medieval music
genresmeh-DEE-vul
Western music from approximately 500 to 1400 CE, the earliest period of documented European art music.
Medieval music spans nearly a thousand years of European musical development, from the fall of Rome to the early Renaissance. The period begins with monophonic gregorian chant — single-line vocal music used in Christian liturgy. The development of organum in the 9th century introduced the revolutionary concept of two or more voices singing simultaneously, laying the groundwork for harmony and counterpoint. By the 12th and 13th centuries, the Notre-Dame school pioneered rhythmic notation and complex polyphony. Secular music flourished through troubadours and trouvères who composed songs of courtly love. Instruments of the period included the lute, recorder, fiddle, and various percussion instruments. The ars antiqua and ars nova represent successive advances in rhythmic and notational complexity. Medieval music's legacy is the very foundation of Western musical notation, harmony, and compositional practice.
Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th-century nun, is one of the earliest known composers whose works survive — her chants are still performed and recorded today.