Classical Music Time Line
Click to listen to "Pathétique" by Beethoven.
Early Music: The First Thirteen Centuries
400
St Augustine writes his spiritual autobiography, The Confessions.
590 Gregory the Great, eventually linked to Gregorian chant, becomes Pope.
800 Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne "Holy Roman Emperor"
900 Earliest surviving chant books with music notation.
1003 Leif Erikson voyages to North America
1095 Pope Urban II proclaims the First Crusade.
1206 Temujin is enthroned as Genghis Khan.
1214 Oxford University founded
1298 Marco Polo writes his Book of Travels to Tartary and China
The 14th Century to the Renaissance
1348-49
Black Plague kills one third of Europe's population
1387 Geoffrey Chaucer writes The Canterbury Tales.
1440 Josquin des Pres was born in France.
1453
Fall of the Byzantine Empire. Constantinople becomes Istanbul
1492 Christopher Columbus reaches the New World. (the Bahamas)
1495 Music theorist Johannes Tinctoris writes his Dictionary of Musical Terms.
1503 Leonardo Da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa.
1505 Thomas Tallis was born in England.
1521 Josquin des Pres dies.
1525
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina is born in Italy.
1527
Martin Luther nails his "95 Theses" to the door of his Wittenberg church.
1528 Elizabeth Tutor becomes queen of the British Isles
1542 Orlandus Lessus was born in Mons (now part of Belgium).
1543
William Byrd was born in England.
1545
Council of Trent reforms the Catholic Church.
1549
Thomas Luis de Victoria was born.
1554
Giovanni Gabrieli was born in Germany.
1563
John Dowland was born in England.
1567
Claudio Monteverdi was born in Gcremona, Italy.
1571
Michael Practorius was born.
Early Baroque
1584
Sir Walter Raleigh discovers and annexes Virginia.
1585 Thomas Tallis was born.
1587 Claudio Monterverdi wrote the First Book of Madrigals.
1590
Claudio Monterverdi wrote the Second Book of Mardrigals.
1594
Orlandus Lessus dies.
Giovanni Pierluigi
da Palestrina dies.
1597 John Dowland publishes his First Booke of Songes.
1600-1601 William Shakespeare writes Hamlet.
1603 John Dowland wrote Third and Last Book of Songs or Aires.
King James I of Scots became King of the British Isles.
1607 Claudio Monteverdi wrote the opera Orfeo.
1608 Dutchman Johann Lippershey invents the telescope.
1611
Tomas Luis de Victoria dies.
1611
Peter Paul Rubens paints the Descent From the Cross.
1612 Giovanni Gabrieli dies.
1618
Thirty Years' War begins between the Hapsburg Holy Roman Empire and France, England, Sweden, ect
1621 Michael Praetorius dies.
1623 William Byrd dies.
1626
John Dowland dies.
1637
First public opera house opens in Venice.
1642 Claudio Monterverdi wrote the opera L'Incoronazione di Poppea.
1643
Claudio Monteverdi dies.
Beginning of long reign (to 1715) of Louis XIV in France.
1653
Johann Pachelbel born
Arcangelo Corellia is born in Italy.
1659
Henry Purcell born in England.
Late Baroque
1660
Beginning of the English Reformation.
1668 Rrancois Couperio born in France.
1671
Tomaso Albinoni born in Venice.
1678
Antonio Vivaldi born on March 4, 1678, Venezia (Italy).
1681
Georg Philipp Telemann born in Magdeburg, Germany.
1683
Jean-Philippe Rameau born in France.
1685
Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21in Eisenach, a small town in Germany.
George Handel
born in Germany.
Domenico Scarlatti
born in Italy.
1695
Henry Purcell dies.
1706
Johann Pachelbel dies.
1708
Bach writes Toccatas and Fugues in D Minor.
1709 Bartolomeo Cristofori invents the hammer action pianoforte
1711
On April 1st 1761 Hayden became second conductor of Prince Paul Anton Esterházy (1711-1762).
1713
Arcangelo Corelli dies.
1714
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, J. S, Bach's second oldest son, born.
Christoph Willibals von Gluck
born on July 2.
1717
George Handle wrote Water Music.
1722
Telemann appointed Cantor of St. Thomas in Leipzig but Hamburg will not release him.
1723 J.S. Bach accepts Leipzig position offered to Telemann.
1725 Opus 8 - Vivaldi's The Four Seasons were published in Amsterdam.
1727
Bach writes St Matthew Passion.
1732
Joseph Haydn born on March 31 in Rohrau in Burgenland.
1733
Francois Couperin dies.
Bach writes the Magnificat in D Major.
1737 Antonio Stradivari instrument maker extraordinaire, dies.
1741
Antonio Vivaldi dies July 27, 1741, Wien (Austria).
1742
Bach writes his Art of Fugue (Die Kunst der Fugue.
Handel's Messiah was first performed.
Frederick the Great opens the Berlin Opera House.
1748 Discovery of the ruined city of Pompei.
1750
Johann Sebastian Bach dies July 28.
Tornago Albinoni
dies.
1751 Denis Diderot finishes editing his Encyclopedie in 17 volumes.
The Classical Era
1754 Anglo-French War in North America.
1756
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart born.
1757
First public concert in Philadelphia given by John Palma.
1759 George Handel dies.
Voltaire publishes Candide; British Museum opened to the public.
1762 Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice was staged in Vienna in 1762.
Leopold Mozart took his six year old son, Wolfgang and his daughter on their first performing tour.
1764 Jean-Philippe Rameau dies.
1768 Jean-Jacques Rousseau publishes his Dictionnarie de musique.
1770 December 17 Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn.
1772
First Encyclopedia Britannica issued in Scotland.
1775 James Watt perfects the steam engine.
1776 American Declaration of Independence signed.
1782 Nucciki Paganini born Genoa in Italy.
1783
Great Britain formally recognizes American independence.
1784 Haydn and Mozart may have meet in Vienna.
Haydn composed the Paris Symphonies (Nos. 82-87).
1785 Mozart dedicated to his friend, Joseph Haydn, six string quartets.
1786
Mozart's Marriage of Figaro first performed.
When Beethoven was sixteen, he played for Mozart, who reportedly said, "Keep your eyes on him; someday he will give the world something to talk about."
1787
Mozart's Don Giovanni was first performed.
Christoph Willibald von Gluck
dies.
1788
Carl Philip Emanuel Bach dies.
Mozart composed Symphony No. 40 in G minor and Symphony No. 41 Jupiter.
The Bridge from Classical to Romantic
1789
French Revolution takes place.
George Washington (1789-1797)
1790 Immanuel Kant publishes his Critique of Judgement
Mozart's The Magic Flute was performed.
1791 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies.
Franz Schubert
born.
1791-1795 Hadyn composed the London Symphonies, which include the No. 92 the Oxford, No. 94 the Surprise, and No. 101 the Clock.
1792 France declared a Republic.
Thirteen years old Beethoven traveled to Vienna where he studied with Joseph Haydn for a year
.
Guiaccguno Rossini
born.
1793 First national art gallery in Europe, the Louvre, opens.
1797
Gaetano Donizetti born in Bergamo, Italy.
Franz Schubert
born.
1798
Haydn's great oratorio The Creation was performed.
Lyrical Ballads
of William Wordsworth appears. First music periodical appears in Leipzig.
1799 Napoleon Bonaparte nominated First Consul of France. Rosetta Stone discovered in Egypt.
1801 Vincenzo Bellini born in Catania, Sicily.
1803 Hector Berlioz born in a small town near Grenoble, France.
In the summer of this year, Beethoven begins work on the Symphony No. 3" (The Eroica).
1804 Mikhail Glinka born in Smolensk.
1808
Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth Symphonies were completed by the summer of 1808.
1809
Joseph Haydn dies.
Felix Mendelssohn
born in Hamburg.
Beethoven's Op. 73, Piano Concerto no. 5 ('Emperor') in E-flat, composed.
1810
Fredric Chopin born.
Robert Schumann
born.
1811
November 28, Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.5 in E-flat Major Op. 73 "Emperor" first performance in the Leipzig Gewandhaus.
Franz Liszt
born in Raiding, Hungary.
1813
Richard Wagner born in Leipzig on May 22.
Giuseppe Verdi
born in Parma, Italy.
Critic E.T.A. Hoffmann declares that instrumental music "is the most romantic of all the arts."
1814-15 Congress of Vienna attempts to restore a pre-Revolutionary Europe.
Early Romantic
1815
Napoleon loses Battle of Waterloo.
1816 Rossini composed The Barber of Seville.
1818
By the year 1818 Beethoven was totally deaf.
1819
Clara Wiek Shuman born.
1822
Schubert writes Eighth Symphony ('Unfinished').
1823
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (Choral) was completed in 1823.
Edouard Lalo
born in France.
1824
Anton Bruckner born in Ansfelden, Austria.
Bedrich Smetana
born in Litomysl, Bohemia.
1825 Johann Strauss II born.
Mendelssohn composed the Octet in E flat
1826 Bellini composed Bianca e Gernando
Mendelssohn wrote A Midsummer's Night Dream.
1827 On March 26 Beethoven dies.
Schubert visits a dying Beethoven.
Bellini composes Il Pirata.
1828
Franz Schubert dies.
1829-1830
Berlioz wrote his Symphonie Fantastique, which he finished during the revolution of 1830.
Berlioz wrote the Symphonie fantastique (fantastic Symphony
).
Chopin composed the Concerto No. 1 in E Minor for Piano Op.11
1831
the premieres of two of Bellini's most famous operas, La Sonnambula and his masterpiece, Norma, brought him international fame.
1833
Johannes Brahms born Hamburg.
Alexander Borodin
born in Russa.
1835
Lucia di Lammermoot was written by Donizetti.
Camille Saint-Saens
born in Paris.
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) born.
1836
Leo Delibes born in France.
1837
Victoria succeeds William IV to the English throne.
Shumann founded his journal Die Neue Zeitschrifi fir Music (New Musical Journal)
1838 Regular Atlantic steamship service begins.
Georges Bizet
born in Paris.
Max Burch
born Germany
1839
Hector Berlioz wrote Romeo and Juliet and The Damnation of Faust.
Modest Mussorgsky born in Russia.
1840
Peter Tchaikovsky born.
1841
Antonin Dvork born near Prague.
Emmanuel Chabrier
born.
1842
Wagner's opera The Flying Dutchman first performed.
1843
Edvard Grieg born in Bergen, Norway.
1844
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov born in Tikhvin, Russia.
1845
Gabriel Faure born in France.
1846
Berlioz's Damnation of Faust performed.
Mendelssohn's Elijah was performed.
1847
Felix Mendelssohn dies.
1848
Gaetano Donizeti dies.
1849
Fredric Chopin dies.
Gold discovered in California and Australia
Dickens wrote David Copperfield 1849-1850.
1851 Herman Melville publishes Moby Dick
Verdi composes his opera Rigoletto.
1853
Liszt composes Piano Sonata in B Minor.
Brahms ment Liszt in Weimar. Later he became friends with Robert and Clara Schumann.
1854
Leos Janacek born in Moravia (later Czechoslovakia).
1855
Ernest Chausson born.
1856
Robert Schumann dies.
Christian Sinding
born.
Wagner composes Die Walküre
1857
Mikhail Glinka dies.
Edward Elgar
born in England.
Ruggero Leoncavallo
born in Naples.
1858
Giacomo Puccini born.
First Atlantic cable laid.
1859 Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species.
1860 Giuseppe Garibaldi occupies Naples and precipitates the unification of Italy.
Gustav Mahler
born Kalist, Bohemia.
Hugo Wolf
born in Austria.
Issac Albeniz
born in Catalnoia.
Late Romantic
1861
Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)
1861-5
Civil War ravages the United States.
1862 Claude Debussy born in St. Germainen-Laye.
Frederick Delius
bornin France.
1863 Pietro Mascagni born.
1864
Richard Strauss born.
Geneva Convention establishes Red Cross
1865
Carl Nielsen born.
Jean Sibelius
born in Finland.
Leo Tolstoy publishes War and Peace.
Union Pacific Railway completed in U.S.
1866 Erik Satie born.
Ferruccio Busoni
born in Italy.
1867 Mussorgsky finished Night on a Bare Mountian.
1868
Grieg finished the Piano Concerto in A minor.
Gioacchino Rossini dies.
1869
Hector Berlioz dies
1870
Leo Delibes composed Coppelia.
1870-1 Franco-Prussian War erupts.
1871
Verdi composes his opera Aida.
1872
Ralph Vaughan Williams born.
Alexander Scriabin
born in Moscow.
Saint-Saens writes the Concerto No. 1 in A Minor for Cello, Op. 33.
1873
Sergei Rachmanioff born.
Lalo composed Symphonie espagnole.
1874
Arnold Schoenburg born.
Gustav Holst
born.
Charles Ives born
in Danbury, Connecticut.
Verdi composes his opera Requiem.
1875
Bizet's opera Carmen premiere.
Tchaikovsky completes Swan Lake.
Georges Bizet
dies.
Maurice Ravel
born 7 March 1875, Ciboure (France)
1876
Thomas Edison invents the phonograph.
Brahms completed his Symphony No. 1 in C Minor.
Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt performed on the 24th February 1876.
In 1876 the premiere performance of the entire Der Ring des Nibelungen took place.
Manuel de Falla
born in Spain.
1879
Smetana finished Ma Vlast (My Fatherland).
Ottorino Respighi
born in Bologna in Itlay.
1878-81
Brahms writes Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat Op. 83
1878
Tchaikovsky wrote Eugene Onegin, the Fourth Symphony, and the Violin Concerto.
1881.
Modest Mossorgsky dies.
Bela Bartok
born Romania..
Saint-Saens wrote his Concerto No. 3 in B Minor for Violin, Op. 61.
Percy Grainger
born in Melbourne.
1882
Igor Stravinsky born in Oranienbaum in Russia..
Zan Kodaly
born in Hungary.
1883
Brahms composes Symphony No. 3 in F Major
1884
Bedrich Smetana dies.
1885
Richard Wagner dies.
Albania Berg
was born in Vienna.
1886
Franz Liszt dies.
1887
Alexander Borden dies.
Heater Villa-Lobos
born in Brazil.
Brahms wrote the Double Concerto.
Anton Bracken's Symphony No. 8 in C minor premieres.
Rimsky-Korsakov writes Russian Easter Overture, Op. 36 and Scheherazade, Op. 35 and the Ccapriccio espagnol.
Hugo Wolf wrote the Italian Serenade for string quartet.
1888
Mahler finished his First Symphon in D.
Eric Satie composed his Gymnopedies.
1888-89
Tchaikovsky toured as a conductor during these years. He meet Brahms, Dvorak, and Grieg. He completed his Fifth Symphony and The Sleeping Beauty.
1891
Dvorak becomes the Director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York which he kept for the next three years. This is when he wrote the Symphony N0. 9, "From the New World".
Leo Delibes
dies.
1891-92
Tchaikovsky composes the Nutcracker Suite.
Edouard Lalo dies.
Sergei Prokofiev
born in Sontsovka.
1892
Debussy composes Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun).
Arthur Honegger born in France of Swiss parents, and he kept his Swiss citizenship all his life.
Rachmaninoff composed Prelude in C sharp minor.
1893
Peter Tchaikovsky dies.
Before Tchaikovsky dies he completes the Pathetique Symphony.
1894
Emmanuel Chabrier dies.
1895
Mahler's Second Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection" first performed.
Paul Hindemith
born near Frankfurt.
1896
Clara Wreck Shumann dies.
Anton Bruckner
dies.
Puccini's opera La Boheme was first produced in Turin.
Hugo Wolf's opera Der Corregidor was first performed. In the same year he also wrote Italienisches Liederbuch.
Virgil Thompson
was born in Kansas City, Missouri.
1897
. Johannes Brahms dies.
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
1897-1898
Richard Strauss writes Don Quizote.
1898
George Gershwin born.
1899
Johann Strauss II dies.
Ernest Chausson
dies.
Francis Poulenc
born in France.
Schoenberg produced his first major work, the tone poem Transfigured Night.
1900
Aaron Copland born.
Puccini's opera Tosca was first produced in Rome.
Kurt Weill
born in Germany.
Early 20th Century
1901
Giuseppe Verdi dies.
Joaquin Rodrigo
born in Sagunto on November 22.
Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)
Elgar composes Pomp and Circumstance.
1902
William Walton born in Oldham, Lancashire.
1903
Hugo Wolf dies.
Sibelius composed his Violin Concerto.
1904 Antonin Dvork dies.
Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly was first produced.
Alexander Scriabin composed La Poeme de Pestase (Poem of Ecstasy).
1905
Michael Tippett born in London.
1906
Dmitri Shostakovich born in St. Petersburg.
1906-09
Issac Albeniz spent these years composing Iberia.
1907
Edvard Grieg dies.
Stravinsky first composed the Petrushka, buy revised it in 1947.
1908
Olivier Messiaen born in Avignon.
Maurice Ravel composes Daphnis et Chloe.
Elliott Carter born in New York.
Rachmaninoff conducted the first performance of the Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Or.27.
1909
Auguste Rodin sculpts his Head of Mahler.
Issac Albeniz
dies.
1910 Vaughan Williams composed Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.
Samuel Barber born in Pennsylvania.
Stravinsky's The Firebird premiered.
1911
Gustav Mahler dies.
1912
Maurice Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe premeired.
Schoenberg composed one of his most influential works, Pierrot Lunaire
John Cage
born in Los Angeles.
1913
Benjamin Britten born in England.
Witold Lutoslawski
born in Warsaw.
Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring previewed in Paris.
1914
Charles Ives composed Three Places in new England.
1914-1918
World War I.
During WWI Sibelius composed his Symphony No. 5.
1915 Alexander Scriabin dies.
Falla composed El amor brujo (Love the Magician).
1916 Claude Monet begins his series of waterlily paintings.
Carl Nielsen's Symphony No. 4 Op. 29, "Inextinguishable" was first performed.
1916-17 Prokofiev's Classical Symphony (No. 1), in D major was published.
1917
Russian Revolution led by Vldimir Ilyich Lenin and Leon Trotsky.
Ottorino Respighi's The Fountains of Rome was first performed.
1918 Claude Debussy dies.
Leonard Bernstein
born in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Gustav Holst introduced his composition, The Planets.
1919 Ruggero Leoncavallo dies.
1920
Babe Ruth debuts with the "Bronx Bombers," New York's beloved Yankees.
Max Bruch
dies.
Vaughan Williams composed The Lark Ascending.
1921 Prokofiev's Concerto No.3 in C for Piano, Op.26 premiered.
Robert Simpson born in Leamington Spa.
1922 Carl Nielsen composed Symphony No. 5.
Iannis Xenakis
born in Romania.
James Joyce publishes Ulysses.
1924 Giacomo Puccini dies.
Gabriel Faure
dies.
Rerruccio Busoni
dies.
George Gershwin composed Rhapsody in Blue.
Ottorino Respighi's Pines of Rome first performed.
1925
Erik Satie dies.
Pierre Boulez
born in Paris.
Luciano Berio
born in Oneglia.
George Gershwin composed Piano Concerto in F.
1926
Leos Janacek wrote Sinfonietta.
Hans Werner Henze born in Germany.
Maurice Ravel's Bolero premiered as a concert piece.
1928 Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.
George Gershwin composed American in Paris.
Leos Janacek
dies.
Schoenberg wrote Variations for Orchestra, Op. 31.
1929 U.S. stock market collapses.
Ottorino Respighi's Roman Festivals first performed.
1930
Virgil Thompson composed The Plow That Broke the Plains.
1931
Carl Nielsen dies.
1934
Frederick Delius dies.
Edward Elgar
dies.
Peter Maxwell Davies
born in Manchester.
William Walton's Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Minor first performed in 1934.
1935
Alban Berg composed Violin Concerto. He dies later that year.
1936
Ottorino Respighi dies.
1937
George Gershwin dies.
Maurice Ravel
dies.
Shostakovich composed Symphony No. 5, Op.47.
1938
Barber wrote Adagio for Strings.
1939-1945 World War II.
During this period Arthur Honegger composed Symphony No. 2
During this period Bela Bartok composed his Concerto for Orchestra, the Sixth String Quartet, and the Third Piano Concerto
.
1939-41
Tippett composed Child of Our Time.
1941
Christian Sinding dies.
Messiaen's Quatuor pour le fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time) was written while he was imprisoned during WWII and premiered in 1941.
1942
Copland composed Rodeo.
1943
Sergei Rachmaninoff dies.
1944
Copland composed Appalachian Spring.
Late 20th Century
1945
Pietro Mascagni dies.
Bela Bartok
dies.
1946
Manuel de Falla dies.
1948
P. Goldsmith invents the long-playing record in the U.S.
1949 Richard Strauss dies.
1950
Kurt Weill dies..
1951
Arnold Schoenburg dies.
JD Slinger publishes The Catcher in the Rye.
1953
Sergei Prokofiev dies.
Stostakovich introduced Symphony No. 10, in E Minor, Op. 93.
1954
Charles Ives dies.
1955
Arthur Honegger dies.
1957
Jean Sibelius dies.
1958
Ralph Vaughan Williams dies.
1959
Heitor Villa-Lobos dies.
1961
Percy Grainger dies.
1963
John F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
Francis Poulenc
dies.
Paul Hindemith
dies.
1966 The new Metropolitan Opera House opens in New York.
1967 Zoltan Kodaly dies.
1968
Martin Luther King assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
1969 Neil Armstrong walks on the moon.
1971 Igor Stravinsky dies.
1975 Dmitri Shostakovich dies.
1976 Benjamin Britten dies.
1980
Lutoslawski completed his Third Symphony.
1981
The first space shuttle, Columbia, makes its maiden flight.
Samuel Barber
dies
1983 William Walton dies.
1989
Virgil Thomposon dies.
1990
Aaron Copland dies.
Leonard Bernstein
dies.
1992
John Cage dies.
1994
Witold Lutoslawske died.
Sources:
Classical Music: An Introduction to Classical Music Through the Great Composers and Their Masterworks by John Stanley
Building a Classical Music Library by Bill Parker
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