A Brief History of Western Music
Middle Ages & Renaissance
A good starting point for studying the history of Western music is the Middle Ages. It was in this era that writing down music became common; consequently, we have a significant amount of Middle Ages music that has survived to this day. In addition, the Middle Ages saw one of the most important developments in music history: the development of polyphony.
Table of Contents
By the beginning of the Renaissance era, polyphony was commonplace in both secular and religious music. New genres of music began to emerge, and were heavily influenced by "humanism", the Renaissance philosophical belief that humans and nature should be emphasised more than religion. The Protestant Reformation, and the subsequent Counter-Reformation, also had an impact on the way music was written.
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, a famous composer of Mass