Music and Time Annotation << Back The Three Sides of Musical Content from the Renaissance to the twentieth century V.E. Apoltseva In Russian musicology, along with the teachings of the compositional order – harmony, polyphony, musical form and others - a system of theoretical knowledge of musical content has been developed, since it is necessary for a full understanding of musical art. At present, among its theoretical categories, the triad «Three sides of musical content» occupies an important place. This system considers the emotional, visual and symbolic sides of musical works. The article consists of five sections, which take into account the characteristics of each of the major historical eras and in accordance with them gives an initial analysis of selected vocal compositions. This is J. Dunstable's Magnificat, the aria from G.F. Handel’s cantata «Dolce pur d'amor l'affanno», the song «Bliss of Sorrow» by L. van Beethoven and the «Boy and the Bee» by H. Wolf and the romance «Spring, Spring ...» by D. Shostakovich. Keywords: Three sides of musical content, specifi city of musical content, J. Dunstable, G.F. Handel, L. van Beethoven, H. Wolf, D. Shostakovich. Contacts: - Pp. 03-14.