First Sweet Sensation: Music in the Western World
I‘ve come across a sweet sensation topic in music. I signed up for a music class this semester called, Music in the Western World. It is a history of music in documents. It is the landmarks of music history. Music has been playing all around the world but the class’ focus is music as early as B.C.E. to the Medieval times and on to the Renaissance.
I have a substantial interest in this topic because that is how music developed into what we listen today. It’s such an important part of history because music developed from “sacred” to “secular”.
By sacred I mean music was only allowed to be played for the church. It was the way the Catholic church praised God. It developed from plain chants to polyphony. Secular means not relating to the church and grew to poetry and chants for love and entertainment.
Everything we listen to now was because of how it developed through time during the Middle Ages (c.476-1450), the Baroque era (1600-1750), Classical era, (1750-1825) until our time now, the Twentieth Century (Contemporary 1901-present day).
Composers began to study how music would perform and began to document it using notations.
The Magnes Lirbe is a collection of polyphonic music from an anonymous composer during the 6th century.
If it wasn’t for the church, composers would not have figured out the idea of “measuring music” and find a way to write it down creating music that has developed to the music we hear in our everyday lives.
It is quite impressive and rather extraordinary to think back to those times and realize that music was a big part of people’s lives as it is today.
We take so many things for granted and I’d like for everyone to know a little bit about how the music we hear today can go back to as early as the Roman Empire (and even earlier than that).
It’s incredible to think about all the effort these musicians have put since then to produce sounds that make us tick. From sacred music to secular, it flourished continuously.
Of course, I may say everyone can appreciate music in their own way but for me, this whole history of music is rather astonishing that make me reflect how grandiose and different it has become since then. Thousands of years of writing music, composing and listening through different means.
Here is a book that talks about music in more detail. It’s for non-music majors and it’s captivating how it uses much philosophical thought as well.
