history of music essays

history of music essays From the year 800 A.D, music has evolved and developed in many different ways over 6 main musical periods. These different stages in musics history all have their own distinguishing features such as the type of instruments used, the texture of the music and the sound that is created through different methods of playing. The first significant period of music that has been recorded is the medieval period. The medieval period started from around 800 A.D and is thought to have ended at around 1450 A.D. this period of music can be split into two different styles: sacred and secular. Sacred music was mainly church music and as the church regarded all instruments, bar the organ, as pagan, most of the music was vocal. Sacred (or church music) was known as plainsong or plainchant. This has four features, which allows the person listening to identify it: a single lined melody; sung in Latin; free rhythm (no specific time signature, bar lines or regular rhythms); no key (modal); usually sung accapella. Other chants in the medieval period are sung in an antiphonal style (one choir singing in alteration with the other) and response style where the whole choir answers one or more soloists. Whereas all of these styles of music were performed in church, secular or non-religious music was performed everyday outside of the church by musicians who would entertain nobles, townspeople and peasants with their singing, dancing, acting and acrobatics. There were many instruments used by these entertainers including: Shawm a double reeded instrument with powerful tone and ancestor of the oboe Cornett made from ivory with trumpet like mouthpiece and finger holes like a recorder Medieval lute guitar like instrument with four strings Fiddle large viola like instrument with flat bridge to play two strings at the same time Pipe and tabor a pipe and two headed dr...