Some music listeners claim that the music we listen to today is not a reflection of the past, rather it is something that contemporary artists have discovered in this day and age.  One must ask themself, would music as I know it today be the same had a historical time period not influenced it? 

 

        Music is a representation of evolution.  Music isn’t a newly discovered phenomenon.  The origination of music has been dated back to the Homo Sapiens, nearly 40,000 years ago ( see Raglan and Schulkin).  Music, of course, isn’t in the same form in which it originated.  According to history, there are 6 historically major time periods of music that have influenced its evolution (see Just For Fun)and these influences can be seen through the reflection of today’s musical artistry.   Of the 6 major time periods, The Medieval and Renaissance Periods have had the greatest impact on music. 

Instruments are a major component of music, the emergence of the lithophone 40,000 years ago paved the way for the development of instruments like The Bowed Lyre of the Byzantine Empire (add link+ photo), the 1st European bow strung instrument, the modern-day Lyra is now known as the violin.  Some iconic rock songs of all time have put the violin to use, Pink Floyd’s “Wish you were here”.  The Medieval Period from 500 A.D. - 1400, covered 900 years of music.  These years introduced music listeners to an era of Western music, the Gospel was established during this period. Musicians were aiming to establish a spiritual connection between God and man through voice and instruments.  This period laid the foundation for the genre of today and it also began the use of instrument and voice. Though a large majority of Medieval period music is destroyed, the Gregorian Chart (See photo below) from the Roman Catholic Church is one of the most influential and notable pieces of this era.  The use of instrument and voice helped to influence the Renaissance Period. 

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  The Renaissance Period, which spans between 1400- 160, was the beginning of the qualities such as rhythm, range, polyphony, and harmony that we find in music today.  Renaissance music is defined as, vocal and instrumental music written and performed in Europe during the Renaissance Era”.   The sound of music became clearer and the level of artistry increased, musicians were incorporating more thought and effort into their music.  This era opened the door to personal experiences as a form of personal expression. The Renaissance Period marked the beginning of Secular music (non-religious) which has led to the emergence of the many genres of music during today’s time.  This era led to the discovery of distributing music to people from all walks of life. As music evolved, the demand for music increased it became challenging and tedious to handwrite music for consumers that wanted to read music in their time.  The Printing Press , invented in 1439 made the process of getting music out there easier.  Similar to today, there are a number of music streaming sources that musicians use to spread their music to listeners.