Renaissance Music Era

1450 - 1600

• Fall of Constantinople
• Michealangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Galaleo, Shakespeare
• Printing Press by Gutenburg-Bible-mass production
• Naissance - birth of literature, art of Rome and Greece
• Science is now forefront instead of superstitions
• Lute - popular instrument
• Music Publishing centres - Antwerp, Amsterdam & Venice

• Greater use of 3rds and 6ths
• Expanded contrapuntal textures
• Closer relationship between text and music

Type of Polyphony where a theme is passed from one voice to another

Multivoiced composition-all voices sing in same rhythm-delivers text more clearly

Polyphonic texture based on modes

Musical pictorialization

Melodies/harmonies that included all the notes available within the octave

• Musical leaders from early Renaissance from France, Belgium and Holland
• vocal polyphony, highly developed contrapuntal
• Johannes Ockeghem, Josquin des Pres & Jacob Obrecht

• polyphonic texture
• single latin text (no longer polytextual)
• sacred genre
• generally 4 voices
• imitative counterpoint
• 3rds and 6ths

Josquin des Prez

Motet

1470s-1480s

Rhymed, Strophic Poem

opening couplet - 5 quatrains - closing couplet

Latin

Hail Mary

4 a cappella voices

Polyphonic

"Ut lucifer" light -performer w/very high voice

Very beginning of piece only

Opening Couplet

6ths

5th

rests

"Ave vera viginitas"

• Highly Successful
• Master of Contrapuntal techniques
• Rich in emotional expression
• Vocal settings express the meaning of text - word painting
• 3rds and 6ths - often with dissonance

• Motets - close to 100 - "Ave Maria"
• Masses - 18 - "Missa L'homme arme"
• Chansons - over 60 - "Mille regretz"

Prayers, readings from Bible and re-enactment of Last Supper (Holy Communion)

Unchanging prayers of the Mass

• Kyrie
• Gloria
• Credo
• Sanctus
• Benedictus
• Agnus Dei

• Changing Variable prayers of Mass
• Linked to Church Calender

• Gradual
• Introit
• Communtion
• Alleluia

• Introit - introdution - Proper
• Kyrie - 3x Christ/Lord have Mercy Upon Us - Ordinary
• Gloria - Glory be to God in the Highest - Ordinary
• Gradual - 4 section - Proper
• Alleluia - Proper
• Credo - belief - Ordinary
• Offertory - offering - Proper
• Sanctus - Holy - Ordinary
• Agnus Dei - Lamb of God - Ordinary
• Communion - Proper

In Katholic Groups God Acts Courageous Only Son Acts Courageous

Proper Ordinary Ordinary Proper / Proper Ordinary Proper Ordinary / Ordinary Proper

1483-1546 (63 years old)

Ninety Five Theses

• Services in German
• Simpler Music for Congregation

Council of Trent

Trento, Italy 1545 -1563 (18 years)

• Text should be audible
• No dense counterpoint
• No instruments except organ
• Avoid chromaticism
• Banned Cantus Firmus
• Avoid Virtuosity

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

1525 - 1594 (69 years old)

Mass

1567

Mass Ordinary - the Gloria

Latin

6 A Cappella voices (rarely used together)

• Polyphonic
• different combinations of voices used
• syllabic text setting - words easy to understand
• homorhythmic setting - each voice singing same rhythm

• Helped reform the Catholic Church after Protestant Reform
• compositions reflect his deep personal faith
• vocal polyphony in A Cappella style (Palestrina style)
• performing forces range from 4 - 6 voices
• vocal lines moved by step or narrow leap
• dissonance avoided
• clarity in text setting w/chordal texture, clear phrases, and musical accents that corresponded w/text

• Motets - over 300 - "Lauda Sion"
• Masses - over 100 - "Missa Lauda Sion"
• Madrigals - sacred and secular

• 14th centure secular song flourished in small aristocratic courts of Italy then gained widespread popularity in Europe and England
• initially homophonic later evolved to polyphonic texture
• final decades of 16th century it became a highly mannered virtuostic style

• texts were short poems
• through-composed
• topics - love/desire/politics/humour/satire
• word painting was prominent
• expressive chromaticism

Carlo Gesualdo

Italian Madrigal

1611

Italian

5 A Cappella Voices

Polyphonic

• Highly chromatic opening - almost every semitone within octave is used in 1st 4 measure - creating tension
• Descending chromatic line represents death & grief - Moro
• Word painting on "vita" life - also diatonic

• Italian composer and lutenist
• emotional style
• extravagant word painting
• exaggerated chromaticism w/high level of dissonance
• abrupt chord changes
• frequent use of repetition
• wrote his own texts - reflecting guilt and remorse

Book of Italian Madrigals published in London

• Influenced the English madrigals in mid 16th century
• nonsense syllables - fa la la & nonny-nonny no

John Famer

English Madrigal

1599

English

4 A Cappella voices

Polyphonic

• "up and down" - descending voices at highest pitch
• "all alone" - soprano voice sings alone
• "feeding her flock" - all voices

• "flock"
• "fell a kissing"

"O then they fell a-kissing"

• 4 voice madrigals
• chordal homophonic textures with imitative polyphony
• lighthearted pastoral texts
• diatonic
• vivid word painting

• Whole Consort-all instruments from one family
• Broken Consort-mixed combination of instruments

family of bowed string instruments

6 strings like a cello - fretted like a guitar

All generic portable plucked keyboard instruments

Almost 300 English keyboard music form early 17th century

Named after Viscount Fitzwilliam - his donation to Cambridge University

Composers include - William Byrd, John Bull, Thomas Morley and Giles Farnaby

Styles include - virtuostic, rapid scale passages, and ornamentation

Titles include - Carman's Whistle (Byrd), The King's Hunt (Bull), and The Ghost (Byrd)

• Branle
• Pavane - slow & stately
• Galliard - lively & energetic
• Saltarello
• Allemande

Pavane

Tielman Susato

Dance Music

1551

AABBCC

Duple w/frequent dotted figures

E Phrygian

chanson by Josquin des Prez

A Thousand Regrets

Polyphonic

• 4
• Top voice plays elegantly arched melody