In music, the Dutch School refers, somewhat imprecisely, to the style of polyphonic vocal music composition in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. The composers of this time and place, and the music they produced, are also known as the Netherlands School. Other frequently used terms for the composers are Franco-Flemish or Netherlandish. See Renaissance music for a more detailed description of the musical style, and links to individual composers from this time. The composers of this period, however, were by no means all Dutch in the modern geographical sense: Many of them originated in (modern) northern France, Belgium and western parts of Germany. This part of Europe was collectively known as the Netherlands, Low Countries, the Burgundian Netherlands or Seventeen Provinces. During periods of political stability, it was a center of cultural activity for more than two hundred years, although the exact centers shifted location during this time, and by the end of the sixteenth century the focal point of the musical world shifted from this region to Italy. Wikibooks Wikiversity has more about this subject: School of Music Look up Music on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikisource, as part of the 1911 Encyclopedia Wikiproject, has original text related to this article: Music MusicNovatory: the science of music encyclopedia The Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Distionary, with definitions, pronunciations, examples... Polyphony is a musical texture consisting of several independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony). ... (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... Renaissance music is classical music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 to 1600. ... The Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the countries (see Country) on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse (Maas) rivers. ... In the history of the Low Countries, the Burgundian Netherlands refers to the period when the dukes of Burgundy ruled the area, as well as Luxembourg and northern France from 1384 to 1477. ... The Seventeen Provinces were a personal union of states in the Low Countries in the 16th century, roughly covering the current Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, a good part of the North of France (Artois, Nord) and a small part of Germany. ...

While many of the composers were born in the region loosely known as the Netherlands, they were famous for working elsewhere. Netherlanders moved to Italy, to Spain, to towns in Germany and France and other parts of Europe, carrying their styles with them. The diffusion of their technique, especially after the revolutionary development of printing, produced the first true international style since the unification of Gregorian chant in the 9th century. The folder of newspaper web offset printing press Printing is an industrial process for mass production of texts and images, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. ... Gregorian chant is also known as plainchant or plainsong, and is a form of monophonic, unaccompanied singing, which was developed in the Catholic church, mainly during the period 800-1000. ... This earthenware dish was made in 9th century Iraq. ...

Following are five groups, or generations, that are sometimes distinguished in the Netherlands school. It should be noted that development of the musical style was continuous, and these generations only provide useful reference points.

• The First generation (1420-1450), dominated by Dufay and Binchois; this group of composers is most often known as the Burgundian School
• The Second generation (1450-1485), with Ockeghem as its main exponent
• The Third generation (1480-1520): Obrecht, Isaac and Josquin
• The Fourth generation (1520-1560): Willaert and Clemens non Papa
• The Fifth generation (1560-1600): Lassus. By this time, many of the composers of polyphonic music were native to Italy and other countries: the Netherlandish style had naturalized on foreign soil, and become a true European style.