Timeline of trends in music to 1899

See also: list of musical events, Timeline of trends in music (1900-1950), Timeline of trends in music (1951-1979), Timeline of trends in music (1980-present)

c. 4000 BC
- Harps and vertical flutes[?] are played in Egypt
c. 3500 BC
- Double clarinets[?] and lyres are played in Egypt
c. 3000 BC
- The bamboo pipe[?] is invented in China
c. 2500 BC
- The five tone system dominates the Chinese music
c. 2000 BC
- The trumpet is played in Denmark
- Percussion instruments are added to Egyptian orchestras
c. 1500 BC
- Hittites use guitars, lyres, trumpets, tambourines
- Harps are used to accompany dances in Egypt
c. 1000 BC
- Music accompanies religious ceremonies in Israel
c. 800 BC
- Five and seven tone scales are used in Babylon
- A cuneiform hymn from Sumeria is the earliest known written music
- Rhapsodes[?], traveling musicians, appear in Greece
c. 700 BC
- Arion, a Greek composer, invents the strophe and antistrophe
c. 685 BC
- Tyrtaeus invents the trombone
c. 675 BC[?]
- Terpander[?] invents a new seven-stringed lyre and the Mixolydian scale[?]
c. 600 BC
- Modes appear in music
- The vina[?] is invented in India
c. 586 BC
- Music becomes a part of the Pythian Games
c. 550 BC
- The diatonic scale is invented in Greece
- Lasos of Hermione[?] discovers that vibrations are the source of all sound
c. 500 BC
- Pindar begins writing odes
- Greek choral music[?] reaches its peak
- aulos[?], citharas[?], lyres[?] are played in Greece
- Pythagoras of Samos[?] makes great strides in musical theory
400 BC
- Trumpet competitions are popular in Greece
340 BC
- Aristotle lays the foundation for modern musical theory
320 BC
- Aristophanes defines rhythm as tripartite
c. 250 BC
- Ktesibios[?] invents the hydraulis[?]
146 BC
- The Romans conquer Greece and begin exporting its musical knowledge elsewhere in Europe
140 BC
- Emperor Han Wudi[?] takes over China and establishes an Imperial Office of Music
c. 50 BC
- The oboe appears in Rome
38 BC
- The Chinese octave is divided into 60 notes
c. 350
- Antiphonal psalmody[?] appears in Christian churches
386
- Ambrose of Milan[?] introduces hymn-singing in the Christian church
c. 450
- Alternating singing between precentors and parishioners is introduced in Christian churches
c. 500
- Flutes, tubas and drums are used in Peru
521
- Boethius introduces Greek notation[?] to the West
600
- Pope Gregory the Great codifies Roman Catholic chanting[?]; it comes to be called Gregorian chanting in his honor
c. 600
- The first flowering of Arab music occurs in what is now Syria during the rule of the Umayyad dynasty
609
- The Celtic crwth appears
619
- The Chinese begin using large orchestras
650
- Neumes[?], a system of notation, are introduced in Europe
c. 700
- In Romania, letters are used to signify tempo and intensity
710
- Beginning of the Nara period in Japan, and the introduction of komagaku[?] and togaku[?] music
c. 750
- Gregorian chanting is popular throughout Europe
- Byzantine wind organs[?] begin to replace water organs[?]
850
- Hucbald[?] writes rules for composing the organum[?]
c. 850
- Vocals in church music begins moving in parallel; this is the beginning of polyphony (see organum[?])
980
- Antiphonarium Codex Montpellier[?] is written
c. 1000
- Gryffull ab Aynam[?] separates the positions of bard and minstrel[?] in Wales
c. 1015
- Sight singing[?] is introduced at Pomposa Monastery[?] near Ravenna
1026
- Guide of Arezza[?] develops solmization[?]
1050
- "sys willekommen heirre kerst" is the oldest surviving German Christmas carol
c. 1050
- The harp is introduced to Europe
c. 1030
- Guido of Arezzo develops a method to learn music by ear, solfège
c. 1095
- Le Chanson de Roland[?] composed
c. 1100
- Bagpipes appear in England
- The rondeau appears
c. 1125
- Trouveres and troubadours appear in France
c. 1150
- French troubadours become more organized
1151
- Leoninus[?], a French composer, develops the ars antigua[?] style
c. 1180
- Minnesingers appear in Germany
c. 1182
- Lauda[?] appear in Italy
c. 1200
- The faux bourdon[?] style begins in England
- Cymbals are invented
- In England, France and Germany, wandering musicians form collectives to help each other
- Trumpets are used as signals in battle in Europe
1225
- "Summer is icumen in" is the first English round
c. 1250
- Perotinus[?] moves the ars antigua school of music to its peak
1262
- Adam de la Halle[?] writes the first operetta, "LeJeu de la Feuillee"
c. 1265
- Franco of Cologne[?] and Pierre de la Croix[?] develop the motet
c. 1300
- Jongleurs[?] appear in France
1309
- Marchettus of Padua[?] tries to introduce the counterpoint
1322
- The Pope expressly forbids the counterpoint
c. 1325
- Organ pedals[?] are invented
- "Tournai Mass", the first polyphonic Mass, is written
c. 1330
- The ars nova[?] style is invented
1332
- The first mastersingers[?] appear in France
c. 1350
- Mastersingers appear in Germany
1360
- Original forms of the clavichord and cembalo[?] appear
1377
- Musicians at the papal chapel in Avignon move to Rome, making it the capital of music in Europe
1385
- The marriage of Charles the VI[?] and Isabella of Bavaria[?] is the first French court ball[?]
c. 1400
- The dulcimer is invented
- Secular songs with French lyrics, chansons[?], are popular
c. 1420
- The Burgundian School[?] begins
c. 1426
- Holland becomes the musical capital of Europe
1430
- The Renaissance begins, leading to the increasing popularity of secular music as well as the diversification of musical styles across Europe
1465
- First printed music appears in Europe
c. 1490
- Ballet appears
c. 1500
- Broadside ballads[?] begin their period of popularity in England
- Italian madrigals[?] appear
1508
- The Spanish begin their domination of Puerto Rico
1553
- Ancestral forms of the violin are invented
1562
- Pius IV[?]'s Counter-Reformation eliminates all instrumentation except the organ, as well as all secular elements, harmony and folk melodies
1565
- Women are banned from singing in Christian churches; the desire for adult female voices leads to the practice of castration
1574
- Castration is common in Europe
1578
- Jean De Léry[?] publishes the first account of Brazilian music, Viagem à Terra do Brasil[?]
1587
- Gabriel Soares de Sousa[?] publishes the forst account of native Brazilian musical forms, Tratado Descritivo do Brasil[?]
1588
- Thomas Morley[?]'s English Madrigal School[?] is firmly established
1590
- Count Giovanni de Bardi[?] gathers a group of artists, leading to the invention of opera
c. 1590
- Son[?] is known in Cuba
1594
- Jacopo Peri's Dafne[?] is the first Italian opera[?]
c. 1600
- The European Renaissance ends and the Baroque period begins; this is marked by increasing rigidity and codification in music
- The harp is added to European orchestras
- Slaves brought to Morocco from Mali lead to the development of gnawa[?]
1601
- Caccini[?] invents a vocal style called nuove musiche[?]
1606
- The first open-air operas appear in Rome
1607
- Claudio Monteverdi writes Orfeo, Favola in Musica[?], an influential early Baroque opera
1631
- The first professional female singers in Europe for several centuries appear in England for a production of Chloridia[?]
1639
- Virgilio Mazzocchi[?] and Marco Marazzoli[?] write the first comic opera[?], Chi Soffre Speri[?]
1648
- The aria and the recitative[?] became separate parts of opera
c. 1650
- Beginning of modern harmony
- The overture emerges
1652
- The minuet becomes popular in French courts
c. 1660
- The seis[?] arises in southern Spain
1664
- The French horn is added to European orchestras
1675
- Matthew Locke[?]'s Psyche[?] is the oldest surviving English opera[?]
1680
- Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel[?] are born; they will be the two most influential Baroque composers
- First ballets arrive in Germany
c. 1690
- Andalusian ballads arrive in Puerto Rico, vastly influencing future forms of music including the decima
1692
- Christopher Columbus arrives in the Americas, leading to European, African and American musical forms mixing, especially in the Caribbean
1696
- The sonata is introduced
1705
- French horns appear in an opera for the first time -- Octavia by Reinhard Keiser[?]
- 1709
- The pianoforte is invented
1711
- The clarinet is added to European orchestras
1719
- Dimitrie Cantemir[?] writes the first book on Turkish music
1725
- Vivaldi writes The Four Seasons
1742
- Handel's Messiah premieres in Dublin
1750
- Bach dies; this is often considered the end of the Baroque period and the beginning of the relatively simple Classical[?] period
1751
- The minuet becomes the most popular dance in Europe
1762
- Christoph Willibald von Glück[?] writes Orfeo ed Euridice[?] with the express purpose ofreturning opera to its roots
1772
- The barrel organ[?] is invented
1773
- Waltz is popular in Vienna
1774
- Earliest flamenco appears in Spain
1780
- Sebastiano Carezo[?] invents the bolero[?] in Spain
1786
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro premiers
1787
- Mozart's Don Giovanni premiers
c. 1790
- Bumba-meu-boi[?], a form of comedic dance, is popular in Brazil
1791
- The waltz is popular in England
- The Haitian Revolution[?] sends refugees to Cuba, bringing with them native musical forms (see: charanga[?])
1794
- "Tammany, or The Indian Cheif" by James Hewitt[?] is one of the first American operas
1803
- Ludwig van Beethoven's Eröica[?] marks the beginning of the Romantic period
1807
- Beethoven'sSymphony No. 5[?] is written; this is perhaps the most popular classical symphony ever
1814
- The metronome is invented
1821
- Der Freischutz by Carl Maria von Weber debuts, marking the beginning of his primacy in German opera[?]
c. 1830
- "Jump Jim Crow" by Thomas Rice[?] becomes popular in the United States
- The growth of Carnival in Trinidad begins, leading to the development of calypso music
c. 1835
- Lundu[?] is developed in Brazil
- Tamburitza[?] is developed into increasingly complex forms in Croatia
1840
- Harmonium[?] invented
c. 1840
- The danza[?] is invented in Puerto Rico
1841
- Adolphe Sax invents the saxophone
c. 1850
- UPA moves from Cuba and Puerto Rico to other Caribbean islands, most importantly Hispaniola
1852
- Fredrik Pacius publishes the first Finnish opera[?]
- The earliest known appearance of mariachi[?] music in Mexico
1853
- Richard Wagner's The Ring Cycle debuts
1854
- Franz Liszt invents the symphonic poem
1868
- The Meiji Restoration revolutionizes and democratizes Japanese music
1869
- The golden age of flamenco is usually said to begin
c. 1870
- Choro[?] is invented in Rio de Janeiro
- Tin Pan Alley begins to dominate popular music in the US
1874
- Society for Culture and Education[?] is founded in Finland
1875
- Earliest origins of plena[?] in Puerto Rico
1877
- Thomas Edison invents the first machine to record sound
1880
- John Paine[?]'s In Spring[?] is the first symphony published in the US
- Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado premiers
1886
- Celesta invented
c. 1890
- Jean Sibelius' Kullervo inspires a rise in Finnish nationalism, greatly influencing music in his native land
1896
- Ragtime and cakewalk are popularized in the United States