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In the wake of the terrible attacks in Paris, I found myself listening to a lot of French music and thinking about the Leonard Bernstein quote going around on Facebook: "This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before." This list came to seem like my natural response. A very small response, I know. This list is chronological and leaves off people I should probably include. The forty [note: now forty-one] composers listed below are merely a start.

Léonin Aka Leoninus (c.1135-c.1201)

The Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris in the 1100s was a major musical center, and Léonin (the first named composer from whom we have notated polyphonic music) was a crucial figure for defining the liturgical use of organum, the first polyphony. Earlier organum was fairly simple, involving parallel intervals and later contrary motion, but the mid-12th century brought...

With the exception of Ruby Rhod, Luc Besson's epic sci-fi concoction The Fifth Element had plenty to like: Bruce Willis kicking ass, Milla Jovovich looking gorgeous and kicking ass, funky costumes, outlandish aliens, Gary Oldman gnawing scenery, a huge orb of space evil, Tiny Lister as the President, and a show-stopping vocal performance by a giant blue tentacle-headed lady. At the time, singer Inva Mula reportedly claimed that composer Eric Serra's music for Diva Plavalaguna's "Diva...

"Avatar" director James Cameron has had enough. He wants nothing more to do with blue people. He was even reportedly heard saying the following: "I'm seeing blue people everywhere including my f--king dreams. I feel like Picasso exiting his blue period and exploring other colours. Jeez, if I see another f--king blue person I'm going to punch the key grip's lights out."

Cameron may be tired of blue people, a reference to the alien Na'vi that factor heavily into the plot of "Avatar," but we are most definitely not. Most of the MTV Newsroom has seen the movie now, and multiple times. But it's still in theaters, and many of us need our blue person fix more frequently than can reasonably be achieved, what with the pressures of work, staying fed and getting enough sleep. So we've turned to other sources for blue people, from TV and film alike, to...