A Little More History

Abstract For most people in the world, ‘music’ means sung music. For most people in human history, ‘music’ meant sung music. The modern ‘problem of music’ is the child of pure instrumental music: absolute music; music alone. What is the problem, and how did it arise? In the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the seventeenth century, the composer’s life was devoted mostly to the composition of vocal music: for the Church, for secular occasions, and, later, for the opera house and for occasions of State. This is not to say that music played on instruments alone was unknown in these pre-Modern periods. Some of it was vocal music played on instruments. But some of it, as well, was written especially for the organ, or harpsichord, or lute, or even specified combinations of instruments. There was,indeed, instrumental music before the eighteenth century.