| 428-328 BC | Plato Lived: Plato outlines his view of the qualities of the modes of the time and when they were fitting or appropriate. |
| 384-322 BC | Aristotle Lived: He classified melodies as 1) ethical melodies, 2) melodies of action, and 3) passionate or inspiring melodies, each having a mode and harmony corresponding to the intent. |
| 33 AD | Matthew 26:30; Mark 14:26 = Last supper followed by “when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives”
: in the Gospel of Luke, there are the "Angels' Song," Mary's "Magnificat," and Zacharias's "Song." In Acts, Paul and Silas sing behind prison-bars: the prison is shaken, the doors fly open, and they are free. In the Epistles, there are but few references to music, but in Ephesians there is a "beautiful one," in which Paul exhorts the churches to sing "Psalms" and "spiritual songs." |
| 1st Century AD | Werner in noting that "the connections between Hebrew and Christian chant have been scientifically investigated and proved
Nearly all of the backgrounds from which early Christians came-Jewish, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and more-had instrumental traditions, but these traditions carried negative associations. Most church fathers saw the use of instruments in Jewish worship as a "childish" weakness, less glorifying to God than words of praise. "since harmony was unknown during the first one thousand years or more of the Christian era, and instrumental music had no independent existence, the whole vast system of chant melodies was purely unison and unaccompanied, its rhythm usually subordinated to that of the text" While the Greek and Roman songs were metrical, the Christian psalms were antiphons, prayers, responses, etc., were unmetrical; |
| 1 Timothy 3:16 “Hos Ephanerothe” | |
| 61-113 ad | , there is a reference in Pliny the Younger who writes to the emperor Trajan (61–113) asking for advice about how to prosecute the Christians in Bithynia, and describing their practice of gathering before sunrise and repeating antiphonally "a hymn to Christ, as to God". Antiphonal psalmody is the singing or musical playing of psalms by alternating groups of performers. The peculiar mirror structure of the Hebrew psalms makes it likely that the antiphonal method originated in the services of the ancient Israelites. According to the historian Socrates of Constantinople, its introduction into Christian worship was due to Ignatius of Antioch (died 107), who in a vision had seen the angels singing in alternate choirs. |
| 100 AD | “Plainchant” “Plainsong” Sung without musical accompaniment. Plainsong developed during the earliest centuries of Christianity, influenced possibly by the music of the Jewish synagogue and certainly by the Greek modal system. It has its own system of notation. 4 line staff NOT notating pitches or intervals - Monophony (1 voice) Plainsong was the exclusive form of Roman Catholic church music until the 9th century. Singing Psalms and other Scriptures. |
| 200 AD | Clement of Alexandria., "And even if you wish to sing and play to the harp or lyre, there is no blame." [speaking on “How to Conduct Ourselves at Feasts” and not specifically church worship.] |
| 340-397 AD | Ambrose (340-397) Bishop of Milan to support the view that the instrument was in use in public worship prior to the seventh century ???? |
| 342-420 AD | JEROME LIVED: The use of instruments in early Christian music seems to have been frowned upon. 4th or early 5th century St. Jerome wrote that a Christian maiden ought not even to know what a lyre or flute is like, or to what use it is put. |
| 347-407 AD | John Chrysostom lived: Psalm 63 was known as the morning hymn by the early church in Greece. John Chrysostom (347-407), Archbishop of Constantinople, wrote “that it was decreed and ordained by the primitive [church] fathers, that no day should pass without the public singing of this Psalm.” |
| 4th Century | “In blowing on the tibia [pipes] they puff out their cheeks … they lead obscene songs … they raise a great din with the clapping of scabella [a type of foot percussion]; under the influence of which a multitude of other lascivious souls abandon themselves to bizarre movements of the body" |
| 500-1500 AD | Medieval Period:
because of the pervasive influence of the church, the dividing line between sacred and secular aspects was thin throughout a good part of the medieval period. |
| 578 AD | Until 578 AD Women did join in Roman Catholic church singing but there was a returning to Hebraic tradition of male only voices. |
| 590-604 AD | Gregory’s collection was selected from chants already in use. His codification assigned these chants to particular services in the liturgical calendar. In general it reinforced the simple, spiritual, aesthetic quality of liturgical music.
There are preserved manuscript notations reminding singers to be careful and modest in their work, indicating that temptations of inattention and excessive vocal display existed for even the earliest liturgical musicians. |
| 7th Century | Coptic music is the music sung and played in the Coptic Orthodox Church (Church of Egypt) and the Coptic Catholic Church. It consists mainly of chanted hymns in rhythm with instruments such as cymbals (hand and large size) and the triangle.
Ethiopian Church Music: Ancient chanted worship with congregation participating with clapping, ululation and rhythmic movements |
| 657-672 AD | The introduction of church organ music is traditionally believed to date from the time of the papacy of Pope Vitalian in the 7th century, as processional uses but in the worship not common until 10th-12th century.
According to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, Pope Vitalian introduced the organ into the worship of the church at Rome to improve the congregation singing. But, it was not until the ninth century that the organ was "consistently" used, and the thirteenth century before it was "in general use throughout the Latin Church" (Vol. 10, p. 746). |
| 9th Century AD | Polyphony (2 or more simil lines of independent melody) |
| 10th-12th Century | Instruments were not common in the worship part of service in Roman Catcholic Western church settings until the 10th-12th centuries. |
| Conductus: processional music for 1, 2, or 3 voices | |
| 1115-1180 | John of Salsbury lived: The very service of the Church is defiled, in that before the face of the Lord, in the very sanctuary of sanctuaries, they, showing off, as it were, strive with the effeminate dalliance of wanton tones and musical phrasing to astound, enervate, and dwarf simple souls. |
| 11th Century AD | Musical Pitches were integrated with written music. |
| 1225-1274 AD | Thomas Acquinas Lived: A hymn is the praise of God with song; a song is the exultation of the mind dwelling on eternal things, bursting forth in the voice. |
| 14th century | Ars Nova new music … rhythm appearing in compositions "more contrived" criticism |
| 1543 AD | John Calvin, Psalter |