Music History Timeline

By lsande33
  • Period: 500 to 1450

    Medieval Period

  • Period: 800 to 814

    The Rule of Charlemagne

    Crowned by the Pope in the year 800, Charlemagne wanted to revive education throughout the Frankish Empire and developed many musical centers. Systems of musical notation were created during his rule so that chant melodies could be recorded. As a result, about 500-600 melodies were recorded during his rule.
  • 900

    Musica Enchiriadis

    This style includes two voices; the principal voice and the organal voice. The plainchant melody of the principal voice is recreated one fourth or one fifth below in the organal voice, ultimately creating parallel motion between the two parts.
  • 1030

    Guido of Arezzo's Micrologus

    The Micrologus discusses how Gregorian Chants should be taught and sung.
  • Period: 1098 to 1179

    Lifespan of Hildegard of Bingen

  • Period: 1101 to 1200

    Troubadour/Trobairitz

  • Period: 1163 to 1250

    Notre Dame School Polyphony

  • 1280

    Franco of Cologne/Ars Cantus Mensurabilis

    The Ars Cantus Mensurabilis was the first music treatise to indicate the length of each musical note, as all notes were previously held for the same length of time. The four lengths of notes included double long, long, breve, and semi-breve.
  • Period: 1300 to 1377

    Lifespan of Guillaume de Machaut

  • 1323

    Ars Nova Treatise

    The Ars Nova Treatise was created by composer Philippe de Vitry. This treatise outlined a new form of notation which indicated musical meter through time and prolation. Groupings of 3 were considered perfect in respect to the Holy Trinity, whereas groupings of 2 were considered imperfect.
  • Period: 1325 to 1397

    Lifespan of Francesco Landini

  • Period: 1450 to

    Renaissance

  • Period: 1450 to 1454

    Gutenberg Printing Press

  • 1515

    Missa Pange Lingua by Josquin des Prez

  • 1529

    Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott by Martin Luther

  • 1538

    Il bianco e dolce cigno by Arcadelt

  • 1560

    Pope Marcellus Mass by Palestrina

  • Period: 1580 to

    Concerto delle Donne

    This trio of women singers performed in the court of Ferrara, a city in northern Italy.

  • Sonata Pian e Forte

    Pian e Forte was composed by Giovanni Gabrieli. This was the first piece of music to indicate dynamics. It was also the first piece of music to utilize brass instrumentation.
  • Period: to

    Baroque Period

  • L'Orfeo by Monteverdi

  • First Public Concerts in England

  • Period: to

    Lifespan of George Frederic Handel

  • Period: to

    Lifespan of Johann Sebastian Bach

  • Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell

  • L’Estro Armonico by Antonio Vivaldi

  • Brandenburg Concertos

  • Traité de l’harmonie by Rameau

  • Composition of the Well-Tempered Clavier Volume I

  • Period: to

    Pre Classical Period

  • Period: to

    Lifespan of Franz Joseph Haydn

  • Composition of the Messiah by Handel

  • Period: to

    Lifespan of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

  • Period: to

    Viennese Classical Period

  • Period: to

    Lifespan of Ludwig Van Beethoven

  • Period: to

    Chevalier de Saint-Georges as director of Concerts des Amateurs

  • Haydn's op.33 String Quartets

  • Mozart's Piano Concerto No.23

  • Don Giovanni by Mozart

  • Period: to

    Haydn's London Symphonies

  • Period: to

    Lifespan of Franz Schubert

  • Period: to

    Estimated Composition of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor

  • Composition of Erlkönig

  • Premiere of Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia

  • Publication of Paganini's 24 Caprices for Unaccompanied Violin, op.1

  • Composition of Schubert's Symphony No.8 “Unfinished”

  • Symphony No. 9 Composition by Beethoven

  • Composition of Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique

  • Period: to

    Composition of Chopin's Mazurkas Op.7

  • Period: to

    Estimated Composition of Schumann's Carnaval

  • Composition of Clara Wieck Schumann's Liebst du um Schönheit

  • Composition of Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel Das Jahr

  • Composition of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64

  • Berlioz Treatise on Instrumentation

  • Composition of La Traviata by Verdi

  • Period: to

    Estimated Composition of Gottschalk's Souvenir de Porto Rico

  • Premiere of Mussourgsky's Boris Godunov

  • Composition of Carmen by Bizet

  • Premiere of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen

  • Composition of Brahm's Symphony No.4

  • Premiere of Mahler's Symphony No.1

  • Premiere of Sibelius' Finlandia

  • Composition of The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky

  • Composition of Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 "New World"

  • Premiere of Debussy's Prélude à l’aprés midi d’un faune

  • Publication of Jopin's Maple Leaf Rag

  • Composition of Madama Butterfly by Puccini

  • Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire

  • Premiere of Stravinsky's Le sacre du Printemps

  • Schönberg's Piano Suite, Op.25

  • George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue

  • Louis Armstrong's "Hotter Than That"

  • Shostakovich Symphony No.5 premiere

  • Prokofiev Alexander Nevsky (film)

  • Ellington's Cottontail

  • Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour le fine du temps

  • Bela Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra

  • Copland Appalachian Spring

  • John Cage's 4’33’’

  • Edward Varese Poeme Electronique

  • Miles Davis Kind of Blue

  • George Crumb's Black Angels

  • John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine