In the Middle Ages, music developed into a theory and practice that is still recognizable in popular music today. In theory, Western music was first influenced by Greek philosophers who wrote many doctrines and descriptions of music that established our musical vocabulary. In practice, Western music begins in the Christian era. The Roman Catholic Church was the main source of music for 1400 years, and the music served a religious function. The Church absorbed Jewish musical practices as well as those from parts of the world to which it spread including Africa, Asia, and Europe.
There are two general categories of music that survives from this period: sacred and secular.
Sacred music was usually written by monks or nuns and sung in Latin, the language of the church. Much of this music has been labeled “Gregorian Chant” after Pope Gregory the Great (c. 540-604) because, as legend has it, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove gave these chants to the Pope to write down. Pope Gregory didn’t actually write any such chants.
Here’s an example of Gregorian chant:
Originally sacred music was monophonic (a single sung melody), but eventually, composers wrote music that was polyphonic with multiple melodies sung at the same time. Some of the earliest surviving polyphonic works were composed by the so-called “Notre Dame School,” a group of composers who lived in Paris from 1160-1250.
Here’s an example of polyphony by the French composer Pérotin:
This style evolved further into a genre called the ars nova. Music in this style included monophonic chansons and complex polyphonic works called motets. Motets were made up of multiple melodies with different lyrics were sung at the same time. In France, they were sung in French and Latin.
Here’s a motet by the French composer Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300-1377):
Secular Music was spread by wandering minstrels (called Troubadors in Southern France, Trouvères in northern France, and Minnesinger and Meistersingers in Germany). They made their living traveling between villages and castles singing, acting, storytelling, performing tricks, juggling, dancing, and exhibiting trained animals. The minstrels were often societal outcasts, but are considered one of the earliest communities of professional musicians.
Here’s a recreation of a surviving composition by the Troubador Bernart de Ventadorn (1135-1194):
Their music was often related to dancing and was performed in the context of other entertainment, and therefore was not notated until the late Middle Ages. One example of the entertainment they provided is the epic narrative poem sung to music, such as Tristan and Iseult and Song of Roland. These poems were long, exciting stories that could take the minstrel a few hours to recite to a captive audience; the poems served as a person’s only entertainment until another group of minstrels happened to pass through town.
Here’s how a recitation of an epic poem might have sounded as performed by Benjamin Bagby: