Download The Renaissance - ENMU ITS Web Media Server — Media

THE RENAISSANCE
The Renaissance 1400-1600
 Renaissance means “rebirth” – used to
indicate that during this period, there was a
revival of interest in the humanistic values of
Classical Greece and Rome.
Three major changes in the
Renaissance
 1. New focus on individual
achievement
 2. Greater focus on the world than on
the spiritual afterlife
 3. Widespread mingling of cultures,
facilitated by easier travel and spread
of printed materials
Renaissance Artists
 Concentrated on the dignity of the
individual human figure: Portraits of rulers
exude self-confidence and splendor
 Painters developed the techniques of
perspective, three-dimensional
representation and working with oils, with
which the most detailed effects of light
and shade could be rendered naturally.
Renaissance Architects
 Used buildings from antiquity as
models for their new buildings
 Columns and rounded roofs replaced
the soaring, spiky look of the
medieval architecture
Renaissance writers
 Put a new emphasis on self-
expression and on the worth of the
individual
Renaissance inventions
 Printing in 1450
 The availability of books has an
incalculable effect on education, fame
of individuals, spread of scientific
knowledge, growth of
internationalism
 Telescope and microscope changed
the way people viewed their world
 New lands are discovered
Renaissance Music
 Printed music became widespread in
the 16th century, greatly increasing
the amount of available music.
 Most educated people could either
play an instrument or sing written
music.
 Professional musicians and
composers most often found jobs at
courts.
General Characteristics of
Renaissance Music
 Sound is much smoother and more homogeneous,
with less contrast and a new polyphonic style
based on imitation
 Imitation – A form of polyphony in which all the
musical lines present the same musical phrase one
after the other. As each enters, the previous ones
continue, so there is a constant sense of
overlapping.
 Strictest kind of imitation = round, all the voices
sing exactly the same thing in turn
 Free imitation = only the first few notes of a
melodic phrase are sung by each entering voice;
the voices then continue freely
Predominant types of music
 1. Liturgical
 2. Motets (Settings of Latin texts that
are sacred but not liturgical
 3. Secular songs