1,500 years’ worth of music into one neat little category. A purist, however,
would say that true classical music has to be music composed approximately
between the years 1750 and 1820 in Europe, with lots of copycats coming
afterwards in America.We’re not purists, in case you couldn’t tell by now, so we’re sticking with the
broad, lumping term classicalto describe the types of music discussed in this
section, which are some of the most significant milestones to happen to
Western classical music along the way.Medieval period: the monophonic phase (590–1200) ...................
In the 7th century A.D., Pope Gregory, later canonized as the patron saint of
musicians, declared that the human voice was the only instrument appropri-
ate for glorifying God. All instruments were therefore banned from worship
services, to be replaced by more and more complex vocal choirs.Although some may look at this decree as being a step backwards in the evo-
lution of human music, it was actually the first step forwards in truly explor-
ing the capabilities of the human voice. The Gregorian chants — named after
Gregory, but not directly invented by him — were the apex of a capella, mono-
phonic(as in, everyone sang the same notes together) singing of the time,
expanding on the storytelling plainchant singing that had come to Rome
through the indigenous peoples of Europe who had been conquered and
assimilated by the Romans.As only the human voice was allowed within the structure of Church music, the
greatest contribution this period made to modern music was the evolution of
singing. By 850 A.D., Gregorian chant had given way to polyphonic singing —
which is when you have two unrelated voices singing at once (melody and har-
mony), and by the beginning of the 11th century, it was the music of choice,
even after polyphonic music was declared “illegal” by the papacy.Around 1000 A.D., a Benedictine monk named Guido D’Arezzo completely
reworked the crude neumaticmusic notation used for Gregorian chant and
designed his own music staff. His staff still used the four lines of the neumatic
staff, but he added a time signature at the beginning of the staff to make it
easier for performers to keep up with one another. He also devised solfege, a
vocal scale system that replaced the four tones used by the Greeks with six
tones: ut(later changed to do), re, mi, fa, so, and la, to be placed in specific
spots on the staff. Later, when the diatonic scale was combined with the
“Guido Scale,” as it’s sometimes called, the tisound finished out the octave.
The Sound of Music just wouldn’t be the same without it.280 Part V: The Part of Tens