The music we have today had its greatest impetus in European countries during the sixteenth century. It was then that music became an important part of court life. During the social occasions at court, some form of music was always in evidence. The musicians who made the music were usually a wandering group who sang their songs and played their instruments at whichever court they were granted the most favor at the moment. These wandering musicians were referred to as bards, troubadours, or minnesingers. They depended upon the generosity of the court for enough compensation in gifts to keep them alive.

A great many of the composers who have furnished us with great music were dependent upon the good will and good nature of high rulers or court officials. As a result, some of these great masters were very poor. As another result, many of the works of famous composers were dedicated to royalty. For instance, Beethoven had a benefactor in Vienna, Count Wald-stein, to whom he dedicated several of his finest compositions. It is also known that Beethoven dedicated one of his famous symphonies to the Emperor Napoleon, but that he later changed his ideas concerning Napoleon, scratched off the dedication, and rededicated it to someone else.

During Beethoven's period there was great unrest in Europe. Wars, disease, and political struggles were sweeping across the continent, particularly in the larger centers where the royal courts held sway. The musicians consequently had a trying time. One has only to read the life history of some of our great composers to understand how the development of music at this particular time meant a great sacrifice for them. The fact that composers depended upon rich or influential persons for support made it difficult for them to develop new forms of music because they had to please those who supported them.

Musicians who were employed by the court were expected to compose a certain number of pieces each year and have them performed by the court orchestra. It is quite possible that the orchestras in those days could not be compared in any way with our modern symphony orchestras. For one thing, the instruments were not so perfect as they are today. Furthermore, it was not possible to have the large number of players that are necessary to round out a good orchestra. Today, we have sufficient wealth and the means of conveying music to so large an audience that musicians can be better paid and more of them can be engaged. In the early days of orchestras, the printing of music was a most laborious and expensive process. Therefore it fell upon the composer to copy all of the parts of the score. This situation made it difficult for copies of musical compositions to spread about the world.

The church has been important in the development of music. Most of the ceremonials of the church are accompanied by music, and the great composers of bygone days concentrated on themes of a spiritual nature. The musicians in charge of choirs and other church music were responsible for some of our most important musical inventions. For example, the names of the notes of the scale, do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do, were made up by a choir leader who found it easier to teach a melody with these syllables than with other sounds.

The church, because it used music so extensively in its services, may have held back the development of secular or worldly music to some extent. Naturally, there are certain types of instruments and kinds of music that are not suited for religious themes. Even in our own day church leaders quite rightly refuse to allow inappropriate music to be played in their churches.

It was a very important stage in the development of music when musicians began to break away from the support of rich persons and the church. In England, a violinist gathered around him a small group of musicians and decided to give concerts and charge admission. In this manner the idea spread, and gradually the musicians became independent of their contact with the court and independent of gratuities from any other source. We find also that at this time the development of other forms of music took place, such as the opera, which is an outgrowth of the oratorios given in churches. The oratorio is a dramatic poem set to music and sung by solo voices and chorus with an orchestral accompaniment. It is usually on some subject in the Bible and is easily performed in a church, for it has no scenery, costumes, or action. Grand opera and other forms of opera are usually written around a story of everyday life and are performed with scenery, costumes, and action.

Italy is often called the home of opera, for it was there that this form of music was developed, and it was there that musicians from other lands went to learn about writing operas. But then, like everything else which is of benefit and use to the people, opera spread, and we find other countries, such as France, Germany, England, and America, developing this form of music.

When music became the privilege of more people, it developed at a much more rapid pace and broke away from many of the chains which previously had held it back. Musicians speak of the great music period of the latter half of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century as the Classical Era. Classical music was written in a definite form. We might say that classical music is like a very delicate carving or beautiful lace. Perfection of detail both in form and sound is necessary. Many of our symphonies and much of our chamber music came to us from this Classical Era.

Like other forms of art, music changes as new ideas develop and people learn to appreciate different forms of expression. Thus it was that classical music gave way to a type of music that expressed more of the feeling of the composer himself. To express his feelings, the composer had to break away from the rigid forms of music that existed and write music in a new way. Perhaps the greatest composer of all during the time when classical music was changing into music that expressed the feelings was Mozart. His music is free and it flowed easily. He was trained by the classicists, but his music was new and different and had an individuality all its own. It seems almost as if music were striving to break through the forms that held it, and as if Mozart and those who came immediately after him began to give a new interpretation.