Here is a little reminder of how music grew:
A scale came into use in Greece about 700 B.C.
It was separated into modes by the Greeks about 400 B.C.
It was adopted by the Romans and by the early Christians and was used until the 10th century A.D. with little change.
450 years before the Christian era was the Golden Age of Pericles in Greece.
450 years after the Christian era was the beginning of the Dark Ages.
Harmony was first attempted in 900 A.D.
Between 900 A.D. and 1400, music made little headway.
Music has travelled along two roads,—the Church road and the People’s road; they often crossed each other and became very much mixed up. You remember how popular songs had found their way into church music at the time of St. Gregory, and how the people took melodies from the masses, put profane words to them, and sang them in the taverns, at the street corners, in the tournaments and at work.
Early in the 15th century folk songs had again invaded the Church to the point that masses were known by the names of the folk songs from which they were taken. This led to a very important reform, as a result of which Palestrina, the greatest composer of the “Golden Age of Catholic Church Music,” wrote his beautiful masses and motets, and Luther, the founder of the Protestant faith, made up hymns that are still sung and loved throughout Christendom.