Renaissance music
In the 16th century composers started to write music with a clear beat and regular pulse. These included Josquin des Prez and others from the Franco-Flemish School. The was a Roman school, to which the famous Italian Giovanni da Palestrina belonged. His way of writing polyphony has been a model for that style for many centuries. Music students still have to study “Palestrina technique” (how to compose in Palestrina’s style). Although church music at this time is mainly polyphonic it also has homophonic passages where the voices sing the same words together. This helps to make important words really clear.