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530
Writing of the Rule of St. Benedict
set of rules for the Office on running a monastery, -
Period: 768 to 814
Reign of Charlemagne
-Importance of monastery grew
-under more centralized/stable gov't, the arts began to flourish
-return to "Roman" ideals -
800
Charlemagne crowned Emperor by Pope
-
Period: 800 to 900
Musica Enchiriadis
9th century musical treatise, first surviving attempt to set up rules of performance in polyphony in western music -
Period: 800 to 900
Scolica enchiridas
9th century musical treatise and commentary (companion of Musica enchiriadis) -
850
First definitive references to notation
nuemues used to indicate melodic gesture for each syllable, served as reminders for the structure of the melody but could not be sight read, so learning was still done by ear -
Period: 850 to 890
Organa from musica enchiriadis
parallel organum and mixed/oblique organum (early polyphony) -
860
Liber hymnorum
examples of early sequences -
Period: 991 to 1033
Guido of Arezzo
elaborated the music notation system (4 lines, specific notes but no sense of absolute pitch), devised early sofege syllables to aid sight singing, developed "Guidonian hand" to train singers -
1014
Last major item (Credo) added to Mass
-
1025
Tropes of Mass for Christmas Day copied into manuscript for abbey near Limoges
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1026
Micrologus
a practical guide for singers; covers notes, intervals, the 8 modes, melodic composition, and improvised polyphony; written by Guido of Arezzo -
Period: 1098 to 1179
Hildegard von Bingen
-One of the first known composers, the first of whom we have a large body of work for, and first WOMAN composer whose name we know
-Abbess of S. German monastery
-Wrote primarily antiphons and responsories for the Office and sequences for Mass -
1100
Jublimeus, exultemus (aquitanian polyphony)
versus in anquitanian polyphony; represents florid organum style; appears in score notation (lines up the notes of the two voices, creating first attempts at rhythm notation) -
1100
Alleluia Justus ut palma from Ad organum faciendum
note-against-note organum (early polyphony) -
Period: 1100 to 1200
Troubadours/trouveres flourished
(12th century) -
Period: 1100 to 1140
Aquitanian polyphony used
(early 12th century) -
Period: 1130 to 1200
Bernart de Ventadorn
one of the best known/most influential troubadours, brought troubadour traditions to the North to inspire trouveres -
1140
First gothic buildings
-
Period: 1150 to 1201
Leonin
first "named composer; known through "Anonymous IV"; worked and Notre Dame and nearby monastery, compiled Magnus Liber Organi (Great Book of Organum) -
1151
Hildegard von Bingen writes "Ordo virtutum"
earliest surviving music drama -
Period: 1157 to 1225
Notre Dame school flourished
(technically late 12th to early 13th centuries, during Leonin and Perotinus' time) -
Period: 1160 to 1230
Perotin/Perotinus
editied Magus Liber and made many better clauelae, wrote 3 and 4 voice organa (tripla, quadrupla) -
Period: 1170 to 1180
Bernart De Ventadorn writes "Can vei la lauzeta mover"
one of the widely know of his/and all troubadour songs, example of fine amour -
Period: 1170 to 1310
Ars antiqua
Ars antiqua, also called ars veterum or ars vetus, is a term used by modern scholars to refer to the Medieval music of Europe during the High Middle Ages (covers the Notre Dame school of polyphony and early development of the motet) -
1183
First Mass at Notre Dame
-
1198
Perontinus writes "Viderunt omnes"
combined organum and discant styles, compositional devices gave sections in organum coherence and variety -
Period: 1250 to 1280
Ars cantus mensurabilis, Franco of Cologne
Summarized the 6 rhythmic modes being used at the time. -
1257
University of Paris founded
-
1258
Notre Dame cathedral finished
-
Period: 1265 to 1321
Dante Alighieri
Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker; best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia (The Divine Comedy). -
Period: 1270 to 1290
Cantigas de Santa Maria compiled by Alfonso the Wise
collection of poems in Galician-Portugese language with musical notation, monophonic songs all involving the Virgin Mary, example of the multi ethnic/religious count Alfonso held -
1285
Magnus Liber Organi
collection of organa/treatise; contained 2 voice settings of solo portions of responsorial chants; intended for use at Notre Dame -
Period: 1291 to 1361
Philippe de Vitry
wrote music in Roman de Fauvel, credited with starting Ars Nova period -
Period: 1300 to 1377
Guillame de Machaut
most important composer/poet of French Ars Nova period, work copied multiple times in manuscripts (great preservations), wrote first hand accounts of how he worked/what happened in his life -
Period: 1300 to 1399
The Trecento
14th century Italian cultural history; largest surviving body of music was secular polyphony (composed/sung as refined entertainment for literate audiences in courts/cities) -
Period: 1304 to 1374
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
Italian scholar and poet during the early Italian Renaissance, and one of the earliest humanists; rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited with initiating the 14th-century Italian Renaissance and the founding of Renaissance humanism; wrote Il Canzoniere -
1307
The Divine Comedy
Dante Alighieri -
Period: 1310 to 1377
Ars Nova
Developments in notation allowed notes to be written with greater rhythmic independence, shunning the limitations of the rhythmic modes which prevailed in the thirteenth century; secular music acquired much of the polyphonic sophistication previously found only in sacred music; and new techniques and forms, such as isorhythm and the isorhythmic motet, became prevalent. (ended with death of Machaut) -
1317
Roman de Fauvel, manuscript with music
allegorical poem that satirizes corrupt politicians/church officials, contains first examples Ars Nova written by Philipe de Vitry, example of music/poetry/art being used for protest -
1320
Ars Nova notandi
ars nova treatise, Philippe de Vitry -
Period: 1325 to 1297
Francesco Landini
leading composer of ballate and foremost Italian musician of the Trecento; "created"/popularized the landini cadence -
Period: 1337 to 1453
The Hundred Years War
-
Period: 1347 to 1350
The Black Death pandemic
-
Period: 1348 to 1353
The Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio
frame story containing a hundred tales told by a group of ten young men and women sheltering in a villa just outside Florence to escape the Black Death, which had struck the city; shows how people used art/music to cope with hardship -
Period: 1360 to 1420
Ars Subtilior
Ars subtilior is a musical style characterized by rhythmic and notational complexity, centered on Paris, Avignon in southern France, and also in northern Spain at the end of the fourteenth century. The style also is found in the French Cypriot repertory. Rhythmic complexities made possible by new notational signs/practices (vertical combinations of different mensurations) -
Period: 1365 to 1397
Francesco Landini at San Lorenzo in Florence
-
Period: 1378 to 1417
Great Schism (Western Schism)
The Western Schism, also called Papal Schism, Great Occidental Schism and Schism of 1378, was a split within the Catholic Church lasting from 1378 to 1417 in which two men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope, and each excommunicated the other. -
Period: 1380 to 1453
John Dunstable
most highly regraded English composer of the early 1400s; composer most often sited as influencing continental composers -
Period: 1380 to 1440
Baude Cordier
French composer from Rheims; it has been suggested that Cordier was the nom de plume of Baude Fresnel; works are considered among the prime examples of ars subtilior -
Period: 1387 to 1400
The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer
-
Period: 1397 to 1474
Guillame Du Fay
associated with Burgundian court; most famous composer of his time; traveled widely; large contributor of the development of the international style -
Period: 1400 to 1460
Binchois
worked in service of English and Burgundian nobles; most important composer at the court of Philip the Good; works widely copied and imitated by others; wrote 'De plus en plus' -
Period: 1410 to 1415
Squarcialupi Codex
illuminated manuscript compiled in Florence in the early 15th century. It is the single largest primary source of music of the 14th-century Italian Trecento -
Period: 1414 to 1418
Council of Constance meets to end papal schism
-
Period: 1415 to 1421
Old Hall Manuscript
largest, most complete, and most significant source of English sacred music of the late 14th and early 15th centuries, and as such represents the best source for late Medieval English music. -
Period: 1419 to 1467
Reign of Philip the Good; duke of Burgundy
-
Period: 1419 to 1435
Burgundy allied with England in war against France
-
Period: 1420 to 1497
Jonhannes Ockegham
one of the most renowned composers in the generation after Du Fay; worked in N. Europe; served Kings of France; praised for his masses -
1425
De plus en plus
Binchois -
Period: 1430 to 1492
Antoine Busnoys (Busnois)
French composer and poet of the early Renaissance Burgundian School; noted as a composer of motets and other sacred music; was one of the most renowned 15th-century composers of secular chansons; serve Charles the Bold, Mary of Burgundy, and Maximilian of Hapsburg; most prolific and widely praised chanson composer of his time -
1436
Nuper Rosarum Flores
motet by Du Fay; contained connections to the architecture of the church and the dome the song was dedicated to; use of isorhythmic motet connected the music to the past for the important occasion -
Period: 1450 to 1517
Henricus (Henrich) Isaac
Franco-Flemish/born and trained in the Low Countries; traveled widely; singer/composer in different churches in Florence; court composer for the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I; musical knowledge was the most pan-Eurpoean out of his colleagues; wrote Choralis Constantinus; adapted Italian homophonic style for his German lieder (2 of the 3 Franco-Flemish composers w/ a general style) -
Period: 1450 to 1521
Josquin Des Prez (Desprez)
Frano-Flemish/born and trained in the Low Countries; traveled widely; most influential composer of his time; held various prestigious positions at courts/churches in France and Italy; appeared in a large number of manuscripts (more than any composer before 1500), but some of his authorship is questioned; showed greatly increased interest during the Renaissance in the individual artist/artwork and the power of music to express feelings/ideas (3 of the 3 Franco-Flemish composers) -
1452
Missa Se la face ay pale
cyclic mass by Du Fay based on one of his own chansons; earliest know complete mass to use a secular tune for the cantus-firmus, creating a tradition for composers to do so -
Period: 1457 to 1505
Jacob Obrecht
Franco-Flemish/born and trained in the Low Countries; traveled widely; worked in churches, became Master of the Chapel at one point; wrote 30 masses, 27 motets, numerous chansons, song in Dutch, and instrumental pieces; music remarkably clear and comprehensive (1 of the 3 big Franco-Flemish composers w/ a general style)
(*birth year either 1457 or 58) -
Period: 1467 to 1477
Reign of Charles the Bold; duke of Burgundy
son of Philip the Good -
1477
Charles the Bold dies in battle
France absorbs the Duchy of Burgundy -
Period: 1485 to
Tudor Dynasty in England
-
1492
Columbus' voyage to the New World
:( -
1492
Isabella and Ferdinad conquer Granata
ended centuries of coexisting/mutual influence between Muslims, Jews, and Christians in Spain -
Period: 1493 to 1519
Reign of Maximilian I as Holy Roman Emperor
-
1494
French invade Italy; beginning the Italian Wars
-
1495
Leonardo da Vinci's 'The Last Supper'
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1504
Michelangelo's 'David'
-
1509
Henry VIII becomes King of England
-
1519
Charles V becomes Holy Roman Emperor
-
1536
Henry VIII becomes head of the Church of England
became creating it in 1530 so he could legally divorce his wife -
Period: 1562 to 1563
Council of Trent bans tropes and most sequences