KnowSoda
Arts & CultureMusic
Music History: fun facts and quiz
The essentials in 7 ideas, with fun facts, an illustrated story and a quiz to see how much you know.
The essentials
Ancient Music
Music is older than writing. Flutes carved from bird bone and mammoth ivory are over 40,000 years old.
Key fact
The Seikilos epitaph, about 2,000 years old, is the oldest complete song.
Writing Music Down
Around 1000 CE, the Italian monk Guido of Arezzo developed a system of lines and syllables that grew into modern music notation.
Key fact
His singing syllables grew into “do, re, mi”.
Bach & the Baroque
Johann Sebastian Bach, who lived from 1685 to 1750, wrote over 1,000 works, from church music to keyboard pieces. He is a giant of Baroque music.
Key fact
Bach had 20 children.
Mozart & Beethoven
Mozart composed from the age of five and wrote over 600 works before dying at 35. Beethoven kept composing masterpieces even after losing his hearing.
Key fact
Beethoven wrote his Ninth Symphony when almost completely deaf.
Recorded Sound
Before recordings, music could only be heard live. The phonograph (1877), vinyl records, radio, then cassettes and CDs let people hear music anywhere.
Key fact
The CD went on sale in 1982.
The Streaming Era
Streaming services like Spotify, launched in 2008, now bring in most recorded-music revenue worldwide.
Key fact
Over 100,000 new songs are uploaded to streaming services every day.
The Symphony
The symphony, a large piece for orchestra in several movements, took shape in the 1700s. Haydn, called the “father of the symphony”, wrote over 100 of them.
Key fact
Haydn wrote 104 numbered symphonies.
Fun facts
The oldest known written melody, a hymn on a clay tablet from Ugarit in Syria, is about 3,400 years old.
Guido named his notes after the first syllables of each line of a hymn to Saint John.
As a young man, Bach walked about 400 km to hear the organist Buxtehude play.
At 14, Mozart wrote out a secret Vatican choral piece from memory after hearing it once.
The oldest known recording of a voice, a French folk song from 1860, was made 17 years before Edison’s phonograph.
Spotify was founded in Sweden, partly as a legal answer to music piracy.
Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, from 1725, paints spring, summer, autumn and winter in music.
Story: The Silent Applause
The Silent Applause
Vienna, 1824. The Ninth Symphony premieres. Beethoven, almost completely deaf, stands on stage beside the conductor.
The music ends, but he’s still facing the orchestra, beating time, unable to hear the audience behind him.
A singer gently turns him round. He sees the whole hall on its feet, cheering and waving hats and handkerchiefs.
True or false?
Tap your answer to see if you got it, and why.
-
Question 1 of 10
The Seikilos epitaph is the oldest complete song we know.
Show the answer
True. About 2,000 years old.
-
Question 2 of 10
Guido of Arezzo helped create music notation.
Show the answer
True. Around 1000 CE.
-
Question 3 of 10
Bach was a Baroque composer.
Show the answer
True. The greatest of the era, many say.
-
Question 4 of 10
Beethoven kept composing while losing his hearing.
Show the answer
True. Including his Ninth Symphony.
-
Question 5 of 10
CDs went on sale in the 1980s.
Show the answer
True. In 1982.
-
Question 6 of 10
Streaming brings in most recorded-music revenue.
Show the answer
True. By a wide margin.
-
Question 7 of 10
Haydn wrote over 100 symphonies.
Show the answer
True. 104 numbered ones.
-
Question 8 of 10
Music was invented in the Middle Ages.
Show the answer
False. It’s tens of thousands of years older.
-
Question 9 of 10
Music notation was invented in the 1900s.
Show the answer
False. Its roots go back about a thousand years.
-
Question 10 of 10
Bach had no children.
Show the answer
False. He had 20.
Keep going in the app
KnowSoda learns what you know and brings back what you’re about to forget. Music History has 6 more ideas at the Advanced and Expert levels.
Sources
- Conard et al. (2009), new flutes document the earliest musical tradition, Nature 460
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Guido of Arezzo, J. S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven
- Library of Congress — History of the cylinder phonograph and recorded sound
- IFPI — Global Music Report 2024
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — opera, Monteverdi, Liszt, Fanny Mendelssohn, Hildegard, The Rite of Spring, John Cage
- Billboard — History of the Hot 100
