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Yeah, I guess my point was that this list has a particular bent. You could add Gershwin for example. But he would not fit in well with the style of the other composers. It should say “Top Ten CLASSICAL Composers.”

for sure.....

Music critics enjoy getting their snob on when it comes to Gershwin, who actually did write classical music. For example, his Concerto in F is an actual concerto in its construction. My personal opinion is that Gershwin was either too New Yorkish American, or Black American (Porgy and Bess), or Parisian (with the Parisian taxi cab horns in An American in Paris) in his vernacular to please the critics, who, for the most part, have always considered him "lowbrow."

I used to have a CD with the FULL version of Rhapsody in Blue which no one has heard performed since its Aeolian Hall debut in 1924. It is an incredible piece. One of the reasons (or rather one of the excuses) critics offer to explain their reluctance to give Gershwin his due, is because the Rhapsody was orchestrated by someone else. But here I mention that there is a section of this piece that clearly has its roots in Kleismer, which among other things, hints at an assessment made not entirely without prejudice of some kind.

Gershwin was very serious is his desire to write classical music, and he did the orchestrations for his following works, starting with the Concerto in F. Unfortunately, he passed away in 1937, and therefore did not have time to compose a larger body of work. IMO, if he had, the critics would still have Gershwin pegged as a composer of popular music and not much more. On the other hand, I see him as the 20th century heir to Mozart in his technical ability, lovely melodies, and beautifully complex harmonies and counterpoints.