Apesar dos diversos estudos historiográficos realizados para descontruir o conceito renascentista de Idade das Trevas dado à Idade Média, ainda é muito comum apontar o obscurantismo religioso cristão-católico como um impedimento de criações culturais durante o período medieval. Uma forma de superar a visão da Idade das Trevas pode ser encontrada no estudo da cultura medieval, nomeadamente através do estudo do Canto Gregoriano.
One of the first polyphonic forms of music to develop was organum. Organum was the addition of a second voice, sung in tandem, to Gregorian chants. Not all of the music of the medieval period was as simple as the chant. Ars Nova (or “new art”), a musical form that became popular in the late medieval period, featured multiple voices with a complex rhythm. The music layered multiple voices over each other in complex ways. Early medieval music did not use any form of musical notation. The pieces were memorized and played or sung by ear. Since they were monophonic and fairly simple, musicians were better able to remember them. One of the notation techniques that developed was neumes, which were signs written above the chant words to indicate where the voices should rise and where they should fall in tone.
The Ewe are known for their experience in drumming throughout West Africa. The sophisticated cross rhythms and polyrhythms in Ewe drumming are similar to those in Afro-Caribbean music and late jazz.
