How the Church Influenced Music

  "With seemingly little control over their own destiny, people turned to an outside agent (God) for help. And they did so mainly through organized religion - the Roman Catholic Church, the dominant spiritual and administrative force in medieval Europe." - Craig Wright Introduction     During the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church controlled many things. It was one of the only and best places for people in a community to gather, and therefore was able to control the types of things people believed: who, what, when, where, why, and how. Take music for example. The Roman Catholic Church could influence what people believed about music: who is allowed to perform music? What style of music is allowed to be performed? When is it appropriate to perform music? Where is it appropriate to perform music? Why do we perform music? How do we perform music? The Roman Catholic Church had unsurprising answers for all of those questions. Who: devout christian monks and nuns are a...