Music History Timeline

By Aircon37
  • Period: 500 BCE to 1450 BCE

    Medieval Period

  • Beethoven's Fifth Symphony

    Beethoven started writing his Fifth Symphony in 1804, and it premiered on December 22, 1808.

  • Paganini's 24 Caprices for Violin, op.1

    Paganini wrote 24 Caprices for Violin, op. 1 between 1803-1817, however they were not published until 1820

  • Schubert's Erlkonig

    Schubert wrote the first rendition of the piece in 1815, created 3 other versions and published the 4th version in 1821. It was premiered on March 7th, 1821

  • Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique

    Berlioz was inspired to write Symphonie Fantastique after seeing Harriet Smithson perform in Shakespeare's Hamlet. He proceeded to write the Symphony between 1827 and 1830 in order to expression his affection for her, which premiered on December 5th, 1830.

  • Chopin Mazurka in B-Flat, Op.7 No.1

    The Mazurkas, Op. 7 are a set of five mazurkas by Frédéric Chopin. The mazurkas were written in 1830 – 1832.

  • Robert Schumann's Carnaval

    Although not published until decades later, Robert Schumann worked on Carnaval between 1833-1834

  • Fanny Hensel Das Jahr

    Against her Brother's wishes, Hensel published Das Jahr in 1841.

  • Clara Wieck Schumann Liebst du um Schonheit

    Clara Schumann first performed this piece on June 8th, 1841 as a birthday present to Robert Schumann.

  • Wagner's Tristan und Isolde

    Written between 1857 and 18509, Tristan und Isolde was not premiered until June 10th 1865 in Munich.

  • Founding of the National Society for French Music

    The first concert by the Society took place on November 17th, 1971.

  • Bizet's Carmen

    The opera Carmen was first performed by the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875, which was initially seen as scandalous and shocking to the audiences at the time.

  • Brahms' Symphony No.4

    Brahms' fourth and final symphony was premiered on October 25th, 1885.

  • Mahler's Symphony No. 1

    Worked on between Late 1887 and completed by March 1888, Mahler's first symphony premiered in 1889. however it was not well received and was rewritten and revised many times after this date.

  • Debussy's "Voiles" from Preludes

    Written in 1909, Voiles was published in 1910.

  • Stravinsky's Le sacre du Printemps

    Stravinsky worked on Le sacre du Printemps, or the Rite of Spring, between 1909 and 1910, though it was not premiered until May 29th, 1913 in Paris.

  • Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire

    Pierrot Lunaire was written in 1812 and premiered on October 16th, 1921.

  • Schoenberg's Piano Suite, Op.25

    Composed between 1921-1923 and was premiered in Vienna on February 25th 1924

  • Shostakovich's Symphony No.5

    Composed between April and July in 1937, Schostakovich's fifth symphony premiered on November 1st, 1937

  • Copland's Appalachian Spring

    Premiered on Monday October 10th, 1944 at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., Appalachian Spring was written between 1943 and 1944 after being commissioned in 1942 to create an "American Theme".

  • John Cage's 4’33’’

    Cage himself declared the piece his most important work which was produced in 1952 and premiered on August 29th, 1952.

  • George Crumb's Black Angels

    On the original score the date of Friday the Thirteenth, March 1970.

  • John Adams' Dr. Atomic

    Premiered by the San Francisco Opera on October 1st, 2005, the piece was written to describe the "great stress and anxiety experienced by those at Los Alamos while the test of the first atomic bomb (the "Trinity" test) was being prepared."