The Medieval era was the first time that composers in significant numbers began to write down music to preserve it and communicate it to others. The earliest examples of this written music come from the medieval Catholic Church, in the form of Gregorian chant.

 

By the1400s, composers began to write polyphony. Polyphonic writing became more sophisticated as composers changed styles from the Ars Antiqua to the Ars Nova.

 

In the 1100s and 1200s, Troubadours composed the first secular music unaffiliated with the church.