Timeline

Series produced by Vermont Public

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Image by: Vermont Public Radio 

Take a journey into the events, characters and concepts that shaped our Western musical tradition.

Timeline from VPR Classical is an exploration into the development of Western music. Take a journey into the events, characters and concepts that shaped our Western musical tradition. We'll start from the very beginning and trace the steps of music through history. This music, and its history, is ours.


40 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
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The British Isles were in turmoil in the mid-17th century, raked by civil war, plague and a fire that devastated most of London. By the late 1660’...

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  • Added: Aug 12, 2020
  • Length: 03:00
  • Purchases: 1
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The concerto is a popular genre of instrumental music that was developed during the Baroque. It is characterized by one or more instruments (the c...

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  • Added: Aug 12, 2020
  • Length: 03:00
  • Purchases: 1
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The Latin word Cantata means “to sing”, the word Sonata means “to play”. That last title is vague enough to cover a multitude of instrumental genr...

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  • Added: Aug 12, 2020
  • Length: 03:00
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The word opera literally translates as the word “work”; it’s the plural of the noun opus. The dramatic form of opera has its roots deep within the...

  • Added: Aug 12, 2020
  • Length: 03:00
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The Renaissance was a time of re-birth as science and the arts changed the face of culture. However, some old ideas persisted in the midst of this...

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  • Added: Aug 12, 2020
  • Length: 03:00
  • Purchases: 1
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The madrigal offered composers a means to break the strict rules of counterpoint and harmony in order to serve a dramatic end; an important concept...

  • Added: Aug 12, 2020
  • Length: 03:00
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There are individuals in music history that stand as pillars, whose life and work help us delineate the various eras of musical practice. One such...

  • Added: Aug 12, 2020
  • Length: 02:59
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The aesthetic basis of baroque music, from Monteverdi to J S Bach, was greatly influenced by a concept called the doctrine of affections. In 4th C...

  • Added: Aug 12, 2020
  • Length: 03:00
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Explore the influence the Reformation and Counter-Reformation had on the world of music including the work of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

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  • Added: Apr 22, 2020
  • Length: 03:00
  • Purchases: 1
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Explore the development of imitation, or canon, as a tool of harmony and musical in the works of Josquin Deprez and Johannes Ockeghem.

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  • Added: Apr 22, 2020
  • Length: 03:00
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Learn how Ottaviano Petrucci basically invented the art of music publishing.

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  • Added: Apr 22, 2020
  • Length: 03:00
  • Purchases: 1
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Discover the music of the 15th Century French composer Guillame Du Fay and how the lines that defined secular and sacred music began to blur in the...

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  • Added: Apr 22, 2020
  • Length: 03:00
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Discover the writings of French theorist, poet, philosopher and composer Philippe de Vitry.

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  • Added: Apr 22, 2020
  • Length: 03:00
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Troubadors, or trouveres, were French composers and performers of secular lyrical poetry and song beginning in the late 11th Century.

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  • Added: Apr 22, 2020
  • Length: 03:00
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Hildegard of Bingen was a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, abbess, polymath, and a literal visionary of the 12th Century.

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  • Added: Apr 22, 2020
  • Length: 02:59
  • Purchases: 1
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Learn about anonymity and authorship in the Middle Ages.

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  • Added: Apr 22, 2020
  • Length: 02:58
  • Purchases: 1
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Learn about one of the first music theorists in our Western musical tradition.

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  • Added: Apr 22, 2020
  • Length: 03:00
  • Purchases: 1
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Discover how the practice of writing down music began.

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  • Added: Apr 22, 2020
  • Length: 03:00
  • Purchases: 1
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Discover the connection between mathematics and music that has been there since the beginning.

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  • Added: Apr 21, 2020
  • Length: 03:00
  • Purchases: 2
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Explore the earliest examples of written music in history.

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  • Added: Apr 21, 2020
  • Length: 02:58
  • Purchases: 1