Lady Constance Fairfax's
Commonplace Book
Here is a timeline I developed of historical events with music events worked in. I hope this gives you a good feel of what influenced music development over the thousand years that we consider "period"…
481 Clovis crowned King of Franks, converts subjects
500 De institutione musica, Boethius(480-524)
529 Benedictine Order founded
622 Treatise on the Arts, Isidore of Seville(560-636)
650 Rise of monasteries
700 Irish and Anglo-Saxon missionaries on the continent
711 Arabs conquer Spain, Arabic music begins to influence Spanish music
750 Arabic science introduced to Europe
800 Charlemagne (742-814) crowned Emperor
Cultivation of music in the monasteries.
849 Saraceans invade Italy(unsuccesfully)
871 Alfred the Great of England defeats the Danish invaders.
885 Norse invade Paris (unsuccessfully)
900 Arabic musical instruments introduced into Europe
Tropes and Sequences
Musica Enchiriadis
911 Norsemen given permission to settle part of France
962 Otto the Great crowned Holy Roman Emperor
1016 Canute (Danish) Seizes English Throne
1025 Guido of Arezzo’s (~995-1050) first writings on music.
1050 Chanson de Roland (French epic).
1054 Separation of Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.
1066 Norman invasion of England, Battle of Hastings.
1073 Winchester Tropes
1096 First Crusade
1099 Crusaders capture Jerusalem
1100 Beginnings of St. Martial organum
1147 Second Crusade
1150 Troubadors in Provence
Notre Dame School assumes musical leadership
Mystery plays appear
Rise of Universities
1163 Construction begun on Notre Dame Cathedral
1167 Oxford opens
1170 University of Paris opens
1175 Leonin, Magnus Liber Organi, (Paris)
1183 Perotin at Notre Dame
1189 Richard Lionheart King of England
Third Crusade
1200 Trouveres in France
Minnesingers in Germany
1204 Fourth Crusade
1209 Cambridge founded. Franciscan order founded.
1212 Children’s Crusade
1215 Magna Carta
1233 Inquisition established in Rome
1240 Motet gains importance
1248 Sequence Dies Irae, Thomas of Celano
1250 Ars Antiqua begins
1260 Ars cantus mensurabilis, Franco of Cologne (fl. 1250-1280)
1270 Cantigas de Santa Maria
Motets of Bamberg Codex
Second Crusade
1277 Visconti family in power in Milan
1284 Robin et Marion, Adam de la Hale (ca. 1230-1288)
1297 Book of Various Experiences, Marco Polo
Petrus de Cruce develops rhythmic innovations which grow into Ars Nova
1300 Beginning of French Ars Nova.
Approximate date of Bryd one Brere
1309 War in Rome, Pope in exile at Avignon
1307 Divine Comedy, Dante (1265-1321)
Fourteenth Century Music and Poetry
1318 Pomerium Artis Musicae Mensurabilis, Marchetto da Padua
1319 Ars Novae Musicae, Jean de Muris (ca. 1290-1351)
1330 Italian Ars Nova (until 1410)
1336 Petrarch visits Rome: Beginning of humanism
1337 Beginning of Hundred Years’ War (York/Lancaster)
1348 The Black Death
Landini writing Ballate by this period
1353 Decameron, Boccaccio.
1360 Messe de Notre Dame, Guillaume de Machaut.
1362 The Vision of Piers Plowman, William Langland
1376 Wycliffe translates the bible
1378 The Great Schism begins
1386 Canterbury Tales, Chaucer
1415 Battle of Agincourt
1417 The Great Schism ends at Council of Constance
1426 Jan and Hubert Van Eyck begin the Ghent Altarpiece
1431 Jean d’Arc executed
1434 Medici family powerful in Italy through 1494
1435 David, Donatello
1436 Nuper rosarum flores, Guillaume Dufay
1440 Meistersinger in Germany
1447 Vatican Library founded, humanism begins in Italy
1450 White mensural notation introduced
1453: End of Hundred Years’ War, Constantinope falls.
1454 Gutenberg invents printing from movable metal type.
1455 Liederbuch, Lochamer
Beginning of the War of the Roses
1460 Missa Se la Face ay Pale, Dufay
Cantus Firmus Masses now common
1485 End of War of the Roses
1485 Tudor Dynasty in England (through 1603)
1492 Columbus stumbles into the New World
Spain recaptures Grenada and with it, Spain
1495 Temptation of St. Anthony, Hieronymus Bosch
Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci
1497 Voyages of Cabot, da Gama, and Vespucci
1498 Otaviano dei Petrucci-1st song collection in movable type
1500 France captures Milan
Petrucci prints Harmonice Musices Odhecaton A, the first printing of polyphonic music.
This includes music by Josquin des Prés
1503 Westminster Chapel built, Mona Lisa painted by da Vinci
1504 David, Michelangelo Buonarotti
1507 Petrucci issues first printed lute tablature
1508 Sistine Chapel Ceiling, Michelangelo
1509 Henry VIII crowned King of England
In Praise of Folly: Erasmus
1513 Balboa discovers the Pacific Ocean
1515 France invaes Italy.
1516 Utopia, Sir Thomas Moore
1517 Martin Luther posts his Ninety-Five Theses.
1518 Cortez conquers Mexico
1519 Ferdinand Magellan circles the globe
Hapsburg dynasty established (Spain)
1530 Copernicus: De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelesticum
1533 Italian Madrigals rise
1534 England breaks with the Papacy, Catholics prosecuted
1536 First music publications of Gardano (Venice) and Petreius(Nuremberg)
1539 Jacob Arcadelt publishes his first book of madrigals
1541 de Soto discovers the Mississippi River
1542 Cipriano de Rore (1516-1565) First Book of madrigals
Ireland made a kingdom
1545 Council of Trent (Vatican I)
Mid Century: Broadside Ballads begin to be printed
1553 Mary crowned Queen of England, persecutes Protestants.
1554 Palestrina publishes his first book of Masses
Philippe de Monte publishes his first book of Madrigals