Timeline of popular Music & Composers - theory, history, development and evolution

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From ancient times, people have sung and played music. Each culture developed its own style of singing and its own instruments.

Music contains certain basic elements, such as melody, rhythm, and harmony. A single musical sound is called a tone. When music is written, tones are represented by symbols and notes. Most music is a combination of tones chosen from a set of tones called a scale.

In western music, most scales have seven tones. If you have a keyboard, you can play a scale by starting on C (the white key immediately to the left of two black keys), and playing each of next seven white keys up to C again.

The interval between two notes of the same letter ( C to C, D to D, and so on) is called an octave. The distance between adjacent tones can be either a whole step or a half step. A whole step is called a tone; a half step is called a semitone. A chromatic scale contains all 12 notes of the octave, black and white, each a semitone apart from its neighbor.

Melody is a tune that can be whistled or sung. A beat is underlying pulse of the music, while the way notes are played or grouped in patterns gives music its rhythm. Two or more tone played at the same time make up a harmony, giving each piece of music its particular mood and texture.

Written Music

Music is written in a special way known as notation. Notes are written on a staff – five parallel lines and the spaces between them. The shape of a note shows how long it lasts.

The position of a note on the staff shoes its pitch – how high or low it is. A sharp sign (#) in front of a note rises its pitch by half a tone; and a flat sign (b) lowers it by half a tone. A clef sign appears at the beginning of the staff. The two most most clef sign are the treble clef and the bass clef.

The treble clef is used to indicate that the notes are in the higher range. The bass clef shows that the music should be played in the lower range. The group of sharp or flat signs at the beginning of each staff (up too seven of each, always in the same arrangement) shows the key signature (see opposite). This tells the musician the key (or scale) in which the music is written.

Vertical lines on the staff divide it into measures, or bars, which each contain a certain number of beats.

The time signature at the beginning of a piece shows how many beats there are in each measure. It consists of two numbers, one above the other. For example, ¾ indicates three quarter notes, in each bar, 6/8 indicates six eighth notes, and 4/4 indicates four quarter notes.

Classical Music

The structured music of Western tradition is called classical music. The earliest form was chant, or plainsong, which was used in church music in the Middle Ages. It consisted of a single line of sung melody without instrumental accompaniment. When a simple form of notation developed beginning in about the ninth century, plainsong became more elaborate. Composers – pwoplw who create pieces of music – began to write two or more melodies to be sung at the same time, creating harmonies.

Famous Composers

This is a list of famous classical composers. Though the names mentioned in the list are limited, but there are many more of them...

Henry Purcell (1659-95)

English composer who wrote operas, theater music, songs, and church anthems. Unsurpassed for setting the English language to music.

Antonio Vivaldi (Lucio)

(1678-1741)

Italian composer and violinist who wrote over 500 concertos. Known as “the Red Priest” because of his red hair.

George Frideric Handel

(1685-1759)

German-born English composer who wrote many famous operas in Italian, and oratorios in English.

Joseph Haydn (Franz)

(1732-1809)

Austrian composer who developed the string quartet and the symphony, earning him the title “father of the symphony.”

Giuseppe Verdi (Fortunino Francesco)

(1813-1901)

Italian composer whose operas, such as Rigoletto and La traviata, are still the core works of opera houses all over the world.

Johannes Brahms (1833-97)

German composer who wrote chamber music, numerous works for piano, four symphonies, and more than 100 songs and choral works.

Charles Ives (Edward)

(1874-1954)

American composer who used new, experimental techniques, but who took his inspiration from he popular music of his childhood.

Igor Stravinsky (Fyodorovich)

(1882-1971)

Russian-born American composer whose revolutionary rhythms and harmonies greatly influenced 20^th century music.

Aaron Copland (1900-90)

The leading American classical composer of the 20^th century. His works include music for the ballet Appalachian Spring and the orchestral piece Fanfare for the Common Man.

Church music was important during the 15th and 16th centuries, but composers also began writing secular (non-church) music. The 17th and 18th centuries saw many musical forms, including the sonata, concerto, symphony, opera, and oratorio. The sonata is usually for a solo instrument and consists of three or four movements. The concerto is a piece for solo instrument (often piano or violin) and orchestra, and has three movements. And opera is a dramatic piece for solo singers, chorus, and orchestra, staged in a theater with costumes and scenery. A oratorio is a musical setting of a dramatic, usually religious, text, performed in a concert hall.

In the 19th century, composers used their music to express emotions. Songs and short pieces for the piano conveyed the composer's feelings, while orchestral music became more dramatic. In the 20th century, some composers began to use a new system of harmony called the 12-tone system, which uses all the notes of the chromatic scale instead of major (full tone) and minor (semitone) keys. Others used clashing harmonies and irregular rhythms.

Important composers in the Western tradition include Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), who wrote the first major opera in 1607; Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), who wrote church and instrumental music; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91), who composed many concertos and operas; Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), who wrote symphonies and chamber music; and Richard Wagner (1813-83), who created grand operas on mythological subjects.

Other types of Music

In the 20th century, music from the southern United States became very influential, giving rise to many different popular styles. First, black musicians from New Orleans began to play a slow, intense, improvised music in small groups. They called this the blues, and it led to jazz, a faster-paced music. Jazz was very popular, particularly from 1920s to 1940s.

Rock 'n' Roll

In the 1950s, rhythm and blues - a louder, faster, simpler style of music developed. This was the start of rock music. Elvis Presley was its major star in the 1950s. In the 1960s, groups like Beatles (from England) brought their own style to rock music. Another important musician of the time was Bob Dylan, who used folk music to express political and social ideas. At the same time, soul music - a mix of rhythm and blues with a style of black church music called gospel was at its height. By the 1970s, soul had developed into the intense rhythms of funk, and then disco.

Country music, developed mostly by the white musicians in the southern United States from the folk music of the British Isles, was popular during the 20th century. It became integrated with other commercial popular music as the century progressed.

In the late 1970s, an energetic form of rock music called punk became popular. Later in the decade, black New York musicians and dj's used heavy beats and spoken rhymes to create hip-hop and rap.

Important Popular Musicians

These are some of the popular musicians who have established a lasting reputation in the world. Thought the list is limited but there are many more names...

Muddy Waters (McKinley Morgan field) (1915-83)

American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and harmonica player who was a pioneer of the electric blues style that began in Chicago, IL, in the 1940s.

Chuck Berry (Charles Edward Anderson) (1926- )

American singer and guitarist who wrote some classic rock 'n' roll songs.

Johnny Cash (1932-2003)

American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who was a leading influence in both country and rock music.

Elvis Presly (Aaron) (1935-77)

Hugely influential American singer. One of the first white rock 'n' roll performers. He was also titled with the honor of "king of Rock 'n' Roll".

The Beatles

English four piece band. Their worldwide popularity throughout the 1960s was known as 'Beatlemania'. The best selling and most popular and important pop group of all time.

Bob Dylan (Robert Allen Zimmerman) (1941- )

American songwriter who began as a protest singer, then brought folk and country elements to rock music.

The Beach Boys

American band whose complex harmonies and songs celebrating surfing, cars, and girls presented a classic image of California to the world.

Jimi Hendrix (James Marshall) (1942-70)

American singer-songwriter whose innovative guitar work influenced heavy rock and funk musicians.

Aretha Franklin (1942- )

American singer who brought gospel music to a mainstream pop and soul audience.

The Rolling Stones

English band that combines blues and rock 'n' roll with an outrageous stage act. The band continues to tour 40 years after forming.

Bob Marley (Robert Nesta) (1945-81)

Jamaican singer-songwriter of reggae- songs of social protest with a throbbing beat - who became an international superstar.

Stevie Wonder (Steveland Judkins Morris)

American singer- songwriter, producer, and multi instrumentalist, who has been blind since birth. He had his first hit at the age of 12.

Michael Jackson (1958-2009)

American singer-songwriter who became a child star in a pop group with his brothers. His 1982 album 'Thriller' is the biggest sold album in the recording history. He was also known as the 'king of Pop'.

Madonna (Lousise Veronica Ciccone) (1958- )

American singer- songwriter and actress who is famous for her ever-changing appearance.

LL Cool J (James Todd Smith) (1969- )

American rapper and actor who made hip-hop popular.

Norah Jones (1979- )

American singer-songwriter and pianist who won five Grammy Awards in 2003. She is the daughter of Indian musician Ravi Shankar.