History of music

Template:Current-COTW The history of music in relation to human beings predates the written word and is tied to the development and unique expression of various human cultures. Music history is the subfield of musicology and history which studies the history of music.

Prehistoric music

Main article: Prehistoric music.

The origin of music likely stems from natural sounds and rhythms. The human heartbeat, the songs of birds, the rustling of wind through trees, the crackle of a burning fire and the sounds of waves breaking on a beach or bubbles in a brook. Man-made music echoes these soundscapes using pattern, repetition and tonality.

Aside from the bird song it should be noted that music is not entirely the field of humankind. Monkeys have been witnessed to beat on hollow logs. Although this might serves some purpose of territorialism, it suggests a degree of creativity employed by the (type of ape here), which seems to incorporate a call and response dialogue. See: zoomusicology.

It is most likely that the first musical instrument was the human voice itself, which can make a vast array of sounds, from singing, humming and whistling (more musical forms) through to clicking, coughing and yawning (less musical). Thirty-thousand-year-old bone flutes have been found in archeological sites; the design seems to be similar to that of the recorder. The oldest playable flute found so far was at Jiahu, China, dated at around nine-thousand years old.

Most likely the first instruments were percussion instruments, the clapping of hands, stones hit together, or other things that are useful to create rhythm.

Music can be theoretically traced to prior to the Oldowan era of the Paleolithic age, the anthropological and archeological designation that suggests when stone tools first began to be used by hominids. The noises produced by work such as pounding seed and roots into meal was one source of early rhythm created by early humans that was likely to register in the collective consciousness.

Music and the development of culture

Main article: Ancient music.

Music archaeology

Music in cradles of civilizations

Africa

Asia

Central America

Mesopotamia

Classical traditions

Main article: Classical music.

China

Main article: Chinese classical music.

Europe

Main article: European-influenced classical music.

Early music

Main article: Early music.

Early music is a general term used to describe music in the European classical tradition from after the fall of the Roman Empire, in 476 CE, until the end of the Baroque era in the middle of the 18th century. Music within this enormous span of time was extremely diverse, encompassing multiple cultural traditions within a wide geographic area; many of the cultural groups which out of which medieval Europe developed already had musical traditions, about which little is known. What unified these cultures in the middle ages was the Roman Catholic Church, and its music served as the focal point for musical development for the first thousand years of this period. Very little music of non-Christian Europe has survived from this time, due to its suppression by the Church and the absence of music notation; however much folk music of modern Europe probably has roots at least as far back as the Middle Ages.

Medieval music

Main article: Medieval music.

While musical life was undoubtedly rich in the early Medieval era, as attested by artistic depictions of instruments, writings about music, and other records, the only repertory of music which has survived from before 800 to the present day is the plainsong liturgical music of the Roman Catholic Church, the largest part of which is called Gregorian chant. Pope Gregory I, who gave his name to the musical repertory and may himself have been a composer, is usually claimed to be the originator of the musical portion of the liturgy in its present form, though the sources giving details on his contribution date from more than a hundred years after his death. Many scholars believe that his reputation has been exaggerated by legend. Most of the chant repertory was composed anonymously in the centuries between the time of Gregory and Charlemagne.

During the 9th century several important developments took place. First, there was a major effort by the Church to unify the many chant traditions, and suppress many of them in favor of the Gregorian liturgy. Second, the earliest polyphonic music was sung, a form of parallel singing known as organum. Third, and of greatest significance for music history, notation was reinvented after a lapse of about five hundred years, though it would be several more centuries before a system of pitch and rhythm notation evolved having the precision and flexibility that modern musicians take for granted.

Several schools of polyphony flourished in the period after 1100: the St. Martial school of organum, the music of which was often characterized by a swiftly moving part over a single sustained line; the Notre Dame school of polyphony, which included the composers Leonin and Pérotin, and which produced the first music for more than two parts around 1200; the musical melting-pot of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, a pilgrimage destination and site where musicians from many traditions came together in the late middle ages, the music of whom survives in the Codex Calixtinus; and the English school, the music of which survives in the Worcester Fragments and the Old Hall Manuscript. Alongside these schools of sacred music a vibrant tradition of secular song developed, as exemplified in the music of the troubadors, trouvères and Minnesänger. Much of the later secular music of the early Renaissance evolved from the forms, ideas, and the musical aesthetic of the troubadors, courtly poets and itinerant musicians, whose culture was largely exterminated during the Albigensian Crusade in the early 13th century.

Forms of sacred music which developed during the late 13th century included the motet, conductus, discant, and clausulae. One unusual development was the geisslerlieder, the music of wandering bands of flagellants during two periods: the middle of the 13th century (until they were suppressed by the Church); and the period during and immediately following the Black Death, around 1350, when their activities were vividly recorded and well-documented with notated music. Their music mixed folk song styles with penitential or apocalyptic texts.

The 14th century in European music history is dominated by the style of the ars nova, which by convention is grouped with the medieval era in music, even though it had much in common with early Renaissance ideals and aesthetics. Much of the surviving music of the time is secular, and tends to use the formes fixes: the ballade, the virelai, the lai, the rondeau, which correspond to poetic forms of the same names. Most pieces in these forms are for one to three voices, likely with instrumental accompaniment: famous composers include Guillaume de Machaut and Francesco Landini.

Renaissance music

Main article: Renaissance music.

The beginning of the Renaissance in music is not as clearly marked as the beginning of the Renaissance in the other arts, and unlike the Renaissance in the other arts, it did not begin in Italy, but in northern Europe, specifically in the area currently comprising central and northern France, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The style of the Burgundian composers, as the first generation of the Franco-Flemish school is known, was at first a reaction against the excessive complexity and mannered style of the late 14th century ars subtilior, and contained clear, singable melody and balanced polyphony in all voices. The most famous composers of the Burgundian school in the mid-15th century included Guillaume Dufay, Gilles Binchois and Antoine Busnois.

By the middle of the 15th century, composers and singers from the Low Countries and adjacent areas began to overspread Europe, moving especially into Italy where they were employed by the papal chapel and the aristocratic patrons of the arts, such as the Medici, the Este family in Ferrara, and the Sforza family in Milan. They carried their style with them: smooth polyphony which could be adapted for sacred or secular use as appropriate. Principal forms of sacred musical composition at the time were the mass, the motet, and the laude; secular forms included the chanson, the frottola, and later the madrigal.

The invention of printing had an immense influence on the dissemination of musical styles, and along with the movement of the Franco-Flemish musicians throughout Europe, contributed to the establishment of the first truly international style in European music since the unification of Gregorian chant under Charlemagne seven hundred years before.

Composers of the middle generation of the Franco-Flemish school included Johannes Ockeghem, who wrote music in a contrapuntally complex style, with varied texture and an elaborate use of canonical devices; Jacob Obrecht, one of the most famous composers of masses in the last decades of the 15th century; and Josquin Desprez, probably the most famous composer in Europe before Palestrina, who during the 16th century was renowned as one of the greatest artists in any form.

Music in the generation after Josquin explored increasing complexity of counterpoint; possibly the most extreme expression of this tendency is in the music of Nicolas Gombert, whose contrapuntal complexities influenced early instrumental music, such as the canzona and the ricercar, ultimately culminating in Baroque fugal forms.

By the middle of the 16th century, the international style began to break down, and several highly diverse stylistic trends became evident: a trend towards simplicity in sacred music, as directed by the Counter-Reformation Council of Trent, and as exemplified in the austere perfection of the music of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina; a trend towards complexity and chromaticism in the madrigal, which reached its extreme expression in the avant-garde style of the Ferrara School of Luzzaschi, and the late century madrigalist Carlo Gesualdo; and the grandiose, sonorous music of the Venetian school, which took advantage of the architecture of the Basilica San Marco di Venezia to create a music of antiphonal contrasts. The music of the Venetian school can be seen on the cusp of the Renaissance and the Baroque eras, and included the development of orchestration, ornamented instrumental parts, and continuo bass parts, all of which occurred within a span of several decades around 1600. Famous composers in Venice included the Gabrielis, Andrea and Giovanni, as well as Claudio Monteverdi, one of the most significant innovators at the end of the era.

Most parts of Europe had active, and well-differentiated, musical traditions by late in the century. In England, composers such as Thomas Tallis and William Byrd wrote sacred music in a style similar to that written on the continent, while an active group of home-grown madrigalists adapted the Italian form for English tastes: famous composers inclued Thomas Morley, John Wilbye and Thomas Weelkes. Spain developed instrumental and vocal styles of its own, with Tomás Luis de Victoria writing refined music similar to that of Palestrina, and numerous other composers writing for a new instrument called the guitar. Germany cultivated polyphonic forms built on the Protestant chorales, which replaced the Roman Catholic Gregorian Chant as a basis for sacred music, and imported wholesale the style of the Venetian school (the appearance of which defined the start of the Baroque era there). In addition, German composers wrote enormous amounts of organ music, establishing the basis for the later spectacular flowering of the Baroque organ style which culminated in the work of J.S. Bach. France developed a unique style of musical diction known as musique mesurée, used in secular chansons, with composers such as Guillaume Costeley and Claude Le Jeune prominent in the movement.

One of the most revolutionary movements in the era took place in Florence in the 1570s and 1580s, with the work of the Florentine Camerata, who ironically had a reactionary intent: dissatisfied with what they saw as contemporary musical depravities, their goal was to restore the music of the ancient Greeks. Chief among them were Vincenzo Galilei, the father of the astronomer, and Giulio Caccini. The fruits of their labors was a declamatory melodic singing style known as monody, and a corresponding dramatic form consisting of staged, acted monody: a form known today as opera. The first operas, written around 1600, also define the end of the Renaissance and the beginning of the Baroque eras.

Music prior to 1600 was modal rather than tonal. Several theoretical developments late in the 16th century, such as the writings on scales on modes by Gioseffo Zarlino and Franchinus Gaffurius, led directly to the development of common practice tonality. The major and minor scales began to predominate over the old church modes, a feature which was at first most obvious at cadential points in compositions, but gradually became pervasive. Music after 1600, beginning with the tonal music of the Baroque era, is often referred to as belonging to the common practice period.

Common practice period

Main article: Common practice period.

Baroque music

Main article: Baroque music.

Instrumental music becomes dominant, and most major music forms become defined: famous composers include Bach, Handel and Vivaldi.

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Classical music era

Main article: Classical music era.

Musical analysis can be traced back to the 1750s. The Classical Period is characterized by homophonic texture, or an obvious melody with accompaniment. Much of Classical piano music uses Alberti bass, an accompaniment with a repeated pattern. Music now settles into several well-defined forms, the main being the sonata, the symphony and the concerto. The first movement of a sonata or a sonatina has three parts: the exposition, development, and recapitulation. Famous composers include:

Romantic music

Main article: Romantic music.

Music becomes more expressive and emotional, it both codifies previous practice, and at the same time attempts to expand beyond it to encompass literature, art and philosophy in music. Famous composers include Robert Schumann, Fryderyk Chopin, Felix Mendelssohn, Bellini and Berlioz. The late 19th century sees a dramatic expansion in the size of the orchestra, and in the role of concerts as part of urban society. Famous composers from the second half of the century include Brahms, Franz Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Verdi and Wagner. Between 1890 and 1910 a third wave of composers, building on the work of Brahms, Verdi, Wagner and Tchaikovsky create even more complex, and often much longer, musical works, including Dvorak, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Puccini and Sibelius.

20th century classical music

Main article: 20th century classical music.

Many composers continue to work in forms that derrive from the 19th century, including Rachmaninoff and Edward Elgar. However Modernism in music became increasingly prominent and important, among the first modernists: Bartok, Stravinsky, and Schoenberg. Many other composers including Schostakovich, Prokofiev, Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc and Gershwin seek to combine new musical ideas but maintain a connection to the past.

Contemporary

Main article: Contemporary music.

Blues

Main article: Blues.

Jazz

Main article: Jazz.

Rock and Roll

Main article: Rock and roll.

Contemporary International

India

Main article: Indian classical music.

Persia

Main article: Persian music.

References

Brown, Steven, et al, eds. (2000). The Origins of Music. The MIT Press. ISBN 0262232065.

Sources