Category Archives: History of Music

A History of Music for Singers – Resources and More

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So we’ve travelled the best part of 2,000 or 3,000 years as we’ve examined the history of music, and especially the history of vocal music. If you’ve missed any of the posts in this series, you can jump to all of them here:

A History of Music for Singers

However, I hope this won’t be the end of your interest in the history of music. In fact, I hope this is only the beginning. Here are some of my favourite resources as a starting point:

Books

      

(Books bought through the above links will benefit the running of the Discover Singing blog)

Websites

Classics for Kids – This child-friendly website features a different composer each week with a five-minute audio podcast feed and loads of information.

Radio 3 Composer of the Week – Each week BBC Radio 3 features a particular composer with features on them each day. At the end of the week a one hour edited programme is released as a podcast and these remain available on the feed. UK access only, though.

Classic FM Discover – This UK radio station plays classical music all day, every day and is usually considered more accessible than BBC Radio 3 in style. Their website has some great resources on the history of classical music, and suggestions of music for various themes and events like weddings or studying. There’s also a section on film scores, since this makes up a large proportion of the more modern music they play.

 

A History of Music for Singers – The 20th Century (& Beyond)

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A History of Music for SingersFor most people, when they think of “modern” music, the first things that spring to mind are either contemporary popular music (which is a story for another series), atonalism, or 4’33. For singers, however, none of these ideas really reflect the vocal music produced in the 20th century.

It feels like stating the obvious to say that the 20th century was a century of massive social change. If you’ve ever watched Downton Abbey, you’ll know life in 1912 was very different from live in 2000. Two world wars, one cold war, and a digital revolution. It’s not surprising music changed drastically.

The story of 20th century music begins where we left the Romantic era – Wagner and Gilbert & Sullivan. Wagner was the high point of what we now call “Classical” music. Rich in harmony, full of complex musical features but still tonal. This high art continued to be the favoured style for many musicians into the early 20th century. However, there was a new force on the horizon – modernism. Inspired by, and reacting to the growth of industrial cities, artists who began to abandon the “rules” of their genres, rejecting the idea that their work should reflect the real. Fine art began to experiment with abstraction (Picasso), and  playwrights developed new surrealist theatre (Brecht).

Composers began to pull away from the traditional rules of harmony, and tried to invent new ways to create music. One of the most commonly cited examples of this is serialism, where all twelve notes of the keyboard are placed in a random order and are used in that order. For an excellent explanation of how serialism works, click on the first video below (warning: it’s 30 minutes long). If you don’t have time, click on the second video and have a listen to an example of serialist music.

Vocal music was not, however, frequently produced by those working at the cutting edge of modernist music. I suspect this is because very atonal music is not very easy to sing. However, the influence of this disregard for traditional harmony can be felt in many early twentieth century songs which go further than Romantic songs in using chromatic harmonies and playing fast and loose with key signatures. This is an example of an art song by Debussy, who was heavily influenced by modernist ideas.

By the mid-20th Century, composers such as Benjamin Britten, Gian Carlo Menotti and Michael Tippet were using this densely harmonised music to convey the complex and fractured nature of post-war society. Listen to this aria, The Soul of Man, from Michael Tippet’s Child of Our Time oratorio, composed during World War II.

The early 20th century is also where there is a divergence of music into a range of more defined genres takes hold. While the composers of “high art” music were experimenting with atonalism, other composers drew on the bastard child of opera, the operetta, to develop a new genre of sung music – the musical. This genre completely ignored the deconstruction of harmony and retained a regular and familiar feel . Listen to this song by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, who are credited with defining the modern genre of musical theatre:

Popular music also began to develop as it became possible to record music, and share it. Music like jazz and ragtime from the black communities of America began to influence popular song writers from other cultural backgrounds, and by the mid-1950s, popular music was no longer just songs learned by ear in the pub – it was an industry and a genre all of its own. Listen to this early rock & roll song by Bill Haley & his Comets, and see if you hear the parallels with blues and jazz.

However, this divide between popular music and high classical music was not completely clear-cut thanks to one last invention in the 20th century: cinema. Since the invention of the “talkies”, background music has become integral to the way in which stories are told on film. This has spawned a whole new genre of classical music which is still listened to by the masses. I’m sure this fabulous piece of classical music by John Williams needs no introduction:

From small beginnings around the firesides and alters of the 14th and 15th centuries, music in the 21st century is a thriving business, thriving on variety as well as popularity. All the way through, the voice has remained at the centre of this development, and now drives the most profitable part of the music industry – popular music.

The key forms of music for voice in the 20th Century era were:

  • New song genres – jazz, pop, musical, blues
  • Musical theatre
  • Rise of ‘popular music’
  • Opera, choral works and religious music still written
  • Non-singing vocal forms like rap develop

 When you’re trying to decide if something is 20th Century music, listen out for:

  • Experimental
  • Often dissonant
  • Based on unusual harmonies
  • Wide variety of trends and styles
  • Development of film and TV music
  • New forms of ‘folk music’
  • Anything goes!

Composers to Remember:

 

–> Next week: Resources and More

[Introduction] ♦ [Previous Post]

A History of Music for Singers – The Romantic Era

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A History of Music for SingersThe Romantic Period in musical history is so termed because it’s an era of music that’s endlessly high on emotion whether in art, music, or literature. Largely, this “Romanticism” is considered to be a reaction to the developing Industrial Revolution which saw machines take over from people and cities grow sprawling and black with coal. Artists wanted to stand against this de-humanising and un-natural direction and instead bring out human emotions and natural themes. Compare the top picture of the Victorian City with the painting by Turner from 1839 below.

Victorian City

For composers, this was the start of two centuries of experimentation. Music became more focussed on emotional communication rather than technical elegance, giving scope for complex chromatic harmonies and vast, dramatic orchestrations. Listen to Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 6 (Pathétique) and compare it to some of the music by Mozart in the previous post on Classical Music – it’s a totally different listening experience.The Romantic Period in music covers most of the 19th Century, the era of Queen Victoria for us Brits, and relative political stability in many countries, although there were still plenty of Civil Wars, and International Conflicts.

800px-Turner,_J._M._W._-_The_Fighting_Téméraire_tugged_to_her_last_Berth_to_be_broken

However, the biggest changes were social, with everything from the introduction of workhouses, to the invention of blue jeans. This is also the age of the novel, with literature becoming more popular as printing has become mechanised for the masses. Music is also printed more frequently now, and music books develop into the forms we have them today. The Romantic period is generally thought of as ending in the 1910s, as the Great War was looming and political unrest began to plague Europe again.

For singers, the biggest change that happens is that composers begin to use the voice as an instrument. Art songs, a trend which began in the Classical era, develop into a huge genre with its own internal divisions (English songs are quite distinct from German Lieder and French Mélodie). The lyrics are mostly poetic settings, written by Romantic poets, but the words are subsumed into a soundworld that tells the story whether or not you can understand the words. Have a listen to this beautiful setting by Fauré. The poem is by an anonymous Italian, but was translated into French by Romain Bussine.

The other main feature of the Romantic period for singers is the rise, rise and rise of Opera, reaching its zenith with Wagner at the end of the 19th Century. Wagner is responsible for the image of the opera singer as fat, Viking-horned, singing full pelt with plenty of vibrato! However, there were plenty of other kinds of opera on offer which are slightly less intense. Here’s an aria from Verdi’s opera, Il Trovatore that shows the dramatic potential of high romantic opera.

Popular music was also developing new trends. As published music became more accessible and pianos more affordable, the broadside ballads of previous eras developed into parlour songs for the rich and music hall for the not-so-rich. Mass employment in factories led to more people living in cities, and more people with set working hours that gave them distinct leisure time – and people with leisure time wanted entertainment. Music Halls provided a good sing-a-long of bawdy songs and comic sketches for the work-weary masses. Here’s an early recording (1907) of music hall star Vesta Victoria singing a well known song Wating at the Church.

Music Hall and Parlour Songs also gave rise to a new type of musical show – the operetta. Operettas had more of the feel of the music hall, while still keeping the kinds of stories and orchestrations of opera, and borrowing spoken dialogue from theatrical plays. The masters of this genre were Gilbert and Sullivan, and here’s an aria you might recognise.

The final trend related to song that was a huge part of the Romantic period was nationalism. Nationalism was a huge issue in the 19th Century as modern nation states began to take shape under their own governments. This often led to an interest in the cultural heritage of the people who made up the modern nation, and (in the wake of the Grand Tour of the classical era) interested individuals began to “collect” traditional music. In countries across Europe and beyond, composers collected volumes of songs sung by ordinary people, writing them down and sometimes arranging them as art songs, or collating different versions into a “best” version. One of the most famous collectors of them all was a Scot by the name of Robert Burns. Burns collected hundreds of Scottish folk songs and arranged many of them into the tunes that are now so famous. The clip below is the result of Burns listening to a dozen different versions of Ae Fond Kiss, collating them together to select the most effective combination of words and music from different versions, and then publishing his work. Burns is possibly one of the most famous editors in all of history!

The key forms of music for voice in the Romantic era were:

  • Opera
  • Operetta and early musical theatre
  • Songs (lieder, chanson) often about love, nature, or both
  • National anthems
  • Transcription of folk songs
  • Parlour songs and music hall
  • Almost complete separation of religious song from mainstream composition

When you’re trying to decide if something is Romantic music, listen out for:

  • Dramatic, emotive & descriptive
  • Virtuosic
  • Full of contrasts
  • Thicker texture
  • Complex harmonies with chromatic movement
  • Lyrics which are as descriptive as the music
  • Draws on national musical traditions

Composers to Remember:

 

–> Next week: The Modern (20th Century) Era

[Introduction] ♦ [Previous Post]

A History of Music for Singers – The Classical Era

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A History of Music for SingersIf the Baroque Era was the era of music for Kings, the Classical Era was music for escapism. As we learned in the last part of this series, the music of the Baroque era was composed for Kings and Dukes. However, as Capitalism began to rule supreme in Europe, composers became more business minded and began to become more independent.

Fashion in 1700s

From a wider point of view, the Classical Era was a time of social and political upheaval in the Western world. In 1776, after a bloody war, thirteen British colonies joined together to declare themselves independent and formed what would become one of the most powerful nations on earth – the United States. Two decades later, the French declared a revolution and chop off the head of their King. Revolutions were also happening in Belgium, Austria, Haiti, Poland and Ireland. The Swedish and Russians assassinate their ruling monarchs. By the end of the era, in 1820, Britain has been to war with Napoleon twice, both at Waterloo and Trafalgar.

However, in music, this is not the era of Wagner’s Sturm und Drang. No, Mozart is King of the opera house with his tales of love and adventure – escapism akin to today’s trend for comic book superheroes in the midst of financial recession and uncertainty. To be rich enough to go to the opera and enjoy high classical music is to be at risk of being overthrown by the revolutions of the poor. No one wanted to pay money to be reminded how bad life was outside, so the classical composers provided a safe haven where all was right with the world.

Edinburgh Old CollegeThe other key influence on Classical music was the “classics”. Developing on from the Renaissance interest in Greek and Roman ideas, Classical art and architecture drew on the Greek and Roman art which was being rediscovered by collectors. This is the era of the Grand Tour when rich Europeans travelled to the Mediterranean to collect a little bit of history. It’s the era of the British Museum with its classical columns on the outside and Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon (collected 1810-12) on the inside. Classical art is notable for its simplicity, clean lines, formal structures and emphasis on order and hierarchy (an antidote to the challenge to order and hierarchy going on politically). You can see an example of this in the picture of the University of Edinburgh’s Old College which was designed in 1817.

This emphasis on clean lines, simplicity and formal structure extended into music. Classical music is notably less rich than Baroque music, and tends towards a “melody and accompaniment” form. By using this form, there was more scope for other kinds of variety such as greater use of dynamics and changes of mood within a single movement or section. Modulations became more adventurous and more frequent, paving the way for the chromaticism that would be a hallmark of Romantic music (itself leading to atonalism). Here’s an example of classical song by Beethoven:

FortepianoByMcNultyAfterWalter1805Instrumentation became more fixed. In the Baroque era, it was common to miss out certain instruments or add in additional ones, and use a “continuo” bass (similar to a modern leadsheet which shows just the chords and leaves the pianist or guitarist to interpret the chords as they see fit). Classical music moved towards a system whereby the music was played as written every time with the same instruments. The “continuo” bass declined as the piano (see right for an example of an early design) replaced all previous instruments as the keyboard of choice for all music. This alone provided a whole new vocabulary of musical sounds as the piano can be played with much greater expression than the harpsichord or organ. This is one of Haydn’s piano sonatas:

For singers, the Classical era saw developments in of both opera and song. Oratorios fell out of favour, and instead, Mozart made opera a real genre of its own with his engaging stories drawing on literature as well as mythology and theology which had previously dominated. As composers were drawn more and more away from the church and into the drawing room, secular songs became popular with composers setting poetry to music. Many of the new art songs were “serenades” dedicated to a specific person. Vocal music in this era was really a prelude to the flowering of the voice as an instrument that the Romantic era would bring. Words were important, but the melody became more important. Here’s a great example of Mozart melding melody with words in the opera The Magic Flute:

For the ordinary people, song became the means of protest. The music of the people was key to uniting them around a cause and expressing the fears of the participants. It’s no co-incidence that the very successful musical Les Miserables is set against a background of revolution with its rousing chorus of “Do You Hear the People Sing?”. Songs had always reflected the political circumstances, but now it was a unifying force for war. (Another thing which foreshadowed the role of popular song in the 20th Century). Here’s a song from the American Revolutionary War which is still sung today:

The key forms of music in the Classical era for voice were:

Most of the new forms were for instruments, and these included:

When you’re listening to decide if something is music from the Classical era, it’s likely to have some of these features:

  • Simple but beautiful
  • Restrained and elegant
  • Clear in melody and accompaniment
  • Usually singable, with clear phrases

Composers to Remember:

The composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828, Aus) is the most notable “transition” composer who bridged the Classical and Romantic styles.

–> Next week: The Romantic Era

[Introduction] ♦ [Previous Post]

A History of Music for Singers – The Baroque Era

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A History of Music for SingersLast week, we began journeying through the history of music with the Renaissance period. The Renaissance slowly transitioned into the Baroque (Bar-RO-ck) period around the start of the 16th Century. The name Baroque developed from a Latinate word meaning “rough or imperfect pearl” and was actually initially used to make fun of the elaborate style of music and art which became popular. Now, it is just used in a more technical sense to talk about the creative arts in the century from about 1650 to about 1750.

Fashion in 1600sIn Britain, the Barque era saw the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (which included the English Civil War) and the union of the English and Scottish Parliaments to create the United Kingdom. This was a time when many Empires were being built, and the aristocracy were enjoying a golden age (that would soon come crashing down around their ears…).

One of the key aspects of music at this time is that it was mainly funded either by the church (as it had been in the Renaissance) or by the aristocracy. Musicians were employed by courts, or by theatres owned by rich noblemen, and they worked on commission. One of the most enduringly famous works of George Frederick Handel (the epitome of Baroque composition) is Zadok the Priest, which was composed for the coronation of George I of Great Britain in 1727:

The patronage of the upper classes encouraged the growth of formal ceremonial music, but it also saw new forms develop. The leisured classes wanted entertainment, and so the genres of opera (for secular stories) and oratorio (for religious and mythological texts) developed. In the early days, operas looked very similar to modern musicals with dance sections, scripted elements and songs. Here’s a song from Purcell’s early opera King Arthur.

Chamber Music

Chamber music also developed as a way for the rich to enjoy music in their own homes – in their “chambers”. Chamber music has a very small orchestra because the whole group had to fit in someone’s living room. Many of the chamber works at the time took inspiration from dance music like minuets, gavottes and sarabandes.

Church music also continued to be popular and important. One of the most influential writers of church music was J S Bach. Bach wrote hundreds of choral hymns, which are now known as “chorales”, and some of them are still sung in chuches today, and others have become famous in their own right, like Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.

Ordinary people too, were exposed to this church music. The Reformation had changed Sundays forever, and people were now singing hymns and psalms like never before. One of the principles of the Reformation was that every man should learn scripture and choose faith for himself. Singing hymns was one way to help the average Joe in the pew memorise bible verses and scriptural truths.

Outside church, broadside ballads still ruled popular music, and they would come to play an important role in motivating the general population to take sides in everything from the Reformation to the Civil War. The governments of the day also paid writers to produce warning songs about excecuted criminals. It was a little bit like setting the news stories found in The Sun to the music of Adele!

There were a number of popular vocal forms during the Baroque period. Some, like masques, masses and oratorios were new. Others, like Monody, were developments from Renaissance inventions like the Air:

These forms also developed for chamber orchestras:

When you’re listening to decide if something is Baroque music, it’s likely to have some of these features:

  • Elaborate – usually embellished with ornaments like trills and turns
  • Rhythmic – it’s easy to hear the beat
  • Complex and detailed – the different parts all keep moving around
  • Dramatic – thick harmonies, and changes in dynamics and tempo
  • Follows all the ‘rules’ of harmony – no chromatic chords, or strange arrangements

Composers to Remember:

–> Next week: The Classical Era

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A History of Music for Singers : The Renaissance

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A History of Music for SingersThe Renaissance – a time of grandeur, of experimentation and of scientific progress. For me, the Renaissance (ruh-NAY-sonce) conjures up grand Italian and Spanish courts with explorers and architects lining up to impress the monarchs. (Well, unless you pronounce it REN-ess-ahns, in which case, it’s bad wench costumes and spit roast pig in an American field!) I don’t, generally, think of Britain, or the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, as having much to do with this flowering of culture.

However, Henry VIII (1507-1547) was considered to be just a much a “Renaissance prince” as any other monarch. Yes, England was a little late to the party, thanks to a long running civil war (the Wars of the Roses) and a dour king who favoured an austerity policy (Henry VII). Scotland didn’t fare much better with the Stuarts getting themselves imprisoned by their own people (James III) and defeated by their old enemies (Battle of Flodden Field 1513). Yet, James V (1513-42) was a keen lutenist, and supported the growth of the arts in his country just as other European monarchs did.

The term Renaissance means “rebirth”. Around this time, there was a rediscovery of lots of Greek and Roman thinking and ideas which is what gave the inspiration for the term “renaissance” (which first appeared in the 19th century – it wasn’t used at the time). Another important element at this time, which matters for our story, is that the landed elites – the rulers of the day – were developing a system called “patronage” for funding the arts. Artists no longer had to either work for the church, or sell their wares. Instead, they were given a commission by a patron to create their work. Some were even paid on a retainer as court musicians, artists, poets and even scientists. Finally, there was also a grand new modern invention – the printing press – which made it easier to distribute music on a mass scale.

At the top of the social scale, music began to branch out beyond the church music that had dominated high art before this time. There were new ideas about composition which flowed from the rediscovered Greek and Roman thinking – music became more complex, and during this time the modern scales we use today were slowly refined. New forms of harmony also developed – polyphony (the weaving of multiple melodies) became more complex and homophony (block chords as used in hymn tunes and contemporary popular music) started to be included.

Renaissance singersSo what did this mean for vocal music? Well, the biggest change was the development of secular song. Traditional secular music had existed for a long time (see last week), but now the printing press allowed mass distribution. For ordinary people, this came in the form of the broadside ballad. Broadside ballads were new lyrics to popular tunes and followed the same themes as our pop music does today. There were political songs about current affairs (“Times, they are a-changing” – Bob Dylan). There were comic songs with lewd lyrics (“Thong song” – Sisqo) and without (“Earnie, the fastest milkman in the west”). Gallows songs, about the fate of criminals were very popular (“03 Bonnie & Clyde” – Beyonce & JayZ), as were the ever popular love songs (uh, everything else?). Broadside ballads were posted up on pub walls where those who could read would share the lyrics with everyone else. Here’s an example:

At the more elite end of music, songs began to be produced. Even Henry VIII wrote a few, with Greensleeves being one of the most famous to be attributed to him. This period saw a flowering of English composition. Works by Dowland, Byrd, Morely and others still appear on singing exam syllabi today. Many of these songs retain the characteristic uneven time signatures and slightly irregular tonality of this period, making them more challenging to sing than music from the classical era, for example. You can hear one of Dowland’s compositions below:

Music also entered into the fledgling world of theatre. Shakespeare’s songs, for example, have no surviving music, so large numbers of composers have set the same lyrics to different tunes. You can hear some selections of settings of “It was a Lover and his Lass” from As You Like It in the playlist below.

So we know that vocal music came in a wide range of different forms (click on each one to go to an example on youtube):

When listening to Renaissance music, here are the key features to listen for:

  • Renaissance musicModal harmony – use of different modal scales (see future post on modes)
  • Acappella singing – limited use of instruments – recorders and lutes were popular
  • Polyphonic sound – interweaving melodies
  • Contrapuntal – use of imitation
  • Word pictures – the music matches the words (the word “flying” might be on the highest note)

Composers to remember:

–> Next week: The Baroque Era

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A History of Music for Singers: An Introduction

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History of MusicOur new blog series for the remainder of the summer is a history of music for singers. This isn’t meant to be a “history of singing”, not least because it’s a fairly under researched area. Instead, I want to touch on some of the changes and developments in music that affect us vocalists. I’m also planning to highlight some key composers of vocal music, which may or may not be the ones you’d expect to hear about for each time period.

Following on from this series, I plan to have a composer of the month beginning from September. Each month, we’ll feature a composer, including a brief post on his or her life, and one looking at the fingerprints of his or her vocal music. For that month, the “history of music binder” pages for our composer of the month will also be available for free download. After that, you’ll be able to buy them from my (soon to be launched) resources shop, either individually, or in a range of bundles.

So let us begin with a trundle through music and the role of the voice from ancient times to the medieval age:

In The Beginning…

Music in human culture almost certainly originated with the singing voice. Some people even claim we might have sung before we spoke. Whether or not that’s true, singing had practical uses for early cultures. Have you ever tried comparing singing with shouting over long distances? Singing caries further. That’s why yodelling developed in the Alps! We don’t know much about early singing, mainly because there’s very little evidence. The soft tissue of the body doesn’t last very long after death, and there’s not much in the way of music that’s been written down. Nevertheless, we know that early civilisations like the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all had cultural practices which included singing.

Greek vase

Greek and Roman myth is full of mythology filled with songs, like the mermaids who sung sailors to their death on the rocks. That alone is enough to demonstrate that these early cultures recognised song as an art that had power over human life. However, music also begins to be studied in these cultures, with Greek philosophy starting to unpack the science of music. We still use some of their terms like the modal scale names today. The Greeks also thought about the role of music in the universe, with Plato imagining the planets sang as they moved through the heavens! (Isn’t that a wonderful idea?)

gerrit-van-honthorst-king-david-playing-the-harp

The Jewish culture at this time was also rich with song – the Old Testament contains many of the lyrics of songs which have become poems now that the music has long been lost. There are only tantalising references in the book of Psalms to the instruments use to play it, or the composer.
Coming, as Christianity did, out of Jewish culture, the early church also used music and the voice as part of worship. At first, these were borrowed from the Jewish music, but as Christians spread across Europe and the globe, so they adopted other local styles of music and made them their own – and they’re still doing it today!

The church authorities were unhappy about this borrowing from secular styles, and they tried to stop it (things don’t change, do they?). They mostly succeeded in this to begin with, and singing was limited to plainchant – mainly unison singing to begin with. Slowly, as time went on, the singing became more adventurous, with some very limited harmony being included. This harmony


threeClericsSinging-300x295Most of the evidence for how singing sounded at this time comes from drawings in manuscripts. It seems likely from the descriptions and pictures that singing was quite nasal in sound – very twangy. I imagine it sounding a lot like very bad country music that’s sung all on one note…was largely based on fourths and fifths as those intervals are very stable – they’re “perfect”. The third or “triton” could be major or minor, and thus was considered to be the devil’s music!

 

Here’s an example of plainchant from the 11th Century, sung by a modern day professional tenor.

As harmonies grew more complicated, the need for a wider range of voices grew. The church couldn’t bring itself to allow women to sing, as they believed it was banned by the bible. Instead, they allowed boys to train as trebles for church choirs, just as they still do today. There were, of course, disadvantages to this as boys do eventually grow into men. This led to the use of castrati: men who have had their testes removed to prevent puberty, and thus their voice dropping. Unpleasant, but it did allow greater variety and experimentation with choral music.

sumerisicumenin

Alongside these changes in church music, secular music developed more complicated forms. One very early example of non-church music is the round “Summer is Icumen in”. Rounds were a popular form for medieval songs as they were easy to learn and could be sung both by individuals and by groups (probably in the pub…).


By the end of the medieval era, as the Tudors in England and Stuarts in Scotland were ascending their thrones, vocal music had developed into a more melodic and harmonious form than ever before. Meanwhile, on the continent of Europe, the rebirth of science and art was beginning to take hold. This was the Renaissance, and it marked the true beginnings of what is now called “Western Art Music”.

 

–> Next post: The Grand Renaissance