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Period: 500 to 1450
Medieval Period
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1030
Guido of Arezzo's "Micrologus"
Micrologus contained Guido d'Arezzo's methodings of teaching of the time, including his developments of sight-reading music on a four-lined staff and the use of Solmization (the Guidionian Hand). -
1098
Hildegard of Bingen
b. 1098 - 1179 -
1323
Ars Nova Treatise
Showcased musical rhythmic innovations, moving from the Ars Antiqua style into the new prolation where the beats are subdivided into groups of threes and twos, giving a prototype to the modern time signatures. -
Period: 1450 to
Renaissance Period
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1485
Josquin’s "Ave Maria ... virgo serena" Motet
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1529
Martin Luther Chorale "Ein feste burg (A Mighty Fortress..)"
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1538
Arcadelt Madrigal "Il bianco e dolce cigno"
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1567
Palestrina "Pope Marcellus" Mass
This is a piece dedicated to Pope Marcellus II which, legend says, demonstrated that polyphonic music (in this case six voices) has the ability to produce intelligible sacred lyrics. -
Victoria "Missa O magnum mysterium"
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Gabrieli "Sonata pian’e forte"
A piece composed for St. Mark's Basilica in Venice which was the first to outline the dynamic structure of a composition as well as to specify the instrumentation. -
Period: to
Baroque Period
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Monteverdi's "L'Orfeo"
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First Public Concerts in England
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JS Bach
b. 1685-1750 -
Anontio Vivaldi "L'Estro Armonico"
This collection of concertos by Vivaldi was an extremely popular and prevalent grouping of string concertos. Not only being his first publication of concertos, published by a foreign company to that of the Italian composer, but it also became his most popular/best selling (despite today that title most likely falling to his Op. 8 collection). It was so influential that this collection became a large inspiration for J.S. Bach who, through transcriptions, was able to develop a similar early style. -
Rameau's "Traité de l’harmonie"
As a music theorist, Rameau's Treatise on Harmony became an extremely influential work. Not only codifying the practices of his contemporaries such as Corelli, it developed many fundamentals in the premises of functional harmony which are taught and understood within contemporary Western theory. -
Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier" vol. 1
The two volumes of "The Well-Tempered Clavier" were 24 preludes and fugues outlining equal temperament tuning in all major and minor keys for the keyboards of the time (harpsichord, clavichord, etc.). These volumes of music helped to define and solidify the equal temperament tuning system which has been integrated into Western music and utilized to this day. -
Franz Josef Haydn
b. 1732-1809 -
Handel's "Messiah"
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WA Mozart
b. 1756-1791 -
Period: to
Viennese Classical Period
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Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges as director of Concerts des Amateurs
Directing the Concerts des Amateurs from 1773 to 1781, Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges was an extremely influential French musician. As well as directing one of the era's greatest orchestras, he was an extremely proficient conductor, composer, and violinist. And, aside from his master swordsmanship, he is most notably recognized for being a prominent black figure within early music history, even being known as "le Mozart noir" and recognized by John Adams as "the most accomplished man in Europe". -
Mozart's "Don Giovanni"
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Haydn's Symphony No. 94 "Surprise"
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Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor
Premiere -
Schubert "Erlkönig"
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Nicolo Paganini 24 Caprices for Violin, op.1
First Publication -
Berlioz "Symphonie fantastique"
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Frederic Chopin Mazurkas Op.7
Composed 1830-1832 -
Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel "Das Jahr"
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Louis Moreau Gottschalk "Souvenir de Porto Rico"
Composed 1857-1858 -
Mussorgsky "Pictures at an Exhibition"
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Bizet "Carmen"
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Wagner "Der Ring des Nibelungen"
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Brahms' Symphony No.4
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Mahler Symphony No.1
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Dvorak Symphony No. 9 "From the New World"
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Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag"
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Jean Sibelius' "Finlandia"
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Claude Debussy's 'Voiles' from "Préludes" Book 1
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Arnold Schönberg's "Pierrot Lunaire"
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Igor Stravinsky's "Le sacre du Printemps"
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Arnold Schönberg's Piano Suite, Op.25
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Louis Armstrong's "Hotter Than That"
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George and Ira Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm"
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Shostakovich Symphony No.5
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Prokofiev "Alexander Nevsky"
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Duke Ellington's "Cottontail"
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Olivier Messiaen's "Quatuor pour le fine du temps"
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Copland "Appalachian Spring"
(1943-1944) -
Bela Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra
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John Cage's 4’33’’
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Edward Varese "Poeme Electronique"
(1957-1958) -
Miles Davis "Kind of Blue"
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George Crumb's "Ancient Voices of Children"
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John Adams' "Short Ride in a Fast Machine"
