The Renaissance Era ( 476 CE-1600)

  • 476

    The Fall of Rome

    The fall of Rome was the start of the Medieval Era.
  • Period: 476 to 1435

    Medieval Era

    During this time period all music was either Divine (came from God) or Cosmic (music of the spheres). The greeks in this time period also believed that music and poetry were one.
  • Period: 715 to 731

    Pope Gregory

    (Dates listed are the dates he ruled, NOT his birth and death)
    Pope Gregory is responsible for reorganizing and cataloging the chants that we had during this time.
  • 800

    Polyphony

    Polyphony and notation were the start of the Romanesque Era.
  • Period: 850 to 1150

    Romanesque Era

  • Period: 991 to 1033

    Guido d'Arezzo

    d'Arezzo is the creator of the staff. His staff however is different than the staff we know today. His staff only had four lines. The red line implied the note F and the Yellow line implied the note C.
  • 1000

    Organum

    Organum was extant in the 800s, described in the 900s, but it wasn't notated until 1000 CE. Organum can be best described as a plainchant melody with an added melody. Sung togehter, these two melody were a bunch of parallel 4ths and 5ths because 3rd were dissonant and not used.
  • Period: 1098 to 1179

    Hildegard von Bingen

    Hildegard was the founder and abbess of the covent at Rupertsberg, Germany. She's famous for her prophetic powers and revelations. She is also the first female composer in contemporary musicology to recieve extensive scholarly research. She began composing poetry and music in the 1140s. It is important to know that her music is NOT Gregorian Chant.
  • Period: 1150 to 1201

    Leonin

    (Dates are when his music was eround, NOT his birth and death) Leonin is the first composer of polyphonic music. He's credited with compiling the Magnus liber organi and Viderunt omnes. He identified with the School of Notre Dame.
  • 1152

    Alleluia, O virga mediatrix

    This piece is from the marality play Ordo virtutum. It was written by Hildegard
  • Period: 1155 to 1207

    Raimbaut de Vaqueiras

    Vaquerias served at the court in Montferrat. He was killed in battle, but wrote 35 poems, 7 survived with music.
  • 1170

    Magnus liber organi

    This is a piece written by Leonin.
  • 1200

    Perotin

    (Date listed is around when his music was dated) Perotin possibly studied with Leonin. He identified with the School of Notre Dame.
  • 1200

    Organum Triplum

    (Date is not exact) This is a piece written by Perotin. It's a three part organum.
  • Period: 1291 to 1361

    Philippe de Vitry

    Philippe was the first composer of the Ars Nova.
  • Period: 1300 to 1350

    The Ars Nova

    Ars Nova translates to "new art". During this time, rhythmic polyphony was apparent in motets. A motet is a musical composition that could handle radical innovations. The complex rhythms in these motets did not last, but resurfaced in the 20th centrury and are seen in african music.
  • Period: 1300 to 1377

    Guillaume de Machaut

    Machaut is the most famous composer and poet of this time. He has more than 20 extant motets.
  • Period: 1325 to 1397

    Francesco Landini

    Landini was a Music theorist, composer, poet, and organist. He was mainly famous because he was blind. He is the most famous italian composer of the 14th century.
  • 1340

    The Bubonic plague

    This plague killed over 75 million people during this 40s. This caused lots of suffrage and hearache for the people
  • Period: 1390 to 1453

    John Dunstable

    Dunstable influenced the musical style in Europe. There were more 3rds and 6ths used in his music. His complete works were not published until 1953.
  • Period: 1397 to 1474

    Guillaume Dufay

    Dufat was the first Renaissance composer
  • 1430

    Medieval Time

    Music wasn't really recorded again until the 1430s. Musicians during this time knew about Greek theory and their ideas about music, but they didn't have extant examples from Greek Antiquity. Most music around this time surrounded the church, as they were the leaders of this era.
  • Period: 1430 to

    Renaissance

    The word Renaissance means rebirth. During this time there were many new thoughts and ideas around the arts, science, and religion. There was a shift from a focus of God and religion to a focus on human beings and nature. Chants began to be paraphrased and music wsa beginning to have 5-8 parts compared to 4 parts. This era was also known as the golden age of a cappella singing.
  • Period: 1435 to 1511

    Johannes Tinctoris

    Tinctoris was a composer and music theorist.. He also wrote the first dictonary of musical terms
  • Period: 1450 to 1521

    Josquin des Prez

    Josquin worked at Notre Dame in 1504 as the provost. He also sang in the Sistine Chapel choir in Rome from 1489-94. His music was so emotion-filled and popular, that people try to steal it as their own. His music might have been sung by soloists, but from 1469 and on, choirs were used for polyphony in motets and masses
  • Period: 1452 to 1519

    Leonardo da Vinci

    Da Vinci was a very well known painter during the Renaissance.
  • Period: 1504 to 1511

    Ottaviano Petrucci

    Petrucci published 11 volumes of frottola ("pop music" of the renaissance) between these dates
  • Period: 1507 to 1568

    Jacques Arcadelt

    Arcadelt Was one of the earliest Italian madrigal composers. He composed over 250 madrigals, 125 french chasons, and sacred music.
  • 1510

    Pange Linqua

    Pange Linquia is a piece written by Josquin.
  • 1517

    The Reformation

    Augustinian monk, Martin Luther began protesting and made this movement. The Catholic church excommunicated him.
  • Period: 1521 to

    Philipp de Monte

    Monte is wel known specifically because he wrote the most. He has 1073 Madrigals.
  • Period: 1525 to

    Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

    Palestrina is the most famous composer from the Renaissance era. Even though the church wanted everything homorhythmic, Palestrina continued using polyphony, showing that he could make any texture understood. His style of counterpoint is still used as a teaching tool.
  • 1530

    Italian Madrigal

    This was a form of aristocratic entertainment. There would only be one voice on each part, but sometimes instruments would play a voice part.
  • Period: 1542 to

    William Byrd

    Byrd was a Roman Catholic who lived in Protestant England. He was harassed because of his religion. He wrote many anthems including Will Yow Walke the Woods soe Wylde
  • Period: 1557 to

    Giovanni Gabrieli

    Gabrieli was the leading composer of instrumental ensemble music and polychoral works in the late renaissance. He was the first to indicate the actual instruments he wanted in the score and indicate dynamics.
  • Period: 1564 to

    William Shakespeare

    Shakespeare lived into the early Baroque time. Many Renaissance-style songs were composed for and used in his plays.
  • Period: 1567 to

    Claudio Monteverdi

    Monteverdi wrote 9 books of madrigals. He also composed several operas during the baroque era.
  • 1570

    Spem in Alium

    Spem in Alium is a 40-part vocal piece written by Thomas Tallis.
  • Canzona septimi toni

    This is a piece from Gabrieli's larger collection, Sacred Symphonies. It has 2 choirs of instruments, each with four parts.
  • Fair Phyllis

    Fair Phyllis is a piece composed by John Farmer. There are 4 solo voices in this piece. There is word painting in this piece as well