24 Of The Most Overlooked Composers In History

Who run the music world? Girls.

1. Saint Hildegard von Bingen

Unknown / en.wikipedia.org

Notable works: "O Frondens Virgas," "Ave Generosa," and "Spiritus sanctus vivificans vita."

Why she deserves more love: By using leaps of fourths and fifths and wide ranges in her compositions, von Bingen’s music was innovative for its time.

2. Barbara Strozzi

Bernardo Strazzi / en.wikipedia.org

Notable works: "L'amante segreto," "L'eraclito amoroso," and "Begli occhi."

Why she deserves more love: Strozzi is arguable a classical music pioneer. She published her own works, something only a few women in the 17th century did. She was also the hostess for the group of intellectuals known as the Accademia degli Unisoni, leading the topics of discussion and often performing herself.

3. Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre

François de Troy / en.wikipedia.org

Notable works: "Le Sommeil d'Ulisse," Céphale et Procris, and Pièces de clavessin, Suite in A minor.

Why she deserves more love: On top of her composing skills, Jacquet de la Guerre was also an incredible harpsichordist and singer. At 8 years old she made her professional debut in front of King Louis XIV.

4. Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel

Moritz Daniel Oppenheim / en.wikipedia.org

Notable works: Piano Trio Op. 11, Das Jahr, and 4 Lieder for Piano Op. 8.

Why she deserves more love: Mendelssohn had to put up with more restrictions than her brother Felix. Though she was told at age 14 to focus less on music and more on what it would take to become a wife and mother, she continued to compose and published a few of her works in her brother's collections under his name.

5. Clara Schumann

Hulton Archive / Getty Images

Notable works: Piano Concerto in A Minor, Piano Trio in G Minor, and "Liebst du um Schönheit."

Why she deserves more love: Clara Schumann was a child prodigy who made her professional piano debut at just 11 years old, and premiered her first piano concerto at the age of 16. She even made sweet music with her husband Robert Schumann by collaborating with him on a lieder collection.

6. Teresa Carreño

Kean Collection / Getty Images

Notable works: Himno a Bolivar, "Gottschalk Waltz", and "Un sueño en el mar."

Why she deserves more love: Carreño was apparently known as "the Valkyrie of the pianoforte" and her Himno a Bolivar is so patriotic and beloved that it is often mistaken as the Venezuelan national anthem.

7. Cécile Chaminade

W. And D. Downey / Getty Images

Notable works: Op. 107 Concertino for flute and orchestra in D major, Konzertstück, Op. 40, and "Viens mon bien-aimé."

Why she deserves more love: Though Time once dismissively described her piano pieces as "fragile" and "saccharine," Chaminade was the first female composer to be awarded the Légion d'Honneur.

8. Dame Ethel Smyth

George Grantham Bain Collection / en.wikipedia.org

Notable works: "The March of the Women," The Wreckers, and Mass in D.

Why she deserves more love: Smyth was a suffragette and spent two months in Holloway Prison, where she was once found leaning out her window, conducting singing women with a toothbrush.

9. Amy Beach

Anonymous / en.wikipedia.org

Notable works: Gaelic Symphony, Piano Concerto, Op. 45, and 3 Browning Songs.

Why she deserves more love: Like other women on this list, Beach was a child prodigy whose musical talents were squashed by her husband. Thankfully, she quietly taught herself composition and is now the only woman to be recognized on Boston's famous Hatch Memorial Shell.

10. Alma Mahler

Unknown / en.wikipedia.org

Notable works: "Die Stille stadt," "In meines Vaters Garten," and "Erntelied."

Why she deserves more love: Though only 16 survive today, Mahler was quite a prolific composer, writing over 100 lieder and even the beginning of an opera during her lifetime.

11. Rebecca Clarke

Hopkins Studio / en.wikipedia.org

Notable works: Sonata for viola and piano, Piano trio, and "Rhapsody for cello and piano."

Why she deserves more love: Clarke was also a professional violist and performed with the English Ensemble, an all-female piano quartet. She was also the only female that the wealthy patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge supported.

12. Florence Price

G. Nelidoff / encyclopediaofarkansas.net

Notable works: Mississippi River Suite, Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, and The Oak.

Why she deserves more love: Price won four Wanamaker prizes and was one of the first black women to have her work premiered with a top tier orchestra.

13. Germaine Tailleferre

FH / en.wikipedia.org

Notable works: "Intermezzo pour duex pianos," "Pastorale for piano," and Ballade for piano and orchestra.

Why she deserves more love: Tailleferre was the only female member of Les Six and spent a great deal of time with Maurice Ravel, who encouraged her to submit her compositions to the Prix de Rome.

14. Lili Boulanger

Library of Congress / en.wikipedia.org

Notable works: Faust et Hélène, "Pie Jesu," and "Nocturne."

Why she deserves more love: Though she died at the young age of 24, Boulanger achieved great success in her lifetime. She was the first woman to take first prize at the Prix de Rome in 1913.

15. Ruth Crawford Seeger

DG

Notable works: String Quartet 1931, Music for Small Orchestra, and Five Songs to Poems by Carl Sandburg: Home Thoughts, White Moon, Joy, Loam, Sunsets.

Why she deserves more love: Stepmother to folk artist Pete Seeger, Ruth Crawford Seeger published folk works of her own that are widely used today for elementary music education.

16. Elisabeth Lutyens

Erich Auerbach / Getty Images

Notable works: Five Bagatelles, String Quartet VI, and And Suddenly It's Evening.

Why she deserves more love: Daughter of architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, Elisabeth broke barriers by scoring the British feature film Penny and the Pownall Case, making her the first woman to do so.

17. Margaret Bonds

Carl Van Vechten / en.wikipedia.org

Notable works: The Negro Speaks of Rivers, The Ballad of the Brown King, and Three Dream Portraits.

Why she deserves more love: Bonds actually studied under Florence Price, and maintained a friendship with Langston Hughes, allowing her to set his poems in culturally significant art songs.

18. Wendy Carlos

Ebet Roberts / Getty Images

Notable works: A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and Switched-On Bach.

Why she deserves more love: Carlos won three Grammy's for her innovation with the Moog synthesizer on Switched-On Bach, and even collaborated with "Weird Al" Yankovic for a parodical reworking of Profkofiev's Peter and the Wolf.

19. Micki Grant

NBC / en.wikipedia.org

Notable works: Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope and Working.

Why she deserves more love: In addition to being a gifted composer, Grant was also a talented performer. Throughout her career she won two Drama Desk Awards and received three Tony nominations.

20. Libby Larsen

Westminster Town Hall / youtube.com

Notable works: Love After 1950, Sonnets from the Portuguese, and Clair de Lune.

Why she deserves more love: Larsen was one of the founders of the American Composer's Forum and won a Grammy in 1994 for her work on The Art of Arlene Augér.

21. Pamela Z

Pamela Z / youtube.com

Notable works: "Geekspeak," "Bone Music," Carbon Song Cycle.

Why she deserves more love: Using MAX MSP and Isadora software on her Macbook Pro, Pamela Z was a true innovator in digital looping techniques during her live shows, which she often performs herself.

22. Unsuk Chin

Johannes Simon / Getty Images

Notable works: Alice in Wonderland, Violin Concerto, and Cello Concerto.

Why she deserves more love: Chin is not afraid to do things the hard way. For her 2007 opera Alice in Wonderland, she refused to mine "her Korean roots for exotic effect," despite seeing other composers succeed with this method.

23. Jennifer Higdon

The Drexel Interview / youtube.com

Notable works: Violin Concerto, Percussion Concerto, and Blue Cathedral.

Why she deserves more love: Higdon pretty much swept award season in 2010, winning a Grammy for Percussion Concerto and the Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto that year.

24. Augusta Read Thomas

Boston Symphony Orchestra / youtube.com

Notable works: "Of Paradise and Light," Rumi Settings, and "Caprice."

Why she deserves more love: Thomas is a champion of new music and is leading the creation of the Ear Taxi Festival in Chicago, which will feature world premieres and pop-up concerts.