A Brief History of Western Music

Western music is generally broken down into six periods. Each of these periods have certain characteristics which have shaped it and remained with it throughout its duration.?

The Medieval Period (400-1400)

Prior to about 900, nearly all the music we have any record of is a simple, one line structure called a plainchant. This was made up of one melodic line sung in unison by everybody. More complex music existed, but as it was secular and not sacred, we have very few, if any, written accounts of it.

Gradually, over the next 500 years, people began to expand on this simple structure by adding voices. At first, these voices sung a fixed interval above or below the original line. This was called an organum.

By 1300, three and four voice compositions were being written. These works are referred to as polyphonic (many voices), to distinguish them from the monophony (single voice) of the simple plainchant.

The Renaissance (1400-1600)

By 1400 or shortly thereafter, several composers were writing polyphony in a slightly different way. Instead of using a slower bottom voice and faster upper voices, they made all voices equal in rhythmic variety. And instead of using four different chants, they used a single chant which was stated in each of the voices, upon their entrance, and the developed di

fferently from one voice to the next. This led to a more unified sounding work.

Most of the development during this period was made in Italy. However, with the Reformation and rise of Protestantism in the latter half of the 16th Century, the nature of music had to change.

The Baroque Period (1600-1750)

One of the major changes in daily life around 1600 was the switch from the Catholic church to various Protestant religion. The result of this change was that the language of the services switched from Latin to German. Because most people had not spoken Latin, the masses could be as ornate as the composer desired. But if the language was understandable by the majority of the people, the music should be simple enough that they could understand the words. As a result, the Catholic Latin mass was no longer needed, but new German services were. New hymns (chorales) were written to provide music for these services. These were primarily homophonic (simple chordal structure) in nature, contrasting with the polyphony that continued in instrumental and Latin works.

20th century, modern, and contemporary music

Mordernism( 1905–1985) marked a period when many composers rejected certain values ??of the common practice period, such as traditional tonality, melody, instrumentation, and structure. Composers, academics, and musicians developed extensions of music theory

and technique. 20th century classical music, encompassing a wide variety of post-Romantic styles composed through the year 1999, includes late Romantic, Modern and Postmodern styles of composition. The term "contemporary music" is sometimes used to describe music composed in the late 20th century through to the present day.

I have streamlined it a lot and I really can’t delete it anymore. Take a look at what you want to say in detail, and weigh it~