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MUSIC OF THE RENAISSANCE – SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION
Renaissance music takes it name from 'rebirth'. The renaissance was a time for
growth in music and art. It was also a time of renewed interest in exploring all
aspects of living. Musically, vocal music was the most important and
polyphonic music began to grow. New ideas were being explored!
Renaissance men were convinced that theirs was an age both different from and
better them immediately preceding times: The world is coming to its senses as
if awaking out of a deep sleep (Eramus). The whole temper of the age was
optimistic and buoyant.
Renaissance music originated and developed most fully in Italy and then
gradually spread in modified forms. It reached English music towards the end
of the reign of Elizabeth I. The High-Renaissance of the fifteenth and early
sixteenth centuries saw the careers of such important artists and writers as
Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Cellini, Ariosto and
Machiavelli. New ideas did not entirely replace the old one. Many Medieval
characteristics remained and developed. However some were abolished and
opposed, such as the pagan tendencies (witchcraft), by the Catholic Church in
Italy after the middle of the sixteenth century.
By the end of the 16th century, music was becoming very popular and both
church (sacred) and non religious (secular) music were becoming more popular
as they freed themselves from the restrictive techniques of Medieval music.
The sacred music that was composed was for the Catholic Church. Much of
this music survived only by manuscripts that were used in the great cathedrals
and monasteries of Europe. Some instruments may have been used, but the
music was primarily for a cappela (without instruments) choir. Renaissance
sacred music was an extension of the Gregorian Chant from the Medieval
period, a style of music also unaccompanied by instruments. The texts were
the same as in Gregorian Chant: the Roman liturgy sang in Latin.
Thus, composers continued to live as they had done in the Middle Ages
(Medieval Times). Composers still depended on employment from the
monarchs. As before the chief patronage (support) was from the Church; but
steadily growing support came from secular sources as well. The number of
professional musicians and interested amateurs increased. The effects resulted
in more instrumental and secular music. As more people began to play and
sing, a new kind of writing about music appeared.
Manuals of instructions for plays and singers became important and musical
studies were published. The rise of music printing was one of the main reasons
for the growth in music. Much printed music of this time was printed in the
form of part books - one small volume, usually of oblong format, for each
voice or part. Part books were primarily for use at home or in social
gatherings. Most church choirs continued to use large handwritten choir books.
The earliest printed ensemble score, with bar lines, appeared in 1557.
However, short musical examples in score are found in printed theoretical
treatises from 1537 on. Printing inevitably gave a plentiful supply of new
music. Instead of handwritten scores, with errors and variants, musicians could
now buy scores that were slightly cheaper and with a uniform accuracy.
MUSIC OF THE RENAISSANCE – SUMMARY (Part 2)
STYLES AND FORMS
Renaissance music can be divided into two sections - Religious (Sacred) and non-religious (secular).
Sacred
Motets and masses
The main forms of church music were the mass (musical setting for the celebration of the Eucharist) and
the motet (polyphonic choral composition on a sacred text usually without instrumental accompaniment).
This was music of the Catholic Church. Composers were now writing their music for at least four parts.
(Composers had begun to explore the range of pitch below tenor - by writing a part we now call Bass.)
Music was still based on Modes.
German Chorale
In 16th Century Germany, where the Protestant church led by Martin Luther was seeking ways of
bringing its people into a more direct contact with God, there grew up a tradition of hymn writing to be
sung in German by the whole congregation - rather then Latin by a trained choir. These tunes sometimes
newly composed, sometimes adopted from plainchant or even popular songs.
Church Music in England
Besides many motets and masses composed for Catholic Church services, some composers wrote Anthem
to be sung by the choir during services in Protestant Churches. The Anthem grew out of the motet, but it
was sung in English not Latin.
There are two types of Anthem:
FULL ANTHEM sung by choir throughout, usually accompanied
VERSE ANTHEM verse sung by one or more soloists, accompanied by organ or viols, alternate with
sections where the whole choir joins in.
16th Century Venice
St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice. There were two organ lofts and two choir galleries set high up on the
opposite sides of the building. This gave composers opportunities to write for two separate choirs. Pieces
in this style are described as polychoral - meaning music for more than one choir. A phrase from the left
is answered by the same, or perhaps a different phrase from the right. Venetians were fond of using
instruments as well as voices in their church music and so included various instruments, each group
linked to its own choir. Some of the most impressive polychoral piece are by Giovanni Gabrieli.
Secular
Alongside these developments in Renaissance Church Music, there was a rich flowering of secular songs.
These were amazingly varied in style and expressing every kind of human mood and emotion. Some are
very contrapuntal in texture, making greater use of imitation, while others are chordal, joyful with clear
dance-like rhythms.
Madrigal
Usually one singer per part, performed in homes of keen music lovers everywhere.
In England their came to be three kinds of Madrigal; the ballett, the ayre and the madrigal proper.
Thomas Morley was the most famous English Madrigal composer.
Madrigal Proper: Through composed - a new tune for each new line of text. A madrigal proper is
usually very contrapuntal, with much use of imitation. this makes all the voices equally important.
Words and music are closely matched, and the composer introduces word-painting.
The Ballett: The ballett was sometimes danced as well as sung. A ballett is lighter in style than a
madrigal proper. It has clear dance rhythms and the texture is mainly chordal. Whereas a madrigal
proper is through-composed, a ballett is strophic. The most noticeable feature of a ballett is the 'fa-la-la'
sections that are sung.
The Ayre: Ayre = song. Ayres were often printed on two facing pages of a book - the melody on the
left, the lower parts on the right. Beneath the melody were the words and also a version of the lower parts
arranged for lute. An ayre can be performed in a variety of ways: by a solo voice with lute
accompaniment; by a solo voice accompanied by other instruments such as the viol; or with all parts sung
by voices, with or without accompaniment.
RENAISSANCE INSTRUMENTS
Some of the instruments of Medieval times, such as recorders and shawns, still remained popular during
the Renaissance. Others, like the lute, were altered and improved. And, of course, several new types of
instruments were invented. This lesson will introduce you to the types of instruments being used in the
sixteenth century.Many instruments, such as recorders, viols, shawms and crumhorns, were made in
families - the same instrument in different sizes, so that there was a variety of pitch-ranges but a blending
of timbre within each family.
In England, a family of viols was known as a chest since that was how these instruments were stored
when not in use. Elizabethans called a group of instruments playing together a consort. If instruments
making up the consort were from one family only, it was called a whole consort. A broken consort was
made up of a mixture of various instruments form different families - so that the sound was broken.
A closer look at some of the instruments:
Shawm – A double reed instrument that the oboe developed from. Has a powerful tone.
Viol – A stringed instrument with six strings with a fretted fingerboard. Viols were held upright in front
of the player rather than tucked under the chin.
Crumhorn – Shaped like a walking stick. This instrument has a wooden cap enclosed in a double reed,
giving a soft but very reedy tone.
Rackett – A low pitched double reed instrument with a buzzing tone quality. It has nine parallel tubes
coiled inside a cylinder that is only a third of a meter high.
Cornett – A curved instrument made of wood or ivory and often bound with leather. It has a trumpet
like mouthpiece, but finger holes like a recorder. The tone could be varied from soft and mellow to
extremely brilliant.
Sackbut – A name, popular in England, for the early kind of trombone. The bell was less flared, giving
a rounder, more mellow tone.
Trumpet – The tube was folded to make it more manageable. Until the valve system was invented in
the 19th century, the limited notes available could be obtained only by varying lip-pressure.
Drum – Percussion instruments included tambourine, tabor, kettle drums, side drum, triangle, and
cymbals.