History of Music

Influences from the west to the east merged into the pre-Christian music of the Greeks and later
the Romans. Musical practices and conventions conveyed by travelling musicians brought a
wealth of diversity and invention.

Surviving Greek notation from this period of musical history has given scientists and
musicologists alike a vital clue to the way that the music of the time might have sounded. It
certainly indicates remarkable links to the music that would follow, most notably using modality
in Greek music.

In the frescoes and in some written accounts, including the Bible, we have learned about the
instruments that featured in the Roman and Greek times and their significance to the cultures.
The trumpet as an instrument of announcement and splendid ceremony, or the lyre as an integral
player in the songs of poets.

Across Europe from the early part of the first century, the monasteries and abbeys became the
places where music became embedded into the lives of those devoted to God and their followers.

Christianity had established itself and with it came a new liturgy that demanded a contemporary
music. Although early Christian music had its roots in the practices and beliefs of the Hebrew
people, what emerged from this was to become the basis for sacred music for centuries to come.
The chants that were composed devoutly followed the sacred Latin texts in a fashion that was
tightly controlled and given only to the glory of God. Music was very much subservient to the
words, without flourish or frivolity.

It was Pope Gregory (540-604 AD), who is credited with moving the progress of sacred music
forward and developing what is now called Gregorian Chant, characterizes by the haunting
sound of the open, perfect fifth.

Some controversy surrounds this claim, but the name has stuck and the music remains distinct
and vitally important as it moves away from plainchant towards polyphony. This, in turn, looked
back to earlier times and customs, particularly in the music of the Jewish people where the idea
of a static drone commonly underpinned a second vocal line.
Medieval Period
As we move forward in musical time, we begin to enter the Medieval Period of music which can
be agreed to span the period from around 500AD up until the mid-fifteenth century. By this time
music was a dominant art in taverns to cathedrals, practiced by kings to paupers alike. It was
during this extended period of music that the sound of music becomes increasingly familiar. This
is partly due to the development of musical notation, much of which has survived, that allows us
a window back into this fascinating time.

From the written music that survives from the monasteries and other important accounts of
musical practices, it is possible to assemble an image of a vibrant culture that ranges from the
sacred to the secular. Throughout the Medieval period, the music slowly began to adopt ever
more elaborate structures and devices that produced works of immense beauty and devotion.

Hildegard von Bingen and Perotin pioneered many of the musical forms we still recognize today
including the motet and the sacred Mass. Alongside these important forms came the madrigal
that often reflects the moods and feelings of the people of the time. Its wonderfully polyphonic
form is both mesmerizing and delightful.

Renaissance Period
Instruments developed in accordance with the composer’s imaginations. A full gamut of wind,
brass and percussion instruments accompanied the Medieval music, although it is still the human
voice that dominates many of the compositions. Towards the close of the high medieval period,
we find the emergence of instrumental pieces which in turn paves the way for many musical
forms in the following period: The Renaissance.

Before leaving this period of music it is important to mention the Troubadours and the
Trouveres. These travelling storytellers and musicians covered vast distances on their journeys
across Europe and further afield into Asia. They told stories, sung ballads and most importantly,
brought with them influences from everywhere that seamlessly blended with the western musical
cultures.

The Renaissance (1450 – 1600) was a golden period in music history. Freed from the constraints
of Medieval musical conventions the composers of the Renaissance forged a new way forward.
Josquin des Prez is one of the early Renaissance composers to be a great expert in the polyphonic
style, often combining many voices to create elaborate musical textures.

Later Palestrina, Thomas Tallis and William Byrd build on the ideas of des Pres composing some
of the most stunning motets, masses, chansons, and instrumental works. Modality was firmly
established as a basis for all harmony, and although strict rules governing the use of dissonance,
the expressive qualities of Renaissance music is virtually unparalleled.

As instrumental pieces became accepted into the repertoire, we find the development of
instruments like the bassoon and the trombone giving rise to larger and more elaborate
instrumental groupings.

This gave composers far more scope to explore and express their creative ideas than before. The
viol family developed to provide a very particular, haunted quality to much of the music of the
time alongside the establishment of each recognizable family of instruments comprising,
percussion, strings, woodwind, and brass.

Keyboard instruments also became increasingly common and the advent of the sonata followed
at the proper time. Other popular forms for instrumental music included the toccata, canzona and
ricercar to name but a few, emanating from the Courtly dance.

Towards the end of the Renaissance, what was called the Church Modes began to dissolve in
favor of what is now considered to be functional harmony or tonality based on a system of keys
rather than modes.

Baroque Period
The Baroque Period (1600-1760), houses some of the most famous composers and pieces that we
have in Western Classical Music. It also sees some of the most important musical and
instrumental developments. Italy, Germany, England, and France continue from the Renaissance
to dominate the musical landscape, each influencing the other with conventions and style.

Amongst the many celebrated composers of the time, G F Handel, Bach, Vivaldi, and Purcell
provide a substantial introduction to the music of this era. It is during this glittering span of time
that Handel composes his oratorio “The Messiah,” Vivaldi the “Four Seasons,” Bach his six of
the Violin.
Common musical forms were established founded on the Renaissance composers' principles but
extended and developed in ways that they would have found unimaginable. The Suite became a
Baroque favorite, comprising contrasting fast slow movements like the Prelude; Allemande,
Gigue, Courante and the Sarabande. Concertos became ever more popular, giving
instrumentalists the opportunity to display their technical and expressive powers.

Vocal music continued to include the Mass but now also the Oratorio and Cantata alongside
anthems and chorales. Opera appears in earnest in the Baroque period and becomes an
established musical form and vehicle for astonishing expression and diversity.

Increasingly, the preferred harmony is tonal and the system of keys (major and minor), is
accepted in favor of modality. This lifts the limitations of modes and offers composers the
chance to create ever more complex and expressive pieces that combine exciting polyphonic
textures and dynamics.

Notation accompanies these developments and steadily we find that the accuracy of composers
works becomes more precise and detailed giving us a better possibility of realizing their
intentions in performances of today.

Classical Period
From the Baroque, we step into the Classical Period (1730-1820). Here Haydn and Mozart
dominate the musical landscape and Germany and Austria sit at the creative heart of the period.
From the ornate Baroque composers of the Classical period moved away from the polyphonic
towards the homophonic, writing music that was, on the surface of it at least, simple, sleek, and
measured.

One key development is that of the Piano. The Baroque harpsichord is replaced by the early
piano which was a more reliable and expressive instrument. Mozart and Haydn each wrote many
works for the Piano which allowed for this instrument to develop significantly during this period.

Chamber music alongside orchestral music was a feature of the Classical Era with particular
attention drawn towards the String Quartet. The orchestra itself was firmly established and
towards the latter end of the period began to include clarinets, trombones, and timpani.
The rise of the virtuoso performer continued throughout this period of music as demonstrated by
the many of the concertos and sonatas composed during this time. Opera flourished in these
decades and became a fully-fledged musical form of entertainment that extended way beyond the
dreams of the Baroque composers.

Romantic Period
As the Classical era closed Beethoven is the most notable composer who made such a huge
contribution to the change into the Romantic Era (1780 – 1880). Beethoven’s immense genius
shaped the next few decades with his substantial redefining of many of the established musical
conventions of the Classical era. His work on Sonata form in his concertos, symphonies, string
quartets and sonatas, goes almost unmatched by any other composer.

The Romantic era saw huge developments in the quality and range of many instruments that
naturally encouraged ever more expressive and diverse music from the composers. Musical
forms like the Romantic orchestra became expansive landscapes where composers gave full and
unbridled reign to their deepest emotions and dreams.

Berlioz in his “Symphonie Fantastique” is a fine example of this, or later Wagner in his immense
operas. The symphonies of Gustav Mahler stand like stone pillars of achievement at the end of
the Romantic period alongside the tone poems of Richard Strauss. The Romantic period presents
us with a vast array of rich music that only towards the end of the 19th Century began to fade.

It is hard to conceive of what could follow such a triumphant, heroic time in musical history but
as we push forward into the 20th Century the musical landscape takes a dramatic turn. Echoes of
the Romantic Era still thread through the next century in the works of Elgar, Shostakovich, and
Arthur Bliss, but it is the music from France we have title impressionism that sparkles its way
into our musical consciences.

Debussy and Ravel are key exponents of this colorful movement that parallels the artwork of
Monet and Manet. What we hear in the music of the impressionists harks back to many of the
popular forms of the Baroque but in ways that Bach is unlikely to have foreseen. The tonal
system transforms to include a wider range of scales and influences from the Orient allowing
composers to write some of the most stunning works ever heard.
Both Ravel and Debussy composed extensively for the piano using poetry for inspiration. Their
orchestral works are amongst some of the most beautiful and evocative pieces ever written.

In parallel, the Teutonic world began to undergo its own revolution in the form of the second
Viennese school, led by Arnold Schoenberg. Disillusioned with the confines of tonality
Schoenberg threw out the tonal system in favor of a new twelve-tone serial system giving each
step of the chromatic scale equal musical validity. The result was serial music that was
completely atonal and transformed the musical landscape beyond anything that had happened
before.

Modernist

Modernist classical music includes late romantic, impressionist, expressionist, and neoclassical
styles of composition. Modernism marked an era when many composers rejected certain values
of the widespread practice period, such as traditional tonality, melody, instrumentation, and
structure. Some music historians regard musical modernism as an era extending from about 1890
to 1930. Others consider that modernism ended with one or the other of the two world wars.

Two musical movements that were dominant during this time were the impressionist beginning
around 1890 and the expressionist that started around 1908. It was a period of diverse reactions in
challenging and reinterpreting older categories of music, innovations that lead to new ways of
organizing and approaching harmonic, melodic, sonic, and rhythmic aspects of music, and changes
in aesthetic worldviews in close relation to the larger identifiable period of modernism in the arts
of the time. The operative word most associated with it is "innovation

White Noise

For students, it is extremely important to understand the art of concentration, especially during
examinations. While answering a test, Concentration or Mental Focus can help save valuable time
and recollect information quicker. This study can potentially help improve students' performance
in their examinations by boosting their concentration levels with the implementation of White
Noise as a background sound while answering the test. White noise is a combination of random
sounds that have flat spectral density. So, when we are listening to white noise, we might be
listening to about 20,000 different sounds whose audible frequency range could be anywhere
between 20-20,000 hertz. Like how the amalgamation of all assorted colors of light produces white
light, similarly, the mixing of various frequencies of sound produces white noise.

White noise is considered to be beneficial for productivity as it primarily helps build focus and
concentration. Our brain can get easily distracted when there is any new stimulus in our
environment. For example, while we are in a class if our phones buzz with a new notification, we
feel the strong urge to have a look at it. Our brain tends to rule out the factor of threat whenever
there is a change in our environment, which is why we immediately get distracted.

In most educational institutions, students attempt their examinations with no background music as
such. There may be many different stimuli adding to the students’ surroundings be it visual,
auditory, olfactory, etc. that may distract them during the examination. For example, a friend might
ask to borrow some stationary, someone might be walking outside the classroom, there might be
some pungent smell coming from the cracked-open window, etc. All these factors might distract
them, impairing their concentration and ultimately hampering their test results. Such distracting
stimuli can be eliminated or diminished to a great extent with the help of White Noise.

White noise helps to mask the external stimuli without acting as a new distraction like music. Our
brain is capable of identifying patterns and interpreting if it is necessary to process the added
information or not. In the case of white noise, since the sensory input is constant and not changing,
our brain stops processing the information that it is receiving. Hence, helping us to focus on our
task and not get distracted.