Baroque (1600-1730)

By Laynie Lenz

  • Opera is invented around this time.

  • The first extant opera, "Euridice", is premiered

  • Basso continuo is invented.

  • Sumo wrestling becomes a sport in Japan.

  • The first oratorio, "Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo" by Emilio de' Cavalieri, premieres.

  • Possible first performance of Shakespeare's "Hamlet"

  • Period: to

    The Russian Famine of 1601-1603

  • Giulio Caccini premieres his version of the opera "Euridice"

    Caccini had contributed to Jacopo Peri's opera of the same name.

  • First-known production of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night"

  • Victoria's "Officium Defunctorum" is written

  • Orlando Gibbons becomes a member of the Chapel Royal.

  • The oldest scientific academy in the world is founded.

  • John Dowland's "Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares" is published.

  • The first recorded performance of Shakespeare's "Othello"

  • Asola publishes his Madrigals for six voices.

  • The masque "Hymenaei Merkle" premieres.

  • Monteverdi's opera "L'Orfeo" premieres in Mantua

  • Period: to

    Jamestown Supply Missions

  • Lord Hay's Masque is performed at Whitehall Palace

  • The Treaty of The Hague is signed.

  • Claudio Monteverdi's latest work, "Il ballo delle ingrate", premieres.

  • Thomas Ravenscroft's "Pammelia" is published

  • A version of the rhyme "Three Blind Mice" is published in London.

  • Claudio Monteverdi's "Vespro della Beata Vergine" premieres.

  • The masque "Love Freed from Ignorance and Folly" premieres.

  • Sunspots are observed by telescope.

  • John Rolfe exports the first crop of improved tobacco.

  • German composer Hans Leo Hassler dies.

  • The territory of Kuwait is founded.

  • Claudio Monteverdi becomes maestro di cappella (chapel master) at St. Mark's Basilia in Venice

  • Giulio Caccini's "Nuove musiche e nuova maniera di scriverle, con due arie particolari per tenore, che ricerchi le corde del basso" is published.

  • Pocahontas marries John Rolfe.

  • Severo Bonini's "Affetti Spirituali" for two voices is published.

  • John Ogilvie, a Jesuit priest, is hanged and drawn at Glasgow Cross in Scotland for refusing to pledge allegiance to King James VI of Scotland; he will be canonised in 1976, becoming the only post-Reformation Scottish saint.

  • A collegium musicum is founded in Prague.

  • The Scornful Lady, a comedy stage play written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, is published.

  • Enrico A. Radesca publishes his fifth book of canzonettas.

  • Giambattista Andreini's play The Penitent Magdalene is published in Mantua.

  • Francesca Caccini publishes her first book of music for one and two voices.

  • Period: to

    The Thirty Years' War

  • Heinrich Schütz's "Psalmen Davids" is premiered

  • Thirty-eight colonists from England disembark in Berkeley Hundred, Virginia from the Margaret of Bristol and give thanks to God (considered by some to be the first Thanksgiving in the Americas).

  • Melchior Franck's "Neues Hochzeitgesang (Gott wird die Braut erhaschen) auss dem alten Christlichen Gesang" for five voices

  • The pilgrims land in America.

  • The first Thanksgiving is celebrated.

  • The masque "The Gypsies Metamorphosed" premieres

  • In the Gregorian calendar, January 1 is declared as the first day of the year, instead of March 25.

  • The probable premiere date of "The Masque of Augurs".

  • Drum cymbals are first made commercially.

  • The first American temperance law is enacted, in Virginia.

  • The first Dutch settlers arrive in New Netherland; they disembark at Governors Island.

  • Antonio Bertali is employed as court musician in Vienna by Emperor Ferdinand II.

  • New Amsterdam (Manhattan) is founded.

  • Jacques Gaultier becomes a musician at the court of King Charles I of England.

  • The 1626 Influenza pandemic starts

  • Paolo Agostino's second book of masses for four voices is published.

  • Rock blasting is invented: Black gunpowder is first used in mining, in a mineshaft under Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia.

  • Heinrich Schütz's opera "Dafne" premieres.

  • The Collegiate School, the oldest surviving educational institution in North America, is established.

  • Girolamo Frescobaldi is given permission by St Peter's Basilica to leave Rome.

  • Schütz's "Symphoniae sacrae" is published.

  • The wooden opera house of Teatro San Cassiano in Venice burns down.

  • Period: to

    The Italian Plague of 1629-1631

  • The Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a royal charter, and the county is the first to be created in the United States.

  • Giacomo Carissimi becomes the chapelmaster at the Church of San Apollinare in the German-Hungarian College in Rome.

  • A Native American introduces popcorn to English settlers.

  • Thomas Morley publishes an edition of his canzonets

  • The death in childbirth of Mumtaz Mahal at Burhanpur causes her husband Shah Jahan to commission the Taj Mahal at Agra, as a mausoleum for her.

  • Antigua and Barbuda is first colonized by England.

  • Walter Porter's "Madrigals and Ayres" is published

  • Galileo Galilei is convicted of heresy.

  • Jacopo Peri dies.

  • Curaçao is captured by the Dutch.

  • James Shirley's spectacular masque "The Triumph of Peace" is performed in London.

  • Giorlamo Frescobaldi's "Fiori Musicali" for organ is published.

  • France declares war on Spain.

  • Rhode Island is founded.

  • Heinrich Schütz's "Kleine geistliche Konzerte" (Small Sacred Concertos), part 1 is published.

  • The first public opera house opens in Venice.

  • Elizabeth Poole becomes the first female founder of a town (Taunton, Massachusetts) in the Americas.

  • The opera "Chi Soffre, Speri" premieres.

  • Michelangelo Rossi's opera "Andromeda" premieres

  • Duarte Lobo's second book of masses is published.

  • Anne Hutchinson is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for heresy.

  • Arias become popular.

  • Salmacida Spolia, the final royal masque of the Caroline era, is performed at Whitehall Palace.

  • End of the Iberian Union.

  • Claudio Monteverdi's "Selva Morale e Spirituale" is published.

  • The Irish Rebellion of 1641 breaks out.

  • Monteverdi's final opera, "The Coronation of Poppea", premieres.

  • Galileo Galilei dies.

  • Francesco Cavalli's opera "Egisto" premieres

  • The barometer is invented.

  • The carillon is invented.

  • Barbara Strozzi publishes her first set of songs.

  • Barbara Strozzi's "Il Primo Libro di Madrigali" is published.

  • The first livestock branding law in America is passed in Connecticut.

  • Francesco Cavalli's opera "Doriclea" premieres.

  • Wallpaper begins to replace tapestries, as a wall decoration.

  • Part IV of the Musicalische Andachten is published.

  • American colonial poet Anne Bradstreet becomes a founding mother of Andover Parish (modern-day North Andover), Massachusetts.

  • Period: to

    The Commonwealth

    During this time, stage plays are forbidden in England because the Puritans believe that theater was "an invention of the devil".

  • Secular cantatas become popular.

  • Strozzi's cantata "L'astratto" premieres.

  • the cello is developed from the bass violin

  • Period: to

    Reign of King Charles II

    Plays are allowed again!

  • the French horn makes its debut.

  • Biber completes his "Sonata No. 1"

  • Henry Purcell's opera "Dido and Aeneas" premieres

  • Period: to

    The handbell is developed.

  • The clarinet is invented.

  • The steam engine is invented.

  • The first glockenspiel piece composed for an orchestra is written.

  • The fortepiano is invented.

  • Handel's "Water Music" is premiered.

  • The oratorio "Esther" premieres

  • Handel is appointed as one of the music directors at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

  • The grand piano is invented.

  • Volume one of Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier" is published.

  • Bach's "Magnificat" is premiered

  • J. S. Bach's "Magnificat" is completed.

  • J.S. Bach moves to Leipzig.

  • Bach's "St. John Passion" premieres.

  • Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" is published.

  • Handel becomes a naturalized British subject

  • Mouret's "Suite de Symphonies" is premiered

  • J.S. Bach becomes director of the collegium musicum.

  • The English oratorio is invented.

  • English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks makes the first successful prediction and observation of a transit of Venus.