Answer:
5 Characteristics of Medieval Music:
1.Monophony: Until the late Medieval period, most Medieval music took the form of monophonic chant. When extra voices were added, they moved in parallel motion to the main voice, unlike the counterpoint that would define the Renaissance and Baroque eras that followed.
2.Standardized rhythmic patterns: Most Medieval chants followed rhythmic modes that brought a uniform sensibility to the Medieval era. These modes were codified in the thirteenth century music theory text De Mensurabili Musica by Johannes de Garlandia.
3. Ligature-based music notation: The musical notation of the Medieval era does not resemble the notation used today. The notation was based on markings called ligatures, and it did not indicate rhythmic notation. In the eleventh century, Italian music theorist Guido d' Arezzo developed a four-line staff—a precursor to the modern five-line staff. Toward the end of the Medieval era, composer Philippe de Vitry and the French Ars Nova movement helped transform notation into the form used in the early Renaissance.
4. Troubadours and trouvères: Some of the most prominent secular music of the Medieval period was performed by troubadours and trouvères. Troubadours were traveling musicians who accompanied their own singing with string instruments like lutes, dulcimers, vielles, psalteries, and hurdy-gurdies. Troubadours were particularly popular during the twelfth century. Trouvères were poet-musicians who typically belonged to the nobility. They sang in an Old French dialect called langue d'oil.
5. Limited instrumental music: An overwhelming percentage of the Medieval canon is vocal music, but instrumental music was composed for a wide array of musical instruments. These included woodwinds like the flute, pan flute, and recorder; string instruments like the lute, dulcimer, psaltery, and zither; and brass instruments like the sackbut (closely related to the modern trombone).
