History in Music Timeline

By SMishkin
  • Period: 500 to 1450

    Medieval Period

  • Period: 800 to 814

    Charlemagne

    Reigned from 800 to 814 The significance of his reign was the spread of Roman chant. Since he was named the Holy Roman Emperor, he could easily spread Roman chants, that once were only found in Italy. These Roman chants led to the Gregorian chants that are intensively studied today. Also, throughout Charlemagne's reign, there were around 500-600 tunes that were written/developed, which later turned to approximately 3000 tunes that were written throughout his reign.
  • 900

    Musica Enchiriadis

    Musica Enchiriadis described the rules and structures for the earliest forms of polyphony, which were called organums. Organa (plural form of Organum) were comprised of The Vox Principalis (Principal Voice) and Vox Organalis (Organal Voice) with parallel and/or oblique motions throughout the musical line.
  • 1030

    Guido of Arezzo's Micrologus

    The Micrologus discussed how to learn chants and how to read his new "notation". This brought about hexachords (scales consisting of six notes of equal spacing), and the Guidonian Hand, which was a physical pedagogical visual aid used to help singers sing intervals faster and more accurately.
  • Period: 1098 to Sep 17, 1179

    Hildegard of Bingen

    Born on 1098
    Died on September 17th, 1179
  • Period: 1150 to 1220

    Troubadour/trobairitz

  • Period: 1163 to 1225

    Notre Dame School Polyphony

  • 1280

    Franco of Cologne/Ars Cantus Mensurabilis

    He developed a system of Consonant and Dissonant Intervals, as well as developed one of the first mensural notation systems. Also, in the Ars Cantus Mensurabilis, he explained the differences and relations between the Double Long (Maxima), Long (Longa) Breve, and Semibreve. This invention brought us the music notation we have today.
  • Period: 1300 to Apr 13, 1377

    Guillaume de Machaut

    Born on 1300
    Died on April 13th, 1377
  • 1323

    Ars Nova Treatise

    The Ars Nova Treatise innovations were primarily focused on rhythm and the notation of these rhythms. Ars Nova brought about the concepts of Time and Prolation and how to notate them properly. Also, this treatise started the discussion on whether "duple", or "imperfect", division should be allowed with "triple", or "perfect", division.
  • Period: 1325 to Sep 2, 1397

    Francesco Landini

    Born on 1325
    Died on September 2, 1397
  • Period: 1450 to

    Renaissance

  • Period: 1450 to 1454

    Gutenberg Printing Press

    Invented between 1450 and 1454
  • 1515

    Josquin De Prez's Missa Pange lingua

  • Period: 1527 to 1531

    Martin Luther's Ein feste burg

    It was composed and published between 1527 and 1531
  • 1538

    Arcadelt's Il bianco e dolce cigno

  • 1562

    Palestrina's Pope Marcellus Mass

  • Period: 1580 to

    Concerto delle donne Ferrara

    Played from 1580 to 1597. They were located in Ferrara, Italty at the Court of Ferrara.

  • Giovanni Gabrieli's Sonata pian' e forte

    Written by Giovanni Gabrieli
    Written at St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, Italy
    Written in 1597 Two Fold Importance:
    1. First piece to indicate proper dynamics (hence the pian' (as in piano) and forte (as in loud)
    2. First piece to indicate which specific instruments to play each line of music.
  • Period: to

    Baroque Period

  • Monteverdi's L'Orfeo

  • Period: to

    First Public Concerts in England

    1672- John Banister set up a concert in his own house in White Friars.
  • Period: to

    Handel

  • Period: to

    Johann Sebastian Bach

  • Purcell's Dido and Aeneas

  • Antonio Vivaldi's L'Estro Armonico

  • Brandenburg Concertos

    1721- The year Bach presented the Margrave of Brandenburg with the 6 concertos.

  • Rameau's Traité de l'harmonie

  • The Well-Tempered Clavier

  • Period: to

    Pre Classical Period

  • Period: to

    Franz Joseph Haydn

  • Handel's Messiah

  • Period: to

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

  • Period: to

    Viennese Classical Period

  • Period: to

    Ludwig van Beethoven

  • Period: to

    Chevalier de Saint-Georges as director of Concerts des Amateurs

  • Haydn's op.33 String Quartets

  • Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23

  • Mozart's Don Giovanni

  • Period: to

    Haydn's London Symphonies

  • Period: to

    Franz Schubert

  • Period: to

    Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C Minor

  • Schubert’s Erlkönig

  • Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia

  • Paganini’s 24 Caprices for Unaccompanied Violin, Op.1

    Published by Casa Ricordi in 1820

  • Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony

  • Period: to

    Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D Minor

  • Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique

  • Period: to

    Chopin’s Mazurkas Op.7

  • Period: to

    Robert Schumann’s Carnaval

  • Period: to

    Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64

  • Period: to

    Clara Wieck Schumann’s "Liebst du um Schönheit"

    Completed in 1840, Published in 1841

  • Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel’s Das Jahr

  • Berlioz’s Treatise on Instrumentation

  • Verdi’s La traviata

  • Period: to

    Gottschalk's Souvenir de Porto Rico

    Written in 1857, Published in 1860

  • Wagner's Tristan und Isolde

  • Mussourgsky's Boris Godunov

  • Bizet’s Carmen

  • Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen

  • Brahms' Symphony No.4

  • Mahler's Symphony No.1

  • Period: to

    Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker

    Started writing in Feb. 1891. Completed in April 1892. Premiered on December 12th, 1892.

  • Dvorak's Symphony No.9 “New World"

  • Debussy's Prélude à l’aprés midi d’un faune

    Premiere Date

  • Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag

  • Jean Sibelius' Finlandia

    Premiere Date

  • Puccini's Madama Butterfly

  • Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire

  • Stravinsky's Le sacre du Printemps

    Premiere Date
  • Period: to

    Schönberg's Piano Suite, Op.25

  • George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue

  • Louis Armstrong's "Hotter Than That"

  • Shostakovich Symphony No.5 (premiere)

  • Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky (film)

  • Ellington's Cottontail

  • Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour le fine du temps

  • Bela Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra

    Composed on October 8th, 1943, premiered on December 1st, 1944

  • Copland's Appalachian Spring

    Composed between 1942 and 1944
    Premiered on October 30th, 1944

  • John Cage's 4’33’’

  • Period: to

    Edward Varese Poeme Electronique

  • Period: to

    Miles Davis' Kind of Blue

    Started Recording on March 2nd, 1959
    Released on August 17th, 1959

  • George Crumb's Black Angels

  • John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine