Music History Timeline

By vsigur@students.kennesaw.edu
  • Period: 500 to 1450

    Medieval Period

  • Period: 800 to 850

    Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor

    Gregorian Chant was originally learned by rote. Charlemagne wanted set melodies for Gregorian Chants in Roman Catholic churches, therefore the first systems of music notation were developed.
  • 900

    Musica Enchiriadis

    The concept of polyphony is developed. Vox Principalisi is the main melody line and Vox Organali is the improvised line underneath. The concept of Parallel Organum is established with Vox Organali singing a fifth below the Vox Principalisi. The concept of Contrary and Oblique motion are invented.
  • 1030

    Guido Arezzo Micrologus

    Guido Arezzo developed the Little Treatise. It was one of the first systems to organize Gregorian Chant, so singers can sight-read the music. The concept of the Guidonian hand was also developed. He also develops the 4 line staff.
  • Period: 1098 to 1179

    Hildegard of Bingen

  • Period: 1100 to 1200

    Troubadour/trobairitz

  • Period: 1163 to 1225

    Notre Dame School Polyphony

  • 1280

    Franco of Cologne/Ars Cantus Mensurabilis

    Franco develops the concept of mensural notation. This concept furthered the developed subdivision of time in music. He also develops an understanding of consonant and dissonant intervals.
  • Period: 1300 to 1377

    Guillaume de Machaut

  • 1323

    Ars Nova Treatise

    The concept of prolation is developed. This invention further the development of the time signatures.
  • Period: 1335 to 1397

    Francesco Landini

  • Period: 1450 to

    Renaissance

  • Period: 1450 to 1454

    Gutenberg Printing Press

  • 1515

    Josquin’s Missa Pangue Lingua

  • 1524

    Martin Luther’s Eine feste burg

  • 1538

    Arcadelt Il bianco e dolce cigno

  • 1567

    Palestrina's Pope Marcellus Mass

  • Period: 1580 to

    Concerto delle Donne

    Location: Court in Ferrara

  • Sonata pian’e forte

    This Sonata was written by Giovanni Gabrieli. This piece was written in St.Mark's Cathedral in Venice. This piece is really unique. It was the first piece of music for designated instruments and the first piece of music with written dynamics.
  • Period: to

    Baroque Period

  • Monteverdi's L’Orfeo

  • First Public Concerts in England

  • Period: to

    J.S. Bach

  • Period: to

    Handel

  • Purcell's Dido and Aeneas

  • Antonio Vivaldi's L’Estro Armonico

  • Brandenburg Concertos

  • Rameau's Traité de l’harmonie

  • The Well-Tempered Clavier volume 1

  • Period: to

    Pre-Classical Period

  • Period: to

    Franz Joseph Haydn

  • Handel's Messiah

  • Period: to

    Chevalier de Saint-Georges as director of Concerts des Amateurs

  • Period: to

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

  • Period: to

    Viennese Classical Period

  • Period: to

    Beethoven

  • Mozart's Piano Concerto No.23

  • Haydn's op.33 String Quartets

  • Erlkönig

  • Mozart's Don Giovanni

  • Period: to

    Haydn's London Symphonies

  • Period: to

    Schubert

  • Symphony no.6 pastoral

  • Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia (premiere)

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

  • symphony no 8 "unfinished"

  • Symphony No. 9

  • Berlioz Symphony Fantastique

  • Period: to

    Frederic Chopin Mazurkas Op.7

  • Period: to

    Robert Schumann Carnaval

  • Clara Wieck Schumann"Liebst du um Schönheit"

  • Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel Das Jahr

  • Berlioz Treatise on Instrumentation

  • Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy - Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64

  • Verdi 's La traviata

  • Period: to

    Louis Moreau Gottschalk's Souvenir de Porto Rico

  • Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (premiere)

  • Mussourgsky's Boris Godunov (premiere)

  • Bizet's Carmen

  • Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (premiere)

  • Brahms' Symphony No.4 (premiere)

  • Mahler's Symphony No.1 (premiere

  • Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker

  • Dvorak's Symphony No.9 “New World"

  • Debussy's Prélude à l’aprés midi d’un faune (premiere)

  • Maple Leaf Rag (published)

  • Jean Sibelius' Finlandia (premiere)

  • Puccini's Madama Butterfly

  • Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire

  • Stravinsky's Le sacre du Printemps (premiere)

  • 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)

  • Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour le fine du temps

  • Ellington's Cottontail

  • Bela Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra

  • Copland Appalachian Spring

  • John Cage's 4’33’’

  • Period: to

    Edgar Varese Poeme Electronique

  • Miles Davis Kind of Blue

  • George Crumb's Black Angels

  • John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine