1st millennium in music explained

1st millennium BC in music – 1st millennium in music – 11th century in music

Events

ca. 150 – Claudius Ptolemaeus writes his treatise Harmonics
ca. 510 – Boethius writes De institutione musica as one part of his "quadrivium"
ca. 635 – Isidore of Seville compiles the Etymologiae
ca. 795–800 – Tonary of St Riquier, the earliest Western source organized according to the eight Gregorian modes, borrowed from the Byzantine octoechos system
9th century – Notker the Stammerer explains the supplementary letters for neumatic notation in his Epistola ad Lantbertum
ca. 850 – Aurelian of Réôme writes the earliest extant medieval treatise on music, Musica disciplina
ca. 890 – compilation of the Musica enchiriadis, the earliest known treatise on polyphony
ca. 900 – compilation of the Scolica enchiriadis, a commentary on the Musica enchiriadis

ca. 1st century – Seikilos epitaph, the oldest surviving complete piece of music
late 3rd century – Oxyrhynchus hymn, the earliest known Christian hymn to contain both lyrics and musical notation
387 – Te Deum, early Christian hymn
ca. 6th–7th century – Jieshi Diao Youlan No. 5, Chinese guqin melody, oldest extant substantial written melody
ca. 9th–10th century – Gregorian chants first used (see list of Gregorian chants)
884 – Liber Hymnorum completed by Notker the Stammerer at the Abbey of Saint Gall in Switzerland