Western History 300 - 1750 CE

      313   -  Edict of Milan - Constantine I ("The Great") legalizes Christianity.  Plainchant begins to 
                  thrive.      

      330   -  Constantine I reconstitutes Byzantium (Constantinople) as the capital of the Eastern 
                  Roman Empire.     

      376   -  Goths, fleeing the Huns, flood into the Western Roman Empire. 

 c.  400   -  First descriptions of early Christian music.  Augustine of Hippo.  

      476   -  The Germanic barbarian king Odoacer deposed the last emperor of the Western Roman 
                   Empire in Italy, Romulus Augustulus.

      711   -  The Islamic Moors invade Spain.  Moorish music, especially the rhythms, will influence 
                  the Troubadours c. 1000. 

      800   -  Charles I (Charlemagne), King of the Franks, ruler of the Carolingian Empire, is 
                  crowned King of the Romans (Holy Roman Emperor) by the Pope.  Christian music 
                  spreads to northern France and western Germany.



The High Middle Ages (1000 - 1300) - the development of cities, recovery 
of ancient technologies (the arch) and new ones (wind mills) 
 

     1000   -  Guido of Arezzo creates musical notation.

     1163   -  Construction begins on Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.  Léonin and Pérotin create 
                   polyphony c.1200.

c.  1300   -  Birth of Guillaume de Machaut, most important composer of the 14th century.


    Events of the 14h century shakes faith in the Catholic Church:

        1310 - 1377 -   The Black Death (the Plague)

        1337 - 1453 -   The Hundred Years' War

        1378 - 1417 -   The Western Schism (two popes, Rome & Avignon)


     →    This produces an abundance of new, secular, literature in the vernacular, not Latin,

             and much question raising about the Church (e.g. Dante's The Devine Comedy in 1320). 

             The pope is no longer the main authority in Europe as kings and princes will 

              surpass him in time (the Devine right of kings).

        Renaissance humanism begins. 


The Renaissance "Re-Birth" of ancient ideas  c. 1400 - 1600

                    Nascent capitalism is on the rise (banking, companies, trade) and the development of a middle class.

c.  1440   -  Johannes Guttenberg invents the printing presses with moveable type. 

c.  1453   -  Constantinople falls to the Ottoman Empire.  Scholars flee to the west bringing
                    ancient learning long lost to the West.

c.  1486   -  Pico della Mirandola writes the Humanist manifesto Oration on the Dignity of Man.

    1492   -  Christopher Columbus discovers the New World
               -  After 781 years, the Reconquista drives the final Moors off of the Iberian peninsula.

1490 - 1520  -  The High Renaissance  -  Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Machiavelli 
                         Josquin des Prez is the most important composer.  

                            High Renaissance Visual Arts

c.  1517   -  Martin Luther publishes the Ninety Five Theses starting Protestantism.    

                    Luther composes the first Protestant hymns. 

1532-34  -  the Reformation Parliament (1532–1534) passed laws abolishing papal authority 
                   in England and declared Henry VIII to be head of the Church of England.

      1543  -  Publication of Nicolaus Copernicus'  On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres  
                   (heliocentrism)   

 1545 - 1553 -  The Council of Trent begins the Counter-Reformation    


The Age of Absolutism until the 18th century:  

   1547 - 1559  -  Henry II rules France

  1556 - 1598  -  Philip II rules Spain

  1558 - 1603  -  Elizabeth I rules England  

1562 - 1598  -  French Wars of Religion 

1568 - 1648  -  Dutch War of Independence  -  Rise of the Dutch Republic   


 1577 - 1582  -  The Florentine Camerata, a group of Florence intellectuals, discuss reviving 

                          ancient Greek drama.  The Camerata's musical experiments led to the devel-

                          opment of the stile recitativo. In this way it facilitated the composition of 

                          dramatic music and the development of opera.

The Baroque Era


 1600 - 1700 -   Baroque Art & Architecture

 1581 - 1638 -   The scientific career of Galileo Galilei.  His many experiments in physics, 

                          with his application of mathematics, makes him one the very great scientists.  

                          He was forced to recant his championing of heliocentrism by the Catholic 

                          Church in the 1630s.

     1607  -  Seven years after the first opera, Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, the first 

                   truly important opera, premiered.

1618 - 1648  -  The Thirty Years' War.

c.  1620  -  Francis Bacon publishes Novum Organum. He argued for the possibility of scientific 
                  knowledge based only upon inductive reasoning and careful observation of events in 
                  nature. Most importantly, he argued that science could be achieved by the use of a 
                  skeptical and methodical approach whereby scientists aim to avoid misleading them-
                  selves (scientific method).


1642 - 1651  -  The English Civil War  

    1637  -   The first public opera house, Teatro San Cassiano,  opens in Venice.  Opera becomes 

                   very popular among the middle class.  More opera houses open in Italy, Paris and 

                   Vienna.

1643 - 1715  -  The reign of Louis XIV of France, the height of absolutism ("I am the state").

                         The Palace of Versailles is a Baroque era model of extravagance and power.  

                         (You can hear the extravagance in Baroque music.)


    1685  -  J.S. Bach, G.F. Handel, and Domenico Scarlatti are born.

    1688  -  Publication of Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica, which defines the laws of 

                 motion and gravity.   

    1680s -  Opera seria rises to prominence 

    1688  -  England's Glorious Revolution 


 c. 1700  -  Bartolomeo Cristofori invents the piano, but it will not become popular for another 

                  70 years. 

 c. 1700 - 1720  -  The "golden years" of Stradivarius violin making.   


  The Baroque aesthetic ideal:  passion, extravagance and complexity 

  with an underlying symmetry, order and control.


c. 1715  -  Louis XIV dies, the Age of Absolution begins to fade.

    The middle class has expanded greatly in the past 200 years.  Bankers, merchants and 

    industrialists make good money.

    The 18th century will see a great expansion of literacy and education.

    The Enlightenment is already in progress and will grow and intensify until the American 

    Revolution (1775 - 1783) and the French Revolution (1789 - 1799).   


  c. 1720  -  The Galant style of music takes hold and grows for decades as the Baroque style 

                   fades in popularity.  The Galant style morphs into the Classical style which will 

                   reach its apex between 1770 - 1800.  Neoclassicism permeates architecture, 

                   literature, and the visual arts.