“Music is the most worthy, courteous, pleasant and joyous and lovely of all knowledge: it makes a man gentlemanly in his demeanor…for it acts upon his feelings. Music encourages us to bear the heaviest afflictions, administers consolation in every difficulty, refreshes the broken spirit, removes headache, and cures crossness and melancholy.” – The Venerable Bede, Tenth Century

     We are going to break down the history of music into six different eras: Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern. Every era is unique and fascinating, and has played a large role in what we listen to today. The Medieval era is unique in that it lasted for almost a millennium, making it the longest era in the history of music. This is possibly because it took centuries and centuries for even the smallest of musical developments to occur.

     Music as we know it today is compiled of vocals and/or various instruments, such as the guitar, piano, drums, saxophone, and so on. However, these instruments were obviously not always in existence. It is not known exactly what music was like thousands of years ago. There aren’t records and written documents showing the songs that were sung. We can only begin with the idea that man probably got inspiration from the things that surrounded him daily, such as the sounds of nature.

     This inspiration probably caused man to imitate these sounds of nature and interpret them through various styles of music. The first most likely being simple sounds and beats such as clapping their hands or some sort of singing. However, it probably didn’t take long for these musicians in the making to move on to other sources to make their own instruments. Rattles made from seashells and “stampers” made from hollow wood that could be pounded up and down to create beats were among the first of these primitive instruments. A particular one, called a “Bull Roarer”, was made by fastening a flat piece of wood or bone to the end of a string, and produced a roaring sound when it was whirled around. Next came a version of what we call the flute, made from reeds and young wood (Shippen 15).

     Although these attempts to create music were probably going on all around the world, it is likely that it first advanced into an art in the Far East. Music held an important place in the Hindu religious ceremonies, and Indian orchestras with stringed instruments are known to have existed in ancient times. The Egyptians played primitive forms of harps and flutes, and not too long after that came the lyres and double clarinets. The Chinese made instruments out of stone, gourd, bamboo, wood, silk, clay, metal, and skin, which produced tones of certain pitches. The Bible speaks of singing among the Hebrews, and from the Psalms many songs have been written. However, after a time, music ceased to develop in the Far East, while on the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, it continued to grow and develop into the music that we know and love today.

     It was in Greece where music and the science behind it became of great interest to the people. They called music a “divine discovery”. It was most likely Pythagoras who first figured out that the pitch of musical notes depended on the speed of vibrations (Shippen 19). He made the first monochord, which measured vibrations. The Greeks were the first in Europe to write their songs down. However, as the centuries passed, music ceased to develop with the new rule of the Romans. During the persecution of Christians by the Romans in the first and second centuries, they would hide from their enemies and sing songs of praise quietly, so as not to be heard. Instruments were not allowed to be used in the church; only singing was permitted. This was the law of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, who was one of the most significant early Church Fathers. At one time, women were able to sing in church choruses, but that came to an end as well, and only men were allowed to partake in song. Organs were made and brought into the church in about 600 A.D, but were generally disapproved of. An unaccompanied choir was the most accepted way to praise God.

     Around the year 590, a man named Gregory the Great, another Church Father, decided to delve a little deeper into music while he was in the church. The Gregoria chants originated with him, and are still being sung today. He was the first to create markings called “neumes” above the words to indicate whether a person’s voice should go up or down in tone while singing the song. Markings like dashes and dots were later added to these neumes. However, it was said to be very difficult to tell how many tones to go up or down by reading these markings, unless you already knew the song. This led to the creation of lines drawn on manuscripts, on which black marks sat on the lines or in the spaces between. These were called “notes", and helped show the exactness of how to sing the song. This notation did not come into existence until around the year 900, over 300 years after St. Gregory created neumes.

     During this time of musical progression within the church, there was another realm of music in Europe. This music had nothing to do with the church. It didn’t require mass choirs, directed by bishops and pope, but in contrast was a world of music without rules and conduct. There were songs being sung about everything from battle, to the harvest, wedding songs and even songs about drinking! People sang what they wanted to sing, danced how they wanted to dance, and loved every moment of it! The church of course disapproved of these songs and the mannerisms that accompanied them. But this did not affect the enthusiastic Europeans. Because of wars going on at the time, by the 9th and 10th centuries, many of these musicians had to rely on their talents to earn them a living, for thousand were left homeless. These entertainers, also known as “minstrels”, became widely popular among the public, and even royalty. Some were such impressive musicians that they were hired on board at these castles in which they would sing, act, play instruments, and offer news of the outside world. During the 12th century, when the Crusades were going on, the knights took their minstrels along with them for entertainment. They also brought back many instruments from these journeys, such as lutes, mandolins, guitars, the clavichord, and drums. Eventually, a school opened in Paris to teach people how to play these instruments. However, until the 16th century, vocal music was still much more developed than instrumental music.

     In the eleventh century, experiments began to take place with music in the church. Instead of singing in unison, as choirs had done for the hundreds of years before, all of a sudden two-part singing occurred. This singing of two or more parts is called polyphony, more commonly called “harmony”. It is not known how the idea of harmony came about. But, however it came to be, by the early 12th century, it was accepted and very common to sing in that manner. This became the basis of our modern harmony. Soon after that, a third part was added, and singing notes at an even length was replaced by a combination of short and long notes. During the eleventh century, a monk named Franco found a way to show the tones and lengths of the notes. Notes with tails were to be held long, and notes without tails were to be sung short. These were later replaced with the round black and white symbols that we see on sheet music today. It took nearly an entire century for this change to be made.

     The medieval era brought out many distinct composers, linked to fabulous works. For thousands of years before this, it was unknown who composed most of the music of that time, for it was common to be labeled as “anonymous”. It was not until the 14th century that a composer by the name of Guillaume de Machaut was one of the first composers to consistently sign his name at the bottom of his compositions. It is surprising that it took so long for this to catch on, for you would think great composers would want to be well-known for their work! Machaut was a real craftsman with music. He actually wrote the first book on music and its instruments, as well as compositions. His style was different than that of which was common. He spent his time writing gentle love songs, poems, rondos, and ballades, and “set all these to music that had great rhythmic richness and artistry. He is said to have been the first composer to use syncopation” (Shippen 34). Following Machaut were more composers that became very recognizable for their work, such as Jean Okeghem, Guillaume Dufay, and Josquin Despres. All were masters at the art of composing, and paid more attention to detail than most composers in the past. In fact, many composers have since imitated a famous mass written by Guillaume Dufay, called “L’Homme Arme”.