Musical Map of Europe MENU -> Musicology -> Musical Map of Europe
Click on any European country on the map to show that country's musical history, its famous composers, and to listen to music from that country.
The vast majority of our heritage of western music, up to the middle of the 19th century, emanates from composers born in the countries of Europe. Since then, great music has started to come out of other continents, including the New Worlds such as the Americas and Australia. One prominent example of intercontinental cultural transfer occurred when Dvorak (from what is now the Czech Republic) went to New York to take up the post of director of that city's Conservatory of Music.
Over the last 400 years, the centres of European musical culture have moved from Venice and Rome (Italy), to Paris (France), and London (England), then to Leipzig, Hanover and Mannheim (Germany) then to Vienna (Austria). Italy became an important centre for European music in the renaissance of the 16th century. Music prospered in France in the baroque period, under the Sun King, Louis XIV at his court in Versailles. England was also an important centre in the baroque period. The classical and romantic periods have been dominated by Austria and Germany.
Click the yellow Countries button at top of screen to browse through all the countries in this Themes database, including all of those not in Europe, or click the light blue Composers button to browse through all composers in the database. The light green Periods or Styles button takes you to the descriptions of Baroque, Classical, Romantic, etc, with lists of music from each period, to which you may listen.