-
386
Ambrose brings Byzantine chant to the West.
-
Period: 386 to 1100
Early Middle Ages
4th-12th Centuries -
750
Gregorian Chant
- Official codification of western plainchant
- A synthesis of Roman and Gallican chants
-
754
Pepin the Short's decree
Pepin the Short decrees the use of Gregorian chant throughout his empire -
757
Byzantine Organum Arrives in the West
Pepin receives an organum (previously known as a hydraulis) as a gift from the Byzantine empire -
800
Charlemagne's Decree
Pepin's son Charlemagne demands his empire use Gregorian chant in their mass rite--on pain of death. -
850
Organum is Moved to Rome
- The French court's organum/hydraulis is moved to Rome (a power move by the Church)
- earliest evidence of neumes
-
880
Hexachord System
symmetrical hexachords are used to organize music, based on the tuning of a 6-string lyre -
900
Parallel Organum Appears
-
1000
Monasteries Spread Use of Organ
The clergy at monasteries adopt the organ as a scientific tool, encouraging its spread throughout Europe -
1000
Heightened Neumes Introduced
Circa the end of the 900s. -
1025
Guido d'Arezzo
- Codifies the hexachord system and expands it using mutations, creating the gamut
- Establishes the 8 "church modes"
- Teaches Gregorian chant using syllabic singing and the Guidonian hand technique
- Advocates for the use of the musical staff
-
1100
Florid Organum appears (Sacred)
- The 6 Rhythmic Modes are used to communicate new rhythmic ideas
- NO instruments are used in sacred music
- Thirds and triads start to accidentally appear and be heard regularly
- First appearance of the 5-line music staff
- Regular use of clefs
- Gregorian chant has fully overtaken all other plainchant customs.
-
1100
Evidence of Written Secular Music
- Use of instruments
- NO written parts for instruments--all improvised
- Monophonic texture overall
-
Period: 1100 to 1300
Ars Antiqua
- Scribal Culture: pecia system/handwritten manuscripts
- Available instruments: organ, bowed/plucked strings, woodwinds, percussion
-
1200
Sometime in the 1200s...
- Hurdy-gurdy appears (only second machine in Europe to use a crank)
- Square notation introduced
-
Period: 1250 to 1400
Isorhythm
The beginning of time signatures -
1265
The Motet Appears
Uses Franconian notation:
- new rhythmic communication to address new rhythmic ideas
- the musical "rest" is introduced and notated
- abandonment of the 6 Rhythmic Modes -
1300
Clavichord appears
During the 1300s -
Period: 1300 to 1400
Ars Nova
- Thirds are officially consonant
- Mensural notation appears
- Secular music becomes more sophisticated (experimentation from the sacred world is brought into the secular world)
- Still NO written music for instrumentalists!
- Scribal work is revived in handwritten manuscripts, for the remission of sins
-
Period: 1330 to 1390
Italian Trecento
- text-painting
- triads
- chromaticism
- faster, shorter rhythms
-
1380
Ars subtillior
An early version of "graphic notation" -
Period: 1397 to 1474
Dufay
melody in highest voice -
Period: 1400 to
Renaissance
- Harpsichord first appears
- Instrumental consorts (fully established by 1500): groups of loud vs. soft instruments, or same instruments of different ranges
- Instrumental virtuosity begins in the 1500s
-
Period: 1410 to 1497
Ockegham
Groovy bass lines -
1450
Printing Press is perfected
-
Period: 1450 to 1521
Josquin des Prez
- simple melodies
- champions musical borrowing
-
1473
First printed music
...using 2-impression technique + woodcut -
1501
Petrucci's Monopoly
Monopoly is first purchased in 1498, and Petrucci uses it to publish the first (printed) polyphonic music collection in 1501 -
Period: 1505 to
Tallis/Byrd Monopolies
-
1520
Single-Impression type is invented
by John Rastell in England -
1540
"Musica Nova"
The first instrumental music collection is published -
1551
Ballard family monopoly begins
-
1560
Modern violin-family instruments are established
-
Period: 1567 to
Monteverdi
- Promotes monody
- Creates the first successful opera
-
Period: to
Baroque period
Opera and Monody:
- Figured bass/basso continuo
- Beginning of the orchestra (1607)
- Clear text and freedom of expression
- Focus on the soloist and the bass line -
Period: to
Brass and Flutes
- Flute becomes its own instrument, apart from the recorder
- Natural trumpets (without valves) and horns with crooks are used in orchestras
-
Oboe debuts in orchestras
-
Lully purchases his royal monopoly
-
First specified use of the bassoon in orchestras
-
Piano and Printing...
- The first piano is invented
- Metal-plate engraving is introduced: helpful for printing more complex instrumental music!
-
Clarinet is invented
c. 1715