Music Timeline Flashcards
Constantine issues the Edict of Milan, making Christianity legal and giving the church the right to own property
313
Emporer Constantine sees a cross burning in the sky and has his entire household baptized
312
Emperor Theodosius I makes Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire
380
Boethius writes De Institutione Musica (On the organization of music) and St. Benedict of Nursia crafts the Rule of St. Benedict guidelines for his monks
Early sixth century
Pope Gregory I begins his reign in Rome; he is eventually recognized as the supreme pope
590
Charlemagne decrees that monasteries should teach singing (along with arithmetic and grammar)
789
Charlemagne is crowned the first Holy Roman Emperor
800
Scribes begin using neumes, the first notation symbols. Composers start devising organum.
Early Ninth Century
Guido of Arezzo introduced staff lines and solmization syllables
Early Eleventh Century
Guido writes the Micrologus (Little Treatise), the first technical manual for music theory
1028
A system for rhythmic notion begins to develop
Twelfth Century
Richard the Lion-Hearted composes the chanson “Ja nus hons pris” while imprisoned
1193
“Dies Irae” is composed
Thirteenth Century
“Summer Is Icumen In” is composed
1250
Mensural notation (employing varied note shapes and the ancestors of time signatures) is introduced
Fourteenth century
The spirit of humanism fosters exploration and experimentation
Fourteenth - Fifteenth century
Columbus sails the ocean blue (Columbus sails to the New World)
1492
Ottaviano Petrucci publishes the first printed music collection using movable type
1501
Martin Luther criticizes the Catholic Church publicly, eventually leading to the reformation
1517
The Council of Trent begins, one of the reforms described as the Counter-Reformation
1545
Jacobus de Kerle’s ‘Preces Speciales’ (“Special Prayers”) convinces the Council of Trent not to abolish polyphony in Church Services
1562
Maddalena Casulana is the first woman to publish a book of Madrigals
1568
Palestrina composes the first of his Missa L’homme Armé settings
1570
The Florentine Camerata begins to meet
1573
The Duke of Ferrara hosts a fine trio of professional female singers known as the Concerto Delle Donne
1575
Jacopo Corsi and Jacopo Peri compose the first opera, Dafne
1594
Giovanni Gabrieli’s Sonata Pian e Forte includes dynamic indications
1597
Marenzio composes the madrigal “Solo e Pensoso”
1599
A Florentine Camerata member, Giulio Caccini, publishes Le Nouve Musiche (“The New Music”), demonstrating the new monodic singing style
1602
Monteverdi composes the first operatic masterpiece, L’Orfeo
1607
The Thirty Years’ War begins
1618
The first public opera house opens in Venice
1637
The Bay Pslam Book is the first publication in the New England colonies
1640
Monteverdi composes L’incoronazione Di Poppea for a Venetian public opera house
1642
A Venetian guidebook lists Vivaldi as a tourist attraction
1706
Vivaldi publishes The Four Seasons
1725
The Academy of Ancient Music begins giving concerts in London
1726
Johann Stamitz takes charge of the Mannheim orchestra, the most celebrated ensemble in Europe
1745
Equal temperament becomes the norm, and Enlightenment thinking spreads through Europe (and the northern colonies in America)
1750
Johan Mainwaring publishes the first separate biography of a composer (Handel)
1760
Johan Christian Bach and Carl Friedrich Abel begin their subscription concerts in London
1765
J. C. Bach gives the first public performance on a solo piano
1768
Charles Burney publishes volume one of his history of music
1776
Haydn publishes his Op. 33 string quartets, written in a “new, special way”
1781
Mozart composes his Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major
1783
Over four hundred performers contribute to a Handel Commemoration Concert in London
1784
Haydn comes to London for the first time as the composer for the Salomon concerts; he writes Symphony No. 94 in G Major (“surprise”)
1791
A music conservatory is established in Bologna, Italy
1804
The London Philharmonic orchestra is founded
1813
Schubert writes the Lied “Erlkönig”
1815
Pianist John Field introduces the “nocturne” as a type of character piece
1821
Felix Mendelssohn conducts J. S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, launching the Bach Revival
1829
Berlioz presents his Symphonie Fantastique
1830
Robert Schumann publishes Carnaval, a piano miniature cycle
1837
Franz Liszt uses the term “recital” to describe a solo performance
1840
Berlioz publishes an influential orchestration treatise
1843
Adolphe Saxe patents the saxophone
1846
The first American music conservatory, the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore is founded
1857
Claude Monet exhibits his painting ‘Impression: Soleil Levant’ (Impression: Sunrise)
1874
Thomas Edison invents the phonograph
1877
The University of Michigan establishes the first School of Music in the United States
1880
Edvard Munch paints his expressionistic The Scream. The World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago introduces millions of visitors to ragtime
1893
Debussy’s impressionistic orchestral piece Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun premieres
1894
Tom Turpin is the first African-American composer to publish a rag
1897
Scott Joplin publishes his first rags, “Oriental Rag” and “Maple Leaf Rag”
1899
Radio transmits speech for the first time
1900
Alessando Moreschi, the last castrato singer, records several pieces
1902
Charles Ives composes the experimental piece The Unanswered Question. “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” is one of Tin Pan Alley’s most successful popular songs
1908
Performances of New York’s Metropolitan Opera comprise the first public radio broadcasts
1910
Schoenberg finishes his Expressionist song cycle Pierrot Lunaire
1912
The Berlin Philharmonic records the complete fifth symphony by Beethoven (requiring eight discs bound as an ‘album’). Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring sparks a riot among its Parisian audience
1913
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) is formed to collect royalties from performances
1914
Ives’s song The Things Our Fathers Loved illustrates collage technique. Henry Cowell’s The Tides of Manaunaun makes use of tone clusters. The Original Dixieland Jazz Band so the first group to record a jazz number, the Livery Stable Blues
1917
Stravinsky writes Ragtime for Eleven Instruments
1918
Leon Theremin introduces the eerie electronic instrument bearing his name
1920
Schoenberg completes Piano Suite, Op. 25, the first multi-movement work to use his new twelve-tone method. Bessie Smith’s first recording for Columbia, “Down Hearted Blues”, puts the company’s books back in the black
1923
Cowell performs the string piano work The Banshee
1925
Bessie Smith, Joe Smith, and Fletcher Henderson record “Lost Your Head Blues”
1926
The Jazz Singer is the first feature film to contain spoken dialogue
1927
George Gershwin writes Broadway musical Girl Crazy, including the hit song “I Got Rhythm”
1930
Edgard Varèse composes Ionisation, the first piece to feature only percussion instruments
1931
Berlin and London present public television broadcasts
1936
John Cage devises the first prepared piano work, published two years later as Bacchanale
1938
Glenn Miller releases what will be his big-band theme song, “Moonlight Serenade”
1939
Stan Kenton’s “Artistry in Rhythm” illustrates progressive jazz
1943
Gillespie and Parker record the bebop number “Shaw ‘Nuff”
1945
Billboard Magazine introduces the classification”rhythm and blues”
1949
Symphonie Pour un Homme Seule (symphony for one man alone)- the first major musique concrète composition- is broadcast on the radio
1950
Cage’s 4’33” challenges the boundaries of what constitutes music
1952
“Minor Intrusion”, by Charlie Mingus, demonstrates the Jazz/classical mix called “third stream” jazz. Bill Haley and the Comets record the rock-and-roll hit “Rock Around the Clock”
1954
Le Caine creates Dripsody
1955
Elvis Presley sings on the Ed Sullivan show, viewed by 33% of the American population. His rockabilly hit “Hound Dog” begins to sell three million copies. The Forbidden Planet is the first film with a solely electronic soundtrack
1956
The Illiac Suite is the first computer-generated composition
1957
The Dave Brubeck Quartet records “Take Five” one of the most popular cool jazz numbers. John Coltrane releases the hard bop piece “Giant Steps” while Miles Davis demonstrates modal jazz in “So What”
1959
The Shirelles “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” (In 32-bar form) is the first song by an all-girl group to reach Number 1 on the Billboard “Hot 100” listing. Ornette Coleman breaks jazz boundaries with “Free Jazz”
1960
Hits such as “The Girl from Ipanema” popularizes bossa nova jazz. The Four Seasons “Sherry” is the Number One pop rock hit
1962
Cassette tapes are introduced
1963
Terry Riley composes the popular minimalist work In C.
1964
“In the midnight hour” illustrates Memphis Soul. Bob Dylan shocks folk audiences by bringing an electric guitar on stage. The Byrds record the folk-rock hit “Mr. Tambourine Man”
1965
Frank Zappa explores art rock in his album Freak Out!
1966
Jefferson Airplane’s recording of “White Rabbit” is an acid rock hit in the Phrygian mode
1967
Annea Lockwood oversees the first performance of “Piano Burning”. Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild” is released, and a lyric from the song may have given heavy metal rock its label
1968
Punk rock and disco both gain national attention, and “The Hustle” climbs to Number One
1975
Hard rock tunes like Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” climb the charts
1976
The success of “Rapper’s Delight” pulls both hip hop and rap into the mainstream
1979
Michael Jackson records the album Thriller
1982
Compact discs become commercially available
1983
Miles Davis illustrates the Jazz/Rock mixture of fusion in “You’re Under Arrest”
1985
Paul Simon’s Graceland album mixes pop, rock, and world music
1986
DVDs are introduced
1997
Blu-Ray discs reach the market
2006
