The History Of Classical Music

Many forms of musical compositions were created either for the church or in relation to it. Monodic Gregorian chants and plain songs first written having 2 or 3 lines during this time, therefore we can say that it was in this time that harmony has first been shown in musical writings and that these were the earliest types of classical music.

During the Renaissance, composers were still somewhat exclusively dedicated to choral writing. However, musicians have already started experimenting with different textural varieties and contrasts during this time. If you hear some pieces from the fifteenth century, you might recognize a trace of vocal works, very subtle, but without the lyrics.

Eventually, people have evolved into what you could call the basic feel of classical music. Composers started to shy away from the mode system of harmony which had been the main theory for more than three hundred years. They started to write towards the organization of their songs into major and minor keys. This imparted the strong feeling of each piece having what we now recognize as a key.

Finally, classical music found itself in the middle of a golden period during the later half of the 16th century as countless a capella masses, anthems, psalms, motets, and madrigals were penned by the masters of this era.

It was during this time that instrumentals emerged into its own for the first time. Keyboards that distinguished fantasia, dance movement, and different variations came to being and have been going ever since.

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