This area is split into two categories: Household Names (for composers who are recognized as having (or having had) major careers (or have won major awards), and Emerging Composers (who have not yet achieved similar successes).

Additionally, this list begins with composers active in the mid-20th Century, many of whom are living as of this writing. Several notable composers, such as Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Ives, Webern, and others, are not on this list because they were active earlier.

I understand that there will be some debate about who might belong in either category. It is not my intention to cause controversy here, but simply to organize a very large number of links into more manageable groups.