Music through the centuries...

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Music through the centuries
Music is defined as an art form whose medium is sound organized in time, and is defined from the Greek word mousike, or art of the Muses. Starting in prehistoric times blown from ancient flute-like instruments, it is now played in an enormous variety of instruments in all shapes and sizes.
Modern Music started probably in the 13th century, which is widely known as Medieval Era of music. The main music of that era would be church music like the Gregorian chant, with secular compositions. However, nearing the end of that Era, composers started to use smooth polyphonic in their music, which gives the listener a wonderful medley of sounds throughout the song, sounding together in harmony. It is also at this time that the introduction of commercial printing helped to disseminate musical styles more quickly and across a larger area.
Soon after came the Baroque Period. It was a time where the first operas were written and contrapuntal music became prevalent. German Baroque composers wrote for small ensembles including strings, brass, and woodwinds, as well as choirs, pipe organ, harpsichord, and clavichord. During the Baroque period, several major music forms were defined that lasted into later periods when they were expanded and evolved further, including the fugue, the invention, the sonata, and the concerto. Most of these were melodies written for the Royal Court or wealthy families. These pieces were mainly slow dances that would be written such that the players of the instruments were free to express the song in any way they wanted to, therefore there were not many musical instructions were written in the compositions.
After the Baroque Period came the Classical Period. During this Era of music, people believed that the world was governed by a set of fixed rules, and that those rules should be applied in all aspects of life, including music. Therefore, most Classical music came with sets of detailed musical instructions telling performers and players how they should play the piece. The music of the Classical period is characterized by homophonic texture, often featuring a prominent melody with accompaniment. These new melodies tended to be almost voice-like and easily sung. The now popular instrumental music was dominated by further evolution of musical forms initially defined in the Baroque period: the sonata, and the concerto, with the addition of the new form, the symphony. Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are among the central figures of the Classical period.
The Romantic Period followed the Classical Period, with Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert as transitional composers who introduced a more dramatic, expressive style. During this era, existing genres, forms, and functions of music were developed, and the emotional and expressive qualities of music came to take precedence over technique and tradition. The late 19th century saw a dramatic expansion in the size of the orchestra and in the role of concerts as part of urban society. Later Romantic composers created complex and often much longer musical works.
The most recent music, after the Romantic Period is now currently classified as 20th century music. There was a vast increase in music listening as the radio gained popularity and phonographs were used to replay and distribute music. The focus of art music was characterized by exploration of new rhythms, styles, and sounds. Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, and John Cage were all influential composers in 20th century art music. They used more complex chords and used more dissonance to create dramatic tension. Such music became the ancestors of Jazz and Rock.
Jazz evolved and became a significant genre of music over the course of the 20th century, and during the second half of that century, rock music did the same. Jazz is an American musical art form which originated in the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions. The style's West African pedigree is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, and the swung note. From its early development until the present, jazz has also incorporated music from 19th and 20th century American popular music. Jazz has, from its early 20th century inception, spawned a variety of subgenres, ranging from New Orleans Dixieland (1910s) to 1970s and 1980s-era jazz-rock fusion. They can be classified as blues, a form of self-expression for the African-Americans, ragtime, the first true American music, folk songs and the American march.
Rock, on the other hand, is a genre of popular music that developed in the 1960s from 1950s rock and roll, rockabilly, blues, and country music. Rock melodies often revolve around the electric guitar or acoustic guitar, and use a strong back beat laid down by a rhythm section of electric bass guitar, drums, and keyboard instruments such as organ, piano, or, since the 1970s, digital instruments. Along with the guitar or keyboards, saxophone and blues-style harmonica are used as soloing instruments. In its "purest form", it "has three chords, a strong, insistent back beat, and a catchy melody." In the late 1960s and early 1970s, rock music branched out into different subgenres, ranging from blues rock and jazz-rock fusion to heavy metal and punk rock, as well as the more classical influenced genre of progressive rock.
In brief, music has evolved a great way from being played from a bone flute and is now found all over the world, due to the Internet and broadcasts. Singers even earn millions for singing songs, and are paid even more for writing their own. Still, the purpose of music has always stayed the same throughout the thousands of years: as a form of amusement to help people relieve their souls find a way of relaxation from their daily hectic schedules. We must hope that the monetary aspects will not be mixed up with the relaxation aspects of music so that we are able to preserve its true meaning that has been throughout the centuries.