Development of Western Music

Development of Western Music Western music may be referred to as classical music and its traditions and styles originate from the beginning of the Middle ages (10th century) onward. Due to the Catholic Church being the dominant religion of the time, a large portion of the music was religious/sacred. Beginning with Gregorian Chant, sacred music slowly developed into a polyphonic. Early Christians based their music off of already existing Jewish chants [1]. These chants (like most of the religious music at this time) were monophonic meaning that they had one melody without any support from a harmony or accompaniment. As theses chants spread around Europe, different variations were formed as a result of the chants coming in contact with different cultures. Pope Gregory eventually made these chants official church “music”, thus dubbing them Gregorian Chants.
Secular music flourished until the period culminated with the sacred and secular compositions of the first true composer of Western music, Guillaume de Machaut. Most of Guillaume de Machaut’s compositions were focused around courtship love. He wrote loosely in five genres: the ballade (a short, lyrical piece of music), the rondeau (lyrical poem), the lai (very tempo intensive lyrical poem), the motet (a short piece of sacred choral music), and the virelai (a rhyming poem set to music). Guillaume de Machaut’s greatest achievement by far was to introduce a polyphonic mass into the Catholic Church. Guillaume de Machaut saw to it that his works were well preserved as he realized that his successes in music were taken well throughout the world.
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was a sixteenth century representative of the Roman School of Musical Composition. Palestrina’s music is best known as the pinnacle of the Renaissance polyphony. His masses were influential in the development of the Baroque period, and his Missa sine nomine had an obvious effect on Johann Sebastian Bach who was performing this mass while