| Ancient
World
60,000 BC -
The first flutes were made out of bone.
3000 BC -
Early lyres and harps were played by the
Sumerians in Mesopotamia (the Middle East).
800 BC -
Mesopotamians developed a system of musical notation.
Middle Ages 476 - 1492
c.AD 500 -
Musical notes were given names.
700s -
Japanese court music (gagaku) was developed.
1100 -
Troubadours told of heroes and legends in song.
Renaissance 1492 - 1600
1500s -
Major and minor scales were developed.
c. 1550 -
Four-stringed violin invented.
17th & 18th Centuries 1600s -
The first Stradivarius violins were made.
1607 -
Montiverdi composed the first major opera, Orfeo.
c. 1700 -
Piano invented.
1729 -
J.S. Bach's St Matthew Passion.
1741 -
Handel's Messiah.
1764 -
Mozart composed his first symphony.
19th Century 1808 -
Beethoven's 6th Symphony (Pastoral).
1830 -
Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.
1871 -
Verdi's opera Aida.
1877 -
Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake.
1882 -
Wagner's opera Parsifal.
1894 -
Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune by Debussy.
20th Century c. 1900 -
Beginning of jazz.
1924 -
Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.
1936 -
Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.
1945 -
Britten's opera Peter Grimes.
1954 -
Start of rock-'n'-roll.
1962 -
The Beatles' Love Me Do.
1970 -
Jimi Hendrix dies. He redefined the possibilities of the electric guitar. The effects he created at the time (late 1960s) were totally new.
|