Thomas Tallis
Thomas Tallis, an English
composer, flourished as a church
musician and is considered one
of the church's best early
composers. Tallis served under
four English monarchs and was
treated very well. Queen
Elisabeth granted him and his
pupil, William Boyd, exclusive
rights to use England's printing
press to publish music; a first of its
time. Although Tallis composed
many styles of music, the
majority of it is arranged for choir
as Latin motets and English
anthems.
Giovanni Pierluigi da
Palestrina
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
was an Italian Renaissance
composer of sacred music and
the best-known 16th-century
representative of the Roman
School of musical composition.
He has had a lasting influence
on the development of church
music, and his work has often
been seen as the culmination of
Renaissance polyphony.
Because its voicing is extremely
well balanced and beautifully
harmonized, Palestrina's
polyphonic music is smooth,
pure, and transparent in sound.
Josquin des Prez
Widely recognized by just his first
name, Josquin Des Prez was
Europe's most sought after
musician during his lifetime. His
popularity, no doubt, was a
result of combining many
contemporary styles of music, his
originality, and his ability to unveil
the meaning and emotions of a
text through music. Much of
Josquin's music survives today,
with his masses and chansons
being the most popular. Josquin
des Prez, was a Franco-Flemish
composer of the Renaissance.
His original name is sometimes
given as Josquin Lebloitte and
his later name is given under a
wide variety of spellings in
French, Italian, and Latin,
including Josquinus Pratensis and
Jodocus a Prato. His motet
Illibata Dei virgo nutrix includes
an acrostic of his name, where
he spelled it "Josquin des Prez".
William Byrd
William Byrd was a noted English
composer, remembered as
much for his Latin sacred music
as for his works on English
madrigal. A famous composer of
the Renaissance era, in London,
he began his training in music at
the age of seven. Later he
became a chorister at the
Chapel Royal and began
composing music while being
trained under Thomas Tallis. He
began his career as the Master
of Children at the Church of
Lincoln and then became the
Gentleman of the Chapel Royal.
Over his extensive career he
wrote varied types of music. His
position in the Chapel Royal
enabled him to come in close
contact with both the Royalty
and the noblemen at the Court,
many of whom later became his
patrons. However, he often
antagonized the authorities in
Protestant England because of
his leanings towards Roman
Catholicism; but his loyalty to the
government was never
questioned. That is why apart
from being fined for recusancy,
he did not have to face any kind
of persecution. Writing
extensively for every medium
except lute, he left a large body
of work and took the English
keyboard style to new heights.
Lorenzo Ghiberti
One of the most important early
Renaissance sculptors, Ghiberti is
best known as the creator of the
bronze doors of the Baptistery of
Florence. The son of a goldsmith,
in Florence, Italy, Lorenzo
Ghiberti would become one of
the most influential artists of the
early Renaissance. A child
prodigy, he received his first
commission at age 23. Ghiberti
multi-tasked much of his work
including the doors for the
Florence baptistery and
numerous statues. He was a
student of humanism and
incorporated much of its
philosophy into his work.
Fra Angelico
Dominican friar and painter Fra
Angelico lived in Florence during
the early 1400s. He is considered
one of the best fresco painters of
the century. Fra Angelico was
born in 1400 in Florence, Italy.
Between 1420 and 1422 he
entered a monastery the San
Domenico at Fiesole. He painted
altarpieces and
manuscripts. Linaiuoli Altarpiece,
a triptych enclosed in a marble
shrine, was an early
masterpiece, but he went on to
paint famous frescoes at the
monastery of San Marco in
Florence and a chapel in the
Vatican. He died in 1455.
Filippo Brunelleschi
Born in 1377 in Florence, Italy,
Filippo Brunelleschi was an
architect and engineer, and one
of the pioneers of early
Renaissance architecture in Italy.
He was the first modern engineer
and an innovative problem
solver, building his major work,
the dome of the Cathedral of
Santa Maria del Fiore (the
Duomo) in Florence, with the aid
of machines that he invented
specifically for the project.
Brunelleschi's disappointment at
losing the baptistery commission
might account for his decision to
concentrate his talents on
architecture instead of sculpture,
but little biographical
information is available about his
life to explain the transition. (He
continued to sculpt, but
architecture was the dominant
thread in his professional career.)
Also unexplained is Brunelleschi's
sudden transition from his training
in the Gothic or medieval
manner to the new architectural
classicism.
Leon Battista Alberti
Leon Battista Alberti was born in
1404 in Genoa. His mother is
unknown, and his father was a
wealthy Florentine who had
been exiled from his own city,
allowed to return in 1428. Alberti
was sent to boarding school in
Padua, then studied Law
at Bologna. He lived for a time
in Florence, then travelled to
Rome in 1431 where he took holy
orders and entered the service
of the papal court. During this
time he studied the ancient ruins,
which excited his interest in
architecture and strongly
influenced the form of the
buildings that he designed.
Alberti was gifted in many ways.
He was tall, strong and a fine
athlete who could ride the
wildest horse and jump over a
man's head. He distinguished
himself as a writer while he was
still a child at school, and by the
age of twenty had written a play
which was successfully passed
off as a genuine piece of
Classical literature. In 1435, he
began his first major written
work, Della pittura, which was
inspired by the burgeoning
pictorial art in Florence in the
early 15th century. In this work he
analyses the nature of painting
and explores the elements of
perspective, composition and
colour.
Guillaume de Machaut
Guillaume de Machaut,
sometimes spelled Machault, (c.
1300 April 1377), was an
important Medieval French poet
and composer. He is one of the
earliest composers for whom
significant biographical
information is available.
Guillaume de Machaut was "the
last great poet who was also a
composer," in the words of the
scholar Daniel Leech-Wilkinson.
Well into the 15th century,
Machaut's poetry was greatly
admired and imitated by other
poets including the likes
of Geoffrey Chaucer.
Adam de la Halle
Adam de la Halle, also known as
Adam le Bossu (Adam the
Hunchback) (1237?-1288) was a
French-born trouvre, poet and
musician, who broke with the
long-established tradition of
writing liturgical poetry and
music to be an early founder of
secular theater in France. He
was a member of the Confrrie
des jongleurs et bourgeois
d'Arras.
Leonin
Lonin, Latin Leoninus (flourished
12th century), leading liturgical
composer of his generation,
associated with the Notre Dame,
or Parisian, school
of composition.
The details of Lonins life are not
known. To him is attributed
the Magnus liber organi (c. 1170;
Great Book of Organum), a
collection of two-voiced
organum settings, notably of
Gradual, Alleluia, and
Responsory chants, for the
complete liturgical year.
(Organum is the elaboration of a
plainchant melody by a
countermelody sung above it.) In
the Magnus liber, melismatic, or
florid, and note-against-note, or
discantus, styles were
combined
within compositions characterize
d by the use of rhythmic modes,
or short repeated patterns in
triple rhythm. His discantus style is
not strictly note-against-note but
is an early instance in which the
chant melody is organized into
small rhythmic units with the
same pulse as the added voice.
Philippe de Vitry
Philippe de Vitry, also
called Philippus De
Vitriaco (born Oct. 31, 1291, Paris,
Fr.died June 9, 1361, Meaux),
French prelate, music theorist,
poet, and composer. Vitry studied
at the Sorbonne and was
ordained a deacon at an early
age. His earliest-known
employment was as secretary
to Charles IV. Later he became
adviser to Charles and to his
successors at the royal court at
Paris, Philip VI and John II. Vitry
served in many diplomatic and
political missions in this capacity,
several of them to the papal court
in Avignon. During one such visit in
1351, Pope Clement VI appointed
him bishop of Meaux. Vitry was
known as a poet and composer
and was considered one of the
leading intellectuals of his time. His
scholarship and dedication were
warmly praised by Petrarch, who
regarded him as the unparalleled
poet of France. Vitrys historical
eminence, however, is mainly
derived from his contributions as a
musician. He was the author of the
famous
and authoritative treatise of
music Ars nova (c. 1320; New
Art), which dealt with the
theoretical aspects of French
music in the first half of the 14th
century. It included an
explanation of new theories
of mensural notation, a detailed
account of the various uses and
meanings of the coloured notes,
and the introduction of additional
durational symbols in the new
notational system. (Modern
scholars believe that, of the 24
chapters of the Ars nova, only the
last 10 [dealing with
mensural rhythm and notation] are
original.) Most of Vitrys musical
output was lost, judging from the
many references to his motets that
appear in the treatise.
The extant pieces were published
by Leo Schrade in Polyphonic
Music of the 14th Century, vol. 1
(1956).
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian
Bach, (born March 21, 1685,
Eisenach, Thuringia, Ernestine
Saxon Duchies [Germany]
died July 28, 1750, Leipzig),
composer of the Baroque era,
the most celebrated member of
a large family of north German
musicians. Although he was
admired by his contemporaries
primarily as an outstanding
harpsichordist, organist, and
expert on organ building, Bach is
now generally regarded as one
of the greatest composers of all
time and is celebrated as the
creator of the Brandenburg
Concertos, The Well-Tempered
Clavier, the Mass in B Minor, and
numerous other masterpieces of
church and instrumental music.
Appearing at a propitious
moment in the history of music,
Bach was able to survey and
bring together the principal
styles, forms, and national
traditions that had developed
during preceding generations
and, by virtue of his synthesis,
enrich them all.
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel, German
(until 1715) Georg Friedrich
Hndel, Hndel also
spelled Haendel (born February
23, 1685,
Halle, Brandenburg [Germany]
died April 14,
1759, London, England),
German-born English composer
of the late Baroque era, noted
particularly for
his operas, oratorios, and
instrumental compositions. He
wrote the most famous of all
oratorios, Messiah (1741), and is
also known for such occasional
pieces as Water Music (1717)
and Music for the Royal
Fireworks (1749).
Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi was a 17th and
18th century composer whos
become one of the most
renowned figures in European
classical music. Born on March 4,
1678, in Venice, Italy, Antonio
Vivaldi was ordained as a priest
though he instead chose to
follow his passion for music. A
prolific composer who created
hundreds of works, he became
renowned for his concertos in
Baroque style, becoming a
highly influential innovator in
form and pattern. He was also
known for his operas,
including Argippoand Bajazet.
He died on July 28, 1741.
Georg Philipp Telemann
A good friend of both Bach
and Handel, George Philipp
Telemann was also a
distinguished musician and
composer of his time.
Telemanns incorporation of
unusual instrumentation in his
concertos is one of the things
that that made him unique.
Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van
Rijn was a Dutch painter and
etcher. He is generally
considered one of the greatest
painters and printmakers in
European art and the most
important in Dutch history. His
contributions to art came in a
period of great wealth and
cultural achievement that
historians call the Dutch Golden
Age when Dutch Golden Age
painting, although in many ways
antithetical to the Baroque style
that dominated Europe, was
extremely prolific and innovative
and prolific master in
three media, he is generally
considered one of the
greatest visual artists in
the history of art and the most
important in Dutch art history.
Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi da
Caravaggio was an Italian
painter active in Rome, Naples,
Malta, and Sicily between 1592
and 1610. His paintings, which
combine a realistic observation
of the human state, both
physical and emotional, with a
dramatic use of lighting, had a
formative influence on Baroque
painting. Caravaggio trained as
a painter in Milan under Simone
Peterzano who had himself
trained under Titian.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Gian Lorenzo Bernini was an
Italian artist and a prominent
architect who worked principally
in Rome. He was the leading
sculptor of his age, credited with
creating the Baroque style of
sculpture. In addition, he
painted, wrote plays, and
designed metalwork and stage
sets. Bernini possessed the ability
to depict dramatic narratives
with characters showing intense
psychological states, but also to
organize large-scale sculptural
works which convey a
magnificent grandeur.
Diego Velazquez
Diego Rodrguez de Silva y
Velzquez was a Spanish painter
who was the leading artist in the
court of King Philip IV and one of
the most important painters of
the Spanish Golden Age. He was
an individualistic artist of the
contemporary Baroque period,
important as a portrait artist. In
addition to numerous renditions
of scenes of historical and
cultural significance, he painted
scores of portraits of the Spanish
royal family, other notable
European figures, and
commoners, culminating in the
production of his
masterpiece Las Meninas (1656).
MEDIEVAL
PERIOD
Medieval comes from the Latin
words 'med' (meaning middle)
and 'eval' (meaning age). The
medieval period, or Middle
Ages, arguably lasted from
about the time of the fall of the
Western half of the Roman
Empire in 476 CE until the late
1400s. Some consider the
invention of the printing press in
1450 to be one of the markers of
the succeeding Renaissance.
Although some historians might
itself into all aspects of medieval
argue the period lasted for a
millennium (rounding off to 500-
1500 CE to get the thousand
years), the assignment of
beginning and ending dates of
the period are often in many
ways arbitrary. This is because:
The exact time of the fall of the
Roman Empire (the end of the
classical period) cannot be
determined. Rome faced a
series of "barbaric" German
invasions throughout the fifth
century, and there were other
contributed factors leading to
the fall of the empire.The
Renaissance began in and
spread to different parts of
Europe at different times. In Italy,
Petrarch began his humanistic
writings in the fourteenth century
(1300s), whereas many of
Shakespeare's plays first
appeared in England during the
17th century (1600s). Probably
one of the most defining
characteristics of the period is
the pervasiveness of Christianity.
People of this era were deeply
religious, and religion inserted
life and society. The medieval
Church had a great deal of
influence and power. High-
ranking clergy members would
often have more influence,
wealth and power than many
secular (non-religious) rulers. The
popes of Rome were able to
increase the power of their office
and become just as, if not more
influential than many kings.
Monks resided in secluded and

sheltered (and sometimes not so
secluded and sheltered)
monasteries where they prayed
and transcribed, maintaining
learning as they recopied
volume after volume of old
books, keeping them safe for
later times. This was also the time
of feudalism and the manorial
system. Kings and lords granted
their vassals land (called fiefs) in
order to secure service and a
form of respect called homage.
Serfs were tied to the land and
worked on it for their lords and
were managed from manor
houses. It was likely that a serf (or
the average medieval person,
for that matter) would never
travel more than a few miles
from his or her birthplace during
a lifetime. Castles and other
forms of fortification dotted the
medieval landscape, providing
defense for the valuable land
claimed by the ruling lord.
Squires trained to become
knights, who would battle other
knights and participate in
jousting tournaments. Violent
sieges took place, during which
the inhabitants of a town or
castle might be starved out, or
perhaps bombarded with
various siege weaponry such as
catapults and trebuchets. In
these ways, the period was
marked by a high degree of
militarism. There were also the
medieval ideals such of chivalry
and honor. A knight would fight
for his lady a woman, often
married to another man, whom
he would love from afar. Knights
were supposed to display
honesty, loyalty,
courageousness, and all sorts of
other positive, highly idealized
traits. For a long time, the
medieval period was incorrectly
identified as the 'Dark Ages'. The
humanists of the Renaissance
reflected upon the classical era
as a period of great learning
and achievement, and saw the
medieval period as a time of no
advancement whatsoever. In
fact, many viewed the loss of
classical learning that occurred
during the period as a sort of
stumbling slip backwards along
the path of human progress. The
term 'Dark Ages' reflected this
viewpoint, but did not take into
account advancements during
the period, including agricultural,
economic, and legal progress.
Even the term 'middle ages' is in
some ways a derogatory term
for the period. It is considered in
the middle of the great classical
and Renaissance (meaning
rebirth) periods.
RENAISSANCE
PERIOD
The word Renaissance is the
French word for rebirth. The
Renaissance refers to the rebirth
of humanism during the 14th,
15th and 16th centuries in
Europe. The Renaissance period
was a time of rebirth of
humanism and new discoveries
in fine arts, music, literature,
philosophy, science and
technology, architecture,
religion and spirituality. Sculptors
such as Donatello and later
Michelangelo went back to
classical techniques like
contrapposto, and classical
subjects like the unsupported
nude. Painters began to utilize
methods of realism by improving
skills in three-dimensional
perspective. Painters began to
veer away from religious themes
and focused more on people
and landscapes. Leonardo Da
Vinci, Raphael and
Michelangelo Buonarroti were
some of the most prominent
Renaissance painters.
BAROQUE
PERIOD
The art and architecture of the
Baroque period reflects an often
bizarre style characterized by
ornamental decorations.
Especially noted in churches,
palaces and other buildings of
the period is the profusion of
worldly splendour apparent in
grandiose designs and elaborate
decorations. The music of the
period reflects the decorative art
in the use of ornamentation to
embroider melodies. Thick and
complex polyphonic texture
prevails in many composers
works. A sense of drama and
urgency is incorporated into in Other German Baroque
vocal forms such as the cantata, composers include Buxtehude,
mass, opera, oratorio and Pachelbel and Telemann. English
passion, and in instrumental Baroque composers include Byrd
forms such as the concerto, and Purcell. Italian Baroque
concerto grosso, prelude, fugue, composers include Monteverdi,
toccata sonata and suite. Corelli, Vivaldi and Scarlatti.
Vibrant rhythms and expressive Prominent French Baroque
dissonances heighten tension in composers were Lully, Couperin
many Baroque works. Much of and Rameau.
the Baroque keyboard music
written for the harpsichord and
clavichord was written in suites
comprising separate dance
pieces, changing in tempo and
meter but maintaining key unity
throughout. The suite
(Italian: Partita, Sonata da
Camera; German: Suite, Partita,
Overture; French: Order, Suite;
English: Lessons) consists of
dances such as the allemande,
courante, sarabande, gigue and
others such as the gavotte,
musette, bouree, minuet and
pavane. Each dance movement
is usually written in two sections
called Binary form, and is
generally performed with each
section repeated. Other forms of
keyboard music from the
Baroque period are theme and
variations, passacaglia,
chaconne, invention, prelude,
fugue, choral prelude, ricercare,
fantasy, toccata and concerto.
The two best known Baroque
composers are Johann
Sebastian Bach and George
Frederick Handel, both Germans.