History of Music
There is no way to know how, why, or when music began. But a widely held belief is that it originated as a vocal practice. Some believe that music came as an extension of non-linguistic expressions, (for example: love or pain), an intensification of the spoken word, or as the construction of vocals merely for sonic quality. Scientists now believe that music originated out of Africa more than 50,000 years ago, and became a fundamental element of human life.
Western Music
Western art music is divided into six historical periods: Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th Century Contemporary. These historical periods represent western influence, rather than that of eastern music.
Medieval
The only music claimed to have survived from 800 to present is that of public worship of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Gregory I is claimed to be the discoverer of this liturgical music. Three important occurrences took place during the 9th century. First, the church put in great effort to unify chanting traditions, and conceal those in favour of Gregorian liturgy. Second, the earliest form of simultaneous melodic voice was sung. This parallel form of singing is known as organum. The third, and most significant act in musical history, was the reinvention of notation after approximately 500 years.
Renaissance
Renaissance music began in northern Europe, specifically northern France, the Netherlands, and Belgium. This form of music contained a clear and sing-able tune, that maintained liturgical voice. By the mid 15th century, composers and singers spread out over Europe, and were employed mainly by the papal chapel and the aristocratic art patrons in Italy. This greatly progressed with the invention of printing. Printing had a vast influence on the propagation of musical styles, and contributed to the organization of the first international style of European music. By the mid 16th century this international style began to disassemble and several different styles and trends began to manifest. The first was a trend toward clean, simple, and holy music. The second, a trend toward a more complex style, expressed in an avant-garde form. This led to the development of orchestration.
Late in the century, most parts of Europe had musical traditions of their own. Singers and composers personally developed their own instrumental and vocal styles. And it did not take long for new instrumental forms to develop. Two of these instruments that were introduced were the guitar and the organ. These instruments established the foundation of the Baroque musical style. However, not everyone was satisfied with these developments and in the 1570s and 1580s a revolutionary movement took place in Florence. Residents, singers, composers and the like were not satisfied with what they thought to be deprivation of contemporary music, and made the effort to restore the music of the ancient Greeks. Their effort resulted in an oratorical style referred to as monody. This corresponded with dramatic and staged acting. It is known today as opera. In the 1600s, the first opera was written and this defined the end of the Renaissance era and the beginning of the Baroque era.
Baroque
The Baroque era is commonly referred to as fitting in with the common practice period. This form of music was designed for improvisation. Instrumental music became dominant in this era. The instrument that played a central role in this period was called the harpsichord. The harpsichord is played by means of using a keyboard and plucking strings appropriate with each key played. The Baroque era of music consisted of a keyboard (harpsichord usually), an organ, and a bass instrument.
Classical
The music and style in this era is characterized by a texture called homophony, where two parts of an instrument move together to create chords. These melodies had a tendency to sound like voices and allowed composers to replace singers and performers, and have the instruments be the focal point of the music. Classical music emphasized grace, beauty, balance, moderation, and control. It was the most elegant and polished of styles, and created the movement for large-scale musical pieces.
Romantic
In the Romantic era, music expanded to include literature, art, and philosophy. It became the most expressive and emotional form of music to that time. In the 19th century there was a dramatic development in orchestra size, and an expansion in concert roles in society. In the late 1800s to the early 1900s a third wave of music composers expanded on Romantic compositions to create more complex musical pieces.
20th Century Contemporary
A revolution became in the 20th century with the development of the radio. As this form of technology gained popularity worldwide, people were no longer restricted to concerts and clubs; they now had the ability to hear music nationwide and this ability exposed them to a larger range of music that ever before. Musical performances were no longer auditory, but visual through broadcasting. This brought a new freedom to people, and new experimentation to composers. New musical instruments and technologies allowed composers to experiment new styles and forms of music, and revolutionized music.
Indian Music
Prehistoric music is a name given to all music created and produced in cultures that were preliterate. The earliest written records of musical expression are to be found in the Indian Samaveda, meaning the knowledge of melody; a word of the Sanskrit language: The Samaveda is third (in the usual order) of the four Vedas, the ancient core Hindu scriptures. Its earliest parts are believed to date from 1000 BC. Other early sources of written music were also found in Ur (modern Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq, and was a city in ancient Sumer. Once a coastal city near the mouth of the then Euphrates river on the Persian Gulf) within 4,000 year old cuneiform (Cuneiform documents were written on clay tablets, by means of a blunt reed for a stylus) Instruments such as the seven-holed flute and various types of stringed instruments have been recovered from the Indus Valley Civilization archaeological sites.
India has one of the worlds oldest musical traditions: its references can be in the ancient hindu scriptures - the vedas. Traditional music in China, as a known art, historically stretches back 3000 years. The ancient Greeks considered music to be an important part of their cultural and social life.
India has two types of music, Southern and Northern Indian Music. The southern music is known as ‘Carnatic Music’. It is named after a region in southern India. The more popular and globalized format of music from India is from the north. It is known as ‘Hindustani Music’ but more commonly, it is called, simply “Indian Music”.
At one point, there was no difference between southern and northern Indian music. Cultures of the Middle East, Mediterranean, Middle Asia, and Europe Mixed into that of the Cultures of northern Indian, and thus caused the split. The ‘Mughals’ were the once who influenced the northern style the most. It was named “Hindustani music” by Muslim musicologist who called India, Hindustan.
In ancient Hinduism, Music was a medium that connected one with God. These people who connected with god through music, called ‘sages’, were singers, musicians, and dancers. Today, ancient Indian musicologist’s names have the salutation of Sage as a title.
The problem in modern time that Indian music faced was, that it had no global standard notation system. Most Indian music, up until more recently, was not written at all, it was simply taught from teacher to student. All compositions of rhythms and melodies were remembered by heart.
In more recent history, Pt. Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande (1860-1936) spent most of his life arranging and re-arranging northern Indian music theories and compositions. He invented the most popular Indian music notation system. He got together musician and musicologist to archive the old compositions in his newly invented notation system so that it would be kept safe for future generations. Most of his collective work, he arranged into a six book series (Karmic Pustak Malika) which up to today, remains the biggest source of old and new compositions and melodic structures ever collected by anybody in northern Indian music.