Brief overview of Music from 1600s

By nicolia100

  • Emilio de' Cavalieri – Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo, the first oratorio (produced in Rome)

  • Giulio Caccini – Il Rapimento di Cefalo, premièred

  • Claudio Monteverdi is appointed maestro di musica to Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga at Mantua.

  • Beginning of modern harmony; development of modulation

  • The overture as musical form emerges in two types, Italian and French

  • Henry Lawes and Matthew Locke add music to William Davenant's libretto The Siege of Rhodes, which is performed at the Rutland House in London. Davenant helps make the opera-masque a form of public entertainment

  • Matthew Locke composes Psyche, the first surviving English opera

  • Henry Purcell, English composer, born

  • The first signed Stradivarius violins emerge from Antonio Stradivari's workshop in Cremona, Italy

  • 1685 Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel are born. They become principal classical composers of the Baroque period. Bach, who fathers 20 children, explores musical forms associated with the church and Handel works as a dramatic composer.

  • Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas opens in London

  • Vivaldi becomes violin master at Venice's La Pieta orphanage. He writes more then 400 concertos for La Pieta in his 35-year service there.

  • Reinhard Keiser uses French horns for the first time in opera in his production of Octavia.

  • Vivaldi writes The Four Seasons.

  • The comic opera, La Serva Padrona, from Battista Pergolesi's serious opera Il Prigionier Superbo, wows Europe with its humorous story and enchanting music

  • Handel produces his last great operatic success, Alcina, which features dancer Marie Salle.

  • Handel's Messiah premieres in Dublin to an enthusiastic audience

  • Bach dies.

    The end of the Baroque period is often seen in conjunction with his death. The highly ornate style of the Baroque period gives rise to the more simple, clarified styles of the Classical period, which sees the emergence of symphonies and string quartets.

  • 1762 Christoph Willibald von Glück sets out to reform opera with his Orfeo ed Euridice. He wants to restore opera to what the original composers intended it to be—an art form marked by high drama, few recitatives and orchestral set-pieces.

  • Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro premieres in Vienna.

  • Mozart's Don Giovanni debuts in Prague.

  • Franz Peter Schubert is born in Vienna. Though many musicians make Vienna their home, Schubert is the only one to be born there.

  • Beethoven produces his third symphony, Eröica. This piece marks the beginning of the Romantic period, in which the formality of the Classical period is replaced by subjectivity

  • Beethoven completes his Symphony No. 5, which many consider to be the most popular classical work ever written

  • Robert Schumann is born in Germany.

  • Gioacchino Rossini's The Barber of Seville, based on Pierre Beaumarchais's play, debuts in Rome. His Otello opens in Naples

  • Beethoven's hearing has deteriorated so badly that he no longer can hear the piano and must communicate with conversation books.

  • Schumann's career as a pianist is over as one of his fingers becomes paralyzed.

  • The New York Philharmonic is established.

  • The slave trade introduces West African rhythms, work songs, chants and spirituals to America, which strongly influence blues and jazz.Gustav Mahler is born in Bohemia.

  • Verdi's Requiem, his most respected work, premieres in Milan.

  • Tchaikovsky completes Swan Lake. It opens in 1877 at Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre.

    Wagner's The Ring Cycle is performed in full at the Bayreuth Festival. The opera house was built to accomodate Wagner's works.Johannes Brahms completes his First Symphony. Twenty years in the making, the symphony received mixed reviews but would become one of the most popular ever written.

  • Thomas Edison invents sound recording.

  • Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.

  • The Boston Symphony Orchestra is established.

  • Metropolitan Opera House opens in New York.

  • Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty debuts in St. Petersburg.

  • Carnegie Hall opens in New York.

  • Ragtime, a combination of West Indian rhythm and European musical form, is born.

  • Claude Debussy introduces impressionism to music in Pelléas and Mélisande at the Opéra Comique in Paris.

  • London Symphony Orchestra is established.

  • Billboard magazine publishes a list of the most popular vaudeville songs. It's the predecessor to their trademark charts

  • After moving from its southern rural roots, jazz establishes Chicago as its capital. The city will become home to such jazz greats as trumpeter Louis Armstrong and pianist Jelly Roll Morton.

  • Queen of the Blues” Bessie Smith records her first song, “Down Hearted Blues,” which becomes an immediate success

  • The Juilliard School opens in New York.Maurice Ravel's Bolero opens in Paris.George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue premieres in New York.

  • Jazz composer Duke Ellington writes “It Don't Mean a Thing, If It Ain't Got That Swing,” a song that presaged the swing era of the 1930s and 1940s.

  • Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes premieres in London, which signals the rebirth of British opera.

  • 45 rpm records are sold in the U.S.

  • Leonard Bernstein completes West Side Story.

  • Billboard debuts its Hot 100 chart. Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool" boasts the first No. 1 record.Elvis Presley is inducted into the U.S. Army (March 24).

  • The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences sponsors the first Grammy Award ceremony for music recorded in 1958.Frank Sinatra wins his first Grammy Award -- Best Album for Come Dance with Me.

  • A wave of Beatlemania hits the U.K. The Beatles, a British band composed of John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, take Britain by storm.The Rolling Stones emerge as the anti-Beatles, with an aggressive, blues-derived style.

  • Folk musician Bob Dylan becomes increasingly popular during this time of social protest with songs expressing objection to the condition of American society.The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show.

  • The Beatles release their break-through concept album, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.Psychedelic bands such as The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane enjoy great success during this period songs celebrating the counterculture of the '60s.

  • The Beatles break up. By the end of the year, each member had released a solo album.

  • Jim Morrison dies in Paris at age 27 (July 3).The Allman Brothers' Duane Allman dies in a motorcycle accident at age 24. (Oct. 29).

  • Women dominate the 1971 Grammy Awards, taking all four top categories. Carole King won Record, Album and Song of the Year, while Carly Simon takes the Best New Artist award.

  • Saturday Night Fever sparks the disco inferno.Elvis Presley dies at Graceland, his Memphis, Tenn. home. He was 42.

  • John Lennon of the Beatles shot dead in New York City.

  • Michael Jackson releases Thriller, which sells more than 25 million copies, becoming the biggest-selling album in history.

  • 1983 With the introduction of noise-free compact discs, the vinyl record begins a steep decline.

  • Madonna launches her first road show, the Virgin Tour.Dozens of top-name musicians and bands perform at the Live Aid concerts in Philadelphia and London. The shows benefit African famine victims.

  • CDs outsell vinyl records for the first time.

  • Janet Jackson becomes the highest-paid musician in history when she signs an $80-million deal with Virgin Records.Jazz great Ella Fitzgerald dies.

  • Legendary crooner Frank Sinatra dies of a heart attack at age 82.

  • Computer introduces Apple iTunes Music Store, which allows people to download songs for 99 cents each.

  • Michael Jackson, the pop icon, dies suddenly in Los Angeles, California, on June 25, 2009, of cardiac arrest. His death stunned fans around the world. He had been set to embark on a comeback tour at the time of his death.

  • Troubled singer Amy Winehouse dies on July 23 after a very public battle with drug and alcohol abuse. Praised by critics for revitalizing the music scene in Britain and a trailblazer for other female artists

  • One of the biggest pop singing sensations of all-time, Whitney Houston, is found dead in her room at the Beverly Hills Hilton. Her death comes on the eve of the Grammy Awards and while a pre-Grammy party is being held downstairs at the hotel

  • Vinyl records continue to make a strong comeback. While CD sales decline 14.5% and digital sales decline 2%, vinyl sales increase 33.5% for the year.

  • September – Claude Le Jeune, French composer