Richard Wagner

Throughout the centuries there have been countless great composers who made important innovations and contributions to music. Out of all of the composers though, four names stand out due to their contributions not only to their own era but also to modern music, which are from least to most influential: Schubert, Haydn, Chopin, and Wagner.
Schubert was most known for his melodies and absurd amount of composed music. He was very influential in shaping the Lieder, which was essentially a poem put to music and a very important genre during the Romantic Era. He was also influential in developing the idea of song cycles, in which songs were meant to be played in succession and had a common theme, but could also function as standalone pieces. These
He was very unique and different, and because of that he definitely changed a lot of the rules and compositional ideas surrounding music. The use of chromatics and dissonance was frowned upon during the classical era and so it was pretty controversial when Wagner started using them on a grand scale, like in Tristan and Isolde. As horrible as those chords sound, they contribute a lot to the overall atmosphere of the piece and encouraged following composers like Debussy to add dissonance to their pieces. The controversy around him managed to divide the musical world in half with both sides hating each other, with the almost religious following he had showing just how influential he was at the time; he basically defined dramatic music, as can be seen by the extensive use of Ride of the Valkyries. Plus, his idea of Gesamtkunstwerk, in which music, drama, poetry, and visual art is combined into one, completely changed how theatre and opera were performed. For example, his Bayreuth Festspielhaus was a huge departure from normal opera houses at the time with its recessed orchestra pit that was completely hidden from the audience. But most importantly, that idea actually forms a lot of the underlying principles of movies theatres and film in which music, actors, dialogue, and special effects are combined into a single product with minimal distractions; for example, speakers are often hidden like the orchestra pit in Wagner’s operas. However, his most important contribution and the main reason he is so influential would be leitmotifs, music tracks that would be linked to ideas, characters, settings, etc. The reason these are so important is because of their virtually ubiquitous use in movies, video games and television. If you think of all of the entertainment media today, leitmotifs show up in basically everything; some examples include radio jingles, TV show themes, YouTube channel intros, character