Musical Impressionism.

Fierce rhythms, a twentieth-century revolution.

A legendary jazz voice and trumpet.

Operatic rock with a free structure.

Modal music from India.

Cool jazz in the irregular time signature of 5/4.

Modal jazz, a masterpiece from '59.

Danceable big-band swing.

Ragtime for piano.

A grunge anthem of the 1990s.

Global pop of the 1980s.

Argentine tango nuevo, bandoneon.

South Africa, rhythm and voice.

An orchestra of gongs and metallophones.

Airy, floating piano music, a symbol of late-19th-century Paris.

The exhilarating dance of cabarets and the Moulin Rouge.

Musical Impressionism is born: timbres and tone colours.

The elegance and nostalgia of early-20th-century France.

Italian opera tells the story of impoverished artists' lives.

Neapolitan song conquers the world.

The first African American rhythms arrive in Europe.

Sprechgesang: halfway between speaking and singing, atonality.

Silence becomes music: the sounds in the room.

Pure electronic music for the 1958 Brussels Expo.

A boy's voice and synthesized sounds: the Cologne studio.

Musique concrète: real sounds recorded and manipulated.

Tone clusters and extreme string sounds: music as protest.

Futurism brings the noises of the city into music.

Magnetic tape and live instruments.

The noises of the modern city: Futurism in music.

Neoclassicism: old melodies in a modern musical language.

Viennese serialism: brevity and mathematical precision.

The queen of classic blues.

The masterpiece of Ellington's big band.

Swing: Ellington's «jungle» theme, performed by jazz musicians everywhere.

Exhilarating swing with Gene Krupa on drums.

Work song: one voice calls, and the group responds.

A work song with a steady rhythm, linked to the movements of physical labour.

An a cappella religious song inspired by the Bible.

Melody and call-and-response typical of spirituals.

Gospel with instruments, a choir and an infectious rhythm.

Gospel of great expressive intensity.

Chicago blues: twelve bars and a repeated riff.

Delta blues from 1936 for voice and guitar: the 12-bar pattern in its most basic form.

Ragtime for piano: a steady bass and a syncopated melody.

Early New Orleans jazz bands, collective improvisation.

A trumpet introduction that made history.

One of the first jazz recordings (1917).

Classic Dixieland, a tune performed by jazz musicians everywhere.

Bebop: fast tempo, virtuosity, improvisation.

Bebop with an angular, melancholy sound.

Free jazz: long, highly free-form solos.

Free jazz without fixed chords, with a freely flowing melody.

Jazz rock with electric instruments and a funk rhythm.

Fusion: electric bass, synthesizers and a repeated groove.

From Porgy and Bess (1935): the most recorded standard of all time.

Billie Holiday, 1939: a song against racism.

Billie Holiday: a song that became a standard.

From Opera da tre soldi: Ella Fitzgerald's virtuoso performance.

A tune by George Shearing named after New York's Birdland club.

A tune by Erroll Garner made famous by Sarah Vaughan.

Peggy Lee, 1958: a stripped-down, sensual version.

Nina Simone, 1965: a standard with a huge sound.

Etta James, 1960: the ultimate love-song standard.

Dinah Washington, 1959: based on an old Cuban tune.

The riff that invented rock guitar.

The king of rock'n'roll in the 1950s.

British beat music and a choral finale.

A distorted guitar riff, blues rock.

Psychedelic rock and revolutionary guitar playing.

From acoustic music to hard rock in a single track.

Punk: three chords and plenty of anger.

The queen of pop and the music video as art.

Funk, rock and soul in a single artist.

Outstanding vocal virtuosity in pop.

Pop soul of the new millennium.

Pop for the streaming age: loops and vocals.

Minimalist pop produced at home.

The global phenomenon of K-pop.

Sanremo 1958: modern Italian popular song is born.

The greatest voice in Italian popular music.

The rhythm and humour of the 'molleggiato', nicknamed for his springy movements.

The singer-songwriter as a poet of the marginalised.

An Italian melody loved all over the world.

Poetic imagery and a dream of freedom.

Italian singer-songwriter rock of the 1980s.

Italian rock wins Eurovision 2021.

The world's most famous anthem for peace.

Protest song and civil rights.

Music and solidarity against hunger.

An anti-war song.

Reggae and the struggle for rights.

A protest against violence in Northern Ireland.

An environmental song.

Against war, with proceeds going to charity.

An anthem of soul music and women's rights.

Pop and female empowerment.

1963: a girl stands up for her freedom.

Witty, liberating country-pop.

Italian rock challenging stereotypes.

The first great female composer in history (12th century).

A great pianist and composer of the 19th century.

A song about strength and reclaiming your life.

Composed while deaf: music beyond all limits.

A blind tenor known throughout the world.

Blind since childhood, the father of soul.

A funk genius, blind from birth.

A deaf percussionist who feels music through her body.

He played with only two usable fingers.

A pianist and conductor who lived with illness, and a symbol of resilience.

A violinist who contracted polio as a child.

Musical theatre meets Latin American rhythms.

One of the most famous songs in musical theatre.

Rock and opera together.

The musical set in 1950s America.

The 'jukebox musical' built around famous songs.

Rap and hip hop tell the story of American history.

Musicals in today's cinema.

The celebrated musical in French and Italian.

An African harp-lute with 21 strings.

The tambourine rhythm of Southern Italy.

Guitar, voice, palmas (rhythmic handclapping) and dance.

Bagpipes and Celtic tradition.

One voice producing two sounds at once.

Jamaican reggae takes the world by storm.

Afrobeat: African funk and political engagement.

Africa meets European pop.

Cuban son rediscovered.

Blending musical cultures and exploring migration.

American pop and South African choirs.

Romani rumba becomes a worldwide hit.

The harmonica as a character's theme.

A large orchestra and leitmotifs.

The violin expresses the suffering of the Holocaust.

Organ and electronic sounds for outer space.

An Oscar for Best Original Score.

The trumpet as a nostalgic voice.

Recurring themes for peoples and places.

Songs in contemporary animation.

Italy's first major television programme built around advertisements.

From a guitar study to everyone's mobile phone.

A great composer working in advertising.

The most famous Christmas jingle.

Five notes become a sonic brand.

A sound logo lasting just 3 seconds.

The sound that announces a brand.

Singer-songwriters' songs used in adverts.

The instrument you play without touching it: a continuous, 'space-like' sound.

Bach performed entirely on a Moog synthesizer: the hit that brought electronic music into the mainstream.

A motorway journey told through synthetic sounds and a mechanical rhythm.

Melodic electronic music from the 1970s, featuring sequences and layers of synthesizer sound.

Drum machines and sequencers: the bridge between pop and club music.

A Detroit techno classic.

French house: loops, filters and a robotic voice.

1842: the chorus of exiles remembers their homeland; shared phrasing, nostalgia, hope and solidarity.

1847: a marching rhythm and collective singing; unity and participation, to be compared with the constitutional principles of equality and peace.

1966: green spaces disappearing beneath the concrete of cities.

1970: 'they paved paradise and put up a parking lot'.

1971: soul music speaking out against air and water pollution.

The environment and the rights of Aboriginal Australian peoples.

Reduce, reuse, recycle: environmental education through song.

2019: dozens of artists come together for the climate.