Music Theory

In western culture, music theory reflects the main ideas of music.
Since the first signs of musical expression thousands of years ago until today, music has not been just practiced but also defined theoretically. One popular quote attributed to the medieval music theorist Guido of Arezzo says, a little paraphrased:
“There is a huge difference between real musicians and those who just perform: Whereas the first can only sing and play, the latter do also know what they are actually doing.” (Eggebrecht 1989 : 15)

Especially for the classical European music there have been a lot of theoretical discussions and publications in the last centuries, sometimes even gaining bigger importance than the music itself. Over time, the ideas of music changed and so has the music theory, because practice and theory always went hand in hand with each other. Theory can be imagined as the implicit knowledge, which is contained in the actual musical practice. Therefore, you cannot divide them from each other.