Essay: History of Western Music - Online Essays.
The traditions of Western music can be traced back to the social and religious developments that took place in Europe during the Middle Ages, the years roughly spanning from about 500 to 1400 A.D. Because of the domination of the early Christian Church during this period, sacred music was the most prevalent.
In France there were also other wondering musicians and entertainers known as troubadours and trouveres. Many of these musicians were of the upper aristocratic classes (Annenburg). These musicians, unlike most of the minstrels, often composed their own music and performed it as well, writing and singing in the vernacular which became the modern day French language.
The Power of Music. Music surrounds us in our everyday lives. We hear it when we are in the car, at work, when we are shopping, at restaurants, at doctor’s offices, and many more places. The music serves a purpose other than entertainment at many of these places.
If there is one true definition of music it is this; music is universal and yet it is also relative and subjective. What may be music to one may not be so to another. Although both the 80’s and new school music has their similarities and differences, they are both music and when it comes down to it we wouldn’t survive without music.
More often than now, writers and performers have negotiated a compromise between historical research and a more imaginative approach to envisioning the music of troubadours and trouveres. This book points not so much to a resurrection of medieval music in modern times as to a continuous tradition of interpreting these songs over eight centuries.
The Middle Ages, though bereft of the cultural influence of the Roman Empire, were a time of remarkable musical achievement. From the lowest troubadours in the market square to the great masters in sacred cathedrals, music was everywhere in medieval society. The late Middle Ages, especially, saw the rise of many talented composers.
Dante Alighieri in his De vulgari eloquentia defined the troubadour lyric as fictio rethorica musicaque poita: rhetorical, musical, and poetical fiction.