Howard Goodall's Story of Music

In this episode, Goodall charts the development of the oldest intact form of music, the 'Gregorian' chant. He reveals how medieval musicians built up the basic elements of music until the explosion of secular folk music outside of the church between 1000 and 1600 AD transformed the world of harmony, rhythm and tone. Goodall reveals how, with the development of ever more sophisticated instruments, it was possible for Monteverdi to write the first successful opera in 1607.

Howard Goodall looks at the extraordinarily fertile musical period between 1650 and 1750, in which many of the musical innovations we take for granted today were invented. The orchestra; the overture, which led, ultimately, to the symphony; satisfying chord sequences, which gave music a forward momentum; modern tuning, which, for the first time, allowed composers to move from one key to any other they chose, and for different instruments to easily play together; the concerto, the oratorio, and, not least, the piano.

The composer examines the age of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Chopin. This period from 1750 to 1850 saw composers going from being paid, liveried servants of princes and archbishops to working as freelancers required to appeal to a new, middle-class audience. The era also saw tremendous social upheaval, including the American, French and Industrial revolutions, but until around the turn of the 19th century, the music that was being written bore little relevance to the tumultuous changes in society.