Editing History of music (section)

===Medieval Europe===
{{Main|Medieval music}}
{{see also|List of medieval composers|List of medieval music theorists|List of medieval musical instruments}}
[[File:Perotin - Alleluia nativitas.jpg|thumb|''Alleluia nativitas'' by [[Perotin]] from the Codex Guelf.1099]]
Modern scholars generally define '[[Medieval music]]' as the music of [[Western Europe]] during the [[Middle Ages]],{{sfn|Wolinski|Borders|2020|loc="Introduction"}} from approximately the 6th to 15th centuries. Music was certainly prominent in the [[Early Middle Ages]], as attested by artistic depictions of instruments, writings about music, and other records; however, the only repertory of music which has survived from before 800 to the present day is the [[plainsong]] liturgical music of the Roman Catholic Church, the largest part of which is called [[Gregorian chant]]. [[Pope Gregory I]], who gave his name to the musical repertory and may himself have been a composer, is usually claimed to be the originator of the musical portion of the liturgy in its present form, though the sources giving details on his contribution date from more than a hundred years after his death. Many scholars believe that his reputation has been exaggerated by legend. Most of the chant repertory was composed anonymously in the centuries between the time of Gregory and [[Charlemagne]].

During the 9th century, several important developments took place. First, there was a major effort by the Church to unify the many chant traditions and suppress many of them in favor of the Gregorian liturgy. Second, the earliest [[polyphony|polyphonic]] music was sung, a form of parallel singing known as [[organum]]. Third, and of the greatest significance for music history, [[music notation|notation]] was reinvented after a lapse of about five hundred years, though it would be several more centuries before a system of pitch and rhythm notation evolved having the precision and flexibility that modern musicians take for granted.

Several schools of polyphony flourished in the period after 1100: the [[St. Martial school]] of organum, the music of which was often characterized by a swiftly moving part over a single sustained line; the [[Notre Dame school]] of polyphony, which included the composers [[Léonin]] and [[Pérotin]], and which produced the first music for more than two parts around 1200; the musical melting-pot of [[Santiago de Compostela]] in [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]], a pilgrimage destination and site where musicians from many traditions came together in the late Middle Ages, the music of whom survives in the [[Codex Calixtinus]]; and the English school, the music of which survives in the [[Worcester Fragments]] and the [[Old Hall Manuscript]]. Alongside these schools of sacred music a vibrant tradition of the secular song developed, as exemplified in the music of the [[troubadour]]s, [[trouvère]]s, and [[minnesinger|Minnesänger]]. Much of the later secular music of the early [[Renaissance]] evolved from the forms, ideas, and the musical aesthetic of the troubadours, courtly poets, and itinerant musicians, whose culture was largely exterminated during the [[Albigensian Crusade]] in the early 13th century.

Forms of sacred music which developed during the late 13th century included the [[motet]], [[conductus]], [[discant]], and [[Clausula (music)|clausulae]]. One unusual development was the ''[[Geisslerlieder]]'', the music of wandering bands of [[flagellant]]s during two periods: the middle of the 13th century (until they were suppressed by the Church); and the period during and immediately following the [[Black Death]], around 1350, when their activities were vividly recorded and well-documented with notated music. Their music mixed folk song styles with penitential or apocalyptic texts. The 14th century in European music history is dominated by the style of the ''[[ars nova]]'', which by convention is grouped with the medieval era in music, even though it had much in common with early Renaissance ideals and [[aesthetics]]. Much of the surviving music of the time is secular, and tends to use the [[formes fixes]]: the [[ballade (forme fixe)|ballade]], the [[virelai]], the [[Lai (poetic form)|lai]], the [[Rondeau (music)|rondeau]], which correspond to poetic forms of the same names. Most pieces in these forms are for one to three voices, likely with instrumental accompaniment: famous composers include [[Guillaume de Machaut]] and [[Francesco Landini]].