Music has been a great influence in the lives of many people for many years and is constantly changing. Music has been divided into six periods: Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and Twentieth Century. The Medieval period was the longest and most distant period of musical history and consists of almost a millennium’s worth of music. To examine the music of this period we must first look at the influences or dominating factors of medieval …showed first 75 words of 2218 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2218 total…as they struggled to understand the world around them. Common types of secular music were the Rondeau, Virelai, the Frottola (many of which today we would simply lump under the heading "ballad"), and the motet. Coming from the French "mot" meaning 'word', the motet often had several lines of music and text, sung in different languages. Often the different melodies were on completely different subjects, occasionally pairing a sacred text with a very bawdy one!