Renaissance Music

SANTOS, Gerald P. 2012-46151 The Renaissance Music The Renaissance music developed during the years 1450 to 1600 (while other historians date the Renaissance as early as 1400). It was divided into three parts: the Early Renaissance (1420-1490), the High Renaissance (1490-1520, 1520-1560) and the Late Renaissance (15601600). Composer sought the Catholic Church and the courts were under their patronage (their patrons) , making as a source of income. During this period, vocal music became more popular than instrumental music, putting an interaction and relationship to music and text using word painting, or capturing the imagery of the text. For example if the text is sad, the melody of the song must be sad or if the text depicts descending from heaven, the music set to that particular text must be something like on a descending order. While for the present-day, this kind of music seems to be played in a restrained and moderate way, it did employ a variety of expressions and moods but the contrasts on dynamics, tone coloring and dynamics were not extreme. However, it was polyphony that was a main feature of the Renaissance vocal music, incorporating four to six voices each having a melodic interest in contrast to homophony where the melodic interest is confined to a single voice while the other voices act as an accompaniment. The presence also of polyphony signified the use of counterpoint, where the melodies of each voices were played simultaneously, note against note. It was through the counterpoint in which the Italian Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594) was known for his Palestrina Style, described to as seeking “a balance between melodic independence and harmonic cooperation of individual voices” 1 . Types of music were either sacred or secular in reference to their uses and text. Motets and masses were the main forms of the sacred music. Motets were set in Latin text other than the ordinary mass while the mass is longer and divided into sections namely Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei. A Cantus-firmus mass (cyclic mass) uses the same theme for its five sections .Josquin des Prez (c.1440-1521) was known for his motet , Ave Maria..virgo serena that uses polyphonic imitation. He was a Franco-Flemish (a certain style of polyphonic music) composer of masses, motets and chansons and generally regarded as the “greatest composer of

1

“Palestrina Style.” Accessed August 28, 2014.http://www.ars-nova.com/CounterpointStudy/palestrina.html .

the High Renaissance”. 2 On the other hand, the composer Giovanni Pierliugi da Palestrina (1525-1594), who dedicated his musical service to the Catholic church, was known for his Pope Marcellus Mass (1562-1563). The Counter- Reformation policies convened during the Council of Trent (1545-1563) was reflected on Palestrina’s works thus setting music for clarity on text , religious contemplation purposes and not solely for the ears’ pleasure. By using the technique of imitation the text makes it impossible to understand. This issue was addressed in 1549 by Roman bishop Cirillo

Franco(c.1500-1575).

Secular music included madrigals and chansons. A

Madrigal (Italian) is a polyphonic piece for several voices text derived from a poem and usually talked about love while a chanson (French) is a general

term applyied to French polyphonic

songs (14th to 16th centuries) and often talked about heroism. Chansons were treated with widest expressions by Guillaume Dufay (b. before 1400- d. 1474), a Franco-Flemish composer during the 15th century. In 1501, the first polyphonic music was printed by Ottaviano Petrucci of Venice making a wider distribution of music thus giving a demand of music books and sparking a competition among thepublishers.

Works Cited Books Brown, Howard M. Music in the Renaissance. New Jersey:Prentice Hall, 1976. Fallows, David and Knighton, Tess. Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Music.New York: Schirmer Books, 1992. Jacobs, Arthur. The New Penguin Dicitonary of Music. England: Penguin, 1977. Taruskin, Richard and Weiss, Piero. Music in the Western World:Ahistory in Documents. New York: Schirmer Books, 1984.

2

“Chapter6: Music of the Franco-Flemish Composers, 1450-1520”. Accessed August 28,2014. http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/concise-history-western-music4/ch/06/composerbio.aspx

Online Sources Ars Nova Software. “Palestrina Style”.

Accessed August 28, 2014. http://www.ars-

nova.com/CounterpointStudy/palestrina.html. Hanning, Barbara R. “Chapter 6: Music of the Franco-Flemish Composers, 1450-1520”. Accessed August 28, 2014. http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/concise-history-westernmusic4/ch/06/composerbio.aspx. ________________. “Chapter 6: Music of the Franco-Flemish Composers, 1450-1520”. Accessed August 28, 2014. http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/concise-history-westernmusic4/ch/06/outline.aspx.

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