The tunes in the Skiptune database were written or first published in different time periods. This chart shows the distribution of those years. The tunes are not evenly distributed over the centuries. Most of the tunes in the Skiptune database were written during the baroque era and in the post-Romantic period we currently call the Modern Era. We don’t know of any research indicating how new melodies were distributed over the centuries, but we do not believe the Skiptune database is representative of all melodies ever recorded on paper. We know for a fact that the classical and romantic eras are under-represented at this time. As the database grows in number, this potential sample error will decrease. This chart reflects the distribution of 82,000 tunes as of January 2026.
The vertical axis shows the number of tunes written in the span of years shown on the horizontal axis. No one knows exactly what the relative heights of these columns should look like, but we have probably overweighted more recent tunes in populating the Skiptune database. That’s why the tallest column is for tunes written from 1900 to 1949. Perhaps the biggest omission is the number of classical melodies written from 1750 – 1799. As we continue to update across all time spans, these bars will begin to resemble the true frequency with which tunes were written over time.
For ancient tunes, one can only make an educated guess as to when the tune was written in the form we know it today. When we’re not sure, we use the first publication date of a tune or melody. Thus, the years that tunes were written are often estimates, especially for those written in obscurity and handed down through oral tradition for decades or longer until finally being recorded on paper. This necessary assumption biases the years graphed above toward more recent periods.
Any tune written before the year 1500 is deemed to have been written as of 1500 and included in the first bar at the left. While the musical note was invented in the year 1030 (see our summary of how the note was invented), the evolution of musical notation into the standard Western style of notation that we know today took several centuries. While it is debatable, we consider 1500 the earliest year for which we can read musical manuscripts and be somewhat confident we are representing the tune that the author had in mind.