Music History Timeline

By hwood20
  • Period: 500 to 1450

    Medieval Period

  • Period: 1025 to 1028

    Guido of Arezzo's formulation of the Solmization System

  • Period: 1098 to 1179

    Hildegard of Bingen

  • 1320

    Ars Nova Treatise

    Attributed to composer Philippe de Vitry, the Ars Nova (New Art or New Method) Treatise, which began in the early 1320s--details and denotes the musical style that occurred during the first half of the 14th century. Stylistic innovations shaped the era including technical experimentation regarding:
    1) rhythm--incorporation of "imperfect" duple meter alongside "perfect" triple division;
    2) notation--creation of a new system of measured music;
    3) and both melodic and harmonic progression.
  • 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

    Known for his devotion and loyalty to the Catholic Church and as "the Prince of Music" for his model of polyphony and counterpoint, Palestrina composed the Missa Papae Marcelli, which was published in Palestrina's Second Book of Masses in 1567. According to legend, Palestrina composed the six-voice mass "that was both reverent in spirit and attentive to the words" in order to save polyphony from being condemned by the Council of Trent

  • Victoria - Missa O magnum mysterium

    1572: Victoria Motet - O magnum mysterium

  • Giovanni Gabrieli - Sacrae Symphoniae

    In Venice, Italy in 1597, Gabrieli--known for his "splendid polychoral motets" and "innovative instrumental works"--composed and published the Sacrae Symphoniae, which consists of a mixed collection of both vocal and instrumental works (specifically motets, canzonas, and sonatas).
  • Period: to

    Baroque Period

  • Monteverdi - L'Orfeo

  • First Public Concert in England

  • Period: to

    J.S. Bach

  • Antonio Vivaldi - L'Estro Armonico

    Vivaldi's concertos satisfied the demand for new music, provided opportunities for players of varying abilities, and readily became favorites of the public. This particular concerto was part of a collection of publications that Vivaldi wrote on commission. Given a fanciful title to help attract buyers, the concerto reflected the immense popularity of Vivaldi's works and gave new meaning to the acceptance of composition as a paid and established profession (particularly beyond the church).

  • J.S. Bach - The Well-Tempered Clavier: Volume 1

    Designed to explore the possibilities of playing in near-equal temperament--a new development for keyboards at the time, each volume consists of 24 preludes and fugues paired in each of the 12 keys. Additionally, the pieces were written and intended for teaching students. Preludes focused on specific technical tasks and addressed both performance and composition practices while fugues "constituted a compendium of contrapuntal writing" and showcased both older and more modern techniques.

  • Rameau - Traite de l'harmonie

    Widely known as "one of the most influential theoretical works ever written," Rameau's approach of empirically studying and rationally explaining music became the principal basis for how we have understood and taught music theory for 300 years. Rameau observed harmonic practices and progressions--as well as the formation and rearrangement of chords and fundamental tones--and asserted that harmonic movement was based on the progression of chord roots regardless of the lowest-sounding note.
  • Period: to

    Franz Joseph Haydn

  • Handel - Messiah

  • Period: to

    Viennese Classical Period

  • Period: to

    W.A. Mozart

  • Period: to

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

    Joseph Bologne--nicknamed "Le Mozart noir"--was the son of a French colonial official and an African slave in the French West Indies, and he readily became known as one of France's best composers, conductors, and virtuoso violinists. As a black man not only living and operating in 18th-century France but thriving at the top of his field, his accomplishments and title as director would be significant for anyone but are in particular given his race and the time in which he lived.

  • Mozart - Don Giovanni

  • Haydn - Symphony No. 94 "Surprise"

  • Beethoven - Symphony No. 5 in C Minor

    Premiere date

  • Schubert - Erlkonig

  • Nicolo Paganini - 24 Caprices for Violin, Op. 1

  • 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 - Pictures at an Exhibition

  • Bizet - Carmen

    Premiere

  • Wagner - Der Ring des Nibelungen

    Premiere of complete cycle

  • Brahms - Symphony No. 4

    Premiere

  • Mahler - Symphony No. 1

    Premiere

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

    Premiere

  • Scott Joplin - Maple Leaf Rag

    Published

  • Jean Sibelius - Finlandia

    Premiere

  • Claude Debussy - "Voiles" from Preludes Book 1

  • Arnold Schoenberg - Pierrot Lunaire

  • Igor Stravinsky - Le sacre du Printemps

    Premiere of The Rite of Spring
  • Period: to

    Arnold Schoenberg - Piano Suite, Op. 25

  • Louis Armstrong - "Hotter Than That"

  • George and Ira Gershwin - "I Got Rhythm"

    Published

  • Shostakovich - Symphony No. 5

    Premiere

  • Prokofiev - Alexander Nevsky (film)

  • Duke Ellington - Cotton Tail

  • Period: to

    Olivier Messiaen - Quatuor pour le fine du temps

  • Bela Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra

  • Copland - Appalachian Spring

  • John Cage - 4' 33"

  • Period: to

    Edward Varese - Poeme Electronique

  • Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

  • George Crumb - Ancient Voices of Children

  • John Adams - Short Ride in a Fast Machine