Sounds from Long Ago: Medieval and Renaissance Music

Imagine living 800 years ago. There are no phones, no speakers, and no headphones. If you want to hear music, a real person must perform it right in front of you. Music is live — always. Think about what that means for who gets to hear it, and who gets to play it.

Music history is split into periods — chunks of time when music sounded a certain way. Two of the earliest periods are the Medieval period and the Renaissance. The Medieval period lasted from roughly 500 CE to about 1400 CE — that is nearly a thousand years! Most music during this time was made for the Christian Church. Monks and priests sang a special style called plainchant (also called Gregorian chant). Plainchant uses just one melody with no harmony — meaning all voices sing the same tune together, with no other notes added underneath. The rhythm flows freely, almost like speaking. Outside the church, travelling performers called troubadours wrote songs about love, adventure, and bravery. Instruments included the lute, the recorder, and a bowed string instrument called a rebec. The Renaissance lasted from roughly 1400 CE to 1600 CE. Renaissance means 'rebirth' in French. People became excited about new ideas in art, science, and music. Music became richer. Composers — the people who write music — began adding harmony, which means several different notes sung or played at the same time to create a fuller sound. A style called polyphony became popular. Polyphony means two or more separate melody lines performed together, weaving around each other. Imagine two singers, each following their own tune, but the tunes fit together perfectly. Famous renaissance composers include Josquin des Prez and Giovanni Palestrina. Music also moved outside the church, into homes and theatres. The printing press, invented around 1440, meant music could be written down and shared across Europe for the first time.