Here's a nice site with a brief history of Music Theory. (The stuff you do for A level at college.)
Link:
Music History"During the Renaissance period, many composers had experimented with the
old modal system by adding in accidentals wherever they thought they
sounded good. When modes are followed strictly, each one has its own
unique flavour (because each one uses a different pattern of tones and
semitones). As more and more pieces began to be peppered with flats and
sharps outside the notes dictated by the mode, the various modes became
indistinguishable from one another, and eventually just two of the modes
came to dominate – the Ionian and the Aeolian.
Today we call the Ionian mode the “Major” and the Aeolian “Minor”, and so was developed the key system we use today."
"some composers started to break away from the traditional forms of
harmony which had been the mainstay of serious music since the time of
Bach. Instead of using the major and minor scale systems as a basis for
their compositions, some composers such as Debussy (1862-1918)
experimented with other scales, such as the
pentatonic scale and the
whole tone scale."
"Music makes the rules, music is not made from the rules."
Comments
shame that several of the musical examples are "not available" though (bastard copyright wallahs)
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself