“It is a comprehensive art form that weaves together thousands of years of Western civilization into a single melody!”
The most friendly music history that reads the era and sound as living history.

Music is the first art created by humans.
From the signals that primitive humans used to shout for survival to the ancient Greeks' attempts to explain the order of the universe through musical scales, sound has always moved alongside the human worldview.
However, when we talk about the history of music, we still only think of the changes in style and great composers, such as “Renaissance was like this, Romanticism was like that,” and we do not ask the question of why music was created that way.

《A Humanistic History of Music》 begins with that question.
Rather than viewing music as merely a branch of art, it shows that behind the moment when music and sound were born, the vast structures of the times, including politics, science, philosophy, religion, and economics, were at work.
Music is never a product of independent emotions, but rather a civilization that most quickly and honestly records the spirit of the times.

This book does not simply explain a specific era in a long, drawn-out manner.
The book follows the principles of music that evolved along with civilization, suggesting that as the way humans understand the world changes, so too does music, allowing readers to read the history of Western music in one sitting.
Rather than fragmentary knowledge that only distinguishes eras, it connects music with humanistic insight into “what kind of world did people live in during that era?”


In the Middle Ages, Hildegard of Hibon composed original hymns in an era when women's activities were strictly restricted.
It was born out of the conflict between the church power structure and mystical theology at the time.
The fact that the 'love' sung by the troubadours was in fact a political code to maintain the order of feudal power, and that the mathematical structure of Notre Dame Cathedral played a decisive role in the birth of polyphonic music, also show that music was not viewed simply as art.
As times change, so does music.
In other words, if you know music, you can see through that era.
It's okay if you don't know much about classical music.
You will come to realize that music up to now is no longer just background music, but the clearest record left to mankind.

The ancient Greeks were as faithful record-keepers as the Babylonians or Egyptians.
Thanks to this, we can read today about the thoughts of the Greek people of that time about music.
To them, music was both art and mathematics, a science connected to astronomy.
Furthermore, they added philosophical thoughts about music's place in the universe, its influence, and its social uses.
You can see the thoughts of contemporary philosophers on music in works such as 『Republic』 written by Plato and 『Politics』 written by his disciple Aristotle.
--- p.24, from “Babylonia, Egypt, and Ancient Greece”

The 13th century, which can be seen as the golden age of Ars Antiqua, is the time when polyphonic music began to flourish in earnest.
It was the time when the journey to break away from the monotony of the melody and find the beauty of Mars began in earnest.
Especially during the century or so since construction of Notre Dame Cathedral began in Paris, France in 1163, the musicians of the time also created a musical style that was equally magnificent, grandiose, and grandiose.
We call them the 'Notre Dame School'.

At the time, musicians added new parts to the existing monophonic Gregorian chant to create decorative and ornate organum, an early form of polyphonic music.
The polyphonic music born in this way led to a gradual evolution that overcame medieval traditions and led to the musical idiom of the next era.
Among the recorded polyphonic music surviving today, this period is considered the most important turning point.

--- p.45, from "Like Notre Dame Cathedral! 13th-Century Ars Antiqua"

The mass production of sheet music brought competition to the market, and the beneficiaries were ultimately the general public who wanted to listen to and play music.
Thanks to the printing press, music was no longer the exclusive domain of a select few, but rather a commodity for everyone.
By the end of the Renaissance, musical scores printed with letterpress were being published in Rome, Nuremberg, Lyon, Louvain, London, Venice, and Paris.
However, the church's hymnals still adhered to the handwritten method.
Nonetheless, the invention of printing deserves to be remembered as an event that broadened and deepened the history of Western music.
--- p.75, from “Development of Musical Notation Printing for Everyone”

One of the great characteristics of the Baroque era was the invention of opera.
Of course, it is not that there were no works in previous times that played a role similar to opera.
If we look at just the two core elements that make up opera, drama and song, we can trace the roots of opera back to ancient Greek theater.
Medieval hymns praising God and Renaissance vocal works were all on the journey to opera.
The work of Sister Hildegard of Bingen, which we looked at in Chapter 2, can also be seen as a form that serves as the basis for opera.
William Shakespeare's plays also provided important clues to the birth of opera.
--- p.120, from “I don’t know the text, but I know the opera!”

The symphony can be said to be a genre that encapsulates the essence of Western music history.
Of course, other musical forms have also produced countless outstanding works, but few genres bring together as many diverse musical elements as the symphony.
In Korean, it is called 'symphony', but it is more commonly called 'symphony'.
The word's etymology, which originated from ancient Greek and French, means harmony, togetherness, and diversity.
The harmony of many instruments coming together to create a single piece of music is the essence of a symphony.
--- p.163, from “Highlights of Classicism, The Birth of the Symphony”

The German songbook published in Germany in the late 18th century became so popular that by the early 19th century, more than 100 copies were being sold per month.
At that time, song was a new and popular genre in Europe.
This trend was greatly influenced by poetry that was popular among the middle class and contemporary citizens.
This is because the art of singing songs by adding beautiful melodies to verses of poetry has become more abundant along with the development of poetry literature.
Especially during this period, there was a tendency to compose songs based on poems in the form of a series containing the story's introduction, development, turn, and conclusion.
The beginning can be found in Beethoven's "To a Distant Beloved" composed in 1816.
The later musician Robert Schumann also loved this piece very much.
He even showed his deep affection for this piece by citing its themes in his own works, “Fantasia in C major” and “String Quartet No. 2.”

--- p.198~199, from “The Romantic Four: Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Brahms”