History of Music
Medieval Period
476-1400 (approximate)
After the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 AD, Europe entered the "Dark Ages" - essentially the classical culture of Greek and Roman learning and knowledge were lost and forgotten. Click here for a link that explains more about the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire.
During the time leading up to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, Christianity began it's rise as small religion in the Middle East. Emperor Constantine, who eventually converted to Christianity, stopped all persecution of the Christian religion. This action actually undermined the Roman way of life and its polytheistic culture - which recognized their emperor essentially as a god. This article talks more about those ramifications.
As Christianity spread throughout the "civilized" world, there was a need to "standardize" religious practices (within Christianity). What developed was the liturgy and the order of the mass.
Side note: For those wondering why so much information about Christianity, and what became known as the Roman Catholic Church, this was the forum where Western Art music that evolved over the coming centuries was developed within. Also because of the Catholic Church, we have written musical examples that we can read, understand, and perform today, and we know what they should sound like - unlike music from other cultures or even a lot of secular (non-religious) Medieval music.
The church's desire for standardization preserved written language, and created the need for written musical notation in order to standardize the liturgy across Christendom.
Music started originally with plainchant - a unison line - with the emphasis on being heard by God. Syllables would be stretched over multiple pitches, and the text was written in Latin. Over time, separate melodies could and would be added, often times by other composers (these multiple melodies are called polyphony).
Moving towards the end of the Medieval Period, it became more common for one composer to write an entire mass that would be more cohesive sounding, with more understandable text, and a more pleasing sound.
Example of plainchant:
Example of polyphony:
Late Medieval:
Music of Antiquity
The "Epitaph of Seikilos" is the oldest complete melody written in Ancient Greek. We're not exactly sure what it sounds like but it does use Ancient Greek notation which are letter names above the words. It is a memorial song to a man's wife. What do you think about it?