There is much talk of evolution in music. In general it seems people
are taking a linear view that Gregorian Chant evolved into polyphony;
that Renaissance music evolved into the Baroque style and so on.  The
implication is that each new development is somehow better or more
approximate to some Ideal Form.  How very Platonic!

A subset of this notion of evolution in music is the notion that
composition 'y' would be unthinkable without the existence of
composition 'x'.

Is it not possible that what is perceived by the modern scientific
mind[set] is nothing more potent than influence? Is it not possible that
what is perceived as evolution is nothing more that a change in fashion?

Geoffrey Gaskell