Early music
Early [...]
Definition
Early music is a term used to describe pre-Classical Western music, from the earliest written music to 1500 at the earliest (Judd, 1998, p.4) and the end of the Baroque era in about 1750 at the latest. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_music [Oct 2004]
Music in Antiquity
Very little remains of music from Ancient Greece or Rome. The epics of Homer and the lyrics of Sappho, for instance, were meant to be sung with instrumental accompaniment, but nothing remains of their scores. Fragments of Greek music are, however, extant, most notably scraps from tragedy (a choral song by Euripides for his Orestes and an instrumental intermezzo from Sophocles' Ajax), a few hymns by Mesomedes of Crete (second century AS), and the Seikilos epitaph (dated variously between the 2nd century BCE and 1st century AD). Of Roman music, there remains but one meagre scrap: a line from Terence's Hecyra set to music by his composer Flaccus. All music of antiquity is monophonic, as polyphony is an invention of the Middle Ages. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_music [Jan 2005]Post-Antiquity
- Medieval music (roughly 1000-1450)
- Renaissance music (roughly 1450-1600)
- Baroque music (roughly 1600-1750)
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