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The epitaph of Seikilos is the oldest musical composition that has been preserved in its entirety. It was inscribed on a marble stele that Seikilos had erected in the 1st century AD for his wife Euterpe, near present-day Aydin, Turkey. -
Gregorian Chant is a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred music that emerged in the early medieval Catholic Church and is characterized by its free-flowing melody and spiritual solemnity. The chant system was named after Pope Gregory I (590–604) -
Guido of Arezzo was an 11th-century Italian Benedictine monk and music theorist, considered a central figure in the history of music for his innovations in musical notation. He is known as the father of modern musical notation, as he developed tools to facilitate the learning and writing of melodies. -
Born in 1098 in Bermersheim vor der Höhe, in the Holy Roman Empire, into a noble family.
She was the youngest of ten children and reportedly a sickly child.
At age 8, she was dedicated to religious life and later entered the Benedictine monastery at Disibodenberg.Hildegard composed over 70 liturgical songs, including the morality play Ordo Virtutum, which features allegorical characters and is considered one of the earliest known musical dramas. -
Ars antiqua is the style of polyphonic music that flourished in the 13th and early 14th centuries, mainly in France, especially at the School of Notre Dame in Paris. This period represents a crucial phase in the development of Western music, marking the end of the Pythagorean conception of music and the beginning of a more empirical view, influenced by the ideas of Aristotle. -
During the Ars Antiqua (12th and 13th centuries moreless) the first plyphonic form was developed: the organum. It´s main componers, from the Notre Dame school, were Leoninand Perotin.
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Bernart de Ventadorn was one of the most famous Provençal troubadours of the Middle Ages, recognised as a master of his art. He was a poet and composer, and his work, written in Occitan, is a notable example of courtly love (or fin'amors). Bernart is believed to have been born in the region of Ventadorn, in present-day France. He learned the art of poetry and music from his patron, Eble III of Ventadorn, and composed his first poems for Eble's wife, Marguerite de Touraine. -
He was born in the year 1135, in Paris, France.Between 1150 and 1160, he was the administrator of the cathedral in Paris.Together with Pérotin, called the Great, and Robert de Sabilon, they were the three masters who collaborated at the school of Paris.He was ordained a priest at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in 1192. -
Pérotin was a French medieval composer in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. He is one of the most important figures of the Notre Dame School of Paris. Pérotin was a key figure in the development of medieval polyphony, music with several independent voices sounding at the same time. He revised and expanded the Magnus Liber Organi (Great Book of the Organ). -
Alfonso X the Wise (1221–1284) was King of Castile and León from. He is considered one of the most important figures of the Spanish Middle Ages for his remarkable cultural and legal work, which led to the official recognition of Castilian as the language of the kingdom. Under Alfonso X's leadership, a tremendous amount of intellectual and translation work was carried out at court. His vision led him to establish cultural centres, such as the famous Toledo School of Translators. -
Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300–1377) was an influential French composer and poet, considered the central figure of the Ars Nova style in late medieval music and the most celebrated poet-composer of the 14th century.
Guillaume de Machaut is remembered for his ability to unify music and text in complex and innovative ways, bridging medieval music and practices that would influence the Renaissance. -
Ars Nova (Latin for “New Art”) originated as the title of a treatise by Philippe de Vitry around 1320 and signifies a major innovation in musical notation and rhythmic practice, marking a departure from the earlier Ars Antiqua and transforming polyphonic music in the 14th century. -
Francesco Landini was a renowned 14th-century Italian composer, organist, poet, and instrument maker, celebrated for his contributions to the Ars Nova musical style. Born in Fiesole or Florence, Italy, his father, Jacopo del Casentino, was a painter. He served as organist at the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence from 1362 until his death in 1397. -
Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1400 – 3 February 1468) was a German goldsmith, printer and inventor, world-renowned for developing movable type printing in Europe around 1440. His invention radically transformed the dissemination of knowledge and information, marking the beginning of the Modern Age.
Gutenberg's masterpiece was the 42-line Bible (named after the number of lines per page), completed around 1455. Approximately 180 copies were printed, an enormous number for the time. -
Blind since childhood, his relative Esteban Martínez de Cabezón, who was a canon of the cathedral of Burgos, took him to Palencia with him when he was appointed provost and vicar general of that diocese.He studied with García de Baeza, the cathedral's organist.When he was sixteen years old, he was appointed organist of Empress Isabel's chapel and, after her death, he entered the service of Charles V and Philip II. -
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525–1594) was an eminent Italian composer of the late Renaissance, known for his prolific and sophisticated sacred music, and considered the most prominent representative of the Roman School of composition.
Palestrina's influence on the development of ecclesiastical music was immense. His masterpiece is the Missa Papae Marcelli (Mass for Pope Marcellus). -
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Tomás Luis de Victoria (c. 1548 – 27 August 1611) was a Catholic priest, chapel master and the most celebrated Spanish composer of the Renaissance. He is considered one of the most important composers of the Counter-Reformation, alongside Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso.
Main works:
-Officium defunctorum (Requiem Mass, 1605).
-Officium hebdomadae sanctae (1585).
-Motets.
-Masses.
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