Vocal Genres throughout History

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The voice stands alone as the most important genre and instrument in music history. It’s development can be examined back as early as the 13th century from secular church music, Renaissance motets, early Baroque oratorios, classical opera, German lied, to jazz music in America. Vocal music is probably considered the oldest and the youngest forms of music. Music that dates back as far as the medieval time period is still being sung even today along with the newer popular genres of music. Vocal music is considered to dominate the first part of history considering that it started off with church music. During this time the church played a main role in society as a whole. For the reason that society was based on the church, most of the music was therefore sacred. This meant that the text was biblically based and was mostly themed around Christ. Text was another reason why vocal music was so much more important because you could actually know what was being interpreted through the music. It was not very common that instruments were used during the medieval time. Although, they used a few instruments such as the lyre, kithara, and aulos. Singing was a part of everyone’s daily lives in the medieval time period. Music was being sung eight hours a day to prepare for Mass, which was called Gregorian chant. Gregorian chant is monophonic religious music mostly set in Latin text intended to use in the Roman Catholic church. This chant was also considered to be “plainsong” because it was mostly sung in unison, and almost always without accompaniment or without instruments. The most important chant that was sung was for the Mass. This was the most important religious service that was performed each day in the monastery. The ... ... middle of paper ... ...Era." Georgia Regents University, n.d. Web. Ongaro, Giulio Maria., and David Brinkman. Music of the Renaissance. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2003. Print. Perkins, Leeman L. Music in the Age of the Renaissance. New York, NY: W.W. Norton &, 1999. Print. Stein, Jack M. "Problems and Combining Poem and Music." Poem and Music in the German Lied from Gluck to Hugo Wolf. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard UP, 1971. 14+. Print. Wright, Craig M., and Bryan R. Simms. "Music in the Monastery and Convent." Music in Western Civilization. Vol. 1. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Schirmer, 2006. 25+. Print. Wright, Craig M., and Bryan R. Simms. Music in Western Civilization. Vol. 1. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Schirmer, 2006. Print. McClellan, Lawrence. The Later Swing Era, 1942-1955. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2004. Print. Buelow, George J. A History of Baroque Music. Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP, 2004. Print.

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