Music: How it all began

You probably have heard of music sung in

church, or even sang in a church choir yourself.
Have you ever wondered how the music of church
came to be? The whole story is too long to be told
at once, but the very basis of all modern music
began with the fall of the Roman empire. Without
the fall of this empire, the classical music we hear now, like opera, might have
been sung in Greek or Latin!
MOST MIGHT OR not know that the earliest

forms of music started in the ancient Greek and

Roman empires. This is where the basis for our

modern church music came from.

However, Greek and Roman music was very

dierent from church music. The reason our

music evolved to be so dierent from theirs is

thanks to the medieval age.

The reason for that is because when the Roman

empire fell, people began to burn many Roman

things, which included music, to fully destroy

any remains of the Roman empire. Only the most

basic musical practices survived, though secret

books and ancient relics kept safe underground.

The most prominent remains of Roman and
Greek music were rather primitive ancient

versions of scales called modes. Those modes would

gradually evolve into the musical scales we often

hear now, during what we now call the Baroque

era, which went from about 1600 to 1750.

Later influence?

The legacy left behind by

Roman and Greek modes,
called scales, influenced
some of the most famous
composers in the world,
including Johann Sebastian
Bach, Antonio Vivaldi and
George Fredrick Handel.
With these scales, many
famous works were written, including the 2
books of the Well-tempered Clavier, which
featured a prelude and fugue for every major
and minor scale.

GREGORIAN
CHANTS
Eventually, in the 900s,
music started making its
comeback, in the form of
hymns and chants for
worship practices. These
chants were used in worship
ceremonies in church. These
chants had very basic
melodies, with everyone
singing the same tune. (This
style of song is called
monophony, which is Latin
for one melody) The lyrics of these songs

became so numerous, people couldnt keep

track of them. This became a
problem, and the Pope of that
time, Pope Gregory I, or
Gregory the great sought a
way to solve this problem.
Pope Gregory created a way
of cataloging the chants with
the help of some advisors.
Pope Gregory cataloged all
the chants of that time, and
named them Gregorian
Chants after he who had
catalogued them. These
chants would later become the
basis of all modern vocal music.

were sung Latin, parts taken from the

original old Testament. Music had not
developed so far as to have a way of notating
rhythm, or even to have a
proper system of rhythm, so
people sang them according
to how they thought it should
be sung.
We know roughly what these
Gregorian chants sounded
like, due to the people of that
time having developed a very
basic way of notating notes,
called neumes. These would later develop
into the musical notes we often see now.
Soon after music made its comeback, many
dierent churches started composing their
own chants. After a while, these new chants

What are Neumes?

Neumes were the earliest forms of written
music. If you look at sheet
music now, you will see a fivelined staff and oval markings
that show the notes. This is
the legacy of neumes; the
modern music scale. However,
what did neumes look like?
Neumes, which was developed
during the middle ages, were
diamond shaped markings placed on a 4 lined
staff. These markings showed the pitch of the
notes, but not the rhythm. Rhythm would be
developed during the early renaissance.

it. The original tunes used in these new songs

ORGANUM
As Gregorian Chants became more and more
common, more people began to
know about them. People started to wonder
about the chants. Could they improve
the dull, boring chants? Was there anything

were called the Clausulae.

Quickly, these new songs became so numerous
they couldnt be simply classied as songs
anymore; They became a completely new
genre, later named Organum. This way of
writing songs for 2 or more voices became
known as polyphony, which would
eventually become the

to make them more

basis of church

interesting?c

choirs.

Gregorian chants,

As a result of

although very

organum, music

widespread and

became something

numerous, were

much more

rather boring. They

appealing to peoples

had only one long,

continuous melody
where everyone sang the same thing, and no
rests between words. Without any rhythm or
harmony, there was nothing to brighten the
chants up. This boringness was what
prompted people to want to improve the
chants. These people sought to improve them
by adding more lines of dierent melodies to
the chants.
These new songs still sang about the same
things as the original chants, and still had the
same name, but they had added harmony
and some form of rhythm. The original tunes
were still there, but often slowed down until it
was nothing but a slow drone, while a faster,
higher melody sang a dierent melody above

tastes, as it was so
much more interesting than a single line of
melody. Organum also
prompted the formation of the rst music
schools, which were mostly catholic church
groups where many intellectuals who wished
to compose music or to enjoy music would
gather together. Notable schools included the
Notre Dame school and the Franco Flemish
school, both in old France (The FrancoFlemish school would be in now day
Belgium).
In these schools, organum ourished. People
from these schools made
major contributions to the development of
organum, and music in general. For example

forming

called Leonin the Great, and others would

dierent

call him the father of organum. Another

sub-genres

great achievement of Leonin was that he was

within the

perhaps the rst person to use rhythmic

organum

modes in his pieces, and if he wasnt, he

genre, like

might have developed a way to notate

discant

rhythm.

style and
organel style, and also many part organum,
as opposed to the typical 2 voice.

Perotin was
another
prominent

Many people contributed to the development

composer. He

of organum, but the 2 most prominent gures

lived later than

in developing organum were Lonin and

Leonin,

Protin, both of the Notre

roughly

Dame school.

around
the 12th
century. He

LEONIN AND PEROTIN

The 2 most prominent gures in developing
the organum genre were Leonin and Perotin.
Both of these composers came from the Notre
Dame school of southern France, which was
one of the most prominent musical schools of
the time.
Leonin (1150s 1201) was a composer of
organum in the 12-13th century, and perhaps
the rst noted writer of organum. He
developed 2 to 3 part organum, in which was
the
most basic form of organum. In a letter
written by a composer to a friend, he was

was the
perhaps the
most famous
member of the
Notre Dame
school, and
wrote
polyphonic
pieces and in
the ars
antiqua style
(Ars Antiqua is
used to refer to
music of the
middle ages,
before the

The Magum Liber

The Magnum
Liber, or Great
book is where we
get most of our
knowledge of
Medieval music
from. It contains
most notably Lonin
and Protins works.
This book shows us a
development from
simple Gregorian
chants to many part
organi. (Organi is
the plural for
Organum.)

fourteenth

example, the only 3-beat rhythm trend of the

century).

middle ages began to dissolve.) Old genres

One of the

such as organum and Gregorian chants were

most

overtaken by new genres, such as secular

prominent

songs (Songs sung out of church). Music

features in

emerged in instruments, and henceforth in

his music

dance. Of

was how he

course, it still

took a well

remained in

known

church, where

clausulae, like a Gregorian Chant and

it rst emerged.

stretched it out until it was almost a drone

Over about a

while a faster livelier melodies would be sung

thousand or so

above it, often intertwining around each

years, music

other. These lively melodies the higher voices

has evolved

sang were called discants. He included more

into what we

voices than his predecessor Leonin, his

hear now days

organum containing up to four voices.

on our i-Pods

Although many works of those times were lost,

many works of these two composers were
preserved in the Magnum Liber, of The
great book. This book is where most of our
knowledge of medieval music came from.
Many pieces of Lonin and Protin were
included in this treatise.
As the middle ages transformed into the
renaissance, many changes emerged. The
typical Ars Antiqua style of the middle ages
began to be taken over by the Ars Nova
movement, led by Phillip de Vitry. (This
movement changed many of the most basic
features of the middle ages music. For

and phones.

FUN FACTS
1. Organum was popular for only about 200
years, roughly 400 years less than
Gregorian Chants, yet left a much larger
legacy on the development of music.
2. Sometimes, the notes in the Cantus rmus
of some organum can last up to 400
seconds.
3. Many pieces of organum were for masses,
which was a type of music that remained
popular even into the present. Beethoven,
Mozart, Bach all wrote at least one piece
in this sub-genre.

Citations:

Todd M. McComb What is Early Music? Medieval.org, Miscellaneous June 1, 1995, edited
July 2, 1999


This website gives a well written, however rather basic history of music after the fall of
the Greek


and Roman Empires. The information is well researched and put in an easy to read
format.

Robert Sherrane Music History 102: A Guide to Western Composers and their Music Ipl2.org
Special

Collections 2009

The Guide is very focused on a certain period in music history, and would be very useful
to those


That are researching the Ars Nova period in music history. Some essential background
information

Is also given so that the reader is not confused.

The Beginning of Modern Music- Lonin and Protin Hubpages.com- Entertainment and
Media, Music,

History of Music 2012

This webpage gives almost all of the currently known information on the 2 composers
Lonin and


Protin that we currently know put into 1 page, and also explains thoroughly the type of
music they

wrote, along with explanations of musical styles.