The eras in the music show

Why the names are a map, not a setlist

The ticket page names composers and bands, and Turismo de Tenerife lists most of the same names and adds film scores and Broadway songs. A show of this kind moves through time, so the names mark periods rather than promise particular pieces. Programmes change between seasons and no piece is promised on a given night. Use this guide as background that makes the evening easier to follow, not as a forecast of what you will hear.

The Middle Ages and chant

Wikipedia describes medieval music as the sacred and secular music of Western Europe from about the 6th to the 15th centuries. Much of it is vocal, and Gregorian chant is its best-known form. Notation systems were created and adapted in this period, so musicians could write down and pass on ideas more easily, though writing sat alongside oral tradition. The booking page says the show starts here. Wikipedia divides the era into early, high and late medieval music, running from 500 to 1150, from 1150 to 1300 and from 1300 to 1400.

Mozart and Beethoven

Wikipedia says Mozart, born in Salzburg in 1756, completed more than 800 works, in most of the genres of his time. Beethoven, baptised in Bonn in 1770, is described there as a key driver of the transition from Classical to Romantic music, and as someone who expanded the symphony, the piano sonata and the string quartet. Both are named on the booking page, and together they cover the classical stretch of the evening.

Caruso and the opera voice

Enrico Caruso was an Italian operatic tenor born in Naples in 1873. Wikipedia calls him generally recognised as the preeminent tenor of the 20th century and the first international recording star, and says he made around 250 commercially released recordings between 1902 and 1920. Turismo de Tenerife lists him among the show's tributes, which makes him the show's nod to opera and to the age of the recorded voice.

Elvis and rock and roll

Wikipedia says Elvis Presley began his music career in 1954 at Sun Records, and calls him a pioneer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues. It also says he is referred to as the King of Rock and Roll. In a history that begins with chant and ends with film scores, he marks the arrival of rock and roll.

The Beatles, Queen, Abba and Pink Floyd

Wikipedia dates the Beatles to Liverpool in 1960, Pink Floyd to London in 1965, Queen to London in 1970 and Abba to Stockholm in 1972. It also records that Abba won the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden in 1974 with Waterloo. It adds that Queen's 1975 album A Night at the Opera featured Bohemian Rhapsody, which topped the UK singles chart for nine weeks, and that Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon came out in 1973.

Film scores and Broadway songs

Turismo de Tenerife says the show includes well-known film scores and popular songs from Broadway musicals. Wikipedia defines musical theatre as a form that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance, and says its modern Western form emerged in the 19th century. For a cast of singers, dancers and acrobats, this is the stretch of the evening where stage and screen meet.

The eras on a timeline

Laid end to end, the stops give a rough line through the history of Western music. The dates are the periods Wikipedia gives, and the show's own order is for the show to decide.

• 6th to 15th centuries: medieval music and chant
• 1756 to 1827: Mozart's birth to Beethoven's death
• 1873 to 1921: the life of Caruso
• From 1954: Elvis at Sun Records
• 1960 to 1975: the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Queen and Abba form and break through

Who this isn't for

Listeners who want a full concert of one composer or one band will not find it here, because the evening is a review of eras. Anyone expecting a particular song should not book on that basis: programmes change, and the booking page is the reference for what the show currently includes. People who dislike amplified music and bright staging may prefer a quieter evening.