Course Musical Timeline

c.  500 B.C.E.      Ionian philosopher/mathematician Pythagoras develops the first theory of musical
                             harmony.

c.  400 B.C.E.     Greek playwrights like Sophocles and Euripides write tragedies that  are performed
                            to music.

c.  300  A.D.       The Medieval plainchant is developed.  

c.  700 A.D.        Chants start adding a harmony of either a 4th or 5th.  They are called organum.

c. 1000                Guido of Arezzo invents modern musical notation.                     

c. 1151                Hildegard of Bingen writes the text and music for the first morality play, 

                            Ordo Virtutum. 

c. 1200                Pérotin creates four part polyphony at the new Cathedral of Notre
                            Dame in Paris.

c. 1330 - 1375     Guillaume de Machaut, the most important of the 14th century, develops 

                            isorhythmic motets and writes the first mass that can be attributed to a 

                            specific composer.             

c. 1420                John Dunstaple starts making use of the 3rd in harmonies, setting the stage 
                            for the Baroque invention of chord progressions.      

c. 1420 - 1550    Dunstaple influences the Renaissance polyphony of the  Franco-Flemish 
                           masters Guillaume Du Fay, Johannes Ockeghem, and Josquin Des Prez. 

c. 1480 - 1530    The High Renaissance.  Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael. 

                           Josquin is the most important composer.   

c.  1530s             Composition of Protestant hymns begins.  Johann Sebastian Bach and 
                           George Frideric Handel will be the foremost composers of Protestant Baroque music.

c. 1550 - 1620    Late Renaissance  masters Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (Italian),
                           Orlande de Lassus (Franco - Flemish),  Tomás Luis de Victoria (Spanish)
                           and William Byrd (English) finalize Renaissance polyphony.

c. 1530               The Amati family of Cremona begins 150 years of  developing the violin.

c. 1550 - 1585    Catherine de' Medici brings Italian music, most notably violins
                           to France.  She also facilitates the creation of ballet. 

c. 1550 - 1620    Lyric writing turns toward the personal, the emotional, the sensual.
                           John Dowland, Jacques Arcedelt, Thomas Champion are key figures, 

                           with Josquin as an influence. 

   
    1577 - 1582    Italian humanists form the Florentine Camarata to discuss the arts.  Giulio Caccini 
                           is the most important musician.  The ideas that create Italian opera are formulated. 

    1607               Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi writes L'Orfeo, the first lasting opera.
                           The era of Baroque music has begun.

    1636              German Heinrich Schütz composes Musikalische Exequien (Funeral music)

c. 1685               Italian Archangelo Corelli becomes the first great violin virtuoso and composer.

    1685               Domenico Scarlatti, George Frideric Handel, and Johann Sebastian Bach are born.

    1683 - 1686    English composer Henry Purcell composes the opera Dido and Aeneas.

    1686               French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully composes the opera Armide. 

    1688 - 1689    Marc-Antoine Charpentier composes Te Deum. 

c. 1700               Bartolomeo Cristofori invents the piano.

c. 1700 - 1720    Antonio Stradivari perfects the violin.      

    1717               George Frideric Handel composes Water Music for the river trips of Britain's
                            King George I.    

    1721                J.S. Bach writes the Brandenburg Concertos.    

    1722 / 1742    Bach composes his two books of The Well Tempered Clavier featuring
                            well temperement tuning. 

    1723                Vivaldi composes The Four Seasons

    1727               Handel composes Zadok the Priest for the coronation of King George II.

    1727               Bach composes the St. Matthew Passion.

c. 1730               Composers begin transitioning music out of the Baroque era toward the Classical era.

    1733               Georg Philippe Telemann composes Tafelmusik (table music).

    (1723) 1733    Bach composes his Magnificat.

    1738               Jean-Philippe Rameau composes the opera Dardanus.

    1741               Bach composes the Goldberg Variations for harpsichord.

    1742 (4/13)    First performance of Handel's  Messiah

    1749               J.S. Bach composes his Mass in B minor, he dies the following year. 

    1756               Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born in Salzburg, Austria.                                 

    1759               George Frideric Handel dies. 

    1759               Joseph Haydn writes his first symphony.  The Classical era, 
                           "the age of elegance and sensibility," and is underway....