From the Renaissance to the dawn of Romanticism

  c.  1480 - 1580  -  The High to Late Renaissance.

       1573 - 1580  -  The Florentine Camarata, a group of a group of humanists, musicians, poets
                                and intellectuals meet in Florence with an interest in reviving ancient
                                Greek drama.  The result will be the development of opera. The first lasting
                                opera, Claudio Monteverdi's l'Orfeo, is premiered in 1607.

       1600 - 1700  -  The development of Baroque music.

  c.  1700 - 1730  -  The high Baroque era of J.S. Bach, G.F. Handel, Antonio Vivaldi
                                and Domenico Scarlatti.

  c.  1700 - 1770  -  Although Bach and Handel will live for a couple more decades,  the popularity
                               of Baroque music fades.  Polyphonic counterpoint gives way to a simpler
                               form of homophonic music called Style galant.  Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809)
                               writes the first classical era symphony in 1759.   

  c.  1770 - 1805  -  The high point of Classical Era.  Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
                                (1756 - 1791) are the most significant composers of this period.  Within
                                this era there is a proto-romantic movement in German literature
                                called Sturm und Drang.  Small amounts of Haydn's and Mozart's music
                                exhibit a new dramatic aspect.

       1795 - 1802  -  The first generation of fully romantic writers emerge, including
                                Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Blake, and Novalis.

                               Ludwig van Beethoven's (1770 - 1827) early period compositions are published,
                               many containing darker emotional sounds than were heard in the classical era.
                               Beethoven's new music finds small audiences but faces stiff criticism.  

       1803 - 1820  -  Beethoven enters his middle period (1803 - 1814) in which he increases his
                                romanticism and composes the majority of his most famous pieces.
                                More composers take up the new directions in romanticism. 

       1820 - 1829  -  Beethoven's late period is characterized by even more introspection
                                and emotional and musical complexities than his earlier works.  The public
                                shuns most of his new work except Symphony No. 9 (1824).  Beethoven
                                dies in March of 1827.

                                In December 1828, largely unknown Franz Schubert dies at age 31.  The
                                coming generation of Romantic composers will champion Schubert's music. 

       1830              -  Hector Berlioz premiers Symphony Fantastique, the first fully romantic symphony.    
       1830 to 1860  -  The Early Romantic era of Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Mendelssohn and more.    

       1860 to 1910  -  The Late Romantic period of Brahms, Mahler, Wagner, Tchaikovsky,
                                   Rachmaninoff, and many more.