After the long cold winter of the medieval ages passed, Europe walked into the soft sunlight of the Renaissance period. A boom in learning the sciences and the arts marked this period. During this period, music flourished extensively. Such instruments as the harpsichord and clavichord became extremely popular. However, the Renaissance period is perhaps best know for the development of such styles of music as masses, chansons, motets, and madrigals.

During the Renaissance period, many composers tired of having to write complex music pieces based on the idea of ars nova. Therefore, composers began writing melodies that were simpler, smoother, and quicker. The English composer John Dunstable led the way in creating this new type of music. However, the Dukes of Bourgogne who lived in northern France at this time soon replaced him. These Dukes were responsible for the creation of chansons in which one vocal part carried the main melody, and was supported by two other parts. An example of chanson style music is the song "Vadam et circuibo" written by the Spanish composer "Tornas Luis de Victoria.

It was during the Renaissance when many ideals were derived from ancient Greece. Among these was Plato's theory that music should be controlled, in fear of it leading to immorality. Church leaders were wary of effects of music on social morals. They assigned it a distinctly secondary role to the words of the liturgy, and placed restrictions of the ability of composers to experiment and innovate.

Outside the churches, however, music was thriving. Minstrels drew crowds to hear them sing their ballads to "hummable" melodies. No secular ceremony was complete without music, and there were always dances during celebrations. Theatrical performances often took the form of "musicals" which the clergy condemned as profane.

Music burst the bonds they had tried to impose on it. Popular tunes crept in among the intricacies of the Gregorian chant. "Instruments of the devil," such as the pan-pipes, fiddle, and cornet had to be allowed on church property to cope with the growing richness of orchestration. The restrictions on form gradually disappeared.

During the mid-Renaissance period, a new style of music was created through the collaboration of poets and composers. This new style of music was known as madrigals. Madrigals dealt with spurned or unrequited love, and are often depressed, but very beautiful pieces of music. Madrigals were generally written for Britain to enjoy. One of the biggest fans of madrigals was Queen Elizabeth of England.

The most significant progress in the art during the Renaissance came in the musical "writing" called notation. For the first time, a composer was able to send a written copy of his work to someone who could play it more or less exactly as he intended it to sound. In the 1320s the French bishop, composer and musical theorist Philliuppe de Vitry added bar signs to the system of notes on parallel lines devised 200 years earlier. The result, according to The Larousse Encyclopedia of Music, was that "composers found themselves in possession of a notation that could satisfy all requirements and which comes close enough to our modern ideas."

Music has given the world a unique new language, one that could be mutually understood among people who might not understand one another speaking or writing. It has been said to the point of triteness that music is the international language. In the case of musical notation, this is literally true.