The paper talks about how music has changed over the years sinces the medieval era

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Tyler Wise
Ms. Bennett
British Literature
16 September 2011
The Evolution of Music
Have you ever listened to an old song that was composed around the Baroque Era, or
some other time period? Some people might listen to these styles of music and think that they
sound totally different from modern day music. Also, to certain people this style of music might
seem like a whole new language, depending on the time period in which it was composed. The
reason people might view the baroque style of music as a new language is because music has
grown and developed over the past six-hundred years since music history was first recorded.
Music history made its first appearance during the Renaissance, which occurred around the time
of 1400 C.E, and the beginning of music history opened the door for people to really express
themselves through writing new styles of music. Once the Renaissance Era passed, the Baroque
Era began and introduced a whole new type of playing. This style of music had changed
drastically by causing music to be used for more religious events and people were only to play or
sing music during church services, and composers were to use only a single style of writing
while composing, giving them no freedom to express themselves. This era lasted around 150
years before people got tired and bored of this music. The Classical Era began around the year of
1750 and brought more of a rebellious feeling into the musical world. The reason why these
feelings were brought about is because people no longer had to listen to what the church said,
and they were able to compose at their own free will without any consequences. With this new
freedom, composers began to get crazy with their writing and began using a lot of notes in their

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pieces. All of these eras critically defined the way that music is composed, and also how music
today sounds compared to how music sounded at the beginning.
The Renaissance was one of the most productive eras of music because of the vast
amount of technology that was brought into the world at the time and fine art was beginning to
flourish. ( Music History) . Some of the new technology included new forms of printing music
which made it easier for composers to publish their work, and kept them from having to write
every individual part for each instrument or voice. There were also many different advances in
instrument technology, and with these new advances the world was introduced to certain
instruments such as lutes, violins, viola, different variations of the guitar, and many other
stringed instruments. During this time another kind of instrument was created, and these
instruments were called wind instruments; in order to play their instruments the musicians would
have to put air into the instrument to make sound come out. Throughout the Renaissance most of
the music that was heard was the music of the minstrels. The job of the minstrel would normally
be to carry around a lute or some other stringed instrument and sing songs that included stories
of brave heroes or another important event in their history. The other way that people heard
music was during their church services, and it was played to praise God. Other than these two
ways, there was no real opportunity for people to really get involved with music. Toward the end
of the Renaissance Era some composers decided to try a new style of composing by adding more
than one melodic line to a single piece of music. This type of composing is called polyphonic; in
which two or more instruments or voices would be play two or more different melodies at the
same time. (Think Quest: The Medieval Era) This type of composing is very well known today,
and it is used in almost every piece of modern music that is written. The Renaissance was
flourished until the Roman Catholic Church began to take over the people’s culture, and started

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setting strict values for the people to follow, or they would have to suffer dire consequences. For
example, if someone were to disregard the values that were set to them by the church then they
could be put to death in an instant for their crime. These new values that were now set for the
people to follow is what caused the Renaissance to end and made the world leap into the
Baroque Period.
The Baroque Era, which occurred from 1600-1750, was one of the strictest time periods
in music history. What made it the strictest time period in music history was that music was only
permitted for the church, and the Roman Catholic Church had ordered all music to be played for
the glory of God and nothing else. The consequence of not following this command was ex-
communication, and possibly even for committing such an atrocity. During this period many new
instruments succeeded the instruments from the previous era. These instruments included the
trumpet, trombone, bassoon, flute, and oboe. A big difference that made this period popular was
the first use of an orchestra, and the use of an orchestra opened a new door for composers to
begin writing longer and better pieces of music for musicians to perform. The ensembles that
played these new pieces such as an opera or a sonata normally consisted of string instruments
such as violins, cellos, and bass viols. The new wind instruments that were created during this
time never really had a chance to be heard because the world was still learning about how these
new wind instruments work, and also the mechanics of them. Unlike the previous time period,
the old way of composing called homophonic writing became popular once again. Homophonic
is where the composer writes a line of music that only has one melody or moving line. One of the
fathers of music, Johann Sebastian Bach, was born during the Baroque Era and brought many
new concepts about music into the world. As a child he was very talented and played the organ,
the clavichord and sang in his churches choir. (Think Quest: The Baroque Era) He was the one

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person who set down the basis of music theory and created all of the rules composers must use
while writing pieces of music. Even about 300 years later, the rules that he created are still used
by many of the great composers today. As time went on the people of the Baroque Era began to
get unruly, and people began to defy the Roman Catholic Church. With all of the composers
peers beginning to rebel against the church caused many of the composers to jump on the
bandwagon and refuse to write their music for the church and start to write pieces for things
other occasions. This revolt toward the church led the world into the most famous era of music
history, the Classical Era.
The Classical Era of music history occurred during the years of 1750-1820 and it was one
of the greatest eras in music history. For a composer to be in this time period they were able to
write music of their own free will and actually be able to publish and have their music heard by
the world. Like the previous era, homophonic composition grew even more popular than it was
previously, and it brought composers to begin writing pieces for certain instruments called
concertos. A concerto is a duet between two different instruments normally piano and some other
instrument chosen by the composer. One of the most common instruments used in a concerto
was the trumpet. The concerto originally consisted of three movements, and first began as a
quick march. Then later the concerto would move in to a slower lyric-based movement, and
finally the concerto would end with a fast closing movement that would put an “exclamation
point” at the end of the piece. The other ways that music was composed included symphonic
pieces, which for the first time included the wind instruments from the previous years that were
not able to be used because of the lack of knowledge people had about these new instruments,
but with the new innovations to the instruments players were now able to accurately play in the
ensemble without problems from the instruments. Some of the problems that musicians have

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with the new instruments is that they must be very well trained in their instrument of choice in
order to produce a good sound. One of the composers who was the most famous composer of his
time was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. When he was only four the young Mozart was able to play
the harpsichord with ease and he was inspired to play the harpsichord from his sister playing
around him. (Think Quest: The Classical Era) Mozart was not a regular young man he was the
epitome of a prodigy; he was able to easily play by ear anything that he could come up with.
Also, he had wrote countless amounts of operas and symphonies, which made Mozart famous
beyond belief. Even though he was the best-known composer he lived a long life of sadness with
very bad luck throughout. The Classical Era of music was getting very popular until a few people
thought that the way music sounded had grown dull, and the world did not fancy music as much
as they used to. Therefore the world was brought into the modern era of music.
Music history has shown the world how differently people look at music and why the
music that people listen to today sounds the way it does. The Renaissance caused the world of
music to first flourish, and without it the world may have not turned out quite like it has. The
great but strict Baroque Era brought a new feeling toward music and paved the way to the
Classical Era because people did not believe that music should be centered around God and only
God. The Classical Era bore some of the greatest composers to walk the face of earth into the
world and changed the meaning of music completely. In conclusion, music history is one of
those things that has changed the world, and also the people in it; without it we may have not
gotten this far in life.

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