The Schumanns are probably the most famous pair of married composers, and most definitely the sappiest. Romantic sensibilities simply drip from nearly every note they wrote. Robert‘s sappy high-point is probably Dichterliebe (poet’s love); Clara‘s might be her Three Romances for Violin & Piano.

Clara was an all-around musical powerhouse with an extensive performing career and a long list of compositions to boot. Thanks to good-old-fashioned-19th-century sexism (not to mention the 20th and 21st centuries), her music is overshadowed by her husband’s – though I would argue that only an expert could pass the “pepsi challenge” and tell their music apart. Even more unfortunate is the fact that her music is overshadowed by inferior male composers of her time (Jacques Offenbach, for example, was born the same year as Clara …)

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor – not to be confused with Samuel Taylor-Coleridge. They’re both English. They’re both artists. But SCT was a black composer, and STC was a white poet.

Coleridge-Taylor’s musical career was skyrocketing when he died (like so many great composers) in his 30s. Thankfully, in his 37 years, he left a legacy of works that have earned him his nickname, “The African Mahler.”