Music History Timeline

Medieval Period Start

500

Guido of Arezzo's "Micrologus"

1030

This was also known as the "Little Treatise." Guido of Arezzo developed the Guidonian Hand which was a form of solmization that associated each note of the scale with a different part of the fingers. This also had an impact on the creation of the Hexachord system. Other musical developments that came from "Micrologus" were the 4-line staff, the idea of relative pitch, and sight singing.

Hildegard of Bingen Birth Date

1098

Hildegard of Bingen Death Date

1179

Ars Nova Treatise

1323

Ars Nova translates to "New Art" and it represented the replacement of Ars Antiqua (Old Art). The innovation that came along with the Ars Nova Treatise was the concept of time and prolation within music. A system was developed to define how long each note was and how it would be counted in music. Some of the different terms associated with this were Breve, Semibreve, and Minim. It separated perfect and imperfect time, as well as major and minor prolation.

Medieval Period End

1450

Renaissance Period Start

1450

Josquin’s "Ave Maria ... virgo serena" Motet

1485

Martin Luther Chorale "Ein feste burg (A Mighty Fortress..)"

1529

Arcadelt Madrigal "Il bianco e dolce cigno"

1538

Palestrina "Pope Marcellus Mass"

1567

This work is significant because Palestrina's style became a model for the music that followed it. His style is still an example in textbooks today on the subject of counterpoint.
Palestrina's Rules:
1. Moves in mostly stepwise motion with dissonances resolving on strong beats
2. Dissonance is allowed between strong beats as long as it is in a stepwise fashion or suspension
3. The "Palestrina Arch" is used by following leaps with stepwise motion in the opposite direction

Victoria "Missa O magnum mysterium"

1592

Gabrieli "Sonata pian’e forte"

1597

Where: St. Mark's Basilica
Significance: This was the first piece to use dynamics and write them into the composition. It was also the first piece that distinguished which instruments play which parts.

Renaissance Period End

1600

Baroque Era Start

1600

Monteverdi's "L’Orfeo"

1607

First Public Concerts in England

1672

JS Bach Birth Date

1685

Antonio Vivaldi's "L’Estro Armonico"

1711

This concerto was significant because it paved the way for all future concertos. It specifically defined the idea of the orchestra performing in unison, and many other ideas for the structure of different concerto movements. This was one of his most famous and most successful works, along with "The Four Seasons."

Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier" (volume 1)

1722

The main goal of "The Well-Tempered Clavier" was to introduce musicians to all 24 keys and scales. This was such a big deal because Bach was the first composer to realize the importance of the scales within music. He realized that knowing all 24 major and minor keys was the foundation of musical knowledge and this is still true to this day. This allowed musicians to play in all keys and on all different instruments because of the wide range it presented.

Rameau's "Traité de l’harmonie"

1722

The english translation is "Treatise on Harmony" and this was the most influential of all theoretical works because it became the basis for teaching the concept of functional harmony.
The main 5 innovations are as follows:
- Defined the root of the chord and the inversions.
- Defined triads and 7th chords.
- Defined the dominant, subdominant, and the tonic as the main pillars of harmony.
- Identified V7-I as the strongest resolution.
- Defined the concept of a fundamental bassline.

Franz Joseph Haydn Birth Date

1732

Handel's "Messiah"

1741

Baroque Era End

1750

JS Bach Death Date

1750

WA Mozart Birth Date

1756

Viennese Classical Period Start

1770

Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges as director of Concerts des Amateurs

1773

Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges was the director of the Concerts des Amateurs from 1773-1781. This was referred to as one of the finest orchestras in Europe. This was extremely important in all of music history because Saint-George was an African American man directing the leading orchestra in Paris. He was even referred to as "Le Mozart noir" or the "black Mozart" because of his extraordinary talents. President John Adams even called him "the most accomplished man in Europe."

Mozart's "Don Giovanni"

1787

WA Mozart Death Date

1791

Haydn's Symphony No. 94 "Surprise" (premiere date in London)

1792

Viennese Classical Period End

1800

Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor

1808

Franz Joseph Haydn Death Date

1809

Schubert Erlkönig

1815

Nicolo Paganini 24 Caprices for Violin, op.1

1820

Berlioz "Symphonie fantastique"

1830

Frederic Chopin Mazurkas Op.7

Period: 1830 to 1832

Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel "Das Jahr"

1841

Louis Moreau Gottschalk "Souvenir de Porto Rico"

Period: 1857 to 1858

Mussorgsky "Pictures at an Exhibition"

1874

Bizet "Carmen"

1875

Wagner "Der Ring des Nibelungen"

1876

Brahms' Symphony No.4

1885

Mahler Symphony No.1

1889

Dvorak Symphony No. 9

1893

Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" (published)

1899

Jean Sibelius' "Finlandia" (premiere)

1900

Claude Debussy's "Voiles” from Préludes Book 1

1910

Arnold Schönberg's "Pierrot Lunaire"

1912

Igor Stravinsky's "Le sacre du Printemps" (premiere)

1913

Arnold Schönberg's Piano Suite, Op.25

1923

Louis Armstrong's "Hotter Than That"

1928

George and Ira Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" (published)

1930

Shostakovich Symphony No.5 premiere

1937

Prokofiev "Alexander Nevsky" (film)

1938

Duke Ellington's "Cottontail"

1940

Olivier Messiaen's "Quatuor pour le fine du temps"

1940

Bela Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra

1943

Copland "Appalachian Spring"

1944

Won the Pulitzer Prize in 1945.

John Cage's 4’33’’

1952

Edward Varese "Poeme Electronique"

1957

Composition dates are 1957-1958, and it premiered at the Brussels Exposition (World's Fair) in 1958.

Miles Davis "Kind of Blue"

1959

George Crumb's "Ancient Voices of Children"

1970

John Adams' "Short Ride in a Fast Machine"

1986