 – 1751)
* Mohanadasa (1728 – 1751)
* Helevanakatte Giriamma (18th century)
* Harapanhalli Bhimavva (1822 – 1903)
* Guru Jagananatha Dasa (1837 – 1918)


List of film score composers

The following is a list of notable people who predominantly (or most famously) compose soundtrack music for films (i.e. film scores), and television and radio. Contents: Top · 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
[edit] A

* Rod Abernethy — video game composer; Star Trek: Encounters, Wheelman
* Amanda Abizaid — The 13th Alley
* J. J. Abrams (b. 1966) — Felicity, Lost, Alias, Fringe[1]
* André Abujamra (b. 1965) — Durval Discos, Carandiru[2]
* Bojan Adamič (1912–1995) — Valter Brani Sarajevo[3]
* John Adams (b. 1947) — Matter of Heart[4]
* Barry Adamson (b. 1958) — Lost Highway, Delusion
* Richard Addinsell (1904–1977) — Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Dangerous Moonlight, Beau Brummell[5]
* John Addison (1920–1988) — Tom Jones, A Bridge Too Far[6]
* Larry Adler (1914–2001) — Genevieve[7]
* Mirwais Ahmadzaï (b. 1960) — No Body Is Perfect, Pardonnez-moi
* Air (formed 1995) — The Virgin Suicides[8]
* Masami Akita (Merzbow; formed 1979) — The Dead Man 2: Return of the Dead Man, Lost Paradise
* Yasushi Akutagawa (1925–1989) — Gate of Hell, Fires on the Plain, Mount Hakkoda[9]
* Mazhar Alanson (b. 1950) — Everything's Gonna Be Great[10]
* Damon Albarn (b. 1968) — Ordinary Decent Criminal, Ravenous, 101 Reykjavík[11]
* Timothy Albee — Kaze, Ghost Warrior[12]
* Dan Andrei Aldea (b. 1950) — Nunta de piatră
* Edesio Alejandro (b. 1958) — Life Is to Whistle, Suite Habana, Un rey en la Habana[13]
* Alessandro Alessandroni (b. 1925) — Any Gun Can Play
* Jeff Alexander (1910–1989) — The Tender Trap, Jailhouse Rock, Kid Galahad[14]
* Hugo Alfvén
* Hossein Alizadeh (b. 1951)
* A. R. Rahman (b. 1966) — Slumdog Millionaire[15]
* Herb Alpert (b. 1935)
* John Altman (b. 1949) — Little Voice[16]
* William Alwyn
* Masamichi Amano (b.1957) — Battle Royale, Giant Robo
* W. D. Amaradeva
* Alejandro Amenábar (b.1972)) — The Sea Inside, The Others
* Daniele Amfitheatrof
* David Amram (b.1930) — The Manchurian Candidate, Splendor in the Grass
* Anand Raj Anand
* Kai Normann Andersen
* Murray C. Anderson
* Benny Andersson (b.1946) — Mio in the Land of Faraway, Songs from the Second Floor, You, the Living
* Michael Andrews (b.1959) — Donnie Darko, Orange County, Me and You and Everyone We Know
* Jurriaan Andriessen
* George Antheil (1900-1959) — In a Lonely Place, Ballet Mécanique
* Paul Antonelli
* Yoshino Aoki — video game music composer; Breath of Fire III, Breath of Fire IV
* Louis Applebaum (1918-2000) — The Story of G.I. Joe
* Takanori Arisawa
* David Arkenstone
* Harold Arlen (1905-1986) — The Wizard of Oz
* Craig Armstrong (b.1959) — Romeo + Juliet, Ray, Moulin Rouge!
* Leo Arnaud
* David Arnold (b.1962) — Independence Day, Quantum of Solace, Little Britain
* Sir Malcolm Arnold
* Len Arran
* Jorge Arriagada — Time Regained, Klimt, Salvador Allende
* Claude Arrieu
* Eduard Artemyev (b.1937) — Solaris, Stalker, Burnt by the Sun
* Joseph Arthur
* Art Zoyd (formed 1968) — new scores for Nosferatu, Metropolis, Häxan
* Jeff Arwady
* Noriyuki Asakura — video game composer; Onimusha, Way of the Samurai
* Assassin (formed 1985) — La Haine
* Edwin Astley
* Richard Attree
* Georges Auric (1899-1983) — La Belle et la bete, Bonjour Tristesse
* Eric Avery
* Mark Ayres
* Alexandre Azaria
* Charles Aznavour

[edit] B

* Luis Bacalov — Django
* Burt Bacharach
* Pierre Bachelet
* Chris P. Bacon
* Michael Bacon
* Angelo Badalamenti — Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, The City of Lost Children
* Klaus Badelt — Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Equilibrium, Wu ji
* Constantin Bakaleinikoff
* Mischa Bakaleinikoff
* Buddy Baker — The Fox and the Hound
* Alexander Bălănescu
* Iain Ballamy — MirrorMask
* Glen Ballard
* Richard Band — Re-Animator, Puppet Master
* Thomas Bangalter
* Don Banks
* Claus Bantzer — Cherry Blossoms
* Lesley Barber
* Gato Barbieri — Last Tango in Paris
* Blixa Bargeld
* Mister Bark
* Warren Barker
* Andrew Barnabas — MediEvil, Primal
* Erran Baron Cohen — Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Brüno, Da Ali G Show
* Alejandro Gutiérrez del Barrio
* Bebe Barron — Forbidden Planet
* Louis Barron — Forbidden Planet
* John Barry
* Steve Bartek — Novocaine
* Dee Barton
* Stephen Barton
* Fabio Barzagli
* Tyler Bates — 300, Watchmen, The Devil's Rejects
* Hubert Bath
* Mark Batson
* Mike Batt
* Jules Bass
* George Bassman
* Arnold Bax
* Les Baxter
* Jeff Beal — Monk, Pollock
* John Beal
* Robin Beanland — Conker's Bad Fur Day, Conker: Live and Reloaded
* Guy Béart
* Bobby Beausoleil — Lucifer Rising
* Giuseppe Becce
* Christophe Beck
* Jeff Beck
* David Bell
* Andrew Belling — Wizards
* Richard Bellis
* Marco Beltrami
* Arthur Benjamin
* Richard Rodney Bennett
* Irving Berlin
* James Bernard
* Charles Bernstein — A Nightmare on Elm Street
* Elmer Bernstein
* Leonard Bernstein — On the Waterfront
* Harry Betts
* Amin Bhatia
* Bruno Bizarro
* Adam Berry
* Dennis Berry
* Peter Best
* Kurt Bestor
* Harry Betts
* Vishal Bhardwaj
* Vanraj Bhatia
* Christian Biegai
* Anil Biswas
* Ragnar Bjerkreim
* Björk — Dancer in the Dark, Drawing Restraint 9
* Stanley Black
* Richard Blackford
* Howard Blake
* Art Blakey
* Terence Blanchard
* Jamie Blanks
* Teddy Blass
* Arthur Bliss
* The Blue Hawaiians
* Len Blum
* Armando Bo
* Wes Boatman
* Michael Boddicker
* Ed Bogas
* Carsten Bohn
* Claude Bolling
* Bernardo Bonezzi
* Luiz Bonfá
* Fred Bongusto
* R C Boral
* Simon Boswell
* Martin Böttcher
* Frédéric Botton
* Roddy Bottum
* Ned Bouhalassa
* Pierre Boulez
* Pieter Bourke
* David Bowie
* Scott Bradley
* Steven Bramson
* Glenn Branca
* Otto Brandenburg
* Angelo Branduardi — Momo
* Stephen Bray
* Michael Breckenridge
* Buddy Bregman
* Goran Bregović
* Joseph Carl Breil
* Willem Breuker
* Philip Brigham
* Jon Brion
* Benjamin Britten
* Jeff Britting
* Timothy Brock
* Michael Brook
* Mel Brooks
* Michael Bross — Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath
* Dirk Brossé
* Bruce Broughton
* William Broughton
* Leo Brouwer
* Bill Brown
* James Brown
* George Bruns
* Joanna Bruzdowicz
* Jimmy Bryant
* Gavin Bryars
* David Buckley
* Paul Buckmaster — 12 Monkeys
* Harold Budd
* Roy Budd
* Peter Buffett
* Bun Bun
* Roman Bunka
* Velton Ray Bunch
* Geoffrey Burgon
* Rahul Dev Burman
* Sachin Dev Burman
* Justin Burnett
* T-Bone Burnett
* Ralph Burns
* Carter Burwell
* David Buttolph
* Joseph Byrd
* David Byrne

[edit] C

* C.G mix
* John Cacavas
* John Cage (1912-1992) — Dreams That Money Can Buy, Works of Calder
* Peter Calandra
* John Cale
* Cali
* Sean Callery
* Pino Calvi
* Pedro Camacho
* Francisco Canaro
* Paul Cantelon
* Gerard Carbonara
* Sam Cardon
* Wendy Carlos
* John Carpenter
* Pete Carpenter
* Hans Carste
* Gaylord Carter
* Kristopher Carter
* Doreen Carwithen
* Tristram Cary
* Carles Cases
* Johnny Cash
* Teddy Castellucci
* Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
* Brian Castillo
* Nick Cave
* Ryan Cayabyab
* Sapan Chakraborty
* Chakri
* Charlie Chaplin
* Benoît Charest
* Kenneth Chasen
* Ken Chastain
* Stuart Chatwood
* Jay Chattaway
* Matthieu Chedid
* Yury G. Chernavsky
* Don Cherry
* Paul Chihara
* Ghulam Ahmed Chishti
* Chitragupta
* Salil Chowdhury
* Sandeep Chowta
* Jamie Christopherson
* Toby Chu
* Frank Churchill
* Suzanne Ciani
* Alessandro Cicognini
* Grzegorz Ciechowski
* The Cinematic Orchestra
* Stelvio Cipriani
* Julien Civange
* Dolores Claman
* Clannad
* Malcolm Clarke
* Stanley Clarke
* Alf Clausen
* Richard Clements
* Brian Clifton
* George S. Clinton
* Charlie Clouser
* Elia Cmiral
* Eric Coates
* Coil
* Ozan Çolakoğlu (b.1972) — G.O.R.A., Organize İşler, Sınav
* Ray Colcord
* Lisa Coleman
* Cyril Collard
* Anthony Vincent Collins
* Phil Collins
* Michel Colombier
* Zebedy Colt
* Peter Connelly
* Con Conrad
* Marius Constant
* Paul Constantinescu
* Bill Conti
* Ry Cooder
* Jason Cooper
* Ray Cooper
* Stewart Copeland
* Aaron Copland
* Cecil Copping
* John Corigliano
* Bruno Coulais
* Alexander Courage
* Vladimir Cosma
* Alexander Courage
* Crush 40
* Douglas J. Cuomo
* Mike Curb
* Hoyt Curtin

[edit] D

* Juan D'Arienzo
* Ben Daglish
* V. Dakshinamoorthy
* Burkhard Dallwitz
* Đặng Hữu Phúc
* Britt Daniel
* John Dankworth
* Jeff Danna
* Mychael Danna
* Ken Darby
* Mason Daring
* David Darling
* Samar Das
* Peter Dasent
* Vladimir Dashkevich
* Evelyne Datl
* Shaun Davey
* Iva Davies
* Peter Maxwell Davies
* Carl Davis
* Don Davis
* Jonathan Davis
* Miles Davis
* Guido De Angelis
* Maurizio De Angelis
* Francesco De Masi
* Tullio De Piscopo
* Frank De Vol
* Barry De Vorzon
* Dead Can Dance
* Richard DeBenedictis
* John Debney
* Charles Deenen
* Fabian Del Priore
* Jack Delano
* Georges Delerue
* Julie Delpy
* Éric Demarsan
* Olivier Derivière
* Jean Derome
* Russ DeSalvo
* Alexandre Desplat
* Paul Dessau
* Adolph Deutsch
* Stephen Deutsch
* Deva
* Srikanth Deva
* DeVotchKa
* Frédéric Devreese
* Sussan Deyhim
* James Di Pasquale
* Neil Diamond
* Michelle DiBucci
* Vince DiCola
* Enrique Santos Discépolo
* Ramin Djawadi
* Simon Dobson
* Robert E. Dolan
* Thomas Dolby
* Klaus Doldinger
* Pino Donaggio
* Walter Donaldson
* James Dooley
* Pierre van Dormael
* Paul Doucette
* Joel Douek
* Patrick Doyle
* Carmen Dragon
* Christopher Drake
* Robert Drasnin
* Jojo Draven
* Dennis Dreith
* Jorge Drexler
* George Dreyfus
* Howard Drossin
* Jack Curtis Dubowsky
* John Du Prez
* Anne Dudley
* Antoine Duhamel
* Charles Dumont
* Isaak Dunayevsky
* Maksim Dunayevsky
* Clay Duncan
* Robert Duncan
* Trevor Duncan
* George Duning
* The Dust Brothers
* Frank Duval
* Jeff van Dyck
* Dado Dzihan

[edit] E

* E.S. Posthumus
* Brian Easdale — The Red Shoes, Peeping Tom
* Clint Eastwood
* Kyle Eastwood
* Nicolas Economou
* Randy Edelman
* Greg Edmonson
* Carl Edouarde
* Ross Edwards
* Stefan Eichinger
* Philippe Eidel
* Cliff Eidelman
* Christian Eigner — Die Viertelliterklasse
* Ludovico Einaudi
* F. M. Einheit
* Richard Einhorn — The Prowler, Voices of Light
* Einstürzende Neubauten
* Der Eisenrost
* Hanns Eisler
* Element of Crime
* Danny Elfman
* Jonathan Elias
* Rachel Elkind
* Boris Elkis
* Duke Ellington
* Dean Elliott
* Jack Elliott
* Don Ellis
* Warren Ellis
* Albert Elms
* Elwood
* Keith Emerson
* Jon English
* Tobias Enhus
* Jeremy Enigk
* Brian Eno — The Lovely Bones, Sebastiane
* Roger Eno
* Enya
* Harry Escott
* Ilan Eshkeri
* Juan García Esquivel
* Ray Evans

F

* Adam F
* Bent Fabric
* Asser Fagerström
* Brian Fahey
* Sammy Fain
* Percy Faith
* Nima Fakhrara
* Harold Faltermeyer
* David Fanshawe
* Paul Farrer
* Toufic Farroukh
* Bruce Faulconer
* Jeffrey Fayman
* George Fenton
* Jay Ferguson
* Paul Ferris
* Nico Fidenco
* Brad Fiedel
* Jerry Fielding
* Mike Figgis
* Eveline Fischer
* Luboš Fišer
* Frank Fitzpatrick
* Stephen Flaherty
* Tom Flannery
* Flo & Eddie
* Adrian Foley, 8th Baron Foley
* Tim Follin
* Ari Folman
* Troels Brun Folmann
* Dan Forden
* Keith Forsey
* Bruce Fowler
* Charles Fox
* Christopher Franke
* Benjamin Frankel
* Jason Frederick
* Freur
* Gerald Fried
* Hugo Friedhofer
* Bill Frisell
* Fred Frith
* John Frizzell
* Fabio Frizzi
* Edgar Froese
* Dominic Frontiere
* Hideyuki Fukasawa
* Matt Furniss
* Giovanni Fusco

G

* Peter Gabriel
* Serge Gainsbourg
* Vincent Gallo
* Martin Galway
* Douglas Gamley
* Gara Garayev
* Anja Garbarek
* Jan Garbarek
* Antón García Abril
* Russell Garcia
* Ruy Garcia
* Dan Gardopée
* Snuff Garrett
* Georges Garvarentz
* Giorgio Gaslini
* Tony Gatlif
* Mohammed Gauss
* Marvin Gaye
* Justin Geer
* Ron Geesin
* Grant Geissman
* Lisa Gerrard
* Matthew Gerrard
* George Gershwin
* Irving Gertz
* Ghantasala
* Michael Giacchino
* Michael Gibbs
* Richard Gibbs
* Herschel Burke Gilbert
* Gary Gilbertson
* Alan Gill
* Terry Gilkyson
* Daniel Giorgetti
* Paul Giovanni
* Lutz Glandien
* Scott Glasgow
* Philip Glass
* Paul Glass
* Patrick Gleeson
* Evelyn Glennie
* Nick Glennie-Smith
* Goblin
* Erik Godal
* Vladimír Godár
* Lucio Godoy
* Ramana Gogula
* Matthias Gohl
* Ernest Gold
* Jeffrey Gold
* Murray Gold
* Billy Goldenberg
* Elliot Goldenthal
* Jerry Goldsmith
* Joel Goldsmith
* Osvaldo Golijov
* Benny Golson
* Alejandro González Iñárritu
* Miles Goodman
* Ron Goodwin
* Alain Goraguer
* Michael Gordon
* Michael Gore
* Adam Gorgoni
* Manami Gotoh
* Louis F. Gottschalk
* Morton Gould
* Patrick Gowers
* Paul Grabowsky
* Ron Grainer
* Allan Gray
* Barry Gray
* Clifford Gray
* Jody Gray
* Gavin Greenaway
* Johnny Green
* Walter Greene
* Jonny Greenwood
* Gustaf Grefberg
* Harry Gregson-Williams
* Rupert Gregson-Williams
* Mark Griskey
* Raymond van het Groenewoud
* Launy Grøndahl
* Herbert Grönemeyer
* Charles Gross
* Dave Grusin
* Sofia Gubaidulina
* Fuat Güner
* Christopher Gunning
* Gurukiran
* Olof Gustafsson

H

* Alexander Hacke
* Manos Hadjidakis
* Georg Haentzschel
* Richard Hageman
* Earle Hagen
* Uzeyir Hajibeyov
* Taro Hakase
* Halfdan E
* Dick Halligan
* Shirō Hamaguchi
* Chico Hamilton
* Marvin Hamlisch
* Chuck Hammer
* Jan Hammer
* Oscar Hammerstein II
* Hamsalekha
* Herbie Hancock
* Frederic Hand
* Kentarō Haneda
* James Hannigan
* Ilmari Hannikainen
* Glen Hansard
* Raymond Hanson
* Chihiro Harada
* Hagood Hardy
* Jon Hare
* Leigh Harline
* Joe Harnell
* Don Harper
* Don L. Harper
* Johnny Harris
* Sue Harris
* John Harrison
* Jimmy Harry
* Jimmy Hart
* Hal Hartley
* Richard Hartley
* Paul Hartnoll
* Mick Harvey
* Richard Harvey
* Tomoki Hasegawa
* Ichiko Hashimoto
* Paul Haslinger
* Aki Hata
* Tony Hatch
* Donny Hathaway
* Marvin Hatley
* Katsuhisa Hattori
* M. Maurice Hawkesworth
* Alan Hawkshaw
* Fumio Hayasaka
* Isaac Hayes
* Tim Haywood
* Richard Hazard
* Jim Hedges
* Neal Hefti
* Reinhold Heil
* Michael Hennagin
* Joe Henry
* Hans Werner Henze
* Paul Hepker
* Victor Herbert
* Michel Herr
* Bernard Herrmann
* Dan Hess
* David Hess
* Nigel Hess
* Eric Hester
* Andrew Hewitt
* David Hewson
* Miki Higashino
* Masanori Hikichi
* Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson
* Paul Hindemith
* Yoshihisa Hirano
* Hajime Hirasawa
* Susumu Hirasawa
* David Hirschfelder
* Joel Hirschhorn
* Joe Hisaishi
* Peter Hajba
* Michael Hoenig
* Derrick Hodge
* Friedrich Hollaender
* Dulcie Holland
* David Holmes
* Arthur Honegger
* Hannu Honkonen
* Johan Hoogewijs
* Les Hooper
* Nicholas Hooper
* Nellee Hooper
* Anthony Hopkins
* Antony Hopkins
* Keith Hopwood
* Trevor Horn
* James Horner
* Richard Horowitz
* André Hossein
* Tomoyasu Hotei
* James Newton Howard
* Ken Howard
* Alan Howarth
* Peter Howell
* Robert Hughes
* Scott Humphrey
* Craig Huxley
* Søren Hyldgaard
* Dick Hyman
* Nihad Hrustanbegovic

I

* Jacques Ibert
* Abdullah Ibrahim
* Akira Ifukube
* Alberto Iglesias
* Ilaiyaraaja
* John Illsley
* Jerrold Immel
* In the Nursery
* John Ireland
* Markéta Irglová
* Pat Irwin
* Mark Isham
* Chu Ishikawa
* Emir Işılay
* Masumi Itō
* Teiji Ito (1935-1982) —Meshes of the Afternoon, The Very Eye of Night
* Peter Ivers
* Taku Iwasaki
* Masaharu Iwata

J

* Steve Jablonsky
* Richard Jacques
* Mick Jagger
* Jaidev
* Shankar Jaikishan
* Ravindra Jain
* Bob James
* Chas Jankel
* Werner Janssen
* Jean Michel Jarre
* Maurice Jarre
* Michael Jary
* Maurice Jaubert
* Harris Jayaraj
* Wyclef Jean
* Jeet
* Merrill Jenson
* Zhao Jiping
* Antonio Carlos Jobim (Tom Jobim)
* Adan Jodorowsky
* Alejandro Jodorowsky
* Jóhann Jóhannsson
* Elton John
* Johnson
* J. J. Johnson
* Laurie Johnson
* Nathan Johnson
* Arthur Johnston
* Bobby Johnston
* Jim Johnston
* Brian Jones
* Dan Jones
* John Paul Jones
* Quincy Jones
* Tim Jones- Film Composer
* Raymond Jones
* Ron Jones
* Trevor Jones
* Richard Joseph
* Michael Josephs
* David Julyan
* Junkie XL
* Walter Jurmann
* Patrick Juvet

K

* John Erik Kaada
* Dmitri Kabalevsky
* Jan A.P. Kaczmarek
* Mauricio Kagel
* Gus Kahn
* Akari Kaida
* Yuki Kajiura
* Edd Kalehoff
* George Kallis
* Bert Kalmar
* Michael Kamen
* John Kander
* Shigeru Kan-no
* Yoko Kanno
* Tuomas Kantelinen
* Bronisław Kaper
* Sol Kaplan
* Eleni Karaindrou
* Nele Karajlić
* Anton Karas
* Fred Karlin
* Laura Karpman
* Kent Karlsson
* Peter Kater
* Emilio Kauderer
* Jake Kaufman
* Kenji Kawai
* Norman Kay
* Yakov Kazyansky
* John E. Keane
* John M. Keane
* M. M. Keeravani
* Roger Kellaway
* Paul Kelly
* Rolfe Kent
* Walter Kent
* Jerome Kern
* Premasiri Kernadasa
* Aram Khachaturian
* Khaled
* Aashish Khan
* Ali Akbar Khan
* Praga Khan
* Usha Khanna
* Alex Khaskin
* Mohammed Zahur Khayyam
* Tikhon Khrennikov
* Khawaja Khurshid Anwar
* Shunsuke Kikuchi
* Wojciech Kilar
* Mark Kilian
* Alastair King
* John King
* Kaki King
* Gershon Kingsley
* Gökhan Kırdar
* Grant Kirkhope
* Martin Kiszko
* Kitarō
* Mark Klem
* Johnny Klimek
* Jan Klusák
* Mark Knight
* David Knopfler
* Mark Knopfler
* Chiho Kobayashi
* Krzysztof Komeda
* Robbie Kondor
* Joseph Koo
* Ben Kopec
* Hermann Kopp
* Anders Koppel
* Erich Wolfgang Korngold
* Danny Kortchmar
* Richard Kosinski
* Joseph Kosma
* Irwin Kostal
* Robert Kraft
* William Kraft
* Robert J. Kral
* John Henry Kreitler
* K. M. Radha Krishnan
* David Kristian
* Mina Kubota
* Vivian Kubrick
* Taro Kudou
* G. V. Prakash Kumar
* Gary Kuo
* Hitomi Kuroishi
* Emir Kusturica
* Keisuke Kuwata
* Chan Kwong-Wing
* Jesper Kyd

L

* John T. La Barbera
* Fariborz Lachini
* Thorsten Laewe
* Bappi Lahiri
* Francis Lai
* Nick Laird-Clowes
* Constant Lambert
* Russ Landau
* Marcel Landowski
* Bruce Langhorne
* Daniel Lanois
* Laraaji
* Glen A. Larson
* Nathan Larson
* Richard LaSalle
* James Last
* Giorgi Latsabidze
* Felice Lattuada
* Tats Lau
* Ken Lauber
* William Lava
* Angelo Francesco Lavagnino
* Tom Lavin
* James Lavino
* David Nessim Lawrence
* Elliot Lawrence
* Stephen J. Lawrence
* Maury Laws
* Raam Laxman
* Jean-Marc Lederman
* Lee Byung-woo
* Raymond Lefèvre
* Michel Legrand
* Barry Leitch
* Christopher Lennertz
* Sean Lennon
* Nicholas Lens
* Patrick Leonard
* Raymond Leppard
* Sondre Lerche
* César Lerner
* Jérôme Leroy
* Yaacov Bilansky Levanon
* Sylvester Levay
* Laurent Levesque
* James S. Levine
* Michael A. Levine
* Krishna Levy
* Louis Levy
* Shuki Levy
* Frank Lewin
* Herschell Gordon Lewis
* Leslie Lewis
* Paul Lewis
* Jan Leyers
* Blake Leyh
* Sven Libaek
* Michael Licari
* György Ligeti
* Russell Lieblich
* Krister Linder
* Paul Linford
* Zdeněk Liška
* Jay Livingston
* Andrew Lloyd Webber
* Lowell Lo
* Los Lobos
* Didier Lockwood
* Malcolm Lockyer
* Joseph LoDuca
* John Loeffler
* Frederick Loewe
* Henning Lohner
* Jon Lord
* Rob Lord
* Saša Lošić
* Alexina Louie
* Louiguy
* Jacques Loussier
* Chris Lowe
* David Lowe
* Mundell Lowe
* Jaye Luckett
* Ralph Lundsten
* Evan Lurie
* John Lurie
* Danny Lux
* David Lynch
* Liam Lynch

M

* Lebo M
* Galt MacDermot
* Madonna
* Jun Maeda
* K. V. Mahadevan
* Shankar Mahadevan
* Taj Mahal
* Vusi Mahlasela
* Anu Malik
* Kalyani Malik
* Albert Hay Malotte
* Riichiro Manabe
* Josh Mancell
* Mark Mancina
* Henry Mancini
* Johnny Mandel
* Christopher Mann
* Roger Joseph Manning Jr.
* Franco Mannino
* Manohar
* Clint Mansell
* Keith Mansfield
* Marilyn Manson
* Kevin Manthei
* Homero Manzi
* Dario Marianelli
* Chris Marker
* Clair Marlo
* Richard Marriott
* Branford Marsalis
* Wynton Marsalis
* George Martin
* Jerry Martin
* Cliff Martinez
* J Mascis
* Massive Attack
* Diego Masson
* Toshio Masuda
* Muir Mathieson
* Masaya Matsuura
* Dave Matthews
* Siegfried Matthus
* Billy May
* Brian May
* Simon May
* Curtis Mayfield
* Toshiro Mayuzumi
* Dennis McCarthy
* Paul McCartney
* Craig McConnell
* Bear McCreary
* Nathan McCree
* Keff McCulloch
* Gary McFarland
* Rory McFarlane
* Don McGlashan
* Bill McGuffie
* Tim McIntire
* Rod McKuen
* Joel McNeely
* Joe Meek
* DJ Mehdi
* Edmund Meisel
* Gil Mellé
* Wendy Melvoin
* Loy Mendonsa
* Alan Menken
* Dean Menta
* Johnny Mercer
* Freddie Mercury
* Wim Mertens
* Mateo Messina
* Dominic Messinger
* Micki Meuser
* Mickey J Meyer
* Lanny Meyers
* Guy Michelmore
* Mario Migliardi
* Darius Milhaud
* Marcus Miller
* Robyn Miller
* Chieli Minucci
* Paul Misraki
* Shyamal Mitra
* Shinkichi Mitsumune
* Hajime Mizoguchi
* Vic Mizzy
* Moby
* Cyril J. Mockridge
* Mogwai
* Ghulam Mohammed
* Madan Mohan
* S. Mohinder
* Charlie Mole
* Paddy Moloney
* Money Mark
* Francis Monkman
* Egil Monn-Iversen
* Hugo Montenegro
* Guy Moon
* Anthony Moore
* Dudley Moore
* Lennie Moore
* Mike Moran
* Mark Morgan
* Akihiko Mori
* Nobuhiko Morino
* Angela Morley
* Giorgio Moroder
* Jerome Moross
* Andrea Morricone (b. 1964) — Cinema Paradiso, Capturing the Friedmans[17]
* Ennio Morricone (b. 1928) — A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Untouchables[18]
* John Morris
* Trevor Morris
* Peter Moss
* Bob Mothersbaugh
* Mark Mothersbaugh
* Rob Mounsey
* Dominic Muldowney
* Mugison
* Nico Muhly
* Manas Mukherjee
* Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay
* Pankaj Mullick
* David Munrow
* Vano Muradeli
* Rika Muranaka
* John Murphy
* Stanley Myers

N

* Hideki Naganuma
* Kōtarō Nakagawa
* Masato Nakamura
* Takayuki Nakamura
* Desmond Nakano
* Naked Lunch
* Gianna Nannini
* Michiko Naruke
* Mario Nascimbene
* Nashad
* Naushad
* Javier Navarrete
* Robert Anthony Navarro
* O. P. Nayyar
* Blake Neely
* Oliver Nelson
* Neo
* Michael Nesmith
* Olga Neuwirth
* Ira Newborn
* Alfred Newman
* David Newman
* Emil Newman
* Lionel Newman
* Joey Newman
* Randy Newman
* Thomas Newman
* Mbongeni Ngema
* Bruno Nicolai
* Lennie Niehaus
* Tomohito Nishiura
* Joy Nilo
* Harry Nilsson
* Jack Nitzsche
* Hirosato Noda
* Yuji Nomi
* Ehsaan Noorani
* Per Nørgård
* Graeme Norgate
* Monty Norman
* Alex North
* Christopher North
* Julian Nott
* The Notwist
* Michael Nyman
* Molly Nyman

O

* Karen O
* Richard O'Brien
* Martin O'Donnell
* Tom O'Horgan
* Walter O'Keefe
* Sharon O'Neill
* Paul Oakenfold
* Erkan Oğur
* Hisayoshi Ogura
* Mike Oldfield
* Yoko Ono
* Hal Oppenheim
* Orbital
* Buxton Orr
* Shinji Orito
* Riz Ortolani
* Michiru Oshima
* John Ottman
* Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov
* Atilla Özdemiroğlu

P

* Craig Padilla
* Gene Page
* Jimmy Page
* Marty Paich
* Shelly Palmer
* Alan Parker
* Clifton Parker
* Elizabeth Parker
* Jim Parker
* Dean Parks
* Gordon Parks
* Van Dyke Parks
* Ioan Gyuri Pascu
* Johnny Pate
* R. P. Patnaik
* Mike Patton
* Arun Paudwal
* Alex Paul
* Gene de Paul
* Johnny Pearson
* Gunner Møller Pedersen
* Bernard Peiffer
* Ahmad Pejman
* Krzysztof Penderecki
* Michael Penn
* Heitor Pereira
* Frank Perkins
* Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson
* Brendan Perry
* William P. Perry
* Jean-Claude Petit
* Tom Petty
* Sudhir Phadke
* Barrington Pheloung
* Britta Phillips
* John Phillips
* Stu Phillips
* Winifred Phillips
* Lucian Piane
* Ástor Piazzolla
* Piero Piccioni
* Stéphane Picq
* Enrico Pieranunzi
* Jason Pierce
* Pink Floyd
* Antonio Pinto
* Nicola Piovani
* Douglas Pipes
* Plaid
* Dmitry Pokrass
* Pier Paolo Polcari
* Basil Poledouris
* David Pomeranz
* Gillo Pontecorvo
* Jocelyn Pook
* Popol Vuh
* Gavriil Nikolayevich Popov
* Steve Porcaro
* Pornosonic
* Michel Portal
* Cole Porter
* Rachel Portman
* Mike Post
* Sally Potter
* Andrew Powell
* John Powell
* Vasant Prabhu
* Devi Sri Prasad
* Prashant-Krishnan
* Pray for Rain
* Zbigniew Preisner
* Don Preston
* André Previn
* Dory Previn
* Alan Price
* Prince
* Robert Prince
* Pritam
* Sergei Prokofiev
* Craig Pruess

Q

* Queen
* Quintessence

R

* R.E.M. (formed 1980) — Man on the Moon
* Jaan Rääts
* Peer Raben (1950-2007) — Berlin Alexanderplatz, The Marriage of Maria Braun, Querelle
* Trevor Rabin
* James Rado
* Robert O. Ragland
* A. R. Rahman
* Yuvan Shankar Raja
* Brian Ralston
* Yuvan Shankar Raja
* Rajan-Nagendra
* David Raksin
* S. Rajeswara Rao
* Ernö Rapée
* Roop Kumar Rathod
* François Rauber
* Raveendran
* Ravi
* Simon Ravn
* Satyajit Ray
* Ray Reach
* Alto Reed
* Steve Reich
* Ernst Reijseger
* Brian Reitzell
* Franz Reizenstein
* Mike Renzi
* Himesh Reshammiya
* Graeme Revell
* Gian Piero Reverberi
* Silvestre Revueltas
* Graham Reynolds
* Trent Reznor
* Rheostatics
* Andi Rianto
* Fred Rich
* Neil Richardson
* Max Richter
* Chris Rickwood
* Nelson Riddle
* Stan Ridgway
* Hugo Riesenfeld
* Waldo de los Ríos
* Stephen Rippy
* Laza Ristovski
* Lolita Ritmanis
* Paul Robb
* Richard Robbins
* Andy Roberts
* Jamie Robertson
* J. Peter Robinson
* Nile Rodgers
* Robert Rodriguez
* Heinz Eric Roemheld
* Roger Roger
* Alain Romans
* Douglas Romayne
* Sigmund Romberg
* Philippe Rombi
* Manuel Romero
* Jeff Rona
* Ann Ronell
* David Rose
* Max van der Rose
* Leonard Rosenman
* Laurence Rosenthal
* Roshan
* Atticus Ross
* William Ross
* Renzo Rossellini
* Hubert Rostaing
* Nino Rota
* Glen Roven
* Hahn Rowe
* Bruce Rowland
* Miklós Rózsa
* Arthur B. Rubinstein
* Donald Rubinstein
* John Rubinstein
* Harry Ruby
* Steve Rucker
* Pete Rugolo
* Mark Russell
* Carlo Rustichelli
* Paolo Rustichelli
* Mark Rutherford
* RZA

S

* S.E.N.S.
* Haim Saban
* Danny Saber
* Shigeaki Saegusa
* Craig Safan
* Jamie Saft
* Toshihiko Sahashi
* Camille Saint-Saëns
* Ryuichi Sakamoto
* Salim-Sulaiman
* Hans J. Salter
* Michael Salvatori
* Leonard Salzedo
* Adnan Sami
* George Sanger
* John Sangster
* Stéphane Sanseverino
* Carlos Santana
* Gustavo Santaolalla
* Cláudio Santoro
* Philippe Sarde
* David Sardy
* Masaru Satō
* Naoki Satō
* Tenpei Sato
* Jordi Savall
* Paul Sawtell
* Walter Scharf
* Victor Schertzinger
* Peter Schickele
* Lalo Schifrin
* Adam Schlesinger
* Irmin Schmidt
* Johannes Schmoelling
* Helge Schneider
* Alfred Schnittke
* Gaili Schoen
* Eberhard Schoener
* Scott Schreer
* Ralph Schuckett
* Norbert Schultze
* Klaus Schulze
* Walter Schumann
* Sigi Schwab
* David Schwartz
* Stephen Schwartz
* Garry Schyman
* John Scott
* Tom Scott
* Humphrey Searle
* Fat Segal
* Misha Segal
* Mátyás Seiber
* Mark Seibert
* Tsuyoshi Sekito
* Jun Senoue
* Kristian Sensini
* Alex Seropian
* Éric Serra
* Arban Severin
* Steven Severin
* Thomas Edward Seymour
* Kyriakos Sfetsas
* Marc Shaiman
* Vladimir Shainsky
* Gingger Shankar
* Ravi Shankar
* Ray Shanklin
* Shantel
* Theodore Shapiro
* Jamshied Sharifi
* Shark
* Mani Sharma
* Monty Sharma
* Edward Shearmur
* Bert Shefter
* William Sheller
* Richard M. Sherman
* Robert B. Sherman
* Tetsuya Shibata
* Leroy Shield
* Kevin Shields
* Yasunori Shiono
* Sumio Shiratori
* David Shire
* Howard Shore
* Ryan Shore
* Dmitri Shostakovich
* Aadesh Shrivastava
* Shudder to Think
* Leo Shuken
* Louis Siciliano
* Steve Sidwell
* Valgeir Sigurðsson
* Louis Silvers
* Alan Silvestri
* Samuel Sim
* Zoran Simjanović
* Carly Simon
* Claudio Simonetti
* Madan Gopal Singh
* Uttam Singh
* 16Volt
* Lucijan Marija Škerjanc
* Frank Skinner
* Leland Sklar
* Andys Skordis
* Cezary Skubiszewski
* Mark Slater
* Michael Small
* Bruce Smeaton
* Paul J. Smith
* Mark Snow
* Sofa Surfers
* Martial Solal
* Stephen Sondheim
* Nicolás Sorín
* Ondřej Soukup
* André Souris
* Leonid Soybelman
* Stamatis Spanoudakis
* Benjamin Speed
* Sam Spence
* Herbert W. Spencer
* Spiralmouth
* Glenn Stafford
* Carl Stalling
* Stuart A. Staples
* Herman Stein
* Ronald Stein
* Fred Steiner
* Max Steiner
* Aage Stentoft
* Cat Stevens
* Leith Stevens
* Morton Stevens
* David A. Stewart
* Karlheinz Stockhausen
* Ethan Stoller
* Robert Stolz
* Richard Stone
* Herbert Stothart
* Patricia Lee Stotter
* Matthew Strachan
* Oscar Straus
* Charles Strouse
* Joe Strummer
* Ike Stubblefield
* Andy Sturmer
* Cong Su
* Morton Subotnick
* Jeff Sudakin
* Andy Summers
* Sun City Girls
* Keiichi Suzuki
* Georgy Sviridov
* Karel Svoboda
* Mola Sylla
* Władysław Szpilman

T

* Mousse T.
* Germaine Tailleferre
* Masafumi Takada
* Joby Talbot
* Frédéric Talgorn
* Tōru Takemitsu
* Tan Dun
* Kōhei Tanaka
* Tangerine Dream
* Mikael Tariverdiev
* Brian Tarquin
* John Tavener
* Michael Tavera
* Mick Taylor
* Boris Tchaikovsky
* Team Shanghai Alice
* Jeroen Tel
* Sébastien Tellier
* Tenacious D
* Tenmon
* Neil Tennant
* John Tesh
* Jeanine Tesori
* Francois Tetaz
* Alan Tew
* Third Ear Band
* Mikis Theodorakis
* They Might Be Giants
* Maurice Thiriet
* Chance Thomas
* Pete Thomas
* Peter Thomas
* Stuart Michael Thomas
* Virgil Thomson
* Jon Mikl Thor
* Ken Thorne
* Throbbing Gristle
* Yann Tiersen
* Martin Tillman
* Chris Tilton
* Christopher Tin
* Tindersticks
* Dimitri Tiomkin
* George Tipton
* Boris Tishchenko
* Ernst Toch
* Pyotr Todorovsky
* Richard Tognetti
* Magome Togoshi
* Sotaro Tojima
* Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra
* James Tomalin
* tomandandy
* Tomatito
* Isao Tomita
* Sheridan Tongue
* Pınar Toprak
* Ceiri Torjussen
* Veljo Tormis
* David Torn
* Raúl de la Torre
* Kazumi Totaka
* Toto
* Colin Towns
* Kazuhiko Toyama
* Jeff Toyne
* The Transcenders
* Brian Transeau (as BT)
* Stephen Trask
* Armando Trovaioli
* Andrzej Trzaskowski
* Mark Tschanz
* Yuka Tsujiyoko
* Tuxedomoon
* Tom Tykwer
* Brian Tyler
* Christopher Tyng
* Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners

U

* Matt Uelmen
* Nobuo Uematsu (b.1959) —primarily video game music composer; Final Fantasy series, Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy VII Advent Children
* Tatsuya Uemura
* Kōji Ueno
* Yoko Ueno
* Özkan Uğur
* Shigeru Umebayashi
* Piero Umiliani
* Underworld
* Vladimir Ussachevsky (1911-1990) —No Exit, Line of Apogee
* Hikaru Utada

V

* Andersen Viana
* Steve Vai
* Gary Valenciano
* Frank Valentini
* Nils-Aslak Valkeapää
* Jonne Valtonen
* John Van Tongeren
* David Vanacore
* Vangelis
* Melvin Van Peebles
* Ralph Vaughan Williams
* Ben Vaughn
* Eddie Vedder
* Cris Velasco
* Caetano Veloso
* James L. Venable
* G K Venkatesh
* S.P. Venkatesh
* Stéphane Venne
* Peter Vermeersch
* Vertexguy
* Mike Vickers
* Vidyasagar
* Emil Viklický
* Heitor Villa-Lobos
* Carl Vine
* Anandji Virji Shah
* Kalyanji Virji Shah
* Vishal-Shekhar
* M. S. Viswanathan
* José María Vitier
* Roman Vlad
* Tolis Voskopoulos
* Neil D. Voss
* Chris Vrenna
* Henny Vrienten

W

* Waddy Wachtel
* Kaoru Wada
* Derek Wadsworth
* Loudon Wainwright III
* Tom Waits
* W. G. Walden
* Mark Walk
* Scott Walker
* Shirley Walker
* Simon Walker
* Jack Wall
* William Walton
* Wang Chung
* Thomas Wanker
* Stephen Warbeck
* Edward Ward
* Kyle Ward
* Dean Wareham
* Régis Wargnier
* Mervyn Warren
* Henryk Wars
* Don Was
* Ned Washington
* Toshiyuki Watanabe
* Roger Waters
* Franz Waxman
* Jeff Wayne
* Jimmy Webb
* Roy Webb
* Simon Webb
* Konstantin Wecker
* Craig Wedren
* Mieczysław Weinberg
* Wendy & Lisa
* Walter Werzowa
* Fred Wesley
* Bugge Wesseltoft
* Mel Wesson
* Nigel Westlake
* David Whitaker
* Richard A. Whiting
* Guy Whitmore
* David Whittaker
* George Whitty
* Zygmunt Wiehler
* Clarence Wijewardena
* Gert Wilden
* Matthew Wilder
* Simon Wilkinson
* Steve Willaert
* Charles Williams
* Jim Williams
* John Williams
* Joseph Williams
* Patrick Williams
* Paul Williams
* Malcolm Williamson
* Meredith Willson
* Mortimer Wilson
* Nancy Wilson
* Sam Winans
* Herbert Windt
* Jean Wiener
* David Wise
* Debbie Wiseman
* Charles Wolcott
* Peter Wolf
* Richard Wolf
* Jonathan Wolff
* Byron Wong
* Christopher Wong
* Raymond Wong Ying-Wah
* D. Wood
* Ronnie Wood
* John Wooldridge
* Lyle Workman
* Tim Wright
* Allie Wrubel
* Alex Wurman
* Bill Wyman

X

* Stavros Xarchakos
* Iannis Xenakis

Y

* Shoji Yamashiro
* Stomu Yamashta
* Yanni
* Gabriel Yared
* Peyman Yazdanian
* Wandly Yazid
* Jack Yellen
* Yello
* Narciso Yepes
* Gary Yershon
* Yiruma
* Seiji Yokoyama
* Yo La Tengo
* Yuji Yoshino
* Christopher Young
* Neil Young
* Victor Young

Z

* Dorin Liviu Zaharia
* Geoff Zanelli
* Frank Zappa
* Richard Zarou
* Marcelo Zarvos
* Aleksandr Zatsepin
* Paul Zaza
* Zazie
* Pablo Ziegler
* Aaron Zigman
* Winfried Zillig
* Hans Zimmer
* Rob Zombie
* John Zorn
* Zuntata
* Inon Zur
* Otto Zykan

Lady Antebellum leads ACM awards note

Maximum Performance

Lady Luck: Lady Antebellum's Incredible Rise
Posted Wed Feb 3, 2010 4:48pm PST by Lyndsey Parker in Maximum Performance

The rise of country sensations Lady Antebellum has been as meteoric and swift as, well, their fellow country sensation Taylor Swift. The group formed almost by accident in 2006--after singer Hilary Scott, who'd been contemplating a solo career, discovered future bandmate Charles Kelley's music on MySpace--and after making their recording debut as vocalists on Jim Brickman's "Never Alone" single a year later, their career took off almost immediately.

Lady Antebellum's self-titled first album went platinum, and they won such accolades as an ACM Award for Top New Duo Or Group; CMA Awards for New Artist Of The Year, Single Of The Year, and Vocal Group Of The Year; and a Grammy for Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group.

After all that success, of course the pressure was on to continue that winning streak with their second album, Need You Now. But the trio needn't have worried: Not only did the album's title track become their most successful single to date (and their second number one country hit), but the album debuted at number one on the Billboard albums chart, selling an impressive 481,000 copies in its first week.

Lady Antebellum are clearly one of country's brightest new stars, leading the country-pop crossover movement along with the likes of young talents like Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood. Therefore Yahoo! was honored and excited to have them come into our studio to perform two tracks from Need You Now plus their classic "I Run To You," and discuss their whirlwind journey from humble




An astounding run keeps getting better for Lady Antebellum. Already buoyed by the crossover success of its latest album, the country trio learned it's up for seven Academy of Country Music Awards when nominations were announced Tuesday.

Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood are next with six nominations, Taylor Swift has five and Kenny Chesney and Brad Paisley each have four.

The nominations were announced by Reba McEntire and Blake Shelton on CBS' "The Early Show."

The Zac Brown Band and its frontman also had a big haul with the band receiving four nominations and Brown taking two more individually.

Lady A received five nominations alone for the gravity-defying hit "Need You Now," including single record, song and video of the year, and is up for top vocal group and album of the year for its debut, "Lady Antebellum."

The run for Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood started last July when "I Run To You" hit No. 1. The band picked up two Country Music Association Awards in November and both the single "Need You Now" and the album of the same name have exceeded sales expectations.

Underwood, Chesney, Swift, Paisley, the Zac Brown Band, George Strait, Keith Urban and Toby Keith are nominated for entertainer of the year, the top honor given out at the April 18 awards in Las Vegas.

Underwood's going for her second straight entertainer award, one of five categories voted on by fans. She would become the first woman to win two entertainer awards if she wins again.

She's also up for what would be a fourth straight top female vocalist award - with Swift, Lambert, McEntire and Lee Ann Womack - and album of the year for "Play On."

Chesney is going for a fifth entertainer of the year award and is just one of three singers with four wins. He won from 2005-08 before Underwood ended his run.

He's nominated in the top male vocalist category with Paisley, who's won three straight, George Strait, Keith Urban and Darius Rucker.

Lambert is fresh off the success of her first No. 1 song, "White Liar," which netted her three nominations. She also is up for album of the year for the highly regarded "Revolution."

The Zac Brown Band, last year's top new vocal group, was nominated for top vocal group, album for "The Foundation" and single record for "Toes." Brown also is up as a producer for the album and single record nominations.

Along with entertainer of the year, fans cast votes on the Internet for top new solo vocalist, top new vocal group and top new vocal duo. The winners in those categories then vie for top new artist, which also is voted on by fans.

The nominees for top new solo vocalist are Luke Bryan, Jamey Johnson and Chris Young. Bomshel, Joey + Rory and Steel Magnolia are up for top new vocal duo and the Eli Young Band, Gloriana and The Lost Trailers vie for top new vocal group.

The art: Singing

Singing

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the and augments regular voice, speech the use of both tonality and rythm. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs can either be sung cappaella (without accompaniment) or accompanied by musicians and instruments ranging from a single instrumentalist to a full symphony orchesrtra or big band. Singing is often done in a group of other musicians, such as in a choir of singers with different voice ranges, or in an ensemble with instrumentalists, such as a rock groupbaroque ensemble.

Singing can be informal and done for pleasure; for example, singing in the shower or karaoke; or it can be very formal, as in the case of singing during a religious ritual such as a Mass or professional singing performances done on stage or in a recording studio. Singing at a high amateur or professional level usually requires instruction, and regular practice.[1] Professional singers usually build their careers around one specific musical genre, such as Classical or rock, they typically take voice training provided by a voice teacher or vocal coach throughout their career.
The human voice

In its physical aspect, singing has a well-defined technique that depends on the use of the lungs, which act as an air supply, or bellows; on the larynx, which acts as a reed or vibrator; on the chest and head cavities, which have the function of an amplifier, as the tube in a wind instrument; and on the tongue, which together with the palate, teeth, and lips articulate and impose consonants and vowels on the amplified sound. Though these four mechanisms function independently, they are nevertheless coordinated in the establishment of a vocal technique and are made to interact upon one another.[2] During passive breathing, air is inhaled with the diaphragm while exhalation occurs without any effort. Exhalation may be aided by the abdominal, internal intercostal and lower pelvic muscles. Inhalation is aided by use of external intercostals, scalenes and sternocleidomastoid muscles. The pitch is altered with the vocal cords. With the lips closed, this is called humming.

The sound of each individual's singing voice is usually entirely unique not only because of the actual shape and size of an individual's vocal cords but also due to the size and shape of the rest of that person's body. Humans have vocal folds which can loosen, tighten, or change their thickness, and over which breath can be transferred at varying pressures. The shape of the chest and neck, the position of the tongue, and the tightness of otherwise unrelated muscles can be altered. Any one of these actions results in a change in pitch, volume, timbre, or tone of the sound produced. Sound also resonates within different parts of the body, and an individual's size and bone structure can affect the sound produced by an individual.
Singers can also learn to project sound in certain ways so that it resonates better within their vocal tract. This is known as vocal resonation. Another major influence on vocal sound and production is the function of the larynx which people can manipulate in different ways to produce different sounds. These different kinds of laryngeal function are described as different kinds of vocal registers.[3] The primary method for singers to accomplish this is through the use of the Singer's Formant; which has been shown to match particularly well to the most sensitive part of the ear's frequency range.
Vocal registration

Vocal registration refers to the system of vocal registers within the human voice. A register in the human voice is a particular series of tones, produced in the same vibratory pattern of the vocal folds, and possessing the same quality. Registers originate in laryngeal function. They occur because the vocal folds are capable of producing several different vibratory patterns. Each of these vibratory patterns appears within a particular range of pitches and produces certain characteristic sounds. The term "register" can be somewhat confusing as it encompasses several aspects of the human voice. The term register can be used to refer to any of the following:

* A particular part of the vocal range such as the upper, middle, or lower registers.
* A resonance area such as chest voice or head voice.
* A phonatory process (phonation is the process of producing vocal sound by the vibration of the vocal folds that is in turn modified by the resonance of the vocal tract)
* A certain vocal timbre or vocal "color"
* A region of the voice which is defined or delimited by vocal breaks.

In linguistics, a register language is a language which combines tone and vowel phonation into a single phonological system. Within speech pathology the term vocal register has three constituent elements: a certain vibratory pattern of the vocal folds, a certain series of pitches, and a certain type of sound. Speech pathologists identify four vocal registers based on the physiology of laryngeal function: the vocal fry register, the modal register, the falsetto register, and the whistle register. This view is also adopted by many vocal pedagogists.
Vocal resonation
Main article: Vocal resonation
Illu01 head neck.jpg

Vocal resonation is the process by which the basic product of phonation is enhanced in timbre and/or intensity by the air-filled cavities through which it passes on its way to the outside air. Various terms related to the resonation process include amplification, enrichment, enlargement, improvement, intensification, and prolongation, although in strictly scientific usage acoustic authorities would question most of them. The main point to be drawn from these terms by a singer or speaker is that the end result of resonation is, or should be, to make a better sound.[7] There are seven areas that may be listed as possible vocal resonators. In sequence from the lowest within the body to the highest, these areas are the chest, the tracheal tree, the larynx itself, the pharynx, the oral cavity, the nasal cavity, and the sinuses.
Chest voice and head voice
Main articles: Chest voice and Head voice

Chest voice and head voice are terms used within vocal music. The use of these terms varies widely within vocal pedagogical circles and there is currently no one consistent opinion among vocal music professionals in regards to these terms. Chest voice can be used in relation to a particular part of the vocal range or type of vocal register; a vocal resonance area; or a specific vocal timbre. Head voice can be used in relation to a particular part of the vocal range or type of vocal register or a vocal resonance area
History and development

The first recorded mention of the terms chest voice and head voice was around the 13th century, when it was distinguished from the "throat voice" (pectoris, guttoris, capitis — at this time it is likely that head voice referred to the falsetto register) by the writers Johannes de Garlandia and Jerome of Moravia.The terms were later adopted within bel canto, the Italian opera singing method, where chest voice was identified as the lowest and head voice the highest of three vocal registers: the chest, passagio and head registers.This approach is still taught by some vocal pedagogists today. Another current popular approach that is based on the bel canto model is to divide both men and women's voices into three registers. Men's voices are divided into "chest register", "head register", and "falsetto register" and woman's voices into "chest register", "middle register", and "head register". Such pedagogists teach that the head register is a vocal technique used in singing to describe the resonance felt in the singer's head.

However as knowledge of human physiology has increased over the past two hundred years, so has the understanding of the physical process of singing and vocal production. As a result, many vocal pedagogists, such as Ralph Appelman at Indiana University and William Vennard at the University of Southern California, have redefined or even abandoned the use of the terms chest voice and head voice.In particular, the use of the terms chest register and head register have become controversial since vocal registration is more commonly seen today as a product of laryngeal function that is unrelated to the physiology of the chest, lungs, and head. For this reason, many vocal pedagogists argue that it is meaningless to speak of registers being produced in the chest or head. They argue that the vibratory sensations which are felt in these areas are resonance phenomena and should be described in terms related to vocal resonance, not to registers. These vocal pedagogists prefer the terms chest voice and head voice over the term register. This view believes that the problems which people identify as register problems are really problems of resonance adjustment. It should be noted that this view is also in alignment with the views of other academic fields that study vocal registration including: speech pathology, phonetics, and linguistics. Although both methods are still in use, current vocal pedagogical practice tends to adopt the newer more scientific view. Also, some vocal pedagogists take ideas from both viewpoints.

The contemporary use of the term chest voice often refers to a specific kind of vocal coloration or vocal timbre. In classical singing, its use is limited entirely to the lower part of the modal register or normal voice. Within other forms of singing, chest voice is often applied throughout the modal register. Chest timbre can add a wonderful array of sounds to a singer's vocal interpretive palette. However, the use of overly strong chest voice in the higher registers in an attempt to hit higher notes in the chest can lead to forcing. Forcing can lead consequently to vocal deterioration.
Classifying singing voices
Main articles: Voice type and Voice classification in non-classical music
Voice type
Female voices

Soprano
Mezzo-soprano
Contralto

Male voices

Countertenor
Tenor
Baritone
Bass

In European classical music and opera, voices are treated like musical instruments. Composers who write vocal music must have an understanding of the skills, talents, and vocal properties of singers. Voice classification is the process by which human singing voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types. These qualities include but are not limited to: vocal range, vocal weight, vocal tessitura, vocal timbre, and vocal transition points such as breaks and lifts within the voice. Other considerations are physical characteristics, speech level, scientific testing, and vocal registration.The science behind voice classification developed within European classical music and has been slow in adapting to more modern forms of singing. Voice classification is often used within opera to associate possible roles with potential voices. There are currently several different systems in use within classical music including: the German Fach system and the choral music system among many others. No system is universally applied or accepted.

However, most classical music systems acknowledge seven different major voice categories. Women are typically divided into three groups: soprano, mezzo-soprano, and contralto. Men are usually divided into four groups: countertenor, tenor, baritone, and bass. When considering voices of pre-pubescent children an eighth term, treble, can be applied. Within each of these major categories there are several sub-categories that identify specific vocal qualities like coloratura facility and vocal weight to differentiate between voices

It should be noted that within choral music, singers voices are divided solely on the basis of vocal range. Choral music most commonly divides vocal parts into high and low voices within each sex (SATB, or soprano, alto, tenor, and bass). As a result, the typical choral situation affords many opportunities for misclassification to occur. Since most people have medium voices, they must be assigned to a part that is either too high or too low for them; the mezzo-soprano must sing soprano or alto and the baritone must sing tenor or bass. Either option can present problems for the singer, but for most singers there are fewer dangers in singing too low than in singing too high.
Luis Miguel with mariachi

Within comtemporary forms of music (sometimes referred to as Contemporary Commercial Music), singers are classified by the style of music they sing, such as jazz, pop, blues, soul, country, folk, and rock styles. There is currently no authoritative voice classification system within non-classical music. Attempts have been made to adopt classical voice type terms to other forms of singing but such attempts have been met with controversy. The development of voice categorizations were made with the understanding that the singer would be using classical vocal technique within a specified range using unamplified (no microphones) vocal production. Since contemporary musicians use different vocal techniques, microphones, and are not forced to fit into a specific vocal role, applying such terms as soprano, tenor, baritone, etc. can be misleading or even inaccurate.
Vocal pedagogy
Main article: Vocal pedagogy
Ercole de' Roberti: Concert, c. 1490

Vocal pedagogy, is the study of the teaching of singing. The art and science of vocal pedagogy has a long history that began in Ancient Greece[citation needed] and continues to develop and change today. Professions that practice the art and science of vocal pedagogy include vocal coaches, choral directors, vocal music educators, opera directors, and other teachers of singing.

Vocal pedagogy concepts are a part of developing proper vocal technique. Typical areas of study include the following:

* Human anatomy and physiology as it relates to the physical process of singing
o Vocal health and voice disorders related to singing
o Breathing and air support for singing
o Phonation
o Vocal resonation or Voice projection
o Vocal registration: a particular series of tones, produced in the same vibratory pattern of the vocal folds, and possessing the same quality, which originate in laryngeal function, because each of these vibratory patterns appears within a particular range of pitches and produces certain characteristic sounds.
o Voice classification

* Vocal styles: for Classical singers, this includes styles ranging from Lieder to opera; for pop singers, styles can include "belted out" a blues ballads; for jazz singers, styles can include Swing ballads and scatting.
o Techniques used in styles such as sostenuto and legato, range extension, tone quality, vibrato, and coloratura

[edit] Vocal technique

Singing when done with proper vocal technique is an integrated and coordinated act that effectively coordinates the physical processes of singing. There are four physical processes involved in producing vocal sound: respiration, phonation, resonation, and articulation. These processes occur in the following sequence:

* 1. Breath is taken
* 2. Sound is initiated in the larynx
* 3. The vocal resonators receive the sound and influence it
* 4. The articulators shape the sound into recognizable units

Although these four processes are often considered separately when studied, in actual practice they merge into one coordinated function. With an effective singer or speaker, one should rarely be reminded of the process involved as their mind and body are so coordinated that one only perceives the resulting unified function. Many vocal problems result from a lack of coordination within this process.

Since singing is a coordinated act, it is difficult to discuss any of the individual technical areas and processes without relating them to the others. For example, phonation only comes into perspective when it is connected with respiration; the articulators affect resonance; the resonators affect the vocal folds; the vocal folds affect breath control; and so forth. Vocal problems are often a result of a breakdown in one part of this coordinated process which causes voice teachers to frequently focus in intensively on one area of the process with their student until that issue is resolved. However, some areas of the art of singing are so much the result of coordinated functions that it is hard to discuss them under a traditional heading like phonation, resonation, articulation, or respiration.

Once the voice student has become aware of the physical processes that make up the act of singing and of how those processes function, the student begins the task of trying to coordinate them. Inevitably, students and teachers, will become more concerned with one area of the technique than another. The various processes may progress at different rates, with a resulting imbalance or lack of coordination. The areas of vocal technique which seem to depend most strongly on the student's ability to coordinate various functions are:

* 1. Extending the vocal range to its maximum potential
* 2. Developing consistent vocal production with a consistent tone quality
* 3. Developing flexibility and agility
* 4. Achieving a balanced vibrato

Developing the singing voice

Singing is a skill that requires highly developed muscle reflexes. Singing does not require much muscle strength but it does require a high degree of muscle coordination. Individuals can develop their voices further through the careful and systematic practice of both songs and vocal exercises. Vocal pedagogists instruct their students to exercise their voices in an intelligent manner. Singers should be thinking constantly about the kind of sound they are making and the kind of sensations they are feeling while they are singing.Vocal exercises have several purposes, including warming up the voice; extending the vocal range; "lining up" the voice horizontally and vertically; and acquiring vocal techniques such as legato, staccato, control of dynamics, rapid figurations, learning to sing wide intervals comfortably, singing trills, singing melismas and correcting vocal faults.
Extending vocal range

An important goal of vocal development is to learn to sing to the natural limits of one's vocal range without any obvious or distracting changes of quality or technique. Vocal pedagogists teach that a singer can only achieve this goal when all of the physical processes involved in singing (such as laryngeal action, breath support, resonance adjustment, and articulatory movement) are effectively working together. Most vocal pedagogists believe in coordinating these processes by (1) establishing good vocal habits in the most comfortable tessitura of the voice, and then (2) slowly expanding the range.

There are three factors that significantly affect the ability to sing higher or lower:

1. The energy factor — "energy" has several connotations. It refers to the total response of the body to the making of sound; to a dynamic relationship between the breathing-in muscles and the breathing-out muscles known as the breath support mechanism; to the amount of breath pressure delivered to the vocal folds and their resistance to that pressure; and to the dynamic level of the sound.
2. The space factor — "space" refers to the size of the inside of the mouth and the position of the palate and larynx. Generally speaking, a singer's mouth should be opened wider the higher he or she sings. The internal space or position of the soft palate and larynx can be widened by relaxing the throat. Vocal pedagogists describe this as feeling like the "beginning of a yawn".
3. The depth factor — "depth" has two connotations. It refers to the actual physical sensations of depth in the body and vocal mechanism, and to mental concepts of depth that are related to tone quality.

McKinney says, "These three factors can be expressed in three basic rules: (1) As you sing higher, you must use more energy; as you sing lower, you must use less. (2) As you sing higher, you must use more space; as you sing lower, you must use less. (3) As you sing higher, you must use more depth; as you sing lower, you must use less."
Posture

The singing process functions best when certain physical conditions of the body exist. The ability to move air in and out of the body freely and to obtain the needed quantity of air can be seriously affected by the posture of the various parts of the breathing mechanism. A sunken chest position will limit the capacity of the lungs, and a tense abdominal wall will inhibit the downward travel of the diaphragm. Good posture allows the breathing mechanism to fulfill its basic function efficiently without any undue expenditure of energy. Good posture also makes it easier to initiate phonation and to tune the resonators as proper alignment prevents unnecessary tension in the body. Vocal pedagogists have also noted that when singers assume good posture it often provides them with a greater sense of self assurance and poise while performing. Audiences also tend to respond better to singers with good posture. Habitual good posture also ultimately improves the overall health of the body by enabling better blood circulation and preventing fatigue and stress on the body.

There are eight components of the ideal singing posture:

1. Feet slightly apart
2. Knees bent
3. Hips rotated forward
4. Spine aligned
5. Abdomen flat
6. Chest comfortably raised
7. Shoulders down and back
8. Head straight ahead

Breathing and breath support

Natural breathing has three stages: a breathing-in period, a breathing out period, and a resting or recovery period; these stages are not usually consciously controlled. Within singing there are four stages of breathing: a breathing-in period (inhalation); a setting up controls period (suspension);a controlled exhalation period (phonation); and a recovery period.

When breathing, breathe in from the diaphragm lock the breath in place and control it as you sing. These stages must be under conscious control by the singer until they become conditioned reflexes. Many singers abandon conscious controls before their reflexes are fully conditioned which ultimately leads to chronic vocal problems.[20]
Vibrato

Vibrato is used by singers (and many instrumentalists; for instance, string instruments that are played with a bow usually employ vibrato) in which a sustained note wavers very quickly and consistently between a higher and a lower pitch, giving the note a slight quaver. Vibrato is the pulse or wave in a sustained tone. Vibrato occurs naturally, and is the result of proper breath support and a relaxed vocal apparatus. Some singers use vibrato as a means of expression for particular passages or certain notes. There are a range of types of vibrato, including a delicate, shallow vibrato and a deep, rich vibrato.
Vocal music
Main article: Vocal music

Vocal music is music performed by one or more singers, with or without non-vocal instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Vocal music is probably the oldest form of music, since it does not require any instrument besides the human voice. All musical cultures have some form of vocal music and there are many long standing singing traditions throughout the world's cultures.

Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered as instrumental music. For example, some blues rock songs may have a simple call-and-response chorus, but the emphasis in the song is on the instrumental melodies and improvisation. Vocal music typically features sung words called lyrics, although there are notable examples of vocal music that are performed using non-linguistic syllables or noises, sometimes as musical onomatopoeia. A short piece of vocal music with lyrics is broadly termed a song.
Genres of vocal music
Rock singer Ian Gillan performing live with Deep Purple in 2006.
Main article: Music genre

Vocal music is written in many different forms and styles which are often labeled within a particular genre of music. These genres include: Art music, Popular music, Traditional music, regional and national music, and fusions of those genres. Within these larger genres are many sub-genres. For example, popular music would encompass blues, jazz, country music, easy listening, hip hop, rock music, and several other genres. There may also be a sub-genre within a sub-genre such as vocalese and scat singing in jazz.
Popular and traditional music

In many modern pop musical groups, a lead singer performs the primary vocals or melody of a song, as opposed to a backing singer who sings backup vocals or the harmony of a song. Backing vocalists sing some, but usually not all, parts of the song often singing only in a song's refrain or humming in the background. An exception is five-part gospel a cappella music, where the lead is the highest of the five voices and sings a descant, and not the melody. Some artists may sing both lead and backing vocals on audio recordings by overlapping recorded vocal tracks.

Popular music includes a range of vocal styles. Hip-hop uses rapping, the rhythmic delivery of rhymes in a rhythmic speech over a beat or without accompaniment. Some types of rapping consist mostly or entirely of speech and chanting, like the Jamaican "toasting" from which rapping derives historically. In some types of rapping, the performers may interpolate short sung or half-sung passages. Blues singing is based on the use of the blue notes–notes sung at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. In heavy metal and hardcore punk subgenres, vocal styles can include techniques such as screams, shouts, and unusual sounds such as the "death growl".
Rapper Busta Rhymes performs in Las Vegas.

One difference between live performances in the popular and Classical genres is that whereas Classical performers often sing without amplification in small- to mid-size halls, in popular music, a microphone and PA system (amplifier and speakers) are used in almost all performance venues, even a small coffee house. The use of the microphone has had several impacts on popular music. For one, it facilitated the development of intimate, expressive singing styles such as "crooning" which would not have enough projection and volume if done without a microphone. As well, pop singers who use microphones can do a range of other vocal styles that would not project without amplification, such as making whispering sounds, humming, and mixing half-sung and sung tones. As well, some performers use the microphone's response patterns to create effects, such as bringing the mic very close to the mouth to get an enhanced bass response, or, in the case of hip-hop beatboxers, doing plosive "p" and "b" sounds into the mic to create percussive effects.

While some bands use backup singers who only sing when they are onstage, it is common for backup singers in popular music to have other roles. In many rock and metal bands, the musicians doing backup vocals also play instruments, such as rhythm guitar, electric bass, or drums. In Latin or Afro-Cuban groups, backup singers may play percussion instruments or shakers while singing. In some pop and hip-hop groups and in musical theater, the backup singers may be required to perform elaborately-choreographed dance routines while they sing through headset microphones.
Careers in singing

The salaries and working conditions for vocalists vary a great deal. While jobs in other music fields such as music education tend to be based on full-time, salaried positions, singing jobs tend to be based on contracts for individual shows or performances, or for a sequence of shows (e.g., a two-week series of performances of an opera or musical theater show). Since income from singing jobs can be unsteady, singers often supplement their performing income with other singing-related jobs, such as vocal coaching, voice lessons, or as working as a choral director in a church. Due to the large number of aspiring vocalists, it can be very competitive to get jobs in singing.
Maria Callas during her final tour in Amsterdam in 1973.

Church choir soloists can make from $30 to $500 per performance (all figures in US dollars). Performers in a community choral group can earn from $200–$3,000 yearly; members of a professional concert choral group can make $80 and up per performance. Singers who perform on radio or TV shows can make $75 and up per show on a local station and $125 and up per national network show (e.g., CBS or NBC). Jazz or pop singers who perform with dance bands or nightclub show groups can make $225 and up per week. Professional opera chorus singers can make from $350–$750 per week. Opera soloists, for which the number of job openings is very limited, can make from $350 to $20,000 per performance for the most elite performers. Classical concert soloists, for which the number of job openings is very limited, have approximate earnings of $350 per performance and up.

Aspiring singers and vocalists must have musical talent and skill, an excellent voice, the ability to work with people, and a sense of showmanship and drama. Additionally, singers need to have the ambition and drive to continually study and improve, because the process of studying singing does not end after an initial diploma or degree is finished-even decades after finishing their initial training, professional singers continue to seek out vocal coaching to hone their skills, extend their range, and learn new styles. As well, aspiring singers need to gain specialized skills in the vocal techniques used to interpret songs, learn about the vocal literature from their chosen style of music, and gain skills in choral music techniques, sight singing and memorizing songs, and basic skills at the piano, to aid in learning new songs and in ear training or vocal exercises. In Classical singing and in some other genres, a knowledge of foreign languages such as French, Italian, German, or other languages, is needed. Prior to college or university training, aspiring singers should learn to read music, study basic piano, and gain experience with singing, both in choirs and in solo settings.

College or university degrees are "not always required but the equivalent training is usually necessary". Post-secondary training in singing is available for both Classical and non-Classical singers. In the Classical stream, singing can be studied at conservatories and university music programs; credentials that are available range from diplomas and Bachelor's degrees to Master's degrees and the Doctor of Musical Arts. In popular and jazz styles, college and university degrees are also available, though there are fewer programs.

Once aspiring vocalists have completed their professional training, they must then take steps to market themselves to buyers of vocal talent, by doing auditions in front of an opera director, choirmaster, or conductor. Depending on the style of vocal music that a person has trained in, the "talent buyers" that they seek out may be record company A&R representatives, opera or musical theater directors, choir directors, nightclub managers, or concert promoters. In addition preparing a resume or CV listing their training and performance experience, singers typically prepare a promotional kit that includes professionally-taken photographs (head shots); a CD or DVD with excerpts of vocal performances; and copies of reviews from music critics or journalists. Some singers hire an agent or manager to help them to seek out engagements and other performance opportunities; the agent or manager is often paid by receiving a percentage of the fees that the singer gets from performing onstage.
Health effects

Scientific studies suggest that singing can have positive effects on people's health. A preliminary study based on self-reported data from a survey of students participating in choral singing found perceived benefits including increased lung capacity, improved mood, stress reduction, as well as perceived social and spiritual benefits. However, one much older study of lung capacity compared those with professional vocal training to those without, and failed to back up the claims of increased lung capacity. Singing may positively influence the immune system through the reduction of stress. One study found that both singing and listening to choral music reduces the level of stress hormones and increases immune function. A multinational collaboration to study the connection between singing and health was established in 2009, called Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing (AIRS).

Vocal music

Vocal music

Vocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing (i.e. vocal performance) provides the main focus of the piece.[1] Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered instrumental music (e.g. the wordless women's choir in the final movement of Holst's The Planets) as is music without singing. Music without any non-vocal instrumental accompaniment is referred to as a cappella.[2]

Vocal music typically features sung words called lyrics, although there are notable examples of vocal music that are performed using non-linguistic syllables or noises, sometimes as musical onomatopoeia. A short piece of vocal music with lyrics is broadly termed a song.

Vocal music is probably the oldest form of music, since it does not require any instrument besides the human voice. All musical cultures have some form of vocal music.
Vocal music without lyrics
World traditions

* Elaborate untexted vocal improvisation was and still is an important element in Turkish and Middle Eastern music traditions. Such music existed prior to the 1200s and the First Crusade into Palestine and the city of Jerusalem, possibly even before the year 900.
* The modern descendants of the ancient Kung tribes and clans of Southern Africa utilize similar traditional music techniques.
* A form of improvisation known as thillana is a very important feature of Carnatic music from South India.
* Tuva n throat singing often features wordless and improvised song. The sygyt technique is a particularly good example of this.
* The Sámi yoik is a predominantly wordless form of vocal expression.
* The musical tradition of mouth music (Puirt á beul) was used in various forms of traditional music in the Anglo-Saxon and Gaelic communities.
* Hasidic Jews use a form of voice improvisation called nigunim. This consists of wordless tunes vocalized with sounds such as "Bim-bim-bam" or "Ai-yai-yai!” often accompanied by rhythmic clapping and drumming on the table.
* Puirt a beul, also known as "Mouth Music", is a Scottish technique based around imitating the sounds of bagpipes, fiddles, and other instruments used in traditional Scottish music. It was popularized in North America by Scottish immigrants, and has been incorporated into many forms of American music from roots music to bluegrass.

European classical vocal music

Solfege, a vocalized musical scale, assigns various syllables such as ‘‘Do-Re-Mi‘‘ to each note. A variety of similar tools are found in traditional Indian music, and scat singing of jazz.
Jazz and popular music

Hip hop music has a very distinct form of vocal percussion known as beatboxing. It involves creating beats, rhythms, and scratching.

The singer of Iceland IC group Sigur Rós, Jón Birgisson, often uses vocals without words, as does Icelandic singer/songwriter, Björk. Her album Medúlla is composed entirely of processed and acoustic vocal music, including beatboxing, choral arrangements and throat singing.

Singer Bobby McFerrin has recorded a number of albums using only his voice and body, sometimes consisting of a texted melody supported by untexted vocalizations.
Vocal music with lyrics
Songs

See Song and Category: Song forms for short forms of music with sung words.
Extended techniques that involve lyrics

The Second Viennese School, especially Alban Berg and Arnold Schoenberg, pioneered a technique called Sprechstimme in which singers half-talk, half-sing, and only approximate pitche
Vocal learning
Vocal learning is the ability of animals to modify vocal signals in form as a result of experience with those of other individuals. This can lead to signals that are either similar or dissimilar to the model [1]. A more restrictive definition limits vocal learning to cases where animals learn to produce sounds not included in their genetic repertoire, by mimicking what they hear in their acoustic environment

Occurrence

A classical example of vocal learning is birdsong in the bird species whose repertoire is not entirely innate – songbirds, parrots and hummingbirds. In mammals, seals and cetaceans have been found to have this capacity as well [4]. Further reports exist on bats and elephants.

In evolutionary psychology, human spe

ech and vocal music are regarded as complex forms of vocal learning.
Animal cogniti
on

Animal cognition is the title given to a modern approach to the mental capacities of non-human animals. It has developed out of comparative psychology, but has also been strongly influenced by the approach of ethology, behavioral ecology, and evolutionary psychology. The alternative name cognitive ethology is therefore sometimes used; and much of what used to be considered under the title of animal intelligence is now thought of under this heading.
In practice, animal cognition mostly concerns mammals, especially primates, cetaceans and elephants, besides canidae, felidae and rodents, but research also extends to non-mammalian vertebrates such as birds such as parrots and pigeons, lizards or fish, and even to non-vertebrates (cephalopods)
Historical background

For most of the twentieth century, the dominant approach to animal psychology was to use experiments on intelligence in animals to uncover simple processes (such as classical conditioning and operant conditioning) that might then account for the apparently more complex intellectual abilities of humans. This approach is well summarised in the mid-century book by Hilgard (1958), but its reductionist philosophy was combined with a strongly behaviorist methodology, in which overt behavior was taken as the only valid data for the study of psychology, and in its more extreme forms (the radical behaviorism of B. F. Skinner and his experimental analysis of behavior) behavi

or was taken as the only topic of interest. In effect, the mental processes that humans experience in themselves were viewed as epiphenomena (see, for example, Skinner, 1969).

The success of cognitive psychology in addressin

g human mental processes, which began in the late 1950s and was proclaimed by Neisser (1967), led to a re-evaluation of the research paradigm, and researchers began to address animal mental processes from the opposite direction, by taking what is known about human mental processes and looking for evidence of comparable processes in other species. In a sense this was a return to the approach of Darwin's protegé George Romanes (e.g. 1886), arguably the first comparative psychologist of the modern era. However, whereas Romanes relied heavily on anecdote and an anthropomorphic projection of human capacities onto other species, modern researchers in animal cognition are in most cases firmly behaviorist in methodology, even though they differ sharply from the behaviorist philosophy. There are some exceptions to the rule of b

ehaviorist methodology, such as John Lilly and, some would argue, Donald Griffin (e.g. 1992), who have been prepared to take a strong position that other animals do have minds and that humans should approach the study of their cognition accordingly. However

, their claims have not found wide acceptance in the scientific community, though they have attracted an enthusiastic following among lay people.

The development of animal cognition was also strongly influenced by:

* increased use of and interest in primates (and also cetaceans) rather than the rats and pigeons that had become the classic species of the comparative psychology laboratory, and by developments within primatology;
* advancing knowledge of animals' behavior in their natural environments through studies in ethology, sociobiology and behavioral ecology; such studies often showed that animals needed certain cognitive abilities in order to adapt to their ecological niche (as for example in studies of caching birds such as Clark's Nutcracker by Alan Kamil and his colleagues (e.g. Kamil & Balda, 1990), or appeared to use cognitive abilities under natural conditions (for example in Jane Goodall's studies of chimpanz ees, see Goodall (1991);
* one or two high profile projects, in particular Allen and Beatrice Gardner's Washoe project in which a chimpanzee learned at least some elements of American Sign Language.
* advancing understanding of brain function through work in physiological psychology and cognitive neuropsych ology

This account of the history of the study of animal cognition is inevitably oversimplified. From Romanes on, there have always been comparative psychologists who have been more or less cognitively inclined: obvious examples are Wolfgang Köhler, famous for his studies of insight in chimpanzees, and Edward C. Tolman, who introduced into psychology, as an explanation of the behavior of rats in mazes, two ideas that have been immensely influential in human

cognitive psychology - the cognitive map and the idea of decision-making in risky choice according to expected value.
Methodology

Research in animal cognition continues to use some of the established research techniques of comparative psychology and the experimental analysis of behavior, such as mazes and Skinner boxes, though it employs them in new varieties (such as the 8-arm maze and Morris water maze that have been used in many studies of spatial memory) and in new ways. However, it complements those with observation of animals in their natural environments, or quasi-natural environments and also with field experiments. It has also been characterised by a number of very long term projects, such as the Washoe project and other ape-language experiments (e.g. project Nim), Irene Pepperberg's extended series of studies with the African Gray Parrot Alex, Louis Herman's work with bottlenosed dolphins, and studies of long-term memory in pigeons in which birds were shown to remember pictures for periods of several years. Some cognitive research also requires the management of animal behavior, and the use of operant conditioning to facilitate animal training. In general, the conclusion of concept formation in an animal requires a generalization test where the animal responds appropriately to a novel stimulus to which associative learning cannot explain th

e response behavior. Some researchers ha

ve made effective use of a Piagetian methodology, taking tasks which human children are known to master at different stages of development, and investigating which of them can be performed by particular species. Others have been inspired by concerns for animal welfare and the management of domestic species: for example Temple Grandin has harnessed her unique expertise in animal welfare and the ethical treatment of farm livestock to highlight underlying similarities between humans and other animals.
Research questions
The common Chimpanzee can use tools. This chimpanzee is using a stick in order to get food.

Given the broad program of animal cognition, of looking for the animal analogs of human cognitive processes, the areas of stu

dy in animal cognition follow more or less from

those in human cognitive psychology. However, progress in the different areas has been variable. Among the fields of interest are:
Attention

Research has focused on animals' ability to distribute attention between different aspects of a stimulus, and on visual search. As in humans, it appears that sharing attention between stimulus features reduces the capacity to detect any one of them, though there are some ecologically relevant visual search tasks at which particular species show remarkable abilities (for example, pigeons have an extraordinary capacity to pick out grain from substrate).
Categorization

Following pioneering research by Richard Herrnstein, there has been a mass of research on birds' ability to discriminate between cate

gories of stimuli, including the kinds of ill-defined category that are used in everyday human speech. Birds have been found to learn this ki

nd of task easily, and to transfer correct responses readily to new instances of the categories.
Memory

The categories that have been developed to analyze human memory (short term memory, long term memory, working memory) have been applied to the study of animal memory, and some of the phenomena characteristic of human short term memory (e.g. the serial position effect) have been detected in animals, particularly monkeys[citation needed]. However most progress has been made in the analysis of spatial memory, partly in relation to studies of the physiological basis of spatial memory and the role of the

hippocampus, and partly in relation to scatter-hoarder animals such as Clark's Nutcracker, certain jays, tits and certain squirrels, whose ecological niches require them to remember the locations of thousands of caches, often following radic

al changes in the environment.
Spatial Cognition

The ability to properly navigate and search through the environment is a critical task for many animals. Research in this area (Brown & Cook, 2006) has focused on such diffuse topics as landmark and beacon use by ants and bees, the encoding and use of geometric properties of the environment by pigeons, and the ability of rats to represent a spatial pattern in either radial arm mazes or pole box mazes. Sometimes included under the envelope of Spatial Cognition is work in h

umans and other animals in visual search tasks, which aim to experimentally address questions about searching through one's environment for a particular object.
Tool and weapon use
Further information: Tool use by animals

Some species, such as the Woodpecker Finch of the Galapagos Islands, use particular tools as an essential part of their foraging behavior. However, these behaviors are often quite inflexible and cannot be applied effectively in new situations. Several species have now been shown to be capable of more flexible tool use. A well known example is Jane Goodall's observation of chimpanzees "fishing" for termites in their natural environment, and captive great apes are often observed to use tools effectively; several species of corvids have also been trained to use tools in controlled experiments, or use bread crumbs for bait-fishing

Research in 2007 shows that chimpa

nzees in the Fongoli savannah sharpen sticks

to use as spears when hunting, considered the first evidence of systematic use of weapons in a species other than humans.
Reasoning and problem solving

Closely related to tool use is the study of reasoning and problem solving. It has been observed that the manner in which chimpanzees solve problems, such as that of retrieving bananas positioned out of reach, is not through trial-and-error. Instead, they were observed to proceed in a manner that was “unwaveringly purposeful.”

It is clear that animals of quite a range of species are capable of solving a range of problems that are argued to involve abstract reasoning[citation needed]; modern research has tended to show that the performances of Wolfgang Köhler's chimpanzees, who could achieve spontaneous solutions to problems without training, were by no means unique to that species, and that apparently similar behavior can be

found in animals usually thought of as much less intelligent, if appropriate training is given.[citation needed] Causal reasoning has also been observed in rooks and New Caledonian crows.
Language

The modeling of human language in animals is known as animal language research. In addition to the ape-language experiments mentioned above, there have also been more or less successful attempts to teach language or language-like behavior to some non-primate species, including parrots and Great Spotted Woodpeckers. Louis Herman published research on

artificial language comprehension in the bottlenosed dolphin using cognitive research methods at the hei

ght of the skepticism produced by Herbert Terrace's criticism of chimpanzee language experiments through his own results with the animal Nim Chimpsky. In particular, the focus on the comprehension mode only allowed cognitive methods of utilizing blinded observers to grade the animals' gross physical behavior, rather than trying to interpret putative language production. Herman's results (Herman, Richards, & Wolz, 1984) were published in the (human) journal Cognition, regarding work on the dolphins Akeakamai and Phoenix. All such research has been controversial among cognitive linguists.
Consciousness

The sense in which animals can be said to have consciousness or a self-concept has been hotly debated; it is often referred to as the debate over animal minds. The best known research technique in this area is the mirror test devised

by Gordon G. Gallup, in which an animal's skin is marked in some way while it is asleep or sedated, and it is then allowed to see its reflection in a mirror; if the animal spontaneously directs grooming behavior towards the mark, that is taken as an indication that it is aware of itself. Self-awareness, by this criterion, has been reported for chimpanzees and also for some other great apes, the European Magpie[6], some cetaceans and a solitary elephant, but not for monkeys. The mirror test has attracted controversy among some researchers because it is entirely focused on vision, the primary sense in humans, while other species rely more heavily on other senses such as the olfa

ctory sense in dogs.[citation needed]

A different approach to determine whether a non-human animal is conscious derives from passive speech research with a macaw (see Arielle). Some researchers propose that by passively listening to an animal's voluntary speech, it is possible to learn about the thoughts of another creature and to determine that the speaker is c

onscious. This type of research was originally used to investigate a child's crib speech by Weir (1962) and in investigations of early speech in children by Greenfield and others (1976). With speech-capable birds, the methods of passive-speech research open a new avenue for investigation.
Mathematics

Some animals are capable of distinguishing between different amounts and rudimentary counting. Elephants have been known to perform simple arithmetic and rhesus monkeys can count. Ants are able to use quantitative values and transmit this information. For instance, ants of several species are able to estimate quite precisely numbers of encounters with members of other colonies on their feeding territories.Young chimpanzees have outperformed human college students in tasks requiring remembering numbers.
Cognitive faculty by specie
s

Some animals, including great apes, crows, dolphins, dogs, elephants, cats, pigs, rats, and parrots are still typically thought by laypeople[clar

ification needed] as intelligent in ways that some other species of animal are not. For example, crows are attributed with human-like intelligence in the folklore of many cultures. A number of recent survey studies have demonstrated the consistency of these rankings between people in a given culture and indeed to a considerable extent across cultures (e.g. Nakajima et al., 2002).

A common image is the scala naturae, th

e ladder of nature on which animals of different species occupy successively higher rungs, with humans typically at the top

A more fruitful approach has been to recognise that different animals may have different kinds of cognitive processes, which are better understood in terms of the ways in which they are cognitively adapted to their different ecological niches, than by positing any kind of hierarchy. (See Shettleworth (1998), Reznikova (2007).)

One question that can be asked coherently is how far different species are intelligent in the same ways as humans are, i.e., are their cognitive processes similar to ours. Not surprisingly, our closest biological relatives, the great apes, tend to do best on such an assessment. Among the birds, corvids and parrots have

typically been found to perform well. Despite ambitious claims, evidence of unusually high human-like intelligence among cetaceans is pat

chy, partly because the cost and difficulty of carrying out research with marine mammals mean that experiments frequently suffer from small sample sizes and inadequate controls and replication.[citation needed] Octopuses have also been shown to exhibit a number of higher-level skills such as tool use but the amount of research on cephalopod intelligence is still limited.
Human voice

The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, etc. Human voice is specifically that part of human sound production in which the vocal folds (vocal cords) are the primary sound source. Generally speaking, the mechanism for generating the human voice can be subdivided into three parts; the lungs, the vocal folds within the larynx, and the articulators. The lung (the pump) must produce adequate airflow and air pressure to vibrate vocal folds (this air pressure is the fuel of the voice). The vocal folds (vocal cords) are a vibrating valve that chops up the airflow from the lungs into audible pulses that form the laryngeal sound source. The muscles of the larynx adjust the length and tension of the vocal folds to ‘fine tune’ pitch and tone. The articulators (the parts of the vocal tract above the larynx consisting of tongue, palate, cheek, lips, etc.) articulate and filter the sound emanating from the larynx and to some degree can interact with the laryngeal airflow to strengthen it or weaken it as a sound source.
The vocal folds, in combination with the articulators, are capable of producing highly intricate arrays of sound.[1][2][3] The tone of voice may be modulated to suggest emotions such as anger, surprise, or happiness.[4][5] Singers use the human voice as an instrument for creating music.

Voice types and the folds (cords) themselves

Adult men and women have different vocal folds sizes; reflecting the male-female differences in larynx size. Adult male voices are usually lower-pitched and have larger folds. The male vocal folds (which would be measured vertically in the opposite diagram), are between 17 mm and 25 mm in length. [7] the female vocal folds are between 12.5 mm and 17.5 mm in length.

As seen in the illustration, the folds are located just above the vertebrate trachea (the windpipe which travels from the lungs). Food and drink do not pass through the cords but instead pass through the esophagus, an unlinked tube. Both t

ubes are separated by the epiglottis, a "flap" that covers the opening of the trachea while swallowing.

The folds in both sexes are within the larynx. They are attached at the back (side nearest the spinal cord) to the arytenoids cartilages, and at the front (side under the chin) to the thyroid cartilage. They have no outer edge as they blend into the side of the breathing tube (the illustration is out of date and does not show this well) while their inner edges or "margins" are free to vibrate (the hole). They have a three layer construction of an epithelium, vocal ligament, then muscle (vocalis muscle), which can shorten and bulge the folds. They are flat triangular bands and are pearly white in color. Above both sides of the vocal cord is the vestibular fold or false vocal cord, which has a small sac between its two folds (not illustrated).

The difference in vocal folds size between men and women means that they have differently pitched voices. Additionally, genetics also causes variances amongst the same sex, with men and women's singing voices being categorized into types. For example, among men, there are bass, baritone, tenor and countertenor (ranging from E2 to even F6), and among women, contralto, mezzo-soprano and soprano (ranging from F3 to C6). There are additional categories for operatic voices, see voice type. This is not the only source of difference between male and female voice. Men, generally speaking, have a larger vocal tract, which essentially gives the resultant voice a lower-sounding timbre. This is mostly independent of the vocal folds themselves.