At the end of 15th century and the beginning of 16th century, Europe began to look back on the past music history consciously. Firstly, Boethius and others re-recognized the medieval music theory, and then re-evaluated the past music. They realize that some civilizations, including music, have experienced the development process of emergence, prosperity and decline, which indicates that a view of development history has emerged. The real music history only appeared in Germany in the early 17th century. At that time, Karl Repairs, the leader of the Leipzig church choir, added a chapter on "The Origin and Progress of Music" in the book "Skills Training of Music", and adopted the method of chronological narration to show the attitude of recording historical events of music, which can be regarded as the earliest music history. The earliest music history book written by Plinz, a German theorist, in 169, is the Historical Narration of Noble Singing Art and Music Art. From the standpoint of the new sect, on the one hand, the author recognizes the role of religion in the development of music, on the other hand, he does not deny that music has its natural origin. The book also provides biographies of a group of famous musicians in the 17th century, which provides valuable historical materials for later scholars to write music history.
in the 18th century, under the influence of enlightenment, the study of music history gradually matured, and most of the music history books published by scholars were based on rich historical materials and were verified by philology. In 174, J. Mattheson published "The Basis of the Dragon Gate", a biography of musicians, which concentrated the main music historical materials of Bach's era and had an important influence on the research of music history in later generations. Gilbert's two works on church music in 1774 and 1784 are important documents for studying medieval music. In the latter part of this century, there also appeared two notable music general histories in Britain. Hawkins's General History of Music Science and Practice (1776, 5 volumes) contains 58 portraits of composers and 15 musical examples, which is the first time to write the history of music in this way of pictures, texts and music. Bernie's General History of Music (1776-1789, 4 volumes) is characterized by his great concern for contemporary music. He traveled all over Europe, and made a detailed investigation of the reality of music in various countries. His reports are indispensable materials for studying the history of music in the 18th century. In addition, he investigated the musical phenomena according to the times and music schools, and then integrated them to make a study of the overall culture, which was also an innovative method at that time. Faucoeur's General Theory of Music History (Volume 2, 1788, 181) has taken a step forward in this way. He added a paper on the history of music at the beginning of the book, putting music in the overall connection of history, reflecting and criticizing the research methods from a philosophical point of view, and put forward the view that music is an organic development. His Life, Art and Works of Bach (182) made great contributions to the discovery and revival of this composer's music, and became a pioneer in promoting the prosperity of biography in the 19th century. His General Music Literature (1792) contains more than 3, documents and introduces the contents, which is an epoch-making achievement in the field of historical materials.
the 19th century is an era of all-round development of music history research. Under the influence of retro-ism, the publishing of ancient music scores has been unprecedentedly prosperous, and a variety of large-scale music historical materials and the complete works of many famous composers (Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Schubert, etc.) have been published successively. In addition, he has made remarkable achievements in biography. The introduction of philology makes the textual research of historical facts more accurate and detailed, thus correcting many mistakes in the past history books. On this basis, large-scale biographies of Handel, Bach, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven were published, and they are still indispensable basic documents for studying these composers until today. In general history, it is worth noting that there are the following three scholars, who have written a general history of music and expressed different historical views in it. Kisewett believes that the formation of a certain era in music history is the result of the emergence and existence of great figures in music. Music history should not be divided into general historical periods, and its periods should be named after the most important composers. In addition, he also regards the history of music as an organic whole that develops and progresses according to the times. Festus's five-volume general history was written only until the 15th century, and the later contents were included in his Biography of Musicians and Music Books. His works show an all-encompassing and eclectic tendency, and improve the status of non-European music in historical research. He opposed the historical view of evolution and development and replaced it with the concept of "deformation". Ambrose's general history (5 volumes) was written from the standpoint of cultural history. He quoted cultural historical materials from Vienna, Munich and many places in Italy, and made an all-round investigation of music in the whole culture.
The study of music history in the first half of this century can be said to be developing in a more specialized and in-depth direction. Significant achievements have been made in medieval music, Byzantine Oriental church music and Jewish music history. In the history of musical form, Bei Jing's Rhythm Typology, Dankel's Melody Typology , Kurt's Romantic Harmony Foundation and Saxophone's Musical Instrument History were published successively. In the field of biography, the research on Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Wagner has made remarkable achievements. During this period, Riemann's Outline of Music History (194-1913) was quite distinctive. He completely abandoned the writing method of arranging the biographies of composers in turn in the past music history books, and took the development and progress of music style as the main line of narrative history, showing the author's profound knowledge and solid technical and theoretical foundation. Adler's Summary of Music History (1924, Volume 2) was also written from the perspective of style history, but it absorbed the achievements of the Vienna School of Art History, making the discussion of music development open in a broader cultural background, and it is still an excellent history of music style.