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Period: 1150 to 1400
Medieval era
This is the first period where we can begin to be fairly certain as to how a great deal of the music which has survived actually sounded. The earliest written secular music dates from the 12th century troubadours (in the form of virelais, estampies, ballades, etc.), but most notated manuscripts emanate from places of learning usually connected with the church, and therefore inevitably have a religious basis. -
Period: 1400 to
Renaissance Era
The fifteenth century witnessed vastly increased freedoms, most particularly in terms of what is actually perceived as ‘harmony’ and ‘polyphony’ (the simultaneous movement of two or three interrelated parts). Composers (although they were barely perceived as such) were still almost entirely devoted to choral writing, and the few instrumental compositions which have survived often create the impression (in many cases entirely accurately) of being vocal works in disguise. -
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Baroque Era
The foundations were laid for the following 300 or so years of musical expression: the idea of the modern orchestra was born, along with opera (including the overture, prelude, aria, recitative and chorus), the concerto, sonata, and modern cantata. The rather soft-grained viol string family of the Renaissance was gradually replaced by the bolder violin, viola and cello, the harpsichord was invented, and important advances were made in all instrumental groups. -
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Classical Era
The Baroque era witnessed the creation of a number of musical genres which would maintain a hold on composition for years to come, yet it was the Classical period which saw the introduction of a form which has dominated instrumental composition to the present day: sonata form. With it came the development of the modern concerto, symphony, sonata, trio and quartet to a new peak of structural and expressive refinement. -
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Early Romantic era
As the Classical period reached its zenith, it was becoming increasing clear that the amount and intensity of expression composers were seeking to achieve was beginning to go beyond that which a Classically sized orchestra/piano could possibly encompass. The next period in musical history therefore found composers attempting to balance the expressive and the formal in music with a variety of approaches which would have left composers of any previous age utterly bewildered. -
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Late Romantic Era
With the honourable exceptions of Brahms and Bruckner, composers of this period shared a general tendency towards allowing their natural inspiration free rein. This was an era highlighted by the extraordinarily rapid appearance of the national schools, and the operatic supremacy of Verdi and Wagner. The eventual end of Romanticism came with the fragmentation of this basic style, composers joining ‘schools’ of composition, each with a style that was in vogue for a short period of time -
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Post great war years
The period since the Great War is undoubtedly the most bewildering of all, as composers have pulled in various apparently contradictory and opposing directions. Typical of the dilemma during the inter-war years, the former was experimenting with the highly compressed and advanced form known as ‘serial structure’, while simultaneously Lehar was still indulging in an operetta style which would not have seemed out of place over half a century beforehand.