Topics in Music History Home

In this section we will explore music through its composers, performers, genres, and styles. We will consider both art music and popular pieces, historical works and more modern styles. The ancestor of modern music notation emerged around 900 BC, so we have more than 11 centuries of written music available for our consideration. Although lighter genres have been around for centuries, popular music as we know it emerged in the 1950s, giving us little more than 60 years of material. Given these facts, the majority of people and musical examples that we will examine will be historical. However, the study of modern and popular music is important both for its own sake and to help build an understanding of historical music and the structures of music generally. Therefore, relevant works that can offer insight will be included, regardless of which style or time period they represent.

We are fortunate enough to have ready access via the internet to recordings that represent centuries of music from all over the world. This is the first time in history that such a wide variey of music has been available to so many. In fact, this body of music is so vast that no single website can do it justice. Our focus will be on music of the Western world, from the Medieval period until today. Even given this limited scope, there will be important composers, performers, styles, and pieces that we do not cover in these pages. This in no way indicates a lack of importance or relevance, but is simply the result of summarizing and simplifying the whole of music history for a wide audience.

In order to give you the best quality recordings to consider, we have organized this website to work with the Naxos library of streaming music. Naxos is a subscription-based service. Please see the How To page for information and help using Naxos.

The topics that we will consider in this section are as follows:

Enjoy!

Theme and Variations: New Perspectives in Music History

Topics in Music History Home