Through the history of music, the time can be divided into six period which are:
The Medieval Period
The Renaissance Period
The Baroque Period
The Classical Period
The Romantic Period
20th Century and Contemporary Period
The Reason that be divided like above by musicologist is based on the music style in generally, Let's talk about more detail.
The Medieval Period is around 475 to 1400. Medieval music encompasses Europeans music written during the Meddle Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and ends in approximately the middle of the fifteenth century. Establishing the end of the medieval era and the beginning of the Renaissance is difficult; the usage in this article is the one usually adopted by musicologists. Medieval music was both sacred and secular.During the earlier medieval period, the liturgical genre, predominantly Gregorian chant, was monophonic. Polyphonic genres started to develop during the high medieval era, becoming prevalent by the later thirteenth and early fourteenth century. There are some famous composer in that period, such as Giovanni Gabrieli and Guillaume de Machaut.
The Renaissance Period is around 1400 to 1600. The most popular genre or style still identical to the Medieval Period - The Vocal. But there are some improvement compared with Medieval Period, some composer starting compose a vocal music with accompaniment. That not happened before.
The Baroque Period & Classical Period. Through 1750 to 1820, there are too many things such as genre, style got a huge change in this two period. For now, most famous composers that we known widely are come from that two period. The big different between baroque and the last period is there is a new style of music born - suite. Originally started by J.S.Bach. Comparing with Renaissance music, baroque music style actually is the same at most aspect, only difference is the techniques. As we know, W.A.Mozart is the paramount people that his works are a good transition from Baroque to Classical. Most classical composer are work for church and compose from court, only Mozart do not wants that, what his dream is to chase the freelance. Also Beethoven as well as Mozart.
The Romantic Period is around 1820 to 1900, it is a real new world comes for people that live through 1800 to 1900. Some famous composer such as Chopin, R.Wagner, List and so on. In this period, the main characteristics are got big change. Personal expression of emotion is the most important. Emphasis on lyrical in vocal part, gigantic orchestration and nationalism.
Last, 20th Century and Contemporary Period is beyond 1900. Form and style are more open than before, no more constrain. For example, the soundtrack of movie picture is a great instance for this period.
