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Is considered the oldest surviving complete musical composition in the world. The epitaph is dedicated by a man named Seikilos to his wife, Euterpe. The poem says: "While you live, shine.
Let nothing grieve you beyond measure.
For your life is short,
And time will claim its due." -
Gregorian chant is one of the earliest and purest styles of Western music, it's used in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. It developed mainly during the 9th–10th centuries, though its roots reach back to much earlier Christian and Jewish chant traditions. -
An Italian monk who invented staff notation and the do–re–mi system, making it possible to read and teach music accurately.
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A Troubadour from southern France who composed secular love songs in the Occitan language. He helped popularize the ideal of courtly love in medieval poetry and music.
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A German abbess, mystic, and composer who wrote sacred monophonic chants. She is one of the earliest known female composers and combined spirituality, music, and poetry.
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Ars Antiqua is used by music historians to describe the style of European music the late 12th to the late 13th century. Motet – polyphonic compositions with multiple texts. Sometimes in different languages. Conductus – newly composed; no existing compositions are used. Organum – a plainchant melody with added voices.
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A French composer, the first known polyphonic composer. He worked at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and wrote two-voice organum for church use.
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was one of the most important composers of the Notre Dame School of Polyphony in Paris. He’s often considered one of the first known composers of complex polyphonic music in the Western tradition.
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A Spanish king who promoted learning and the arts. He sponsored the Cantigas de Santa María, a large collection of monophonic songs honoring the Virgin Mary.
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A French composer and poet of the Ars Nova period. He wrote polyphonic Masses, motets, and secular songs, including the first complete polyphonic setting of the Mass Ordinary.
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An Italian composer and organist, the leading figure of Italian Trecento music. Known for his lyrical ballate and the “Landini cadence”, his music is graceful and expressive.
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Ars Nova refers to the musical style that prospered in Europe—especially France—during the 14th century, succeeding the earlier Ars Antiqua (“the old art”). The term comes from the treatise Ars nova (c. 1320) by the composer and theorist Philippe de Vitry, which described the new rhythmic and notational innovations of the time.
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