Music history, daily

On This Day in Music

Composers born, composers lost, and pieces that met the world for the first time — and every name here is playable in the library.

August 5

  • 1397Guillaume Du Fay was born — Belgian-Italian composer and theorist. source 629 years ago
  • 1623Antonio Cesti was born — Italian organist and composer. source 403 years ago
  • 1678Juan García de Zéspedes died — Mexican tenor and composer. source 348 years ago
  • 1694Leonardo Leo was born — Italian composer. source 332 years ago
  • 1778Thomas Linley the younger died — English composer. source 248 years ago
  • 1797Friedrich August Kummer was born — German cellist and composer. source 229 years ago
  • 1811Ambroise Thomas was born — French composer. source 215 years ago
  • 1916George Butterworth died. 110 years ago

Every entry is drawn from our source-cited composer biographies and piece notes — dates come from published references, not from memory. Browse any composer to read the full biography, or the library to play their music.

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