High Middle Ages

===Music===
{{main|Medieval music}}
[[File:Vihuela de arco y vihuela de péñola en las Cantigas.jpg|thumb|upright|Musicians playing the Spanish ''[[vihuela]]'', one with a bow, the other plucked by hand, in the ''[[Cantigas de Santa Maria]]'' of [[Alfonso X of Castile]], 13th century]]
[[File:Organistrum Orense 200708.jpg|thumb|upright|Men playing the [[organistrum]], from the [[Ourense Cathedral]], Spain, 12th century]]
The surviving music of the High Middle Ages is primarily religious in nature, since [[music notation]] developed in religious institutions, and the application of notation to secular music was a later development. Early in the period, [[Gregorian chant]] was the dominant form of church music; other forms, beginning with [[organum]], and later including [[Clausula (music)|clausula]]e, [[conductus]], and the [[motet]], developed using the chant as source material.

During the 11th century, [[Guido of Arezzo]] was one of the first to develop musical notation, which made it easier for singers to remember Gregorian chants.

It was during the 12th and 13th centuries that Gregorian plainchant gave birth to polyphony, which appeared in the works of French [[Notre Dame School]] ([[Léonin]] and [[Pérotin]]). Later it evolved into the ''[[ars nova]]'' ([[Philippe de Vitry]], [[Guillaume de Machaut]]) and the musical genres of late Middle Ages. An important composer during the 12th century was the [[nun]] [[Hildegard of Bingen]].

The most significant secular movement was that of the [[troubadour]]s, who arose in [[Occitania]] (Southern France) in the late 11th century. The troubadours were often [[itinerant entertainer|itinerant]], came from all classes of society, and wrote songs on a variety of topics, though with a particular focus on [[courtly love]]. Their style went on to influence the [[trouvère]]s of northern France, the [[minnesinger]]s of Germany, and the composers of secular [[music of the Trecento]] in northern Italy.