Let’s Review

The Evolution of
Western Notation
up through the
Renaissance
 Sacred Music in the Renaissance

• Key genres:
1. Latin (Catholic): Mass, Motet
2. Vernacular (Protestant): Lutheran chorale,
English Anthem

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 The Latin Motet
• A polyphonic vocal setting of a sacred Latin text
for two+ voices; the motet became the most
advanced form of polyphonic composition
during the Renaissance
• Renaissance music has two contrasting textures:
– Imitative counterpoint
– Homophony
• Textural contrast voice groupings (duets, trios,
full choir)
• Text/Word painting - The texture, melody, and
rhythm match the text
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 Josquin Des Prez
• “Ave Maria”, a four-part
motet.
• Ave Maria, gratia plena,
dominus tecum, virgo
serena... (Hail Mary, full of
grace, the Lord is with
thee, serene Virgin...)
Franco-Flemish
Composer
ca. 1450-1521

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Madrigals & Secular Song

In the 16th-Century
 Secular Music in the Renaissance
• New genres of vocal and instrumental secular music
were developed
• Public and private music grew as a social activity
• The development of music printing supplied this new
demand.
• Regional and national styles emerged across Europe,
chiefly in Italy, Germany, France and England.
• Increasingly, secular music was preserved in notation
(manuscript or print), giving us more surviving
evidence of musical activity in different social contexts.
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 Italian madrigal
• Italian secular vocal music
• In 4, 5 or 6 parts
• Started in Rome and Florence during the 1520s
• Domestic chamber music: one voice per part, though a
flexible approach to performance meant that
instruments could also be used.
• Normally through-composed: each line of text is set to
new music (no repeated sections).
• An emphasis on creative text-setting (impact of
Renaissance humanism): the music should express the
form and meaning of the poetry.
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 Carlo Gesualdo (ca. 1560-1613)
• The Prince of Venosa (famous for murdering his
wife and her lover!)
• Madrigals use extreme chromaticism to evoke
the poetry’s emotional content
• Contrasts between consonance and dissonance,
imitation and homophony, slow and active
rhythm
• ‘Moro Lasso’ (Il Sestro Libri di madrigali, 1613)

Moro, lasso, al mio duolo, E chi può darmi vita, Ahi, che m'ancide e
non vuol darmi aita! O dolorosa sorte, Chi dar vita mi può, Ahi, mi dà
morte!
[I die, alas, in my suffering, And she who could give me life, Alas, kills
me and will not help me. O sorrowful fate, She who could give me
life, Alas, gives me death.]
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 ‘Moro Lasso’, Il Sestro Libri di madrigali (1613), f. 228

• Note the five parts printed in score form with bar lines
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 English Madrigal
• English musicians began to imitate the Italian
Madrigal style, first by translating & adapting
Italian pieces and then by composing new
works in English
• Musica Transalpina (1588), contained over 50
madrigals adapted with English texts
• Thomas Morley (1557-1602) was active in
promoting the Italianate style, publishing
several collections of madrigals and
associated genres such as the ballet &
canzonet.

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