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1 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 ) and a few hymns by Mesomedes of CreteCrete sometimes spelled Krete (Greek Kappa;ρτ&eta / Kriti) is the largest of the Greek islands and the fifth largest in the Mediterranean Sea. It is the Greek island closest to North Africa. Tourist attractions in Crete include archeological sites ( second century AS ). Of Roman music, there remains but one meagre scrap: a line from TerencePublius Terentius Afer better known as Terence was a comic playwright of the Roman Republic. His comedies were performed for the first time c. 170 160 BCE, and he died young in 159 BCE. He wrote 6 plays, all of which survive. In comparison, his predecesso's Hecyra set to music by his composerA composer is a person who writes music. The term refers particularly to someone who writes music in some type of musical notation, thus allowing others to perform the music. This distinguishes the composer from a musician who improvises. However, a perso FlaccusFlaccus is a composer from the second century BC, of whom little is known. He was a slave of one of Terence's patrons and wrote musical scores for Terence's comedies (playing or composing music was no occupation for a free citizen). Flaccus has the distin. All music of antiquity is monophonic, as polyphonyPolyphony is a musical texture consisting of several independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice ( monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ( homophony). The term is usually used in reference to mus is an invention of the Middle AgesThe Middle Ages formed the middle period in a schematic division of European history into three 'ages': Classical civilization, the Middle Ages, and Modern Civilization. It is commonly dated from the end of the Western Roman Empire ( 5th century) until th.

2 Post-Antiquity

For information on early music post-Antiquity, see the following articles:

• Medieval musicMedieval music is music of Europe in the Middle Ages. This era, using the interchangeable terms "medieval" and "middle ages", covers the period from the fall of the Roman Empire ( 476) and the papacy of Gregory the Great ( sixth century) to approximately (roughly 1000-1450)
• Renaissance music (roughly 1450-1600)
• Baroque music (roughly 1600-1750)