Chronological list of French classical composers

The following is a chronological list of classical music composers who lived in, worked in, or were citizens of France.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Medieval

• Leonin (c. 1150 – 1201)
• Perotin (1160 – 1230)
• Adam de la Halle (1240 – 1287)
• Philippe de Vitry (1291 – 1361)
• Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300 – 1377)

Renaissance

• Guillaume Dufay (c. 1397 – 1474)
• Gilles Binchois (c. 1400 – 1460)
• Loÿset Compère (c. 1445 – 1518)
• Josquin des Prez (c. 1450 – 1521), born near Franco-Flemish border
• Pierre de La Rue (c. 1452 – 1518)
• Jean Mouton (c. 1459 – 1522)
• Antoine Brumel (c. 1460 – 1512/1513)
• Clément Janequin (c. 1485 – 1558)
• Claudin de Sermisy (c. 1490 – 1562)
• Nicolas Gombert (c. 1495 – c. 1560)
• Ninot le Petit (fl. c. 1500 – 1520)
• Pierre de Manchicourt (c. 1510 – 1564)
• Godard (fl. 1536 – c. 1560)
• Claude Gervaise (fl. 1540 – 1560)
• Jean Titelouze (c. 1562/63 – 1633)

Baroque

• Pierre Guédron (c. 1570 – c. 1620)
• Ennemond Gaultier (c. 1575–1651)
• Antoine Boësset (1586–1643)
• Étienne Moulinié (c. 1599 – after 1669)
• Jacques Gaultier (c. 1600-1652)
• Jacques Champion de Chambonnières (c. 1601 – 1672)
• Denis Gaultier (1603–1672)
• François Dufault (before 1604 – c. 1672)
• Jacques de Gouy (c. 1610 – after 1650)
• Michel Lambert (1610–1696)
• Charles Mouton (1617 - before 1699)
• Louis Couperin (c. 1626 – 1661)
• Jean-Henri d'Anglebert (1629–1691)
• Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687)
• Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe (c. 1640 – c. 1700)
• Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643–1704)
• Robert de Visée (c. 1655 – 1732/1733)
• Marin Marais (1656–1728)
• Michel Richard Delalande (1657–1726)
• André Campra (1660–1744)
• Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (1665–1729)
• Jean-Féry Rebel (1666–1747)
• Michel Pignolet de Montéclair (1667–1737)
• François Couperin (1668–1733)
• Louis Marchand (1669–1732)
• Louis de Caix d'Hervelois (c. 1670 – c. 1760)
• Gaspard Corrette (1671–before 1733)
• Antoine Forqueray (1671–1745)
• Nicolas de Grigny (1672–1703)
• Jacques-Martin Hotteterre (1674–1763)
• Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (1676–1749)
• Jean-François Dandrieu (c. 1682 – 1738)
• Jean-Joseph Mouret (1682–1738)
• Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764)
• François d'Agincourt (1684–1758)
• Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689–1755)
• Louis-Claude Daquin (1694–1772)
• Jean-Marie Leclair the elder (1697–1764)
• François Francoeur (1698–1787)
• Michel Blavet (1700–1768)
• Christophe Moyreau (1700–1774)
• Jean-Marie Leclair the Younger (1703–1777)
• Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer (c. 1705 – 1755)
• Louis-Gabriel Guillemain (1705–1770)
• Michel Corrette (1707–1795)
• Jean-Joseph de Mondonville (1711–1772)

Classical era

• Jacques Duphly (1715–1789)
• François-André Danican Philidor (1726–1795)
• Joseph Touchemoulin (1727–1801)
• François Joseph Gossec (1734–1829)
• André Grétry (1741–1813)
• Simon Le Duc (1742–1777)
• Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745–1799)
• Nicolas Dalayrac (1753–1809)
• Jean-Baptiste Bréval (1753–1823)
• Ignaz Pleyel (1757–1831)
• Jean-François Lesueur (1760–1837)
• Olivier Aubert (1763–c.1830)
• Étienne Méhul (1763–1817)
• Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766–1831)
• Louis-Emmanuel Jadin (1768–1853)
• Charles Simon Catel (1773–1830)
• Pierre Rode (1774–1830)
• François-Adrien Boieldieu (1775–1834)
• Hyacinthe Jadin (1776–1800)
• Pauline Duchambge (1778–1858)
• Jacques Féréol Mazas (1782–1849)

Romantic

• Daniel Auber (1782–1871)
• George Onslow (1784–1853)
• Nicolas-Charles Bochsa (1789–1856)
• Ferdinand Hérold (1791–1833)
• Fromental Halévy (1799–1862)
• Victor Magnien (1802–1885)
• Adolphe Adam (1803–1856)
• Hector Berlioz (1803–1869)
• Louise Farrenc (1804–1875)
• Louise Bertin (1805–1877)
• Napoléon Coste (1805–1883)
• Napoléon Henri Reber (1807–1880)
• Auguste Pilati (1810–1877)
• Félicien David (1810–1876)
• Ambroise Thomas (1811–1896)
• Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813–1888)
• Eugène Louis-Marie Jancourt (1815–1901)
• Jean-Chrisostome Hess (1816–1900)
• François Bazin (1816–1878)
• Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély (1817–1869)
• Charles Dancla (1817–1907)
• Charles Gounod (1818–1893)
• Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880)
• Charles-Louis Hanon (1819–1900)
• Pauline Viardot (1821–1910)
• César Franck (1822–1890)
• Édouard Lalo (1823–1892)
• Joseph Jean-Baptiste Laurent Arban (1825–1889)
• Charles Delioux (1825–1915)
• Joseph O'Kelly (1828–1885)
• Georges Pfeiffer (1835–1908)
• Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)
• Léo Delibes (1836–1891)
• Alexandre Guilmant (1837–1911)
• Théodore Dubois (1837–1924)
• Georges Bizet (1838–1875)
• Henri Ghys (1839–1908)
• Emmanuel Chabrier (1841–1894)
• Georges Lamothe (1842–1894)
• Jules Massenet (1842–1912)
• Claude-Paul Taffanel (1844–1908)
• Charles-Marie Widor (1844–1937)
• Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)
• Henri Duparc (1848–1933)
• Benjamin Godard (1849–1895)
• Clément Broutin (1851–1889)
• Vincent d'Indy (1851–1931)
• André Messager (1853–1929)
• Ernest Chausson (1855–1899)
• Alfred Bruneau (1857–1934)
• Cécile Chaminade (1857–1944)
• Jules Auguste Wiernsberger (1857–1925)
• Mélanie Bonis (1858–1937)
• Gustave Charpentier (1860–1956)

Modern/contemporary

• Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
• Maurice Emmanuel (1862–1938)
• Gabriel Pierné (1863–1937)
• Guy Ropartz (1864–1955)
• Paul Dukas (1865–1935)
• Albéric Magnard (1865–1914)
• Erik Satie (1866–1925)
• Charles Koechlin (1867–1950)
• Jules Mouquet (1867–1946)
• Albert Roussel (1869–1937)
• Louis Vierne (1870–1937)
• Charles Tournemire (1870–1939)
• Florent Schmitt (1870–1958)
• Henri Büsser (1872–1973)
• Déodat de Séverac (1872–1921)
• Jean Roger-Ducasse (1873–1954)
• Reynaldo Hahn (1874–1947)
• Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
• Henriette Renié (1875–1956)
• Armande de Polignac (1876–1962)
• Louis Aubert (1877–1968)
• Gabriel Dupont (1878–1914)
• André Caplet (1878–1925)
• Jean Cras (1879–1932)
• Philippe Gaubert (1879–1941)
• Maurice Delage (1879–1961)
• Marcel Tournier (1879–1951)
• Joseph Canteloube (1879–1957)
• Paul Le Flem (1881–1984)
• Edgard Varèse (1883–1965)
• Henri Collet (1885–1951)
• Marcel Dupré (1886–1971)
• Nadia Boulanger (1887–1979)
• Louis Durey (1888–1979)
• Jacques Ibert (1890–1962)
• Marcel Grandjany (1891–1975)
• Darius Milhaud (1892–1974)
• Germaine Tailleferre (1892–1983)
• Lili Boulanger (1893–1918)
• Marcel Lanquetuit (1894–1985)
• Jean Rivier (1896–1987)
• Francis Poulenc (1899–1963)
• Georges Auric (1899–1983)
• Henri Sauguet (1901–1989)
• Henri Tomasi (1901–1971)
• Maurice Duruflé (1902–1986)
• Claude Arrieu (1903–1990)
• Manuel Rosenthal (1904–2003)
• Eugene Bozza (1905–1991)
• André Jolivet (1905–1974)
• Jean Langlais (1907–1991)
• Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992)
• Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur (1908–2002)
• Jean Martinon (1910–1976)
• Paule Maurice (1910–1967)
• Jehan Alain (1911–1940)
• Alfred Desenclos (1912–1971)
• Jean Françaix (1912–1997)
• Maurice Ohana (1913–1992)
• Henri Dutilleux (1916–2013)
• Pierre Boulez (1925–2016)
• Betsy Jolas (born 1926)
• Jean-Michel Damase (1928–2013)
• Pierre Max Dubois (1930–1995)
• Claude Bolling (1930–2020)
• Éliane Radigue (born 1932)
• Yves Prin (born 1933)
• Gilbert Amy (born 1936)
• Jean-Pierre Leguay (born 1939)
• Gérard Grisey (1946–1998)
• Tristan Murail (born 1947)
• Joël-François Durand (born 1954)
• Pascal Dusapin (born 1955)
• Pierre Pincemaille (1956–2018)
• Nicolas Bacri (born 1961)
• Marc-André Dalbavie (born 1961)
• Sophie Lacaze (born 1963)
• Thierry Escaich (born 1965)
• Christophe Bertrand (1981–2010)

See also

• List of classical music composers by era
• List of French composers
• Classic 100 Music of France (ABC)