Music History

There are 6 Musical Eras

1. Medieval Period

2. Renaissance Period

3. Baroque Period

4. Classical Period

5. Romantic Period

6. 20th Century

Ancient Music

Inlaid Panel from Ur,

ca. 2600 B.C.E.

showing a bull lyre

being played at a

victory banquet

(Norton History of Western Music)

Greek red-

figure

drinking cups

showing

Image found on a sarcophagus

depicting a roman funeral procession

http://www.museumsyndicate.com/item.php?item=36660

Papyrus

fragment ca. 200

B.C.E. with part

of a chorus from

Euripides’

Orestes.

(Norton History of Western Music)

The Medieval Period

Time: Approximately 500 – 1450 A.D

The Medieval Period

• Most music was sacred (church music)

– Plainsong or Chant -

• One vocal part

• Gregorian Chant

» Roman Catholic Church wanted to standardize

the Mass and chant

• Most composers are not known.

Troubadours

• During the late Medieval period the troubadour came

into existence.

• Troubadour - A composer/performer of poetry

– Made a living as an entertainer.

– Hired by wealthy nobles.

– Most were not simply wandering entertainers.

– Similar to a minstrel

– Most played instruments or sang their stories.

Instruments

Pan Pipes

Lute

Psaltery

Jaw Harp

Hurdy Gurdy

Zither

Hammered Dulcimer

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJDuh

olrvok

https://www.youtube.com/watc

h?v=yxBT1pfVAKQ

L’Orfeo

Music Notation

• Music was generally passed on orally. Eventually

music began to be notated, though without a staff, and

this is where our modern music notation originated.

Need to Know

• Sacred music:

–Gregorian Chant – one vocal part

• No composers

• Music passed on orally.

• 2 instruments

• What a Troubadour is

The Renaissance Period

Approximately 1450-1600

The Medieval Period

Time: Approximately 500 – 1450 A.D

The Renaissance

• Period of intellectual rebirth

– arts flourished and ideas and intellectual pursuits were highly

valued.

• Music still dominated by the church but now with

harmonies.

• Secular music begins(non-religious).

• Polyphony- having more than one note

• The Printing Press made distribution of music possible

on a wide scale.

– Demand for music as entertainment and as an activity for

educated amateurs increased.

Early Staff Notation

Renaissance Instruments

Slide

Trumpet

Shawm

CornettoSerpent (largest Cornetto)

Irish Harp

Viol

Notable Composer

William Byrd

(c. 1540–1623)

• English composer

• Printed and published music

• Wrote secular and sacred music

• Was Catholic but served the Church

of England as an organist and

choirmaster

Other Composers

Giovanni Pierluigi da

Palestrina, c. 1525–1594

Claudio Monteverdi, 1567–

1643

Giovanni Gabrieli

(c. 1554/1557 – 1612).

Need to Know

• Secular music (non-religious) makes an

entrance.

• The name of at least 1 composer.

• 2 instruments.

• What polyphony

• Printing began in this period to help with

the distribution of music.

PowerPoint by Éowyn Fair

https://musicadventures.wordpress.com/201

4/02/24/periods-of-classical-music-

powerpoint-lessons/