1. Johann Sebastian Bach
The godfather of Western music and the Galileo of music. Music is governed by fundamental rules of harmony and rhythm, just as the universe is governed by physics and astronomy.
2. Claude Debussy
Redefined the way we hear music. His orchestrations doubled the range textures available to the orchestra and he also laid the foundations for jazz in the
20th century by turning Bach's harmonic rules on their head.
3. Igor Stravinsky
He opened up the dark side of music with sounds that emanate from our subconscious. The musical equivalent of Freud and Jung.
4. Bernard Hermann
From his first film score for Citizen Kane to his last Taxi Driver, with all those astonshing Hitchcock movies in between, Hermann was clearly the finest composer of his genre.
5. Stevie Wonder
The one musician who did the most to cross barriers of race and colour. His string of hits and unbelievable musical and vocal gifts have been a treasure for three decades.
6. Paul McCartney
His songs equal pop music at its very finest.
7. John Lennon
His courage, imagination, and ability to speak to the common consciousness are unequalled.
8. Bob Marley
A very fine songwriter and the first musician to blend successfully ethnic music with Western pop. Following Marley, the world became a melting pot for international flavours of music and rhythms.
9. Prince
Effortless and infuriating, he flits from blinding instrumental virtuosity to irresistible dance grooves to anthemic Pop singalongs.
10. Brian Eno
The inventor of Ambient, Brian Eno turned the studio into a musical instrument, and inspired Bowie, Talking Heads, Devo and U2 to make their finest works.
