The current Western classical music did not happen overnight. It was a long process that had its beginnings in the sacred music of the Middle Ages. Wars, disease, famine, political unrest, and advances in science brought changes not only to how music was perceived, but also to how it was presented, giving modern Western classical music its rich history today. In the Middle Ages the Catholic Church controlled every aspect of life. The Church educated the nobles, advised the rulers, presided over judgments and was the spiritual guide of the people. The church itself was usually the only stone building in the village and was central to the lifestyle of the time as it was where feasts, baptisms, weddings and funeral rites took place. Although some secular music existed in the courts of the nobles, most of the music was sacred. Plainchant was the official music of the church and each song had a specific tempo or condition of use according to the liturgy. The pitch at which the song was sung was called the recitation pitch. The simplest form of plainchant was a short phrase sung before or after a psalm, called an Antiphon. A more complicated form of Greek chant was the sequence, in which a melody is sung twice with different words. An early form of organum, the parallel organum, is one in which the plainchant was sung to two different melodies at the same time. According to Timothy Dickey, the four-voice organum is generally attributed to Perotin, a 12th-century composer of the School of Notre Dame, whose works are recorded in the Magnus Liber located in Notre Dame Cathedral. The three- and four-voice organum is called the Notre Dame Organum. An example of this is Perotino's Alleluia. Widespread est gratia, which is a song composed to venerate the......medium of paper......instrument.The evolution of music, from the single-note plainchants of the Middle Ages to the complex multiple instrumental symphonies of l 'classical era, it was a long process. Each era built on the advances of the previous era, even if some parts were rejected by the next era. Ultimately, advances and changes in the ways and means of combining rhythm, melody, and harmony constitute a rich musical heritage and a foundation on which future musicians can build. Works Cited Dickey, Timothy. "Pérotin (12th century-13th century); FRA ." Perotin. Classic Archives, 2008. Web. 08 November 2013. Kerman, Joseph, and Gary Tomlinson. Listen. Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011. CD. Kerman, Joseph and Gary Tomlinson. Listen. 7th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012. Print.Oakley, Thomas P. "Religion and the Middle Ages." Catholic culture. Communications of the Trinity, 2013. Web. 08 November. 2013.