Music History Timeline

By agravi10
  • Period: 500 to 1450

    Medieval Period

  • 1030

    Guido of Arezzo's Micrologus

    The following innovations in music were made: A 4-line staff, relative pitch, and sight singing.
  • 1098

    Hildegard of Bingen Born

    Hildegard of Bingen lived from 1098-1179. She was sickly as a child, but we able to was able to receive education at a nearby Benedictine Cloister. She joined the nuns at age 15. She then went on to compose pieces which were according to her divinely inspired.
  • 1320

    Ars Nova Treatise

    Created in the early 1320s. It included technical innovations in rhythm and notation of rhythm.
  • Period: 1450 to

    Renaissance Period

  • 1485

    Josquin's Ave Maria ... Virgo Serena Motet

    One of Josquin's most popular motets. It has a polyphonic setting and is secular music. The piece refers to the five feasts of the Virgin.
  • 1529

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

    The anthem of the Reformation composed by Martin Luther
  • 1538

    Arcadelt Madrigal II bianco e dolce cigno

  • 1567

    Palestrina Pope Marcellus Mass

    Published in 1567, the Marcellus Mass was written in response to the Council of Trent's observation that polyphony made music have less clarity of lyrics.
  • 1572

    Victoria Missa O magnum mysterium

  • Giovanni Gabrieli's Sonata pian'e forte

    Published in 1597 in Venice. It was important because it was the first piece to designate specific parts to specific instruments and included dynamics.
  • Period: to

    Baroque Period

    Features new Genres like the Sonata, Aria, and Concerto. Terraced dynamics were introduced. And widespread experimentation in music began.

  • Monteverdi's L’Orfeo

    The first opera to enter standard repertory. Only men attended the first performance. The opera begins with expressions of grief through expressive dissonance. It ends with Orfeo's resolve to retrieve Euridice from the underworld.

  • First Public Concerts in England

    England was the pioneer of public concerts and they eventually spread to Paris in 1725 and German cities by the 1740s.
  • Period: to

    Johann Sebastian Bach

    Held three different important positions in Weimar, Cöthen, and Leipzig. Wrote the Goldberg Variations, Brandenburg Concertos, and others.

  • Antonio Vivaldi's L’Estro Armonico

    One of his concertos which had immense popularity. They were even given fancy titles to attract buyers.

  • Rameau's Traité de l’harmonie

    This took the practices of his contemporaries and put them into a book. It was highly influential and became the basis for teaching functional harmony.

  • JS Bach's Well Tempered Clavier volume 1

    Volume 1 includes all 12 major and minor keys and its purpose was to explore the possibilities of playing in all keys. This relates to an instrument being tuned in near equal-temperament.
  • Period: to

    Franz Josef Haydn

    Wrote ca. 106 Symphonies. Also he wrote 68 String Quartets composed in a "quite new and special way".

  • Handel's Messiah

    Made of three parts, the prophecies of the Messiah coming and how they are fulfilled in Jesus' life, the resurrection, and the second coming.
  • Period: to

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Was exposed to many styles of music as a kid due to being a prodigy and son of a popular violinist.
  • Period: to

    Viennese Classical Period

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

    The Concerts des Amateurs was one of the finest orchestras in Europe, and Joseph Bologne Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges was a director of this orchestra from 1773 to 1781.

  • Haydn's Symphony No. 94 "Surprise" Premiere date in London

    The Surprise Symphony has a sudden fortissimo crash on a weak beat in the slow movement of Symphony No. 94 which is why it is titled as such.

  • Mozart's Don Giovanni

    An opera base on the legend of Don Juan sung in italian.

  • Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor

    The premiere date for Beethoven's Symphony No. 5

  • Schubert Erlkönig

    Composition Date

  • Rossini Il Barbiere di Siviglia

    Premiere Date

  • Nicolo Paganini 24 Caprices for Violin, op.1

    publication date

  • Berlioz Symphonie fantastique

    composition date

  • Frederic Chopin Mazurkas Op.7

    Composition Date range
    1830-1831

  • Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel Das Jahr

    Date composed

  • Louis Moreau Gottschalk Souvenir de Porto Rico

    Composition period 1857-58

  • Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition

    Composed in

  • Bizet Carmen

    Premiere Date

  • Wagner Der Ring des Nibelungen

    Premiere Date

  • Brahms' Symphony No. 4

    Premiere

  • Mahler Symphony No. 1

    premiere

  • Dvorak Symphony No. 9 "From the New World"

  • Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag

    Published in

  • Jean Sibelius' Finlandia

    premiere date

  • Claude Debussy's Voiles From Preludes Book 1

    composed in

  • Arnold Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire

  • Igor Stravinsky's Le sacre du Printemps

    premiere

  • Arnold Schönberg's Piano Suite, Op.25

    Composed Between 1921-1923

  • Louis Armstrong's "Hotter Than That"

  • George and Ira Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm"

    published in

  • Shostakovich Symphony No.5 premiere

  • Prokofiev Alexander Nevsky (film)

  • Duke 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 Ancient Voices of Children

  • John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine