Music. This article is about music as a form of art.
For history see articles for History of music and Music history. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. Music ranges from strictly organized compositions (and their recreation in performance), through improvisational music to aleatoric forms. History of Western civilization. Western civilization traces its roots back to European and Mediterranean classical antiquity.
It is associated with nations linked to the former Western Roman Empire and with Medieval Western Christendom who emerged from feudalism to experience such transformative historical episodes as the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution and the development of liberal democracy. Western Civilization has spread to produce the dominant cultures of modern North America, South America, and Oceania, and has had immense global influence in recent centuries.
The civilizations of Classical Greece and Rome as well as Ancient Israel and early Christendom are considered seminal periods in Western history; cultural contributions also emerged from the pagan peoples of pre-Christian Europe. By the 12th century, Europe was experiencing a flowering of art and learning, propelled by the construction of cathedrals and the establishment of medieval universities.