Music History Timeline

By TheBassman
  • 500

    Medieval Period

    The Medieval period lasted from 500-1450CE
  • 800

    Charlemagne

    Charlemagne ruled from 800-814CE. 500-600 works were established during his time. Later turned out to be 3,000
  • 900

    Musica Enchiradis

    Musica Enchiradis is a set of rules for polyphony music
  • 1026

    Guido of Arezzo's Micrologus

    Guido of Arezzo's Micrologus was a treatise about Medieval music in approximately 1026. The singing outlines his practice of Gregorian chant and talks about polyphonic music. He talks against perfect fifths and minor seconds but encouraged major seconds and perfect fourths
  • 1098

    Hildegard of Bingen

    Hildegard of Bingen lived from 1098-1179CE
  • 1100

    Troubadour/Trobairitz

    These were composers and performers from 1100-1350
  • 1163

    Notre Dame School Polyphony

    Notre Dame School Polyphony has only two confirmed composers. Leonin from 1163-1250 and Perotin from 1190-1225
  • 1280

    Franco of Cologne/Ars Cantus Mensurabilis

    Franco was a German Intellectual who travelled to Paris in 1280 to teach. He was responsible for creating note value length. He did this by introducing the breves and the semibreves, He also established consonant and dissonant intervals.
  • 1300

    Guillaume de Machaut

    Guillaume de Machaut was lived from 1300-1377. He went on to compose some of the oldest love songs such as Rose, liz
  • 1323

    Ars Nova Treatise

    In 1323, Ars Nova created a way to breakdown breves and semibreves by grouping them in categories of threes. He essentially created the first time signatures
  • 1325

    Francesco Landini

    Francesco Landini lived from 1325-1397. He was heavily influenced by treble dominant France. He would go on to compose many various love songs. He created Landini cadences
  • 1450

    Renaissance

    1450-1600
  • 1454

    Gutenburg Printing Press

    1454
  • 1515

    Josquin’s Missa Pangue Lingua

    1515
  • 1538

    Arcadelt Il bianco e dolce cigno

    1538
  • 1546

    Martin Luther's Ein feste burg

    1546
  • 1567

    Palestrina Pope Marcellus Mass

    1567
  • 1580

    Concerto delle Donne

    They were a group of female singers for the Renaissance court in Ferrara, Italy. They were founded in 1580 and were active until the court was dissolved in 1597

  • Sonata pian’e forte

    Sonata pian’e forte was composed by Giovanni Gabrieli. It was composed in Italy in 1597. It was the first piece to depict which instruments to use and what the dynamics are.

  • Baroque

    1600-1750

  • Monteverdi's L'Orfeo

    It was composed in 1607 for the Duke of Mantua

  • First Public Concerts in England

    Concerts were now available to the public people as opposed to just the rich

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    He lived from 1685-1750. His death date marks the end of the Baroque era and he is now viewed as one of the most influential composers of all time

  • Handel

    Handel lived from 1685-1759. He was a revered as England's best composer at the time

  • Purcell's dido and Aeneas

    One of the only two sung operas that found success at the time

  • Antonio Vivaldi's L'Estro Armonico

  • Brandenburg Concertos

    Bach wrote 6 concertos and submitted them to Brandenburg

  • Rameau's Traite de l'harmonie

    He essentially took many of his predecessors music theory studies and compiled them together in one work

  • The Well Tempered Clavier Volume 1

    This was a piece written by Bach for his students to be able to practice in all 24 keys

  • Pre Classical Period

    1730-1770

  • Franz Joseph Haydn

    Hayden lived from 1732-1809

  • Handels' Messiah

    It premiered in Dublin Ireland in 1742 during Lent

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Mozart was born in 1756 and died in 1791. He would publish a multitude of works in this time

  • Viennese Classical Period

    1770-1800

  • Beeethoven's Life

    While it unknown when Beethoven was born, we know he was baptized and at the time, babies were baptized when they were born. We do know however that he died on March 26, 1827

  • Chevalier de Saint-Georges as director of Concerts des Amateurs

    Saint Georges joined the orchestra in 1796, but in 1773 when the director left, he took over as head director. It was disbanded in 1781

  • Haydn's op.33 String Quartets

    They became published in 1781

  • Mozart's Piano Concerto No.23

    Mozart composed his Piano Concerto No. 23 in 1786

  • Mozart's Don Giovanni

    Mozart's Don Giovanni was composed in 1787. It was sung in Italian

  • Haydn's London Symphonies

    Haydn published his last 12 symphonies between 1791-1795. He titled them as the London Symphonies

  • Franz Schubert

    Schubert was born January 31, 1797 and died on November 19, 1828

  • Beethoven No. 5 in C minor

  • Erlkönig

    Schubert composed the Erlkönig in 1815 when he was around 17 or 18. The work is based off of Goethe's poem

  • Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia

    The Barber of Seville premiered on February 20th, 1816 at the Teatro Argentine in Rome

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

    These pieces were made for practicing techniques and were published in 1820

  • Symphony No. 8 "Unfinished"

    We know of two complete movements but we have only found fragments of the other movements thus making the work unfinished

  • Beethoven Symphony No. 9

  • Berlioz Symphonie fantastique

    The piece was composed in 1827 and was written for Harriet Smithson, an actor whom Berlioz was infatuated by.

  • Beethoven's Death

  • Frederic Chopin Mazurkas Op.7

    These are a set of 5 dances written between 1830-1832

  • Robert Schumann Carnaval

    This piece was written to show different characters, we know it was composed sometime between 1833-1835

  • Clara Wieck Schumann"Liebst du um Schönheit"

    This piece was one of her poems transformed into music by her husband for their first anniversary

  • Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel Das Jahr

    This piece was written in 1841 and she informed her brother of it being published in 1846

  • Berlioz Treatise on Instrumentation

    While exact date isn't certain we know that there was a reissue of the book in 1855

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

    We are not certain when the piece was written but we do know that it was performed first on March 13, 1845

  • Verdi 's La traviata

    This opera was first performed on March 6th, 1853

  • Louis Moreau Gottschalk's Souvenir de Porto Rico

    This composition was actually inspired by a tour of Puerto Rico that Gottschalk took

  • Wagner's Tristan und Isolde

    This work was composed between 1857 and 1859. It would go on to make its debut however on June 10th, 1865

  • Mussourgsky's Boris Godunov

    This opera debuted on January 27th, 1874. It would go on to be re orchestrated later and gained popularity

  • Bizet's Carmen

    This opera was first performed on March 3rd, 1875. While at first it was not too popular or successful, over time, it grew to become the most popular opera of all time

  • Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen

    This piece took about 26 years to fully orchestrate. It is also performed on 4 total days, on for each part. The piece debuted on August 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th, 1876.

  • Brahms' Symphony No.4

    This piece was composed in 1884, just one year after his third symphony but would not be performed until October 25th, 1885

  • Mahler's Symphony No.1

    This pieced was composed in 1887 debuted in Budapest in 1889. It was not very well received on its debut but would be redone later by Mahler and became very popular

  • Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker

    This is a two piece ballet written in 1892. This would go on to be Tchaikovsky's last great ballet following Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake

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

    This piece was written by Czech composer Antonin Dvorak in 1893 to depict life and culture in the new worlds

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

  • Maple Leaf Rag

  • Jean Sibelius' Finlandia

  • Puccini's Madama Butterfly

    This opera debuted on February 17th, 1904. It is about a woman giving up her entire belief system for a man who then shows he doesn't really want to be with her. This ultimately leads to her death

  • Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire

    This piece was successfully completed on July 7th, 1912

  • Stravinsky's Le sacre du Printemps

    This ballet debuted in Paris on May 29th, 1913

  • George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue

    Arguably Gershwin's biggest and most popular piece

  • Schönberg's Piano Suite, Op.25

    This piece was supposedly composed on July 7th, 1925

  • Louis Armstrong's "Hotter Than That"

    Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five wrote this piece in 1927

  • Shostakovich Symphony No.5 premiere

    This piece debuted on November 21, 1937 in St. Petersburg Russia

  • Prokofiev Alexander Nevsky Film

    This film was released in 1938

  • Ellington's Cottontail

    Duke Ellington composed this piece on May 4, 1940

  • Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour le fine du temps

  • Bela Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra

    There isn't an exact date known for this composition. We know it was written in 1943 but the exact date is uncertain.

  • John Cage's 4’33’’

  • Edward Varese Poeme Electronique

  • Miles Davis Kind of Blue

  • Copland Appalachian Spring

  • George Crumb's Black Angels

  • John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine