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481
Clovis takes the throne
Clovis, the founding father of the Merovingian dynasty, inherited the throne of the Salian Franks at the age of 15. -
622
Muhamad and his followers escape
the prophet Muhammad completes his Hegira, or “flight,” from Mecca to Medina to escape persecution. Among the first things Muhammad did to ease the longstanding grievances among the tribes of Medina was draft a document known as the Constitution of Medina. -
Period: 991 to 1033
Guido of Arezzo
An Italian music theorist of the Medieval era. He is regarded as the inventor of modern musical notation (staff notation) that replaced neumatic notation. He came up with new techniques of teaching the learn chants in a short time. He created a Guidonian hand which was a widely used mnemonic system where note names are mapped to parts of the human hand. -
Period: 1098 to 1179
Hildegard of Bingen
German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, visionary, and polymath. She is the best-known composer of sacred monophony. Founder of scientific natural history in Germany. -
Period: 1135 to 1194
Bernard\t de Ventadour
Bernart del Ventadorn, was a prominent troubadour of the classical age of troubadour poetry.Bernart's songs are fine representatives of the monophonic melodic style of Western Europe in his day; -
Period: 1135 to 1201
Leonin
The first known significant composer of polyphonic organum.Léonin compiled and contributed to the original version of the "Magnus Liber Organi" ("Great Book of Organum", c. 1175), the most important single collection of Medieval vocal works. -
Period: 1200 to 1238
Perotinus Magnus
A European composer from around the late 12th century, associated with the Notre Dame school of polyphony in Paris and the ars antiqua musical style. The title Magister Perotinus means that he was licensed to teach.Pérotin composed organa, the earliest type of polyphonic music; previous European music, such as Gregorian and other types of chant, had been monophonic. -
Period: 1213 to 1239
Moniot d'Arras
French composer and poet of the trouvère tradition. He was a monk ("Moniot" is a diminutive for monk) of the abbey of Arras in northern France. -
Period: 1240 to 1287
Adam de la Halle
French-born trouvère, poet and musician. Adam's literary and musical works include chansons and jeux-partis (poetic debates) in the style of the trouvères; polyphonic rondel and motets in the style of early liturgical polyphony; and a musical play, "Jeu de Robin et Marion" (c. 1282–83), which is considered the earliest surviving secular French play with music. -
Period: 1291 to 1361
Philippe de Vitry
French composer, music theorist and poet; He was the author of the famous and authoritative treatise of music Ars nova (c. 1320; “New Art”), which dealt with the theoretical aspects of French music in the first half of the 14th century. It included an explanation of new theories of mensural notation, a detailed account of the various uses and meanings of the coloured notes, and the introduction of additional durational symbols in the new notational system. -
Period: 1337 to 1453
The Hundred Year War
A series of conflicts from 1337 to 1453, waged between the House of Plantagenet, rulers of England and the French House of Valois, over the right to rule the Kingdom of France. -
Period: 1385 to 1453
John Dunstable
English composer who influenced the transition between late medieval and early Renaissance music.Dunstable’s influence on European music is seen in his flowing, gently asymmetrical rhythms and, above all, in his harmonies. -
Period: 1397 to 1474
Guillaume Du Fay
Franco-Flemish composer of the early Renaissance. A central figure in the Burgundian School, he was regarded by his contemporaries as one of the leading composers in Europe in the mid-15th century -
Period: 1450 to 1517
Heinrich Isaac
Netherlandish Renaissance composer of south Netherlandish origin. He wrote masses, motets, songs (in French, German and Italian), and instrumental music. A significant contemporary of Josquin des Prez, Isaac influenced the development of music in Germany.Isaac’s main publications were a collection of masses (1506) and the posthumous Choralis Constantinus (1550–55), one of the few complete polyphonic settings of the Proper of the Mass for all Sundays -
Period: 1452 to 1518
Pierre de la Rue
Franco-Flemish composer and singer of the Renaissance. His name also appears as Piersson or variants of Pierchon and his toponymic, when present, as various forms of de Platea, de Robore, or de Vico.La Rue left more than 30 masses and about 45 motets, distinguished by their densely compressed style and skillful structure. His 32 surviving secular pieces include vocal part-songs and instrumentally accompanied solos. -
Period: 1457 to 1457
Jacob Obrecht
Flemish-Dutch, Low Countries (greater Netherlands) composer. He was the most famous composer of masses in Europe in the late 15th century, being eclipsed by only Josquin des Prez after his death -
Period: 1466 to 1539
Ottaviano Petrucci
Italian printer. His Harmonice Musices Odhecaton, a collection of chansons printed in 1501, is commonly misidentified as the first book of sheet music printed from movable type;was the first polyphonic music printed -
Period: 1483 to 1546
Martin Luther
German professor of theology, composer, priest, Augustinian monk,[3] and a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation -
Period: 1490 to 1562
Adrian Willaert
Netherlandish composer of the Renaissance and founder of the Venetian School. He was one of the most representative members of the generation of northern composers who moved to Italy and transplanted the polyphonic Franco-Flemish style there -
Period: 1505 to
Thomas Tallis
English composer who occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music. He is considered one of England's greatest composers, and he is honoured for his original voice in English musicianship.His style encompassed the simple Reformation service music and the great Continental polyphonic schools whose influence he was largely responsible for introducing into English music. -
Period: 1515 to 1565
Cipriano de Rore
Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance, active in Italy. Not only was he a central representative of the generation of Franco-Flemish composers after Josquin des Prez who went to live and work in Italy, but he was one of the most prominent composers of madrigals in the middle of the 16th century. -
Period: 1525 to
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and the best-known 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition.He had a long-lasting influence on the development of church and secular music in Europe, especially on the development of counterpoint, and his work is considered as the culmination of Renaissance polyphony. -
Period: 1532 to
Andrea Gabrieli
Italian composer and organist of the late Renaissance;known for his madrigals and his large-scale choral and instrumental music for public ceremonies. His finest work was composed for the acoustic resources of the Cathedral of St. Mark in Venice. -
Period: 1534 to
Count Giovanni de' Bardi
Italian literary critic, writer, composer and soldier.; influential in the evolution of opera;Bardi’s Discorso mandato a Caccini sopra la musica antica (1580; “Discourse to Caccini on Ancient Music”) -
Period: 1535 to
Giaches de wert
Franco-Flemish composer of the late Renaissance, active in Italy. Intimately connected with the progressive musical center of Ferrara, he was one of the leaders in developing the style of the late Renaissance madrigal. He was one of the most influential of late sixteenth-century madrigal composers, particularly on Claudio Monteverdi, and his later music was formative on the development of music of the early Baroque era. -
Period: 1553 to
Luca Marenzio
Italian composer and singer of the late Renaissance. He was one of the most renowned composers of madrigals, and wrote some of the most famous examples of the form in its late stage of development, prior to its early Baroque transformation by Monteverdi. In all, Marenzio wrote around 500 madrigals, ranging from the lightest to the most serious styles, packed with word-painting, chromaticism, and other characteristics of the late madrigal style -
Period: 1576 to
Thomas Weelkes
English organist and composer, one of the most important composers of madrigals.