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200 BCE
Epitaph of Seikilos
The oldest known piece of Western music, engraved on a tombstone in ancient Greece. -
500
Gregorian chant
Monophonic sacred music of the Catholic Church, with Latin text and no instrumental accompaniment -
991
Guido d'Arezzo
Italian music theorist who developed the modern system of musical notation and the hexachord. -
1098
Hidelgard von Bingen
German abbess, mystic, and composer known for her visionary music, which is highly expressive and innovative. -
1135
Bernart de Ventadorn
French troubadour, famous for his lyric poetry and songs about courtly love. -
1135
Leonin
Composer and theorist, known for his role in the development of early polyphony during the Ars Antiqua period. -
Period: 1150 to 1300
Ars Antiqua
A musical period characterized by the use of early polyphony, with composers like Léonin and Perotin leading the way. -
1160
Perotin
French composer, famous for developing complex polyphony and contributing to the Notre Dame school of music. -
Nov 23, 1221
Alfonso X the Wise
King of León and Castile, notable for his promotion of arts, music, and literature, including the Cantigas de Santa María. -
1300
Guillaume de Machaut
French composer and poet, a key figure of the Ars Nova period, known for his polyphonic masses and motets. -
Period: 1300 to 1400
Ars Nova
A more complex and rhythmically innovative period than Ars Antiqua, marking the transition to more complex polyphonic music. -
1335
Francesco Landini
Italian composer and organist, famous for his ballatas and influence on late medieval music. -
Feb 3, 1468
Johannes Gutenberg
Inventor of the printing press, which revolutionized the spread of music and other texts across Europe. -
Jul 12, 1468
Juan del Encina
Spanish composer and playwright, a pioneering figure in the development of early Renaissance music in Spain. -
Nov 10, 1483
Martin Luther
Theologian who sparked the Protestant Reformation, influencing the development of Protestant church music and hymns. -
1500
Cristóbal de Morales
Spanish composer, known for his polyphonic sacred music, particularly masses and motets. -
Mar 30, 1510
Antonio de Cabezón
Spanish composer and organist, known for his contributions to Renaissance keyboard music. -
1533
Andrea Gabrieli
Italian composer and organist, known for his Venetian polychoral music. -
1544
Maddalena Casulana
Italian composer, one of the first women to have her music published during the Renaissance. -
1548
Tomás Luis de Victoria
Spanish composer, considered one of the most important figures in Renaissance choral music. -
1554
Giovanni Gabrieli
Italian composer, instrumental in developing the polychoral style in Venice and popularizing the use of multiple choirs. -
Mar 30, 1566
Carlo Gesualdo
Italian composer known for his intense, chromatic madrigals that pushed the boundaries of harmony and expression. -
1567
Claudio Monteverdi
Italian composer, a key figure in the development of opera and the transition from Renaissance to Baroque music. -
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Italian composer whose sacred music became a model for the Catholic Church, particularly his Masses and motets. -
Orlando di Lasso
Franco-Flemish composer known for his polyphonic choral music, influential in both secular and sacred music. -
Giacomo Carissimi
Italian composer, known for his development of the oratorio form and his influence on Baroque sacred music. -
Barbara Strozzi
Italian composer and singer, one of the most productive composers of vocal music in the Baroque period. -
Stradivarius
Italian luthier, best known for creating some of the finest violins and string instruments in history. -
Antonio Vivaldi
Italian composer, widely known for his concertos, especially The Four Seasons, and his contributions to Baroque violin music. -
George Philipp Telemann
German composer and multi-instrumentalist, one of the most prolific composers of the Baroque period. -
Georg Friedrich Händel
German-born composer who became a leading figure in British music, famous for his oratorio Messiah. -
Johann Sebastian Bach
German composer and musician, one of the most influential figures in Western classical music, known for his intricate fugues, cantatas, and orchestral works. -
Henry Purcell
English composer, famous for his operas, such as Dido and Aeneas, and contributions to English sacred music. -
Schumann
Robert Schumann was a German composer, pianist and music critic of the 19th century, considered one of the most important and representative composers of musical Romanticism. -
Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck was a German composer from the Czech Republic. He is considered one of the most important opera composers of Classicism in the second half of the 18th century. -
J. Haydn
Joseph Haydn was an Austrian composer. He is one of the greatest representatives of the Classical period, in addition to being known as the "father of the symphony" and the "father of the string quartet" thanks to his important contributions to both genres. -
Nannerl Mozart
Anne-Marie Mozart was the older sister of the famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. She also had prodigious musical gifts: she sang, played the violin and piano, and composed. -
W.A.Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a German composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. Master of classicism, he is considered one of the most influential and outstanding musicians in history. -
Maria Theresia Von Paradis
Maria Theresia von Paradis was an Austrian pianist and composer. Although she completely lost her sight from the age of three, this did not prevent the production and work of this great pianist, singer and composer from continuing to stand out. -
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer, conductor, pianist and piano teacher. His musical legacy spans, chronologically, from Classicism to the beginnings of Romanticism. -
Rossini
Gioachino Rossinia was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber and piano music pieces, and some sacred music. -
Schubert
Franz Schubert was an Austrian composer of the principles of musical Romanticism and, at the same time, a continuator of the classical sonata following the model of Ludwig van Beethoven. -
Berlioz
Louis Hector Berlioz was a French composer and leading figure of romanticism. His best-known work is the Fantastic Symphony, premiered in 1830. -
Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn was a German composer, conductor and pianist of romantic music, a member of the same family as the pianist and composer Fanny Mendelssohn and the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. -
Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a French-Polish teacher, composer and virtuoso pianist, considered one of the most important in history and one of the greatest representatives of musical romanticism, who wrote mainly for solo piano. -
Liszt
Franz Liszt was an Austro-Hungarian romantic composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, piano teacher, arranger and lay Franciscan. -
Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, poet, essayist, playwright and musical theorist of Romanticism. His operas stand out mainly (classified as "musical dramas" by the composer himself) in which, unlike other composers, he also took on the libretto and the scenery. -
Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian romantic opera composer, one of the most important of all time. His work serves as a bridge between the bel canto of Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti, and the current of verismo and Puccini. -
Clara Schumann
Clara Wieck, known as Clara Schumann, was a German pianist, composer and piano teacher. She was one of the great European concert pianists of the 19th century and her career was key in the dissemination of the compositions of her husband, Robert Schumann. -
Smetana
Smetana was a pioneer in the development of a musical style that was closely linked to Czech nationalism. For this reason, he is recognised in his country as the father of Czech music. Internationally, he is known for his opera The Bartered Bride and for the cycle of symphonic poems Má vlast (My Homeland), which depict the history, legends and landscapes of the composer's native land. -
Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer, pianist and conductor of the Romantic period, considered the most classical of the composers of that period. Brahms's famous lullaby was first published in 1868 and is one of his most popular songs. -
Mussorgski
Modest Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the Five. His works include the opera Boris Godunov, the symphonic poem A Night on Bald Mountain, and the piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition. Mussorgsky was an innovator of Russian music in the Romantic period. -
Chaikovski
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He is the author of some of the most famous classical music works in the current repertoire, such as the ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, the fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet, the First Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto, his Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Symphonies and the operas Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades. -
Dvorak
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a post-Romantic composer from Bohemia, then part of the Austrian Empire, one of the first Czech composers to achieve worldwide recognition and one of the great composers of the second half of the 19th century. -
Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg, commonly referred to as Edvard Grieg, was a Norwegian composer and pianist, considered one of the main representatives of late Romanticism. -
Rimski Korsakov
He was one of the great composers of Russian Romanticism and belonged to the group of The Five along with other composers such as César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Aleksandr Borodin and Mili Balakirev. -
Puccini
He was an Italian opera composer, considered among the greatest, of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was a visionary, creator of the musical concepts that would govern cinema during the 20th century. -
Hugo Wolf
Hugo Filipp Jakob Wolf was an Austrian composer of Slovenian origin, who lived in Vienna during the late 19th century. An enthusiastic follower of Richard Wagner, he became involved in the disputes that existed in Vienna at that time between Wagnerians and formalists or Brahmsians. -
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was an Austro-Bohemian composer and conductor whose works are considered, along with those of Richard Strauss, the most important of the post-Romantic period. In the first decade of the 20th century, Gustav Mahler was one of the most important conductors and opera directors of his time. -
Debussy
Achille Claude Debussy was a French composer, one of the most influential of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some authors consider him the first impressionist composer, although he categorically rejected the term. -
Jean Sibelius
He is widely acknowledged as his country's greatest composer, and through his music he is often credited with helping Finland develop a national identity during its struggle for independence from Russia. -
Schönberg
Arnold Schönberg is best known for being the “inventor” of dodecaphony, a specific form of serial and atonal music (not the only one) that he developed from 1921 onwards. -
Ravel
Joseph Maurice Ravel was a French composer of the 20th century. Often associated with Impressionism, his work, along with that of his contemporary Claude Debussy, also displays a bold neoclassical style and, at times, traits of Expressionism. It is the fruit of a complex heritage and musical discoveries that revolutionised music for piano and orchestra. -
Manuel de Falla
Manuel de Falla y Matheu was a Spanish composer of musical nationalism, one of the most important of the first half of the 20th century, along with Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados, Joaquín Turina and Joaquín Rodrigo, and one of the most important Spanish composers of all time. -
Bartok
Béla Bartók was a Hungarian musician who distinguished himself as a composer, pianist and researcher of Eastern European folk music. He is considered one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. -
Stravinsky
He was a revolutionary Russian composer known for The Rite of Spring, which changed classical music with its bold rhythms and harmonies. His work spanned multiple styles, from Russian folk influences to neoclassicism and serialism. -
Joaquín Turina
He was a Spanish composer whose music blended impressionist elements with Andalusian folk traditions. Works like Danzas fantásticas reflect his love for Spanish culture and rich orchestration. -
Kódaly
He was a Hungarian composer and ethnomusicologist who, along with Bartók, preserved folk music traditions. He also developed the Kodály Method, a widely used approach to music education. -
Heitor Villa-Lobos
He was Brazil’s most famous composer, he fused European classical traditions with Brazilian folk music. His Bachianas Brasileiras series showcases his unique blend of Baroque and Brazilian styles. -
Gershwin
He was an American composer who merged jazz with classical music, creating iconic works like Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris. His music shaped 20th-century American sound. -
Messiaen
A French composer and organist known for his mystical, rhythmically complex music. His work, such as Quartet for the End of Time, was influenced by birdsong, nature, and Catholic spirituality. -
Pierre Schaeffer
He was a pioneer of musique concrète, he revolutionized electronic music by manipulating recorded sounds. His experiments laid the foundation for modern sampling and sound design. -
John Cage
He was an American composer known for pushing musical boundaries with works like 4'33"—a piece of pure silence. He experimented with chance operations and prepared piano techniques. -
Pierre Henry
French composer who expanded on musique concrète, blending electronic and natural sounds in works like Variations pour une porte et un soupir, influencing electronic and experimental music. -
Philip Glass
He is a key figure in minimalism, his repetitive, hypnotic compositions—such as Einstein on the Beach—have influenced film scores and contemporary classical music worldwide.