Composer timeline
An interactive timeline of 24 classical composers for kids and parents. Slide to any year from 1680 to 1975 and see which composers were alive.
1790
Alive that year: Move the slider to see.
Baroque about 1600 to 1750
Classical about 1750 to 1820
Romantic about 1820 to 1900
Modern about 1900 to 2000
Tap a name to read about that composer.
Antonio Vivaldi
Vivaldi was a priest who played the violin. He taught music at a home for orphaned girls in Venice. He wrote more than 500 concertos.
A fact to remember: People called him the Red Priest because he was a priest with red hair.
Start with: Spring, from The Four Seasons. Listen for birdsong in the violins and a storm in the middle.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Bach played the organ and worked as a church musician. For several years he wrote a new piece for church almost every week. He came from a large family of musicians.
A fact to remember: He had 20 children, and several of them became composers too.
Start with: Prelude, from Cello Suite No. 1. One cello plays alone. The notes ripple up and down.
George Frideric Handel
Handel was born in Germany and moved to London. He wrote music for kings, for the theater, and for large choirs. At many concerts, the audience stands for his Hallelujah chorus.
A fact to remember: His Water Music was first played on a boat on the River Thames for a king.
Start with: Hallelujah, from Messiah. A choir sings one word again and again, louder each time.
Joseph Haydn
Haydn worked for a rich family, the Esterházys, for about 30 years. He wrote more than 100 symphonies. People call him the father of the symphony.
A fact to remember: His Surprise Symphony has one sudden loud chord in the middle of a quiet tune.
Start with: Symphony No. 94, Surprise, second movement. A soft, tiptoe tune. Wait for the loud chord.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart played the keyboard and the violin as a small child. He traveled across Europe to play for kings and queens. He wrote more than 600 pieces in his short life.
A fact to remember: He wrote his first pieces when he was about five years old.
Start with: Variations on Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman. The Twinkle, Twinkle tune comes back in 12 new ways.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Beethoven moved to Vienna as a young man and became a famous pianist. He began to lose his hearing in his late twenties. He wrote nine symphonies.
A fact to remember: He lost most of his hearing and kept writing music.
Start with: Symphony No. 5, first movement. Four notes, three short and one long, start it all.
Franz Schubert
Schubert lived his whole life in and near Vienna. He wrote songs for voice and piano that tell small stories. He died at 31.
A fact to remember: He wrote more than 600 songs.
Start with: The Trout. The piano ripples like water while the singer tells of a fish.
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel
Fanny was a gifted pianist, and so was her younger brother Felix. In her time, few women could work as composers. She kept writing and played her music at concerts in her home.
A fact to remember: She wrote more than 400 pieces. Most were not published while she lived.
Start with: Das Jahr (The Year). A set of piano pieces, one for each month. Try the month of your birthday.
Print the Fanny Mendelssohn fact sheet · Read the Fanny Mendelssohn guide
Felix Mendelssohn
Felix played piano and wrote music as a child. He traveled and turned what he saw into music. He also helped people hear the music of Bach again.
A fact to remember: He wrote his overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream when he was 17.
Start with: Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream. Fast, light strings sound like fairies. Listen for a donkey's hee-haw.
Print the Mendelssohn fact sheet · Read the Mendelssohn guide
Frédéric Chopin
Chopin grew up in Warsaw and gave concerts as a child. He moved to Paris at 21. He wrote dances from his homeland, called mazurkas and polonaises.
A fact to remember: Almost all of his music is for the piano.
Start with: Minute Waltz. The right hand spins in fast circles.
Clara Schumann
Clara played her first big concert at age nine. She became one of the best-known pianists in Europe. She wrote music, taught, and raised eight children.
A fact to remember: She played concerts for more than 60 years.
Start with: Three Romances for violin and piano. The violin sings and the piano answers.
Print the Clara Schumann fact sheet · Read the Clara Schumann guide
Johannes Brahms
Brahms grew up in Hamburg and played piano from a young age. He moved to Vienna and wrote symphonies, songs, and piano music. He was a close friend of Clara Schumann.
A fact to remember: His Lullaby is one of the best-known cradle songs in the world.
Start with: Lullaby. A rocking tune that many music boxes play.
Camille Saint-Saëns
Saint-Saëns gave a piano concert at age ten. He played the organ at a large church in Paris. He wrote symphonies, operas, and a musical zoo.
A fact to remember: He wrote Carnival of the Animals as a joke for his friends.
Start with: The Swan, from Carnival of the Animals. A cello sings while two pianos ripple like water.
Print the Saint-Saëns fact sheet · Read the Saint-Saëns guide
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Tchaikovsky trained for a government job before he studied music. He became the best-known composer in Russia. His ballets are danced all over the world.
A fact to remember: He wrote three famous ballets: Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker.
Start with: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. A bell-like instrument, the celesta, plays the tune.
Print the Tchaikovsky fact sheet · Read the Tchaikovsky guide
Antonín Dvořák
Dvořák was the son of a village innkeeper. He used the rhythms of Czech folk dances in his music. He lived in the United States for three years and led a music school in New York.
A fact to remember: He loved trains and went to the station in Prague to watch them.
Start with: Humoresque No. 7. A skipping tune, then a smooth one, then the skip returns.
Edvard Grieg
Grieg grew up in Bergen, on the coast of Norway. He used the sound of Norwegian folk tunes in his music. His home, called Troldhaugen, is now a museum.
A fact to remember: He wrote music for a play about Peer Gynt, a boy who meets trolls.
Start with: In the Hall of the Mountain King. It starts quiet and slow. It ends loud and fast.
Claude Debussy
Debussy entered the Paris Conservatory at age ten. His music often sounds soft and dreamy. He wrote pieces about the sea, the moon, and falling snow.
A fact to remember: He wrote a set of piano pieces called Children's Corner for his young daughter.
Start with: Clair de lune. Soft piano notes that sound like moonlight.
Gustav Holst
Holst played the trombone and taught music at a girls' school in London. He wrote much of his music on weekends and holidays. The Planets made him famous.
A fact to remember: He wrote The Planets, with one piece for each of seven planets.
Start with: Jupiter, from The Planets. A happy, bouncing start and a grand tune in the middle.
Maurice Ravel
Ravel was born near the border of France and Spain. He wrote Mother Goose as piano duets for two children he knew. He was skilled at choosing which instrument plays each tune.
A fact to remember: In Boléro, one tune repeats again and again while the orchestra grows louder.
Start with: Boléro. A snare drum taps the same rhythm from start to finish.
Igor Stravinsky
Stravinsky grew up in St. Petersburg, where his father sang opera. He wrote ballets with strong, surprising rhythms. He later lived in France and the United States.
A fact to remember: At the first show of The Rite of Spring, the crowd grew so loud that the dancers could hardly hear the music.
Start with: Infernal Dance, from The Firebird. Loud chords jump out when you do not expect them.
Florence Price
Price played her first piano recital at age four. She studied music in Boston and later moved to Chicago. Many of her scores were found in an old house in 2009.
A fact to remember: In 1933 the Chicago Symphony Orchestra played her Symphony No. 1. She was the first Black woman to have a symphony played by a major American orchestra.
Start with: Juba Dance, from Symphony No. 1. A toe-tapping tune based on the juba, a dance with clapping and stomping.
Sergei Prokofiev
Prokofiev wrote his first piano piece at age five. He wrote Peter and the Wolf in 1936 for a children's theater in Moscow. He also wrote ballets, operas, and film music.
A fact to remember: In Peter and the Wolf, each character has its own instrument.
Start with: Peter and the Wolf. A narrator tells the story. The bird is a flute and the wolf is three horns.
Aaron Copland
Copland grew up above his family's store in Brooklyn. He studied in Paris and came home to write music that sounded American. He wrote ballets about cowboys and pioneers.
A fact to remember: He used cowboy songs and folk tunes in his ballets.
Start with: Hoe-Down, from Rodeo. Fiddles race through a barn dance.
Benjamin Britten
Britten grew up by the sea and wrote music as a small boy. He wrote operas and many pieces for children to sing and play. His guide to the orchestra uses a tune by Henry Purcell.
A fact to remember: He wrote The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra to show each instrument family in turn.
Start with: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. Each family plays the tune alone, then each instrument gets a turn.
How to use the timeline
Each bar starts at the year a composer was born and ends at the year they died. Drag the slider to a year. The composers who were alive that year light up, and their ages show under the slider. The ages are close, not exact, because the tool counts whole years.
Try 1756, the year Mozart was born. Bach had died six years before. Handel and Haydn were both alive. Try 1810 and 1840 to see how many Romantic composers shared the same decades.
Questions to ask a child
Who was the oldest composer alive in 1800? Which two composers were born in the same year? Could Beethoven have met Mozart? Could Tchaikovsky have heard music by Brahms? Each answer is on the chart.
What the eras mean
Baroque. About 1600 to 1750. Busy, steady music with a strong beat. The harpsichord and the organ are common.
Classical. About 1750 to 1820. Clear tunes and balanced phrases. The symphony and the piano grow up in these years.
Romantic. About 1820 to 1900. Bigger orchestras, strong feelings, and music that tells stories.
Modern. About 1900 to 2000. New sounds, new rhythms, and music for film, ballet, and the concert hall.
The dates are a rough guide. Styles changed slowly, and some composers fit two eras. Beethoven began in the Classical style and led the way into the Romantic one. Debussy lived most of his life in the 1800s, and his sound points to the 1900s.
Goes well with
More tools
Classical piece picker
Pick an age, a mood, and a length. Get a short list of pieces to play today.
Which music method fits your family?
Seven questions about your child and your week. See which methods match.
RCM certificate requirements by level
Choose a level and see which exams a student needs for that certificate.
Practice chart maker
Type a name and this week's tasks. Print a chart made for your child.
Metronome for kids
A big, simple metronome that also teaches the Italian words for slow and fast.
Staff paper maker
Choose how many staves and how big. Print staff paper that suits the job.