It is incredible to think that these musical fragments span a period of 500 years, even less as from Monteverdi until the modern times. When I started my search I had the idea that before 1300 not much was happening, but upon hearing the exciting music of von Bingen and Machaut, but also reading about all development and inventions of these times I changed my mind. Although so much is lost during all these ages, let’s try to establish a true picture of that time. We start with the most essential of all: musical notation was just invented.

 

The early development of Western musical notation arose in the hands of the Church in various parts of Europe including Spain and Italy. Many of the earliest music notations were for choral music, with the notes being typically indicated above the word or syllable of the text being sung. The church music of this period is known as "Plainchant" or "Gregorian chant" named after Gregory the Great who was Pope from 590 until his death in 604 AD. However, exact pitches were still not specified at this time, only whether notes should be higher or lower than the previous one. This problem was fixed by introducing horizontal lines to the music notation, firstly a single line but before long all Plainchant was notated in churches and monasteries using a system based on a stave of 4 horizontal lines.

 

The stave of 4 lines is usually attributed to an Italian Benedictine Monk called Guido of Arezzo (approx. 991-1033). In "Micrologus" a treatise on music notation, he also used the initial letters of a hymn to define musical pitches. These letters were ut, re mi, fa, sol, la. In most countries "Ut" became "Do" and centuries later with the addition of "ti" the system came to be called the sol-fa notation which was taught in many schools. When Gregorian Chant became more complex, its notation followed suit. The French composer Pérotin (approx. 1200 AD) helped to develop early polyphony.

 http://www.mfiles.co.uk/music-notation-history.htm

 

and how many books and manuscripts have survived from these times. First the price of “paper” (not yet invented), then the vulnerability. If we look, on the other hand to the developments of building churches, these vast building that are standing centuries!