Medieval Music - A Quick Guide

The medieval music period was from the years c.500 until 1400.

For more detailed information on the medieval music era go to:
https://www.musictheoryacademy.com/pe...

There are some key characteristics of medieval music covered in this video lesson:

Monophonic Music - most medieval music has only one line of melody.

Church Music - a large proportion of the music from the medieval era that we still have access to is from church music. The Catholic mass was a sung celebration in Latin that was (and still is) widespread. As a result, unaccompanied monophonic vocal styles such as Gregorian chant characterise the medieval period.

Modes - Medieval music used modes. There were 8 modes in total. Modes were the forerunners of the major and minor scales.

Instruments - there were a number of typical medieval instruments. These included the medieval flute (a wooden instrument with a sound much like the modern day recorder), the lyra (thought to be one of the earliest bowed stringed instruments of the Western classical tradition) and the dulcimer - a plucked stringed instrument.

The medieval period of music also witnessed the development of early sheet music notes with the use of nuemes.

Also, secular music developed during the medieval era with troubadours and trouveres travelling around performing their music. The development of "Ars Nova" (New Art) was also a major development as it brought with it new rhythmic complexity and an increased use of basic polyphonic ideas.