Baroque

Johann Sebastian Bach, the most renowned member of a distinguished family of German musicians and composers, is considered one of the greatest composers in history. A virtuoso organist who was famous throughout Germany during his career, Bach served as court musician and composer in Arnstadt, Weimar, Köthen and finally as cantor and director of music at Leipzig. His most famous works include The Brandenberg Concertos, Well-Tempered Clavier and Art of the Fugue. Bach's fame during his lifetime was due to his ability as an organist more than his reputation as a composer, but since the 19th century he has been hailed as a genius whose work represents the peak of the Baroque era.

All songs

There are many things that we take for granted that were invented in the Renaissance era. Many of these inventions we use without thinking who created it and how it came about. Some of these inventions include the clock, gunpowder and artillery, eye glasses and spectacles, the printing press, the flush toilet, the microscope, the telescope, and the match.
In the beginning of the Renaissance time period, we can see the first portable clocks developed in Florenece, Italy, in 1410 by Filippo Brunelleschi, a famous architect. Before this time, mechanical clocks were large, fixed devices. The spring- driven clock made it possible to carry the time around with you.
Gunpowder was invented around 1040. Although hard to believe, rockets were launched as fireworks and weapons in China in the early 1230's. This led the way to William Congreve developing rockets to use during wars. Launching tubes were developed by this engineer to improve their accuracy. Also coming from the invention of gunpowder was the gun and other projectile-firing artillery. These new inventions greatly affected how war was fought. War used to be hand-to-hand combat with specific implied rules of chivalry. With these new, more powerful weapons, there were a higher number of casualties and more serious wounds. In turn this also affected the world of medicine.
Another important advance in science was the invention of convex and concave lenses. This led to the invention of bifocals which could correct people's eyesight. Also, lenses led to the inventions of telescopes and microscopes, which led to hundreds upon thousands of advances in multiple fields of science.
A big development in writing and literature was the invention of the printing press. Invented in 1436 by a 39 year old German man named Johann Gutenberg, the printing press was a great improvement over hand-copying. Before the development of this time-saving and economical machine, monks had to hand copy everything. This time-consuming process made books and scripts extremely hard to come by, and astronomically expensive. Gutenberg used his printing press to put ink on hundreds of individual letters that could be combined in numerous ways to create an entire page of text. After this stage was completed, as many copies as desired could be made. However, to print a different page, the individual letters had to be completely rearranged. This great invention helped Gutenberg reach his greatest achievement of the first mass-production of the Bible, which he published in 1456 in Mainz, Germany.
An important invention used by all, was the flush toilet. It was invented by Sir John Harington. Harington invented a valve that when pulled would release water from a water closet. Sir John recommended flushing the toilet once or twice a day, although with our modern technology, we know that is probably not sufficient. (Robin Hood didn’t name the toilet either.)
Fire was difficult to create until Robert Boyle invented the match in 1680. Although fire could be made by rubbing sticks together or by striking flint to steel, this was a time consuming process. Boyle discovered that when phosphorus and sulfur were rubbed together, they would burst into flame. Boyle knew that this was not because of friction, but because of chemical nature of these two substances. Boyle's matches were not safe because sometimes they accidentally went up in flames while in a pocket. With some improvements and a little fine tuning, this invention led to your modern safety match many years later.

Inventions of Renaissance

Invention of the Renaissance

There are many things that we take for granted that were invented in the Renaissance era. Many of these inventions we use without thinking who created it and how it came about. Some of these inventions include the clock, gunpowder and artillery, eye glasses and spectacles, the printing press, the flush toilet, the microscope, the telescope, the submarine, and the match.
In the beginning of the Renaissance time period, we can see the first portable clocks developed in Florenece, Italy, in 1410 by Filippo Brunelleschi, a famous architect. Before this time, mechanical clocks were large, fixed devices. The spring- driven clock made it possible to carry the time around with you. Brunelleschi also developed the first linear perspective paintings.

Gunpowder was invented around 1040. Although hard to believe, rockets were launched as fireworks and weapons in China in the early 1230's. This led the way to William Congreve developing rockets to use during wars. Launching tubes were developed by this engineer to improve their accuracy. Also coming from the invention of gunpowder was the gun and other projectile-firing artillery. These new inventions greatly affected how war was fought. War used to be hand-to-hand combat with specific implied rules of chivalry. With these new, more powerful weapons, there were a higher number of casualties and more serious wounds. In turn this also affected the world of medicine.

Medieval Music

The Middle Ages or Medieval period began in 476 a.d. with the fall of the Roman Empire. Once the Roman Empire was gone all of Europe was independant and most places adopted a feudal system. In the feudal system a king grants land to nobles who would loan some of their land to their knights who used serfs or peasants to work the land.
During this time period Europe was plagued with war, disease, and famine. The bubonic plague had killed one third of Europe's population. This meant that people had much more important things to worry about than music, like survival. Most music of this time was religous and was written by monks. Gregorian chant is the main form of music produced by these monks.
Troubadours were traveling musicians and performers who entertained kings, nobles, and other high ranking members of society. These performers were the main supply and producers of secular or nonreligous music.
Many instruments were used during the medieval period. Alot of these instruments evolved into instruments we use today. Flutes were used but made out of wood and not silver. Lutes eventually evolved into guitars. Also many brass horns like trombones and trumpets were used.

Early Music

Music is something that has been a critical of human life for many thousands of years. Recently scientists discovered the oldest instrument ever found, a flute made from vulture bone.
This proved that human species before homo sapiens had extensive knowledge of notes and tones. The discovery was also proof to scientists that music had been used for much longer than previously thought.
After the cro-magnons died out and the modern humans took over, they stopped migrating around and set up civilizations. These civilizations made it possible for people to actually study and practice music. Many civilizations helped develop music. The babylonians and greeks are the earliest civilizations that we have musical examples from. The Epitaph of Seikilos is the earliest complete piece of music that we have found. It also included the notation which proved that the Greeks had a system of for writing music.

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