British Classical – Sheet Music & Scores

“The music is in the air. Take as much as you want.” Edward Elgar

There has always been a song sailing across the British Isles, from the early works of Thomas Tallis and Henry Purcell, through the classical period with William Boyce and Samuel Wesley, to the romantic Edward Elgar and Hubert Parry, into the twentieth century with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten and right up to today with John Rutter and Thomas Adès . Browse our sheet music and scores, explore British musical tradition, and click here for more British composers through the ages.

British Renaissance Composers

• Thomas Tallis (1505-1585)
• William Byrd (1540-1623)
• Thomas Morley (1557-1602)
• John Dowland (1563-1626)
• John Farmer (1570-1601)
• Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)

Baroque Composers from Britain

• John Blow (1649-1708)
• Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
• John Eccles (1668-1735)
• Henry Eccles (1670-1742)
• William Croft (1678-1727)
• George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

The Classical Composers of the British Isles

• Thomas Arne (1710-1778)
• William Boyce (1711-1779)
• John Stanley (1712-1786)
• Samuel Webbe (1740-1816)
• James Hook (1746-1827)
• Samuel Wesley (1766-1837)

British Romantic Composers

• John Stainer (1840-1901)
• Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900)
• Hubert Parry (1848-1918)
• Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
• Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944)
• Basil Harwood (1859-1949)

Classical Modern British Composers

• Frederick Delius (1862-1934)
• Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
• Gustav Holst (1874-1934)
• Roger Quilter (1877-1953)
• Gerald Finzi (1901-1956)
• William Walton (1902-1983)

Modern Composers from the British Isles

• Michael Tippett (1905-1998)
• Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
• Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006)
• Peter Maxwell Davies (1934-2016)
• John Tavener (1944-2013)
• Oliver Knussen (1952-2018)

Contemporary British Composers

• Sir Harrison Birtwistle (b.1934)
• John Rutter (b.1945)
• Judith Weir (b.1954)
• Jonathan Dove (b.1959)
• James McMillan (b.1959)
• Thomas Adès (b.1971)

More British Musical Links

• British Opera
• British Art Song
• British Choral Music
• British Chamber Music
• British Orchestral Music
• British Classical Piano Works