Music History Timeline

By Katjm_
  • Period: 500 to 1450

    Medieval Period

  • 1026

    Guido of Arezzo's Micrologus

    The first time an additional voice is moving parallel to the main voice. Counterpoint.
  • Period: 1098 to 1179

    Hildegard of Bingen

  • 1317

    Ars Nova Treatise

    A makeup of 169 pieces of music. 34 motets. Isorhythm at a larger scale. Guillaume de Machaut was leading composer and poet.
  • Period: 1450 to

    Renaissance Period

  • 1529

    Martin Luther Chorale Ein feste burg (A Mighty Fortress)

  • 1538

    Arcadelt Madrigal - Il bianco e dolce cigno

  • 1567

    Palestrina - Pope Marcellus Mass

    This work exemplifies Palestrina’s Style, which became a model for subsequent generations and is still the ideal in present-day textbooks on counterpoint. (dissonances, stepwise melodic motion, leaps followed by stepwise motion, etc.)

  • Victoria - Missa O magnum mysterium

  • Gabrieli - Sonata pian’e forte

    Written in St. Mark's. It is among the first instrumental ensemble pieces to designate specific instruments in its printed parts.
  • Period: to

    Baroque

  • Monteverdi's L’Orfeo

  • First Public Concerts in England

  • Period: to

    JS Bach

  • Antonio Vivaldi's L’Estro Armonico

    Greatly influenced the evolution of concerto form.

  • Rameau's Traité de l’harmonie

    The Treatise describes how to write music based on the tonal system used in classical music today

  • Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier volume 1

    preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys
  • Period: to

    Franz Joseph Haydn

  • Handel's Messiah

  • Period: to

    Viennese Classical Period

  • Period: to

    WA Mozart

  • Period: to

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

    Widely regarded as the best in France. A company that organized concerts in France.

  • Mozart's Don Giovanni

  • Haydn's Symphony No. 94 "Surprise"

    Named "surprise" because of the single loud chord occurring at the end of the quiet second sentence of the Andante movement

  • Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor

    First symphony to have trombones in orchestration. Other newer instruments such as piccolo and contrabassoon.

  • Schubert Erlkönig

    This was Schubert's first song he attempted to publish.

  • Nicolo Paganini 24 Caprices for Violin, op.1

    The 24 Caprices were composed in 1805, but not published until 1820. The Caprices were dedicated to all professional musicians. Deemed "unplayable".
  • Period: to

    Frederic Chopin Mazurkas Op.7

  • Berlioz Symphonie fantastique

    "Episodes in an artist's life." Ideé fixe. Large orchestration for 1830; 30 violins, 10 viola, 11 celli, 9 basses.

  • Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel Das Jahr

  • Louis Moreau Gottschalk Souvenir de Porto Rico

  • Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition

  • Bizet Carmen

  • Wagner Der Ring des Nibelungen

  • Brahms' Symphony No.4

  • Mahler Symphony No.1

  • Dvorak Symphony No. 9 "From the New World"

  • Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag (published)

  • Jean Sibelius' Finlandia (premiere)

  • Claude Debussy's Voiles” from Préludes Book 1

  • Arnold Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire

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

  • Arnold Schönberg's Piano Suite, Op.25

  • Louis Armstrong's "Hotter Than That"

  • George and Ira Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" (published)

  • Shostakovich Symphony No.5 premiere

  • Prokofiev Alexander Nevsky (film)

  • Duke Ellington's Cottontail

  • Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour le fine du temps

  • Bela Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra

  • Copland Appalachian Spring

  • John Cage's 4’33’’

  • Edward Varese Poeme Electronique

  • Miles Davis Kind of Blue

  • George Crumb's Black Angels

  • John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine