The Timeline
From Renaissance dances to 20th-century songs — every era of the collection, with its greatest names. Tap an era to explore, or a composer to hear their work.
Piano music didn't appear all at once — it grew over five centuries, and you can hear that whole journey in the DoReDog library. The timeline lays the collection out chronologically: from Renaissance dances and Baroque counterpoint, through the Classical elegance of Mozart and Haydn and the Romantic drama of Chopin and Liszt, to Impressionist colour and early‑20th‑century song.
Browse an era to hear how the music of each age sounds, or jump straight to a composer to explore their work. Every piece is free and playable in colour‑coded letter notes — here's how they work.
What actually changes between the eras
"Baroque", "Classical", "Romantic" are labels historians put on the map afterwards — no composer woke up in 1750 and decided the Baroque was over. But the labels do describe real changes in how music was built, and once you can hear those changes, the timeline stops being a list of dead men and starts being a story you can follow at the keyboard.
Baroque — several tunes at once 571 pieces here
The defining habit of Baroque keyboard music is that more than one melody runs at the same time, and each one matters. A Bach invention is two voices arguing politely; a fugue is three or four. There is usually no dynamic marking at all, because the harpsichord it was written for could not get louder when you pressed harder.
What that means for you: in letter notes, Baroque pieces show up as two busy lines rather than a tune with chords underneath. They are excellent for learning hands separately — each hand is a real melody on its own, so practising one hand alone still sounds like music. Start with the Little Preludes rather than a fugue.
Classical — clarity and shape 255 pieces here
The generation after Bach thinned the texture out deliberately. One clear melody on top, a simple accompaniment beneath it, phrases that balance each other like question and answer, and whole movements built on repeating and developing a couple of short ideas. Mozart's minuets and sonatinas are the sound of music that wants to be followed easily.
What that means for you: the easiest entry point in the whole library. The right hand carries something you can hum after one listen, and the left hand is often just a broken chord repeating. If you are new, this is the era to start in.
Romantic — the tune takes over 1,534 pieces here
The piano grew heavier strings, an iron frame and a sustain pedal, and composers wrote for the instrument they now had: long singing melodies, thick warm harmonies, huge swings between soft and loud, and tempo that stretches and pulls instead of ticking. This is also the century of the art song — a voice with a piano — which is why more than half the library sits here.
What that means for you: the melodies are the most memorable in the collection and the emotional payoff is immediate, but the left hand often stretches wider than a beginner's span. Chopin's preludes and Schumann's Kinderszenen are the gentle way in; the études and ballades are not.
Impressionist and after 21 pieces here
By the 1890s the rules of harmony had been loosened to the point where a chord no longer had to lead anywhere — it could simply be a colour. Debussy and Satie write music that hangs still, built from whole-tone scales, unresolved sevenths and pedal notes that blur everything together.
What that means for you: harmonically strange, physically gentle. Satie's Gymnopédies look intimidating on a stave full of flats and are genuinely easy in letter notes, because letter notes ignore key signatures entirely — you just play the letter you see.
Why the collection leans Romantic
Everything on DoReDog is in the public domain, which in practice means the composer died long enough ago for copyright to have expired. That draws a hard line across music history: the 19th century is fully open, the 20th only partly, and anything recent not at all. Add the enormous published output of Romantic-era song collections — Schubert alone wrote over 600 Lieder — and the shape of the library follows: 1,534 Romantic pieces to 255 Classical. It is not a curatorial preference. It is what the law and the printing presses left behind.
The earliest composer in the collection was born in 1525; the latest in 1894. Between them sit 435 composers and 2,435 pieces — about 97 hours of music, all of it free to play. Browse the whole library →