Music History Timeline

By a4_tess
  • Period: 500 to 1450

    Medieval Period

  • 1026

    Guido of Arezzo's Micrologus

    This document was the first to have a written staff in order to be easier to read and perform, as well as to teach.
  • Sep 16, 1098

    Hildegard of Bingen birth

  • Sep 17, 1179

    Hildegard of Bingen death

  • 1323

    Ars Nova Treatise

    This work laid the format of modern day music notation, using breves and semibreves.
  • Period: 1450 to

    Renaissance

  • 1485

    Josquin's Ave Maria

  • 1529

    Martin Luther's Chorale - Ein feste Burg (A Mighty Fortress)

  • 1567

    Palestrina Pope Marcellus Mass

    This is a legendary work because it uses a very complex texture of the Renaissance with the heavy use of polyphony.

  • Victoria Missa O magnum mysterium

    This piece is based on a motet of the same name that was made 20 years prior.

  • Gabrieli's Sonata pian e forte

    This is one of the first works to denote dynamics in the piece, as well as denoting the specific instrumentation of the piece. This piece was originally made in Venice in 1597.
  • Period: to

    Baroque Era

  • Monteverdi's L'Orfeo

  • First Set of Public Concerts in England

  • Period: to

    Johann Sebatian Bach

  • Antonio Vivaldi's L'Estro Armonico

    Published in Amsterdam by Etienne, this was the first song that Vivaldi published outside of Italy.

  • Rameau's Traite de l'harmonie

    This piece codified the music theory of the time and made it influential.

  • Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier Vol. 1

    This made equal temperment standard with piano, with there being all keys represented in a respective etude.
  • Period: to

    Franz Joseph Haydn

  • Handel's Messiah

  • Period: to

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

  • Period: to

    Viennese Classical Period

  • Period: to

    Le Chevalier de Saint-George as director of Concerts des Amateurs

    This groups was one of the best orchestras in the world, held in high regard by President John Adams

  • Mozart's Don Giovanni

  • Haydn's Symphony No. 94 "Suprise"

  • Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor Premiere

  • Schubert Erlkönig

  • Nicolo Paganini 24 Caprices for Violin, op.1 Publication

  • Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique

  • Period: to

    Frederic Chopin Mazurkas Op.7

  • Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel Das Jahr

  • Period: to

    Louis Moreau Gottschalk Souvenir de Porto Rico

  • Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" original piano composition finished

  • George Bizet's "Carmen" premiere

  • Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" premiere of complete cycle

  • Brahms' "Symphony No.4" premiere

  • Mahler's "Symphony No.1 in D Major" premiere

  • Dvorak's "Symphony No. 9 'From the New World'" composed

  • Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" publication date

  • Jean Sibelius' "Finlandia" premiere date

  • Claude Debussy's "Voiles” from Préludes Book 1 composed

  • Arnold Schönberg's "Pierrot Lunaire" (Moonstruck Pierrot) composed

  • Igor Stravinsky's "Le sacre du Printemps" (The Rite of Spring) premiere

  • Arnold Schönberg's "Piano Suite, Op.25" fully composed

  • Louis Armstrong's "Hotter Than That" recorded

  • George and Ira Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" publication date

  • Shostakovich "Symphony No.5" premiere

  • Prokofiev's "Alexander Nevsky" film score composed

  • Duke Ellington's "Cottontail" composed

  • Olivier Messiaen's "Quatuor pour le fine du temps" fully composed

  • Bela Bartók's "Concerto for Orchestra" composed

  • Copland's "Appalachian Spring" composed

  • John Cage's " 4’33’’ " composed and premiered

  • Edward Varese's "Poeme Electronique" composed

  • Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" album released

  • George Crumb's "Ancient Voices of Children" composed

  • John Adams' "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" composed