Medieval music encompasses the sacred and secular music of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, from approximately the 6th to 15th centuries. It is the first and longest major era of Western classical music and followed by the Renaissance music; the two eras comprise what musicologists generally term as early music, preceding the common practice period. Following the traditional division of the Middle Ages, medieval music can be divided into Early (500–1150), High (1000–1300), and Late (1300–1400) medieval music.
Polyphony is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice (monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony).
Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other disciplines. Rather than starting from the early 14th-century ars nova, the Trecento music was treated by musicology as a coda to Medieval music and the new era dated from the rise of triadic harmony and the spread of the contenance angloise style from Britain to the Burgundian School. A convenient watershed for its end is the adoption of basso continuo at the beginning of the Baroque period.
The music of Croatia, like the divisions of the country itself, has two major influences: Central European, present in central and northern parts of the country including Slavonia, and Mediterranean, present in coastal regions of Dalmatia and Istria.
Music of Serbia represents the musical heritage of Serbia, both historical and modern. It has a variety of traditional music styles, which are part of the wider Balkan musical tradition, with its own distinctive sound and characteristics.
The gusle or lahuta is a bowed single-stringed musical instrument traditionally used in the Dinarides region of Southeastern Europe. The instrument is always accompanied by singing; musical folklore, specifically epic poetry. The gusle player holds the instrument vertically between his knees, with the left hand fingers on the strings. The strings are never pressed to the neck, giving a harmonic and unique sound.
Stevan Stojanović, known as Stevan Mokranjac was a Serbian composer and music educator. Born in Negotin in 1856, Mokranjac studied music in Belgrade, Munich, Rome and Leipzig while in his twenties. Later, he became the conductor of the Belgrade Choir Society and founder of the Serbian School of Music and the first Serbian string quartet, in which he played the cello. He left Belgrade at the beginning of World War I and moved to Skopje, where he died on 28 September 1914.
Kornelije Stanković was a Serbian composer, melographer, conductor, pianist and musical writer. He is notable for his four volumes of harmonized Serbian melodies, which were published in Vienna between 1858 and 1863 and are one of the most important foundations for later Serbian music.
The culture of Montenegro is as pluralistic and diverse as its history and geographical position would suggest. Montenegro's culture has been influenced by the Serbian Empire, the Byzantine Empire, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Christianity, the Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Venice, Austria-Hungary, and Yugoslavia.
The modern state of Italy did not come into being until 1861, though the roots of music on the Italian Peninsula can be traced back to the music of ancient Rome. However, the underpinnings of much modern Italian music come from the Middle Ages.
Renaissance Ensemble Serbia is the first early music ensemble in Serbia and the second in south-eastern Europe, having been founded in 1968. Ensemble Renaissance usually focuses on the music of the Middle ages, Renaissance and Baroque. Occasionally, however, Ensemble performs modern music on ancient instruments.
Music of the Old Serbia is a debut vinyl album by Ensemble Renaissance, released in 1983 on the PGP RTB label. It is also Ensemble's first album with early music of Serbia. They will revisit the theme of Serbian Medieval songs and dances on the Roots of the Balkan, and some of the material from this album will be remastered on the Music of Old Serbia - Chants from 14th to the 18th century dedicated exclusively to the Medieval Serbian chant. The A side of the record deals with the earliest attested Serbian composers belonging to the Serbo-Byzantine musical style while the B side contains secular and ritual songs and dances. Most of the material was taken from the books by the Serbian ethnomusicologists Dimitrije Stefanović, Živojin Stanković, Kosta Manojlović, Đorđe Karaklajić (unpublished), and others.
Roots of the Balkan is the 15th album by Ensemble Renaissance, released in 2002 on the Classic Produktion Osnabrück label in Germany and Serbia. It is Ensemble's fifth album with early music of Serbia. It is also their most complete and mature work on the theme of early Serbian ethnomusicology. Presented on this album are secular and ritual dances, songs and melodies from the entire territory of Serbia, the oldest being from the time of Nemanjić dynasty, Ottoman period, up to the 19th century. Just like Renaissance's previous works from the same field, most of the material was taken from the books by famous Serbian ethnomusicologists Dimitrije Stefanović, Živojin Stanković, Kosta Manojlović, Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac, Đorđe Karaklajić (unpublished), and others.
Vidovdan is a cassette and album by Ensemble Renaissance, released in 1989 on the PGP RTB label. It is their second album with early music of Serbia and their 6th album overall. It is a collaborative album with another ensemble called "Rukovet". The music represented on the release is a traditional Serbian music in the period of 18th and 19th century.
Music of Old Serbia is an album by soloist Dragoslav Pavle Aksentijević with Ensemble Renaissance, released in 1987 on the PGP RTs label. Most of the material from this album is a remaster from Music of the Old Serbia, only this edition is dedicated exclusively to the Medieval Serbian chant and important members of the Serbo-Byzantine school.
Music in Medieval Scotland includes all forms of musical production in what is now Scotland between the fifth century and the adoption of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. The sources for Scottish Medieval music are extremely limited. There are no major musical manuscripts for Scotland from before the twelfth century. There are occasional indications that there was a flourishing musical culture. Instruments included the cithara, tympanum, and chorus. Visual representations and written sources demonstrate the existence of harps in the Early Middle Ages and bagpipes and pipe organs in the Late Middle Ages. As in Ireland, there were probably filidh in Scotland, who acted as poets, musicians and historians. After this "de-gallicisation" of the Scottish court in the twelfth century, a less highly regarded order of bards took over the functions of the filidh and they would continue to act in a similar role in the Scottish Highlands and Islands into the eighteenth century.
The Schola Cantorum was the trained papal choir during the Middle Ages, specializing in the performance of plainchant for the purpose of rendering the music in church. In the fourth century, Pope Sylvester I was said to have inaugurated the first Schola Cantorum, but it was Pope Gregory I who established the school on a firm basis and endowed it. The choir ranged anywhere from twenty to thirty boys or men. Only the most skilled in singing were selected to participate in the Schola Cantorum.
Church music in Scotland includes all musical composition and performance of music in the context of Christian worship in Scotland, from the beginnings of Christianisation in the fifth century, to the present day. The sources for Scottish Medieval music are extremely limited due to factors including a turbulent political history, the destructive practices of the Scottish Reformation, the climate and the relatively late arrival of music printing. In the early Middle Ages, ecclesiastical music was dominated by monophonic plainchant, which led to the development of a distinct form of liturgical Celtic chant. It was superseded from the eleventh century by more complex Gregorian chant. In the High Middle Ages, the need for large numbers of singing priests to fulfill the obligations of church services led to the foundation of a system of song schools, to train boys as choristers and priests. From the thirteenth century, Scottish church music was increasingly influenced by continental developments. Monophony was replaced from the fourteenth century by the Ars Nova consisting of complex polyphony. Survivals of works from the first half of the sixteenth century indicate the quality and scope of music that was undertaken at the end of the Medieval period. The outstanding Scottish composer of the first half of the sixteenth century was Robert Carver, who produced complex polyphonic music.
Music in Medieval England, from the end of Roman rule in the fifth century until the Reformation in the sixteenth century, was a diverse and rich culture, including sacred and secular music and ranging from the popular to the elite.
