Music History Timeline: Periods and Genres
Western classical music history is usually split into six periods: Medieval (about 500–1400), Renaissance (1400–1600), Baroque (1600–1750), Classical (1750–1820), Romantic (1820–1900) and the 20th century to today. Popular genres grew alongside them: blues and ragtime around 1900, jazz from the 1910s, then rock and roll, reggae and hip hop. All the dates are approximate.
Updated · By the Classfern Music Department
Works in the UK and the US. This version uses UK words and school years (bar, semitone, KS2, Year 4); the US version uses measure, half step and grades. · US version of this page
Key facts
- Six periods of Western classical music: Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th century.
- Baroque: 1600–1750 (Vivaldi, Bach, Handel). Classical: 1750–1820 (Haydn, Mozart).
- Romantic: 1820–1900 (Chopin, Clara Schumann, Tchaikovsky).
- Ragtime peaked about 1895–1918; Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer is from 1902.
- All dates are approximate: styles overlap and change slowly.
What are the periods of music history?
Western classical music history is usually divided into six periods: Medieval (about 500–1400), Renaissance (1400–1600), Baroque (1600–1750), Classical (1750–1820), Romantic (1820–1900) and the 20th century to today. Each has its own sound, instruments and famous composers.
| Period | Dates (approximate) | What it sounds like | Composers | Instruments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medieval | about 500–1400 | Plainchant (one tune, no harmony) sung in churches; travelling minstrels and troubadours; music written down for the first time | Hildegard of Bingen, Guillaume de Machaut | Voices, harp, fiddle, recorder, shawm, bagpipes, organ |
| Renaissance | 1400–1600 | Polyphony: several tunes woven together; choir music and madrigals; printed music spreads | Josquin des Prez, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Thomas Tallis, William Byrd | Lute, viol, recorder, sackbut, crumhorn, virginals |
| Baroque | 1600–1750 | Busy, decorated tunes over a bass line (basso continuo); the first operas, concertos and fugues; sudden loud and soft contrasts | Claudio Monteverdi, Antonio Vivaldi, Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel | Harpsichord, organ, violin family, oboe, natural trumpet |
| Classical | 1750–1820 | Clear, balanced tunes with simple accompaniment; the symphony, string quartet and sonata | Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, early Ludwig van Beethoven | Piano (replaces the harpsichord), clarinet joins the orchestra |
| Romantic | 1820–1900 | Big feelings, big orchestras and star soloists; music that tells stories or paints pictures; pride in national styles | Frédéric Chopin, Clara Schumann, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Edvard Grieg, Giuseppe Verdi | Larger orchestra with more brass and percussion; the modern piano |
| 20th century and today | 1900–now | Many styles at once: impressionism, music without a home key, minimalism, film and electronic music | Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, Gustav Holst, Florence Price, Benjamin Britten | Electronic instruments, synthesisers, computers, plus every earlier instrument |
Hear the timeline: one tune from each period
Press a tune to hear a short, simple piano version. Play them in order and listen for how the music changes: from the lilting Tudor-era song to the busy Baroque minuet, the balanced Classical serenade and the dramatic Romantic dance. Press again to stop.
- English, 16th century, traditional
- from the 1725 Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, now credited to Christian Petzold
- Mozart, 1787), opening
- Beethoven, Symphony No. 9, 1824
- Grieg, Peer Gynt, 1875
- Scott Joplin, 1902), opening
These are short, simple versions made by Classfern from music that is out of copyright. The sound is made in your browser; nothing is recorded, saved or sent.
What is Baroque music?
Baroque music is European music from about 1600 to 1750. It has busy, decorated tunes over a steady bass line played by a harpsichord or organ (the basso continuo), and sudden changes between loud and soft. Opera, the concerto and the fugue all began or grew up in the Baroque period.
Listen for the harpsichord’s jangly sound, a strong, steady pulse and one mood that lasts the whole piece. Famous Baroque music includes Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (published 1725), Handel’s Messiah (1742) and Bach’s six Brandenburg Concertos. The Baroque period is often said to end in 1750, the year Bach died.
What is Classical period music?
Classical period music is music from about 1750 to 1820, the time of Haydn, Mozart and the young Beethoven. It has clear, balanced tunes in matching phrases, lighter textures than Baroque music, and new forms such as the symphony, the string quartet and the sonata. The piano replaced the harpsichord.
People often say “classical music” for any orchestral music, but the Classical period is one short part of it. Haydn wrote 104 symphonies and is called the father of the symphony; Mozart wrote more than 600 works before he died at 35.
What is ragtime music?
Ragtime is an American piano style that was most popular from about 1895 to 1918. The right hand plays a syncopated, or “ragged”, tune that pushes against a steady oom-pah beat in the left hand. Scott Joplin, the “King of Ragtime”, published Maple Leaf Rag in 1899 and The Entertainer in 1902.
Ragtime grew out of African American music in Missouri and the Midwest and led straight into early jazz. It became famous again in 1973, when The Entertainer was used in a film soundtrack. Scott Joplin died in 1917, and his rags are long out of copyright, so you can play The Entertainer above.
What are the main music genres?
The main music genres include classical, blues, ragtime, jazz, country, rock and roll, pop, reggae, hip hop and electronic dance music. A genre is a family of music that shares a sound, instruments and history. Most popular genres began in the USA and the Caribbean in the 1900s.
| Genre | Began | Where | Listen for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blues | late 1800s | Southern USA (African American communities) | 12-bar chord pattern, “blue” notes, call and response |
| Ragtime | 1890s–1910s | Missouri and the Midwest, USA | Syncopated (“ragged”) piano tunes over a steady oom-pah left hand |
| Jazz | 1910s | New Orleans, USA | Improvisation, swing rhythm, brass and rhythm sections |
| Country | 1920s | Southern USA | Story songs, fiddle, banjo and guitar |
| Rock and roll | 1950s | USA | Electric guitar, a strong backbeat on beats 2 and 4 |
| Reggae | late 1960s | Jamaica | Off-beat guitar “skank”, deep bass lines |
| Hip hop | 1970s | The Bronx, New York, USA | Rapping over beats and samples, DJ scratching |
| Electronic dance music | 1980s | Chicago and Detroit, USA, then Europe | Drum machines and synthesisers, a steady four-to-the-floor beat |
Genres borrow from each other all the time: rock and roll grew from blues, country and gospel; hip hop DJs sampled funk and soul records. Classical music has sub-genres too, such as opera, the symphony and chamber music.
How do you teach music history at KS2 and KS3?
The national curriculum for England asks KS2 pupils to “develop an understanding of the history of music” and KS3 pupils to understand the music they listen to “and its history”. Teach it through listening: one short piece a week, placed on a class timeline, with pupils describing what they hear.
- Build a timeline on the wall with the six periods and add each piece you hear.
- Listen for one thing at a time: the instruments, then the speed, then the mood.
- Compare two periods: play the Minuet in G and The Entertainer, and ask what changed.
- Play a game: the quiz below, or “guess the period” with the tunes above.
- Meet the composers on famous composers for kids.
Curriculum quotations are from the national curriculum in England: music programmes of study (Department for Education, 2013).
Music history quiz: put the periods in order
Marked by Classfern 6 multiple-choice questions on the Classfern lesson engine. Your answers stay on this device.
Classfern’s free music listening guides on lessonplanner.info: instruments of the orchestra, world music for schools and Peter and the Wolf and The Carnival of the Animals.
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