History of music

The great styles, the lives of the composers and the inventions that changed music.

Middle Ages (800–1400) — Six centuries in which European music moved from single-line chant learned by heart to polyphony written on staves.
c. 850 : The first neumes — Monks wrote small signs called neumes above the sung texts to recall the movement of the melody: the beginning of music writing in the West.
c. 1025 : Guido of Arezzo: the staff and ut, re, mi — The monk Guido of Arezzo placed notes on lines and taught his singers the syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, taken from a hymn to St John the Baptist.
Song and traditional music (1100–2026) — Tunes passed on by ear (songs, dances and carols) run through all of history and feed every other kind of music.
c. 1100 : The first troubadours — William IX of Aquitaine is the earliest troubadour whose songs survive: the love song in everyday language enters history.
c. 1200 : The polyphony of Notre-Dame in Paris — Léonin and then Pérotin composed pieces in two, three and four parts for the cathedral, among the first masterpieces of written polyphony.
c. 1320 : The Ars nova — Treatises associated with Philippe de Vitry set out a more precise rhythmic notation, allowing note values to be divided into two as well as three.
c. 1360 : Machaut’s Messe de Nostre Dame — Written in the early 1360s, it is the earliest known complete polyphonic Mass by a single composer.
Renaissance (1400–1600) — The golden age of vocal polyphony, music printing and the first books for lute, vihuela and guitar.
1501 : Petrucci prints music — In Venice, Ottaviano Petrucci published the Odhecaton, the first collection of polyphonic music printed with movable type: scores became something people could buy.
1536 : Luis de Milán’s El Maestro — The first printed book of music for the vihuela, the Spanish cousin of the guitar, with fantasias, pavanes and accompanied songs.
1546 : The first printed guitar pieces — In his Tres libros de música, Alonso Mudarra published a few pieces for the four-course guitar: the oldest known printed music for the guitar.
1584 : Equal temperament calculated — In China, Prince Zhu Zaiyu precisely calculated how to divide the octave into twelve equal semitones; the Flemish Simon Stevin reached the same result independently shortly afterwards.
1589 : Thoinot Arbeau’s Orchésographie — This manual describes Renaissance dances step by step with their tunes; one of its branles became the carol “Ding Dong Merrily on High”.
Baroque (1600–1750) — From the birth of opera to the death of Bach: basso continuo, contrasts, ornaments and the triumph of major and minor.
1600 : Euridice, the oldest surviving opera — In Florence, Jacopo Peri staged Euridice, sung throughout: a new genre was born, opera.
1607 : Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo — Premiered in Mantua, it is the first great masterpiece of opera, with a rich and varied orchestra.
c. 1700 : Cristofori invents the piano — In Florence, Bartolomeo Cristofori built a keyboard whose strings are struck by hammers: at last you could play loud or soft depending on your touch. In 1711 Scipione Maffei described it and called it “gravecembalo col piano e forte”.
1720 : The oldest surviving piano — This Cristofori piano dated 1720 is now at the Metropolitan Museum in New York; two others, from 1722 and 1726, are in Rome and Leipzig.
1722 : The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I — Bach wrote a prelude and fugue in each of the 24 major and minor keys, to show that a well-tuned keyboard can play in all of them.
1725 : Vivaldi’s Four Seasons — Published in Amsterdam, these four violin concertos each depict a season, with accompanying sonnets: a model of descriptive music.
1742 : Handel’s Messiah — Premiered in Dublin, this English oratorio and its “Hallelujah” chorus remain among the most performed choral works in the world.
Classical period (1750–1820) — The age of Haydn, Mozart and the young Beethoven: clear melodies, balanced forms and the rise of the fortepiano.
1753 : C. P. E. Bach’s Essay — Bach’s son published the first part of his Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments: fingering, ornaments, expression. Haydn and Beethoven studied it.
1777 : Mozart discovers Stein’s pianos — In Augsburg, Mozart tried Johann Andreas Stein’s fortepianos and, in a letter to his father, enthusiastically described their precise, even action.
c. 1790 : The six-string guitar — In the late 18th century the guitar gave up double strings (courses) for six single strings: the E-A-D-G-B-E tuning still used today.
Romantic period (1810–1900) — The 19th century put emotion, the individual and nature at the centre; the piano became the king of instruments.
1810 : Für Elise — Beethoven dated this little piano album leaf 1810; published only in 1867, it has become one of the most played pieces by students worldwide.
1815 : Maelzel’s metronome — Johann Nepomuk Maelzel patented a graduated pendulum metronome, based on an invention by Dietrich Winkel. Beethoven was one of the first to mark his tempos in beats per minute.
1821 : Érard’s double escapement — The Érard firm patented the double escapement, which lets a note be repeated very quickly: every modern grand piano inherits it.
1825 : The cast-iron frame — The American Alpheus Babcock patented a metal frame cast in a single piece: it withstands the enormous string tension and paved the way for the powerful modern piano.
1830 : Sor’s Guitar Method — In Paris, Fernando Sor published a method that reflects on posture, touch and harmony on the guitar; it remains a reference for classical guitarists.
1839 : Chopin’s Preludes — Chopin published his 24 Preludes, Op. 28, one in each key, as a tribute to Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, which he deeply admired.
1840 : The first “recital” — In London, Liszt’s concerts were billed as “recitals”: a single pianist holds the whole programme, a format that became the norm.
1856 : The Torres guitar — The Spanish luthier Antonio de Torres completed “La Leona”. His larger guitars, with refined internal fan bracing, set the shape of the modern classical guitar.
1859 : The Steinway grand — Steinway patented an overstrung grand on a cast-iron frame: more power and resonance, the model for concert grands.
Late Romanticism and national schools (1860–1920) — In the late 19th century, each country looked for its own voice in its folk songs, while the Romantic orchestra and harmony reached their most lavish.
1865 : Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde — From its famous opening chord, this opera pushes the limits of tonal harmony; many see it as the start of modern music.
Choro and Brazilian music (1870–2026) — From Rio’s choro to samba and bossa nova, Brazil invented musics where the guitar, syncopation and melody blend with virtuosity and gentleness.
c. 1870 : The birth of choro — In Rio de Janeiro, flautist Joaquim Callado and his musicians played European dances with Brazilian syncopation: choro was born.
1874 : Pictures at an Exhibition — Mussorgsky wrote for piano a walk through an exhibition of paintings by his friend Hartmann; Ravel orchestrated it in 1922.
1877 : Edison’s phonograph — Thomas Edison recorded and played back the human voice on a cylinder: for the first time, a performance could be preserved.
Tango (1880–2026) — Born in the late 19th century on the shores of the Río de la Plata, between Buenos Aires and Montevideo, tango is at once a dance, a music and a poetry.
1887 : The gramophone and the disc — Emil Berliner patented the gramophone, which plays a flat disc. Discs are easy to copy: the start of the record industry.
Impressionism (1890–1930) — Around Debussy and Ravel, French music sought colour, light and atmosphere rather than dramatic storytelling.
1894 : Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun — Premiered in Paris, this orchestral work by Debussy, opening with a flute solo, paved the way for musical Impressionism.
Ragtime (1895–1920) — The syncopated piano music of African Americans, all the rage in the United States around 1900, and one of the sources of jazz.
1897 : Tom Turpin’s Harlem Rag — One of the first rags published by an African American composer: the ragtime craze begins.
1899 : Maple Leaf Rag — Published in Sedalia, Missouri, Scott Joplin’s rag became a huge sheet-music hit and made him the “King of Ragtime”.
20th-century modernism (1900–1950) — In the early 20th century, composers questioned tonality, regular rhythm and inherited forms.
Blues (1900–2026) — Born among African Americans in the southern United States, the blues gave its chord pattern, “blue” notes and feeling to jazz, rock and almost all popular music.
c. 1903 : W. C. Handy hears the blues — At the Tutwiler railway station in Mississippi, Handy heard a guitarist sliding a knife along the strings: an encounter he later described as his discovery of the blues.
Film music (1908–2026) — From silent-cinema pianists to great symphonic scores, music tells, together with the picture, what the characters feel.
1908 : Saint-Saëns writes for film — For the film L’Assassinat du duc de Guise, Camille Saint-Saëns wrote one of the very first original film scores.
Jazz (1910–2026) — Born in New Orleans in the early 20th century, jazz put improvisation and swing at the heart of music.
1912 : The Memphis Blues — W. C. Handy published The Memphis Blues, among the first blues published as sheet music; the blues left the South and spread across the country.
1913 : The Rite of Spring — The premiere of Stravinsky’s ballet in Paris caused a famous uproar; its irregular, violent rhythms shaped the whole 20th century.
1916 : Pelo Telefone, the first recorded samba — The musician Donga registered Pelo Telefone with the National Library of Brazil; it is often regarded as the first recorded samba.
1917 : The first jazz record — The Original Dixieland Jass Band, a New Orleans group, made the first jazz record in New York; it was an instant success.
1917 : Mi noche triste — Carlos Gardel sang and recorded Mi noche triste, often regarded as the first tango song: tango began to tell stories.
1920 : Mamie Smith’s Crazy Blues — This record sold in the hundreds of thousands and showed record companies that there was an audience for African American musicians.
1920 : Radio comes into the home — Pittsburgh’s KDKA station began regular broadcasts for the public. Within a few years, radio brought music into every home.
c. 1923 : Twelve-tone technique — Arnold Schoenberg devised a method of composition based on a row of all twelve notes; his Suite for Piano, Op. 25 (1921–1923) uses it throughout.
1924 : Rhapsody in Blue — In New York, George Gershwin himself played the piano part of his rhapsody, which brought jazz into the concert hall; it opens with a famous clarinet glissando.
1925 : Electrical recording — The microphone replaced the acoustic horn in studios: records became far more faithful, and singers could sing softly, close to the mic.
1928 : Ravel’s Boléro — Premiered in Paris for the dancer Ida Rubinstein, it repeats the same theme while constantly changing instruments, in a single great crescendo.
Folk (1930–2026) — In the United States and then worldwide, singers with guitars took up traditional tunes and wrote songs about their own times.
c. 1932 : The electric guitar — George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacker began selling the “Frying Pan”, a lap steel guitar with an electromagnetic pickup, among the first electric guitars on the market.
1933 : King Kong and Hollywood scoring — Max Steiner’s symphonic score for King Kong showed what music could bring to sound film and launched the Hollywood style.
1936 : Robert Johnson’s recordings — In two sessions (1936 and 1937), the bluesman recorded 29 songs that later inspired rock guitarists.
1940 : This Land Is Your Land — Woody Guthrie wrote this song about the America of ordinary people; it became a folk anthem.
1941 : Quartet for the End of Time — As a prisoner of war, Olivier Messiaen premiered this work in a camp in Silesia with three fellow prisoners, on a run-down piano.
Contemporary music (1945–2026) — Since 1945: serialism, electronic music, chance, minimalism… Art music explores every possible sound.
c. 1945 : Bebop — Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie made their first major recordings together: fast tempos, complex harmonies; jazz became music for listening.
1948 : The long-playing record — Columbia launched the 33⅓ rpm long-playing record, holding about twenty minutes per side: a symphony could be heard almost without interruption.
1948 : Musique concrète — Pierre Schaeffer broadcast his Cinq études de bruits, made from recorded sounds (trains, saucepans…): music can be made from any sound.
Rock (1950–2026) — Born in the United States in the mid-1950s from rhythm and blues and country, rock made the electric guitar the instrument of a generation.
1950 : The solid-body electric guitar — Leo Fender brought out the Esquire, then the Broadcaster, renamed the Telecaster in 1951: a simple, sturdy, mass-produced electric guitar.
1952 : John Cage’s 4′33″ — Pianist David Tudor sat at the piano and played no notes for four minutes and thirty-three seconds: the music is the sound of the room.
1955 : Chuck Berry’s Maybellene — This first hit blended country and rhythm and blues with the electric guitar up front: one of the founding records of rock and roll.
1958 : Chega de Saudade and bossa nova — João Gilberto recorded this song by Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes with his syncopated guitar and soft voice: bossa nova was born.
1964 : The Moog synthesizer — Robert Moog presented a keyboard-controlled modular synthesizer: electronic sound became accessible to musicians.
1964 : Terry Riley’s In C — In San Francisco, 53 short patterns freely repeated by the musicians over a steady pulse: a founding work of minimalism.
1964 : A Fistful of Dollars — For this Sergio Leone western, Ennio Morricone mixed whistling, electric guitar, bells and choir: film music changed its face.
1965 : Dylan goes electric — At the Newport Folk Festival, Bob Dylan played with an electric guitar and a rock band; part of the audience protested, but folk and rock drew closer.
1977 : The Star Wars score — John Williams wrote a large symphonic score with leitmotifs for Star Wars, in the tradition of Wagner and 1930s Hollywood.
1982 : The compact disc — The CD, developed by Philips and Sony, went on sale: digital sound reached the home.
1983 : The MIDI standard — Instrument makers adopted MIDI, a common language that lets keyboards, synthesizers and computers talk to each other. It is thanks to MIDI that your keyboard can talk to this site.
2005 : Online video — With the launch of YouTube, anyone could watch concerts and tutorials from all over the world: learning an instrument had never been so accessible.