Music History

By JacksonArnold
  • Period: 500 to 1450

    Medieval Period

    The Medieval Period lasted from 500-1450.
  • Period: 768 to 814

    Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne (768-814)

    Ruled from 800-814.
    There were around 500-600 tunes that were established during his reign, which later expanded to 3000 tunes. Charlemagne was interested in how church music affected people's religious aspects.
  • 900

    Musica Enchiriadis (c. 900)

    Musica Enchiriadis describes the two kinds of organum (singing together): parallel and oblique motion. Organum uses vox principalis (principal voice) and vox organalis (organal voice). The vox principalis is duplicated a fourth or fifth below by the vox organalis.
  • 1030

    Guido of Arezzo's Micrologus

    (Little Treatise)
    Guido of Arezzo's Micrologus introduces the hexachord system, the four line staff, relative pitch, and sight singing.
  • Period: 1098 to 1179

    Hildegard of Bingen

  • Period: 1100 to 1200

    Troubadour/Trobairitz

    Active between the 12th and 13th century.
  • Period: 1163 to 1225

    Notre Dame School Polyphony

    The Notre Dame Cathedral was constructed from 1163-1250, but the Notre Dame "School" was active from 1163-1225.
    Leonin: 1163-1190
    Perotin: 1190-1225
  • 1280

    Franco of Cologne's Ars Cantus Mensurabilis

    Franco of Cologne's Ars Cantus Mensurabilis (translating to Measurement Technique of Singing) introduces a new form of . notation, called the Franconian Mensural Notation (which includes the semi-breve, the breve, the long, and the double long as notation devices), and consonant and dissonant intervals.
  • Period: 1300 to 1377

    Guillaume de Machaut

    Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377) continued the troubadour/trouvere tradition of composing secular music (mostly love songs).
  • 1323

    Ars Nova Treatise

    The Ars Nova Treatise introduced a new subdivision method know as time (breve to semi-breve) and prolation (semi-breve to minim) and and new meters (a circle with a dot (9/8: perfect time, major prolation), a semi-circle with a dot (6/8: imperfect time, major prolation), a circle with no dot (3/4: perfect time, minor prolation), and a semi-circle with no dot (2/4: imperfect time, minor prolation)).
  • Period: 1325 to 1397

    Francesco Landini

    Francesco Landini (1325-1397) created 140 ballate (dancing songs), Landini cadences, and muscia ficta (chromaticism: used to avoid tritones, to achieve Landini Cadences, and to emphasize beauty).
  • Period: 1450 to 1454

    Gutenberg Printing Press

    Made recreating music easier than from using movable type.
  • Period: 1450 to

    The Renaissance Period

    The period of time dedicated to the revival of art, music, and literature.
  • 1515

    Josquin’s Missa Pangue Lingua

  • 1529

    Martin Luther’s Ein feste burg

  • 1538

    Arcadelt's Il bianco e dolce cigno

  • 1562

    Palestrina's Pope Marcellus Mass

  • Period: 1580 to

    Concerto delle Donna

    Performed in the Court of Ferrara.

  • Sonata pian’e forte

    -Written by Andrea Gabrieli.
    -Performed at St. Mark's Cathedral.
    -Introduced dynamics and specific instrumentation on notated music.
  • Period: to

    The Baroque Period

  • Montiverdi's L'Orfeo

  • First Public Concerts in England

    England pioneered public concerts in the 1670s.
  • Period: to

    George Fredieric Handel

  • Period: to

    Johann Sebastian Bach

    Important positions:
    - Weimar (1708-1717) as an organist (organ music).
    -Cöthen (1717-1723) as a concert master (string music).
    -Leipzig (1723-1750)as a director of church music (choir music) Wrote 170 choral preludes.
    Well Tempered Clavier.
    Goldberg Variations (30).
    Brandenburg Concertos (6).
    200 sacred/20 secular cantatas.
    St. John & St. Mark Passion.

  • Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas"

    French Influence:
    - French overture Italian Influence:
    -Italian arias

  • Antonio Vivaldi's L’Estro Armonico

    Published in 1711. A part of Vivaldi's 9 collections of concertos (3 of 9).

  • Brandenburg Concertos

    Submitted to Brandenburg in 1721 to the Margrave (Duke) of Brandenburg. Combines the elements of solo concerto and concerto grosso.

  • Rameau's Traité de l’harmonie

    Published in 1722. Codified practices on his contemporaries, especially Corelli. Most influential of all theoretical works because it became basis for teaching functional harmony.

  • The Well-Tempered Clavier volume 1

    Volume 1 published in 1722. 24 preludes and fugues.
    Equal temperament (can play all 24 major/minor scales).
  • Period: to

    Franz Joseph Haydn

  • Handel's Messiah

    Completed in 1741, premiered in Dublin in 1742 during Lent. 3 Parts:
    -1.) Prophecies of the Messiah and Jesus' life.
    -2.) The Passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus (Hallelujah Chorus at end of part 2).
    -3.) The second coming, last judgement, and conquest of sin.
  • 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

    Published in 1782.

  • Mozart's Piano Concerto No.23

  • Mozart's Don Giovanni

  • Period: to

    Haydn's London Symphonies

    12 Symphonies
  • Period: to

    Franz Schubert

  • Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor

    Began writing in 1803, premiered in 1808.
  • Period: to

    Frederic Chopin

  • Schubert's Erlkönig

  • Rossini's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia"

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

  • Schubert's Symphony No. 8 "Unfinished"

  • Beethoven's Symphony No. 9

    Began writing in 1812, premiered in 1824.

  • Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique

  • Chopin's Mazurkas Op. 7

  • Robert Schumann's Carnaval

  • Clara Wieck Schumann's Liebst du um Schönheit

  • Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel's Das Jahr

  • Berlioz's Treatise on Instrumentation

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

  • Verdi's "La traviata"

  • Louis Moreau Gottschalk's Souvenir de Porto Rico

  • 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

  • Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker"

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

  • Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag"

  • Jean Sibelius' "Finlandia" (premiere)

  • Puccini's "Madama Butterfly"

  • Debussy's "Prélude à l’aprés midi d’un faune" (premiere)

  • Schönberg's "Pierrot Lunaire"

  • Stravinsky's "Le sacre du Printemps" (premiere)

    (The Rite of Spring)

  • Schönberg's Piano Suite, Op.25

    Composed from 1921 to 1923.

  • George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue"

  • Louis Armstrong's "Hotter Than That"

  • Shostakovich Symphony No.5 premiere

  • Prokofiev Alexander Nevsky (film)

    Film score reworked into a cantata for orchestra and chorus in seven movements in 1939.

  • Ellington's "Cottontail"

  • Ellington's "Cottontail"

  • Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour le fine du temps

  • Copland's Appalachian Spring

  • Bela Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra

    Composed in 1943, premiered in 1944.

  • John Cage's 4'33"

  • Edgard Varese's Poeme Electronique

  • Miles Davis' Kind of Blue

  • George Crumb's Black Angels

  • John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine