Music in the Middle Ages

... the Middle Ages traditionally extend from 476 to 1492 AD... it is a bit complex to summarize a thousand years of music in a forum

if you really know nothing at all, well, the only thing is to start with a music history book... the Wikipedia page dedicated to medieval music doesn't please me much, but it is still a beginning http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musica_medievale

Not bad to land on this page as well

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmina_Burana

A good idea to start is to look for serious recordings of these texts, ignoring the rearrangements; at the bottom of the Wiki page there is a discography.

To get an idea

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9lIHmurpyo

You can continue the exploration through the links.

Another nice group:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UUEz9KodOg