History of Music in Timeline

By Popular Timelines Editorial Team · Updated: April 25, 2026

Music involves arranging sounds to create form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or expressive content, considered a cultural universal present in all human societies. Definitions vary, lacking consensus on necessary elements, but music is seen as a versatile medium for expressing creativity. The creation of music involves composition, improvisation, and performance, utilizing diverse musical instruments including the human voice. Music can be performed directly, or indirectly via mechanical or electronic means.

1900: Harmony in Classical Music

Around 1900, in classical music as well as Western pop, rock, and traditional music, pieces were generally written in a single key. More complex Classical, pop, and traditional music songs and pieces may have two keys (and in some cases three or more keys). Classical music from the Romantic era (written from about 1820–1900) often contains multiple keys, as does jazz, especially Bebop jazz from the 1940s, in which the key or "home note" of a song may change every four bars or even every two bars.

1900: End of the Romantic music era

Around 1900, the Romantic music era came to an end. This era, from approximately 1820 to 1900, shared many characteristics with Romantic styles in literature and painting, emphasizing emotion, individualism, and glorification of the past and nature. Romantic music expanded beyond the Classical era's rigid forms into more passionate and dramatic pieces.

1929: AFM protests "Canned Music"

In 1929, the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) protested the replacement of live musicians in movie houses with mechanical playing devices. An ad appeared in the Pittsburgh Press features an image of a can labeled "Canned Music / Big Noise Brand / Guaranteed to Produce No Intellectual or Emotional Reaction Whatever".

1941: George Herzog questions animal music

In 1941, George Herzog questioned whether animals have music, prompting exploration into zoomusicology.

1972: Nicolas Ruwet's Language, musique, poésie publication

In 1972, Nicolas Ruwet's Language, musique, poésie was published, whose paradigmatic segmentation analysis was used to study ornitho-musicology, showing that bird songs are organised according to a repetition-transformation principle.

1983: François-Bernard Mâche's study of ornitho-musicology

In 1983, François-Bernard Mâche published "Musique, mythe, nature, ou les Dauphins d'Arion", a study of "ornitho-musicology" using a technique of Nicolas Ruwet's Language, musique, poésie (1972) paradigmatic segmentation analysis, showing that bird songs are organised according to a repetition-transformation principle.

Musique, mythe, nature ou Les dauphins d'Arion

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1990: Nattiez defines music as a human construct

In 1990, Jean-Jacques Nattiez argued that music is a uniquely human construct, defined by the human mind that perceives and organizes sound, even when the sound originates from non-human sources.

November 2006: Music therapy aids schizophrenic patients

In November 2006, Michael J. Crawford and his colleagues discovered that music therapy provided benefits to schizophrenic patients.

2010: Musicology divisions

Around 2010-era scholarship, musicology is divided into music theory, music history, and ethnomusicology.

2012: Low percentage of women in the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra

In 2012, it was noted that women made up only 6% of the top-ranked Vienna Philharmonic orchestra, highlighting the continued gender imbalance within the classical music world.

2013: Changes to the UK Music Curriculum

In 2013, the UK curriculum added the term 'appropriate musical notations' and changed the list title from 'elements of music' to 'inter-related dimensions of music'. These inter-related dimensions include pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure, and appropriate musical notations.

2015: Gender disparity in Canadian Orchestras

In 2015, an article highlighted the disparity in gender representation among concerto soloists in major Canadian orchestras, revealing that 84% of the soloists with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra were men.