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3000 BCE
Invention of writing
The code of Hammurabi (actually in the Louvre) is the oldest writting in history and describes the laws of a sumerian city-state. Includes the famous "an eye for an eye". -
Period: 3000 BCE to 475
Antiquity
The period that goes from the invention of writting until the fall of Rome is called the Antiquity. -
Period: 800 BCE to 145 BCE
Ancient Greece
The ancient greek civilization was advanced in music as in many other areas of knowledge, writting the first musical treatises and developing a primitive notation system. The ancient greek instruments were the lyre, the harp, the aulos and the hydraulos or water organ -
100
Seikilos Epitaph
The first form of written music ever found.
It's an elegy in Seikilos honour. -
476
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
The moment when the german king Odoacre put the italian peninsula under his control is worldly considered the end of Antiquity and the start of the Middle Ages in Europe. -
Period: 476 to Oct 12, 1492
Middle Ages
During the early Middle Ages, it was developed the neumatic notation system, which consisted in writting some lines over the text to indicate pitch, tone and rythm, and the notes were assigned names by Guido d'Arezzo. The Middle Ages also involves the other musical styles prior to the Renaisence. -
Period: 680 to 730
Gregorian Chant
The Gregorian chant was a monodic and a capella style with religious theme and written in latin. It could be syllabic, with one note per syllable; neumatic when one syllable had 2-4 notes, or mellismatic, were a single syllable was extended through many notes. -
992
Guido D'Arezzo
He created the curent musical notation system and gave names to the notes according to the first note of the verses of the anthem of Saint John. -
Period: 1000 to 1100
Trobadeurs, Jongleurs and trouvéres
The trobadour movement arose in southern France and consisted in several traveling musicians who sang prophane, monodic melodies with popular themes. Trobadours were rich or noble artists, while jongleurs usually had a noble origin and reproduced the songs trobadours invented -
1096
Hildegar von Bingen
Also known as the Sibyl of the Rhine, she was a German Benedictine abbess and the most well-known composer of religious monophony in the Middle Ages. -
Period: 1100 to 1300
Ars Antiqua
The Ars Antiqua movement was the first polyphonic musical style. It came with three main compositions: The organum, which added a second voice to the original gregorian text.
The conductus, which created the two voices form scratch.
The motet, a composition with 2 or three diferent voices with diferent rythms. -
1130
Bernart de Ventardon
He was a French trobadour, often regarded as the best of his kind and nicknamed "the Master Singer". He helped defining the "classical" courtly love poetry which was reproduced during the next 150 years. -
1150
Leonin
He was a great composer of the Notre Dame school and was Perotin's master. He was a very important part of the Ars Antiqua style. -
1160
Perotin
Perotin was one of the most famous representatives of the Notre Dame school of polyphony and part of the Ars Antiqua medieval movement -
Nov 23, 1221
Alfonso X the Wise
He was well educated from his birth and wrote some cantingas and religious anthems before being crowned. His masterpiece is the Cantingas of Santa María, but he wrote many more books, poems and musical treatises. -
1300
Guillaume de Machaut
Guillaume de Machaut was a French composer and poet considered the central piece of the Ars Nova style. He composed in a wide range of styles and forms and was crucial in the development of the motet. -
Period: 1300 to 1399
Ars nova
The Ars Nova style is caracterised by the start of a slow process of musical secularization and the creation of more complex motets with intrincate rythms. It also saw the birth of the ballad, the chanson and the canon. -
1335
Francesco Landini
He was an Italian composer, poet, singer and organist who was one of the most reverend composers of the Italian Trescento style. -
Period: 1350 to 1400
Ars Subtilior
The Ars Subtilior movement was a new level of musical complexity, with intrincate compositions, visually artistic manuscripts and very complex harmonies. For this complexity, it was reduced to intelectual and courtly circles. -
1370
Johannes Ciconia
He was a Franco-Flemish composer and theorist of the late Middle Ages. He's mainly recognised by his work in the service of the papal chapels and the Padua Cathedral. -
1393
Johannes Gutenberg
He was the man who invented the movable-type printing press. His invention would lead to an information revolution across Europe and be one of the causes for the success of the Protestan Reform. -
Period: 1400 to
The Renaissance
The Renaissance was an artistic phenomena which came into being hand in hand with humanism, or the idea that man was the center of all things. Music during this period was freed from its medieval restraints and saw a significant simplification. It's recognised for being polyphonic, balanced and regular, with a lot of importance given to the text. -
Period: 1400 to
Franco-Flemish school
This school originated in Flanders in the 15th century and was exported to all Europe. Its compositions are characterized for being polyphonic with 4 balanced voices, which may imitate each other in some counterpoints. This is the school of Josquin de Prés and Guillaume Dufay. -
May 29, 1453
Fall of Constantinople
When Constantinople fell to the ottoman army, the last piece of byzantine territory was conquered.
Many historians put the end of the Middle Ages here. -
Jul 12, 1468
Juan del Encina
He was a spanish poet, dramatist and musician in the early Renaissance. His musical works are exclusively prophane and include many villancicos, romances and cantatas, many of them with romantic or erotic themes. -
Period: Jan 15, 1475 to
Spanish school
Spanish music was inspired by catholicism and the Counter-Reformation, with austere, simple and expresive compositions, like the ones of Tomás Luis de Victoria. But at the same time, secular music was greatly developed with the creation of the villancico, the ensalada and the romance. The most famous secular spanish comoser is Juan del Encina. -
1483
Martin Luther
He was an Augustinian fraire that, angry at the corruption in the church, decided to write 95 theses against the catholic church. This escaleted in a chaothic schism which led to the creation of many protestant churches and theologycall currents. -
1500
Cristobal de Morales
Cristobal de Morales was a spanish priest and Kapellmeister, and he's often considered the main composer of the andalusian school, even though his following for spanish tradition has been questioned throughout history. His music was religious and vocal, with very few exeptions. -
Period: Jan 1, 1500 to
Italian School
This school was centered in two cities, Rome and Venice. The Roman style was influenced by the Council of Trent, and the compositions where always religious, sober, simple and clear. In Venice, polychorality was developed and Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli paved the way to the Baroque to come in. -
1510
Antonio de Cabezón
Antonio de Cabezón was a Spanish composer and organist of the Renaissance, widely known for his innovation in keyboard music and the polyphonic complexity of his pieces. After his death his son would publish most of his music in a book called "Obras de música para tecla, arpa y vihuela". -
Feb 3, 1525
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
He was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance music and one of the center pieces of the Rome school. He is said to have written over a 100 masses, at least 140 madrigals and more than 300 motets. His style is defined by Johann Joseph Fux as dynamic and trying to reduce leaps and dissonances to a minimum. -
1532
Orlando di Lasso
Born in what it's now Belgium, he stands with Tomás Luis de Victoria and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina as one of the most important composers of the late Renaissance. His music varied in style and gender, and alternated secular with religious compositions. -
1532
Andrea Gabrieli
Andrea Gabrieli was an Italian composer and organist, and he defined the Venetian Style for the Baroque. His works belong to multiple styles and genres, even translating Ancient Greek drama. -
1544
Maddalena Casulana
She was composer, singer and lutenist. She wrote several madrigals at 3 or 6 voices a capella or with some instrumental accompainament and a romantic theme. -
1548
Tomás Luis de Victoria
Being the most famous composer of the spanish Renaissance, his influence streches out to the 20th century and his death kicked of the inminent Baroque period. He was a devout man, to the point of abandoning his succesfull musical career in Rome to became a catholic priest, and he distinguishes himself for writting only religious music, something strange for the era. De Victoria wrote many books filled with his compositions, with 4 main books and several others with motets and masses. -
1554
Giovani Gabrieli
Being his uncle the famous Andrea Gabrieli, he lived up to him and represented the culmination of the Venetian School. He wrote several colections of musical pieces, in which he included some of his uncle's compositions, and was heavily influented by the period of shift between the Renaissance and the Baroque. -
Mar 8, 1556
Carlo Gesualdo
Carlo Gesualdo was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance music, and wrote both religious and prophane melodies. Even though, he's famous for the murder of his first wife and her lover after surprising them in bed. It's said the murder was so bloody he had to scape the city to evite the vengeance of the victim's relatives. -
May 15, 1567
Claudio Monteverdi
An italian priest, composer and musician, he was a key figure in the shift between the Renaissance and the Baroque and composed both sacred and prophane compositions. But sadly, most of his works have been lost, and most of the remaining compositions are madrigals and operas combining the renacentist poliphony and the Baroque basso continuo technique. -
Period: to
The Baroque
It's during this time period that patrons appeared. This musical era comes with the develop of the use of a bass line, the apparition of accompaniment music and the increased use of contrast. Music lost its international style and now each country acquired its own musical identity. This period also menat the apparition of the suite, the sonata, the concerto and the opera. -
Giacomo Carissimi
An Italian composer of the Roman school, he helped defining the oratorio and wrote many cantatas, motets and masses, but was more important as a teacher than as a composer, his influence going far into Germany and France by this mehtod. -
The opera
The opera its a combination of music and theatre. Its main parts include:
Overture: Instrumental piece at the beginning of the opera.
Arias: Solo vocal pieces highly expresive or emotional.
Recitiatives: parts with a more conversational structure.
Choruses: sections sung by a big group of characters at the same time.
Interlude: Musical passages between acts or scenes.
Some similar compositions to the opera include the spanish zarzuela and the oratorio, where characters don't act, only sing. -
Barbara Strozzi
An italian Baroque composer and singer, she wrote solo songs, cantatas and madrigals. She is known for her vocal music with love and female empowerment themes. Strozzi is still celebrated for her artistic merit and unique voice. -
Antonio Stradivari (Stradivarius)
He was an Italian luthier and craftsman of string instruments, which are considered the finest ever made. His crafts were so valued that he marked the violin making standarts for the next 300 years. -
Henry Purcell
One of the few english composers in the Baroque, Purcell wrote in many genres, and was in some degree influenced by french and italian composers. -
Antonio Vivaldi
An italian composer and violinsit, his most famous work, The Four Seasons its known by everyone with a bit of musical culture. Vivaldi wrote several operas and concertos, and his music is characterised by his virtuosity and rhythm. -
Georg Phillip Telemann
He was a German composer and played many instruments in the Baroque. Being almost self-taught in music, he wrote over 3000 musical pieces, ranging from operas to cantatas, going through concertos and sonatas for all kind of instruments. His popularity was very high until in the 19th century he was dismissed as someone that worte too many works but lacked the quality of Bach or Handel. -
Georg Friederich Handel
A German-British musician, he is one of the few composers whose melodies have been played since he died. He is recognised for his oratorios and instrumental compositions, he had a talent for creating emotive and grandiose melodies. -
Johann Sebastian Bach
Bach is considered as one of the greatest composers in history for his ability to mix technicall complexity with musical beauty. His music is still played worldwide and is famous for making symetrical partitures, or writing his name with notes at the end of a composition.