Music History: Composers

Stylistic periods

Medieval period

500 - 1450

Renaissance

1450 - 1600

Baroque

1600 - 1750

Classical

1740 - 1810

Romantic

1810 - 1910

Modern

1910 - 2000

Composers

(Anicius Manlius Severinus) Boethius

480 - 524

Revered for his De institution musica (The Fundamentals of Music)

Guido d'Arezzo

991 - 1033

Known for invention of solmization and the Guidonian hand.

Leonin

1150 - 1201

Associated with Notre Dame

Perotin

1160 - 1220

Dates approximate: Late 12th-early 13th

Added 1-2 extra voices to Leonin's works.

Adam de la Halle

1240 - 1288

Known for musical plays.

Philippe de Vitry

1291 - 1361

Vocabulary terms: Isorhythm, Motet

Guillaume de Machaut

1300 - 1377

Dates approximate.
Vocabulary terms: Ars nova, Hocket, Virelais

John Dunstable

1390 - 1453

Known for 3-part settings
Vocabulary: Isorhythmic Motets, Mass Ordinary

Guillaume Dufay

1397 - 1474

Known for 4-part settings
Vocabulary: Fauxbourdon, plainchant, Magnificat, rondeaux

Johannes Ockeghem

1420 - 1497

Also known as Jean de Ockeghem.
Characteristics: wider range, long phrases, elided cadences.

Hans Sachs

1494 - 1576

Famous meistersinger

Thomas Tallis

1505 - 1585

Wrote only sacred music.

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

1525 - 1594

Wrote in 6-voice mass.
Characteristics: long, rhythmically varied, easy-to-sing lines in curves. Similar to plainchant, subtle text-painting

William Byrd

1540 - 1623

Vocabulary: Consort song, fantasia, motet

Giovanni Gabrieli

1555 - 1612

Earliest instances of dynamic markings in music
Vocabulary: Polychoral motet, ricercare, ensemble canzona, intonazioni

Claudio Monteverdi

1567 - 1643

Wrote only vocal and dramatic works
Vocabulary: Madrigals

Antonio Vivaldi

1678 - 1741

George Frideric Handel

1685 - 1759

Johann Sebastian Bach

1685 - 1750

Franz Joseph Haydn

1732 - 1809

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

1756 - 1791

Ludwig Van Beethoven

1770 - 1827

Hector Berlioz

1803 - 1869

Symphonie Fantastique
Vocabulary: Idee fixe

Frederic Chopin

1810 - 1849

Franz Liszt

1811 - 1886

Richard Wagner

1813 - 1883

Johannes Brahms

1833 - 1897

Georges Bizet

1838 - 1875

Modest Mussorgsky

1839 - 1881

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

1840 - 1893

Gustav Mahler

1860 - 1911

Claude Debussy

1862 - 1918

Sergei Rachmaninoff

1873 - 1943

Arnold Schoenberg

1874 - 1951

Maurice Ravel

1875 - 1937

Igor Stravinsky

1882 - 1971

Anton Webern

1883 - 1945

Alban Berg

1885 - 1935

Sergei Prokofiev

1891 - 1953

Samuel Barber

1910 - 1981

John Cage

1912 - 1992

Philip Glass

1937 - 2014

Major works

Magnus Liber Organi

1175

Date approximate. Collection of 2 voice settings of solo portions of responsorial chants.
Related composers: Leonin, Perotin

Jeu de Robin et de Marion

1284

Musical play by Adam de la Halle

In Arboris/Tuba Sacre Fidei/Virgo sum

1320

Date unknown.
Motet by Philippe de Vitry.

Messe de Notre Dame

1364

Date unknown (possibly coronation of French Charles V in 1364)
Mass composed by Guillaume de Machaut.

Vespro della Beata Vergine

1600

Other

Council of Trent

1543 - 1563

Attempts were made to restrict polyphonic music, for religious services to remain simple and pure. End result was very vague leaving specifics of restrictions to local bishops.