Composer Timeline

Composers’ lives,
one timeline

Each bar is a life. Where the bars overlap, those people were writing music under the same sky.

Tap a name or a bar to open that composer. Hover over a bar to see the years.

  1. Pachelbel1653–1706
  2. Vivaldi1678–1741
  3. Bach1685–1750
  4. Handel1685–1759
  5. Haydn1732–1809
  6. Mozart1756–1791
  7. Beethoven1770–1827
  8. Schubert1797–1828
  9. Mendelssohn1809–1847
  10. Chopin1810–1849
  11. Smetana1824–1884
  12. Brahms1833–1897
  13. Saint-Saëns1835–1921
  14. Tchaikovsky1840–1893
  15. Dvořák1841–1904
  16. Grieg1843–1907
  17. Moszkowski1854–1925
  18. Elgar1857–1934
  19. Puccini1858–1924
  20. Joplinc.1868–1917
  21. Scriabin1872–1915
  22. Rachmaninoff1873–1943
  23. James Scott1885–1938

Baroque

About 1600 to 1750. Several melodies woven together at once.

Classical

About 1750 to 1820. Clear melodies and balanced forms.

Romantic

About 1820 to 1900. Inner stories told on a large canvas.

Dawn of Jazz

Ragtime, born in America around 1900 — rhythms that led to jazz.

20th Century

From around 1900. A search for new harmonies and colours.