Antigüedad y Edad Media

Timeline: Antiquity to the Renaissance

Period: 1 CE to Dec 12, 1800

Timeline of compositions and composers from Antiquity to the Middle Ages

Epitafio de Seikilos

100

The Epitaph of Syzylos is the oldest complete musical composition preserved today. The epitaph probably dates from the 1st or 2nd century A.D., and is part of a Greek inscription written on a marble column placed on the tomb that Sycillos had built for his wife Euterpe, near Trales. The author is anonymous.

Gregorian Chant

850

Gregorian chant emerged in the 9th century, during the Middle Ages. It has its origin in the ancient ecclesiastical music sung in the liturgy of the Roman rite. Its name is linked to the one who was elected Pope around the year 600: Gregory the Great. Although it was mainly consolidated a couple of centuries after his papacy, during the reign of Charlemagne, thanks to the Benedictine monasteries that spread it throughout Western Christianity.

Guido d’Arezzo

991

Guido d'Arezzo (c. 991-1033) was an Italian Benedictine monk and music theorist, recognized mainly for his great influence on the teaching and notation of music in the Middle Ages.
Guido improved the system of musical notation by proposing the use of a four-line system, known as the tetragram.
Guido used a melody known as the Hymn to St. John the Baptist, where the first syllables of each verse corresponded to one of the first notes of the scale

Hildegard von Bingen

1098

Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) was a German Benedictine nun, mystic, composer, writer, philosopher and visionary. She is one of the most notable figures of the Middle Ages due to her vast oeuvre.
He wrote a large number of hymns, sequences and liturgical chants. His music is monophonic.
His most famous collection of musical works is “Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum”, a series of chants dedicated to the saints, the Virgin Mary and the Trinity.

Bernart de Ventadorn

1130

Bernart de Ventadorn was one of the most important and renowned troubadours of Occitan lyric poetry during the Middle Ages, active in the 12th century. He was born in southwest France, probably in the castle of Ventadorn in Limousin.
Bernart is best remembered for his songs of courtly love, a type of lyric poetry that idealised passionate but impossible or unrequited love, generally directed towards a noblewoman.

Leonin

1135

Leonin (1135-1201), is, along with Perotin, the first known composer of polyphonic organum. He was a member of the School of Notre Dame, one of the first and most influential schools of polyphonic music in Europe, which was associated with the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.
He is credited with the creation of the Magnus liber organi, an important compendium of liturgical music that influenced the development of choral and sacred music.

Perotin

1155

French composer (c. 1155 - c.1230) . Successor of his master Léonin, he is considered the most outstanding representative of the so-called School of Notre Dame de Paris, active during the 13th century and in which the polyphonic style began to develop.
Pérotin distinguished himself in the revision of the two-voice polyphony collection Magnus liber de Léonin and in the composition of organa and conductus for two (Dum sigillum), three (Salvatoris hodie) and four voices (Viderunt omne).

Ars Antiqua

1170

Ars Antiqua, or “ancient art”, refers to a musical style that developed in Europe during the late Middle Ages, especially in the 12th and 13th centuries. It is often associated with the early stages of polyphony, in which several independent melodic lines are sung or played simultaneously. Notable forms such as the organum, the conductus and especially the motet emerged in this period.

Alfonso X el Sabio

Nov 23, 1221

Alfonso X the Wise (1221-1284), King of Castile and León, was one of the most outstanding figures of the 13th century for his contribution to culture, science and law in the Iberian Peninsula. He was born in Toledo, son of Ferdinand III of Castile and Beatrice of Swabia, and acceded to the throne in 1252. He was known as ‘the Wise’ due to his great interest in knowledge and his role in promoting the arts and sciences, which made his court an important cultural and scientific centre.

Ars Nova

1300

Ars Nova literally means New Art, and is named after Philippe de Vitry's treatise, Ars Nova, which gave its name to the music of the 14th century.
Vitry, Ars Nova, which gave its name to the music of the 14th century.
In the Ars Nova, medieval polyphony reached its maximum perfection. The main novelties of this time are the appearance of measures to measure music, the appearance of new profane forms, and the appearance of the isorhythmic motet, or canon.

Guillaume de Machaut

1300

Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300-1377) was a French composer, poet and cleric, considered one of the most important musicians and writers of the Middle Ages. He was probably born in the Reims region of France, and his work marks a culmination in the musical tradition of the time, particularly within the Ars Nova movement, which brought innovations in rhythm, polyphony and the use of advanced musical notation.
One of his most important works was The Mass of Notre Dame

Francesco Landini

1325

Francesco Landini (c. 1325-1397) was an Italian composer, organist, poet and singer, considered the foremost musician of the Italian Trecento and one of the most important exponents of medieval music in Italy. He was born in Florence around 1325, and, although he was blinded by smallpox in childhood, he developed an extraordinary talent for music and achieved great renown in his time.
One of his works preserved in manuscript was the Codex Squarcialupi

Johannes Gutenberg

1400

Johannes Gutenberg was born around 1400 in the Hof zum Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany.
Gutenberg invented a process for mass production of movable type: oil-based ink and the use of a wooden printing press. It was the combination of all these elements that created a practical system for the mass production of books.
His most famous work is the 42-line Bible, which is considered to be the first book printed with movable type.