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Music and the

Renaissance
Dr. Beverly Shangkuan-Cheng
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Today’s Outline

n Comparison of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

n Final Thoughts about the Ars Nova

n Renaissance
n The Renaissance as a concept
n Renaissance Art (Sculpture, Painting, Architecture)
n Renaissance Music
n Styles

n Training and support of musicians

n Other developments
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Written in 1365
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Written in 1485
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Fourteenth Century
ARS NOVA
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n Church in crisis

n Growth of secular music

n Forme fixes: ballade, rondeau, virelai

n Italian trecento music: madrigal, ballata, caccia

n Isorhythm, hocketing

n Philippe de Vitry

n Guillaume de Machaut

n Francesco Landini

n Metrical divisions

n Music ficta
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Guillaume de Machaut

n Machaut was the first one who composed a polyphonic

composition of a Mass Ordinary

n La Messe de Nostre Dame (Mass of Our Lady) – most famous

mass

n 23 motets (20 are isorhythmic)

n Motet from the French word “mot” - Latin religious choral
composition

n Also wrote monophonic French songs continuing the trouvere

tradition

n The most important composer and poet of the French Ars Nova
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Francesco Landini (1325-1397)

n Leading composer of ballate and foremost musician of the

Trecento

n 140 ballate

n Landini cadence
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New notation = new thinking about
musical time
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Musica ficta

n Chromatic alterations known as musica ficta to avoid the

tritone F-B in a melody

n Taking away the aurally offensive!

n Putting in accidentals (flats and sharps) not in music

n Often used at cadences

 Guido Francesco
+d’Arezzo Landini
Pope Adam de la Philippe de
Gregory Halle Vitry
Hildegard Leonin and Guillaume de
von Bingen Perotin Machaut

1 – 1000 1001-1250
14th Century 15th Century
The Christian Development
Ars Nova Renaissance
Church of Polyphony

Chant Organum Isorhythm

Notation Poet Emphasis on

composers secular music
Music
education
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Jules Michelet
French historian
+ The term Renaissance
Any historical periodization is an abstraction,
imposed by later generations as a way to
organize a mass of details into a coherent
picture, and different historians have
suggested varying approaches.
For the purposes of our study, we will
consider the 15th and 16th centuries as a unit,
because the new approach to counterpoint
that emerged in the early 1400s marked a
decisive change from the previous century
and remained the essential fabric of music
until around 1600.
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Renaissance
French for “rebirth”
Restoring the learning, ideals, and values of
Greece
ancient ___________ Rome
and ________.
Writers, sculptors, and architects imitated ancient
classics.
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Study of things
pertaining to
human knowledge

Emphasis on the
development of the
individual’s mind,
body, spirit
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Humanism

n The increasing availability of ancient writings was

complemented by new ways of approaching them.

n The strongest intellectual movement of the Renaissance was

humanism, from the Latin phrase “studia humanitatis”, the
study of the humanities, things pertaining to human
knowledge.

n Humanists sought to revive ancient learning, particularly

emphasizing grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, and moral
philosophy.
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The Last Supper (1495)

Leonardo da Vinci
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Romeo and Juliet (1594)

William Shakespeare
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Conditions of the Renaissance

1. Europe rose as a world power

2. Reformation movement in the church

n Formation of new Protestant denominations
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Renaissance Art

nSculpture

nPainting

nArchitecture

nArt Subjects
nMusic
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David (ca. 1440s)

Donatello

Renaissance: beauty of the human figure

Middle Ages:
Nakedness in the Middle Ages was used
to show shame, as in pictures of the
Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the
Garden of Eden
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Paintings:
Perspective and Chiaroscuro
n Naturalistic representations desired

n Two innovations:
n Perspective - method for representing 3-
dimensional space on a flat surface, creating a
sense of depth
n Chiaroscuro – naturalistic treatment of light and
shade, effect is much more realistic
+ The Effects of Good and Bad Government in
the Town and in the Country (1337-1339)
by Ambrogio Lorenzetti
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Idealized View of the City (1480)
by a painter from the school of
Piero della Francesca
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Clarity and classical models in
Architecture

Clean lines, symmetry, and little clutter.

The decorative elements on the building make their structure

clear, highlighting the floors, pillars, and arches.

Contrast to Gothic architecture

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Subject: Interest in individuals
The Fresco by Massacio (Tommaso Cassai, 1401-1428)
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Musical Parallels
n Expanded range of pieces to include lower and higher
pitches than before

n Contrasts between high and low registers and between thin

and full textures that recall the contrasts of light and dark in
contemporary painting.

n Frequent cadences to make the musical structure clear

through such contrasts, akin to the clarity of line and function
in Renaissance architecture.

n Rising significance of composers as individual artists

n Unique personal style becomes typical of the Renaissance

and later periods.
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Written in 1365
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Written in 1485
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+ Music in the Renaissance

Better understood as a time of continual and overlapping

changes than a period characterized by a single unified style

n Eventual creation of an international style

n Musicians held positions outside their native regions
n French, Italian, and English traditions
n Predominant texture: imitative counterpoint and
homophony
n New rules for polyphony based on strict control of
dissonance (beauty, order, pleasing the senses)
n Greater use of 3rds and 6ths required new tuning systems
+ Music in the Renaissance

Better understood as a time of continual and overlapping

changes than a period characterized by a single unified style

n Eventual creation of an international style

n Musicians held positions outside their native regions
n French, Italian, and English traditions
n Predominant texture: imitative counterpoint and homophony
n New rules for polyphony based on strict control of dissonance
(beauty, order, pleasing the senses)
n Greater use of 3rds and 6ths required new tuning systems
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FUSION OF STYLES

FRENCH

n Concern for structure and rhythmic interest

ITALIAN

n Concern for lyrical melodies

ENGLISH

n Concernfor smooth counterpoint, avoidance of

dissonances, prominent 3rds and 6ths
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Contenance Angloise
English countenance, English manner

n Coined by Martin le Franc in a poem dedicated to Duke Philip

the Good (patron of the arts) of the Burgundian court

n Leading proponent: John Dunstable (1390-1453)

1st generation
Franco-Flemish school
Guillaume Dufay Gilles Binchois
(1397-1474) (1400-1460)
n A distinctive style of polyphony developed in 15th century
England which uses full, rich harmonies based on the third and
sixth

n Listening: Veni Creator Spiritus

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New Compositional Methods and
Textures
n Imitative counterpoint (voices imitate or echo a motive or
phrase in another voice, usually at a different pitch level)

n Homophony (all voices move together in essentially the same

rhythm)

n 4-voice texture (with a bass line added below the tenor)

n Moved away from counterpoint structured around “adding

voices” to main melodic lines toward greater equality
between voices. All voices were essential to the
counterpoint.
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Tuning & Temperament
n The new emphasis on 3rds and 6ths posed a challenge to
music theory and systems of tuning

n Medieval theories – consonant octave, fifth, and fourth

n Based on Pythagorean ratios

n Just intonation – a tuning system that produced tuned 3rds

and 6ths
n Problems: Causes other tunes to be out of tune
n G# and Ab were different pitches

n Temperaments – pitches were adjusted to make most or all

intervals usable without adding keys
n Mean-tone temperament (Fifths were tuned small so that
the major thirds could sound well)
n Equal temperament (Each semitone is exactly the same)
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Le Insitutioni harmoniche (1557)
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A Book on the Art of Counterpoint
(1477)

n Joannes Tinctoris (Flemish composer)

n Nothing written before the 1430s

was worth hearing!

n The compositions of older musicians

had more dissonances than consonances.

Strict rules: Parallel 5ths and octaves,

now forbidden.
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Dufay Dunstable Binchois

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Patronage and Training of
Musicians
n Court chapels – groups of salaried musicians and clerics
associated with a ruler

n Most 15th to 16th century composers were trained as choir

boys and hired as singers for churches or court chapels

n Choir schools – taught not only singing and how to perform

sacred music but also music theory reading, writing,
grammar, math, theology

n Only male children were trained

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Patrons

n Medicifamily (Jacques Arcadelt,

Michelangelo, Donatello)

n Sforza family (Josquin Desprez, da Vinci)

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Dufay Dunstable Binchois

n Most famous n Known for his chansons

n Fauxbourdon n 3/4 or 6/8, hemiola

n Listening: De plus un plus

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Fauxbourdon

Se la face ay pale (Ballade)

English false bass, also called faburden, musical texture prevalent

during the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, produced by
three voices proceeding primarily in parallel motion in intervals
corresponding to the first inversion of the triad
 2nd generation 1st generation
+ 3rd generation

Johannes Ockeghem Antoine Busnois

Jacob Obrecht 3rd generation
3rd generation

Franco-Flemish
Composers
(1450-1521)
Josquin Desprez Heinrich Isaac
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Ockeghem: Missa Prolationum
Consists mainly of mensuration canons
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Types of Borrowed Masses
(Other than the cantus firmus mass)

n Paraphrase Mass
n A mass based on a monophonic melody that is paraphrased and
appears in all voices of the mass

n Imitation Mass
n A mass that imitates a polyphonic work
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+ 95 Thesis (exposed indulgences)
Reformation Wittenberg church
Council of Trent (1545-1563)
Counter Reformation (1545-1648)

Applying humanist principles to study of the Bible led Martin

Luther (1453-1546) and others to challenge church doctrines.

The Reformation began in 1517 and ended in 1648.

Much of Northern Europe split from the church to become

Lutheran, Calvinist, or Anglican.

Each branch of the church developed its own music for

services and fostered new genres, including chorale, metrical
psalm, and anthem.
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Lutheran Church
n Continued to employ a good deal of Catholic music

n Increased use of the vernacular (German than Latin)

n Gave people a larger role – the entire congregation sang in

the services, not just the celebrants and the choir

n Chorale (choral – German for “chant”) – congregational hymn

German devotional songs

chant
new compositions

contrafactum:
secular songs given new words
use of popular style of the minnesinger /meistersinger tradition to engage the people
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Music in Calvinist Churches

n John Calvin (1509-1564)

n Stripped churches and services of everything that might

distract worshippers with worldly pleasures, including
decorations, paintings, stained-glass windows, vestments,
colorful ceremony, organs and other instruments, elaborate
polyphony

n Only Biblical texts (psalms) should be sung in church

n Metrical psalms (in collections called psalters)

nMost famous: Listening - Loys Bourgeois, Psalm 134
Arise, you servants of the Lord, you who by night in his honor serve
him in his house, praise him, and lift up his name.
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French Composers of Psalm
Settings
n Loys Bourgeois

n Calude Goudimel

n Claude Le Jeune

n Jacobus Clemens

n Jan Peterszoon Sweelinck

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Church Music in England
n Origin lay more in politics than in doctrine (eventually
compromising enough on doctrine to make the Church of
England hospitable to Catholics and Protestants), p. 223

n Leading composers: 3 generations

John Taverner Thomas Tallis (1505-1585) William Byrd

(1490-1545) (1540-1623)
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Church Music in England
n After
the Church of England adopted English as
the primary liturgical language, two principal
forms of Anglican music developed.

n SERVICE – music for certain portions of Matins,

Holy Communion, or Evensong (Vespers and
Compline), corresponds to Latin antiphon

n ANTHEM – corresponds to a motet, a polyphonic

work in English
n Full anthem – for unaccompanied choir
n Verse anthem – employs one or more solo
voices with organ or viol accompaniment,
alternating with choir
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The Legacy of 16th Century
Sacred Music
n The Reformation and the Catholic response utterly changed
church music.

n Lutheran church – chorales

n Calvinist church – Psalm tunes

n Church of England and Episcopal Church – Service and anthem

n Palestrina – established a style for church music that has been

emulated in all later centuries (Listening example: Sicut cervus)
n Palestrina gave the Council of Trent their request: clean,
singable lines that allowed for clear declamation and
comprehension of the text, smooth and harmonically consonant
vehicle for the sacred words
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n 105 Masses, 250 Motets

n Best known mass:

Missa Papae Marcellus

According to Grove Music Online,

Palestrina's "success in reconciling the
functional and aesthetic aims of Catholic
church music in the post-Tridentine period
earned him an enduring reputation as the
ideal Catholic composer, as well as giving
his style an iconic stature as a model of
perfect achievement.

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

(1525-1594)
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Catholic Music in Spain

n Franco-Flemish tradition deeply influenced Spanish

polyphony due to royal family ties to the low countries.

n Cristobal de Morales (1500-1553)

n Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599) – student of Morales

n Tomas Luis de Victoria (1548-1611) – all of his music is sacred

and intended for Catholic services. He spent 2 decades in
Rome and may have studied with Palestrina. He was the first
Spanish composer to master Palestrina’s style

n Listening: O magnum mysterium

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Germany

n Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612)

n The range of his works highlights the eclecticism of German
composers at the time
n Lutheran chorales
n Latin masses and motets
n Secular part-songs in German and Italian
n Pieces for instrumental ensemble and keyboard
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n The Madrigal and Its Impact

n The Rise of Instrumental Music

Baroque
Period
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Invention of
Printing
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15th Century
International style

16th Century
National styles

Poets and composers naturally developed distinctive genres and forms.

Music printing fostered the creation and dissemination of music for amateurs,
encouraging the growth of national styles.

NEW
SPANISH ITALIAN ITALIAN
FRENCH
VILLANCICO FROTTOLA MADRIGAL
CHANSON

simple, syllabically set music

earthy and satirical texts – mocking
Juan del Encina: Oy comamos y bebamos
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The new French Chanson
Light, fast, strongly rhythmic song, tuneful melodies and pleasing rhythms
For 4 voices, melody in the top voice

n Claudin de Sermisy
n Tant que vivray

n Clement Janequin
n La guerre (War)
n Le chant des oiseaux (The Song of the Birds)
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The Italian Madrigal

n The most important secular genre of 16th century Italy, Led to

opera
n Appeal: Emphasis placed on enriching the meaning and impact
of the text through the musical setting. New effects of
declamation, imagery, expressivity, characterization,
dramatization

n Form: Through-composed, no refrains (unlike the 14th century

madrigal, frottola, and formes fixes)

n Poets: Petrarca, Ariosto, Tasso

n Subjects: erotic or sentimental, themes of love, sex, and wit to

charm, surprise, entertain
n Purpose: Written for the enjoyment of the singers themselves,
mixed groups of woman and men at social gatherings, after
meals, and at meetings of academies.
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Early Madrigals
Mostly 4 voices

n Adrian Willaert

n Jacques Arcadelt

n Il bianco e dolce cigno: Text contrasts death of swan with the

speakers’ “death that in dying fills me fully with joy and desire”.
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Midcentury Madrigals
mostly for 5 voices, with frequent changes of texture

n Nicola Vincentino

n Cipriano de Rore
n chromaticism as a primary expressive device
n capture sounds, emotions, and images of his texts
Da le belle contrade d’oriente
+ you go

alas

alone you leave me

farewell
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Later Madrigalists

n Orlande de Lassus (Orlando di Lasso)

n Luca Marenzio (1553-1599)

n Depicted contrasting feelings and visual details with utmost artistry
n Madrigalisms
n Example: Solo e pensoso (walking, flee, escape)

n Carlo Gesualdo
n Sharp contrasts between diatonic and chromatic passages
n Dissonance and consonance
n Chordal and imitative textures
n Slow and active rhythms
n Listening example: Io parto
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England
ENGLISH MADRIGALS & LUTE SONGS

n Italian Madrigals circulated in England in the 1560s. In 1588,

Nicolas Yonge published Musica transalpine, a collection of
Italian madrigals translated into English.

n Leading English madrigalists: Thomas Morley (1157/8-1602),

Thomas Weelkes (1575-1623), John Wilbye (1574-1638)

n Listening: Weelkes’ As vesta was

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The Rise of Instrumental Music
1. Derived from dance music

2. Related to vocal music

3. Conceived as abstract music - leading to symphonies and

sonatas

n Before, performers played from memory or improvised.

n Instrumental music was functional, seldom listened to or

played for its own sake

n After 1450, more music was being written down! Music

without voices was now more often deemed worthy of
preservation and dissemination.
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Books Describing Instruments

1. Syntagma musicum
(Systematic treatise of Music, 1618-1620)
by Michael Praetorius

2. Musica getutscht
(Music explained, 1511)
by Sebastian Virdung
+ The Lute: the most popular
household instrument
Famous English Composers: John Dowland, Thomas Campion

Made of strings of leather or gut

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Viol or viola da gamba: became
the leading bowed instrument
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Keyboards

n Organs widely used since the middle ages

n 2 Main types of keyboard:

n Clavichord (solo instrument for small rooms)
n Harpsichord (solo and ensemble playing in moderate-sized spaces)
n Virginal - England
n Clavecin – France
n Clavicembalo – Italy
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Classifications of Instruments
Haut (high) and bas (low) instruments

Loud and soft instruments

Played diminutions (or divisions) – decorating a given melody

through passing tones, neighbor tones, runs, and other
figurations
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Wind and string instruments

n Treated in sets of instrumental families

n Consort – In England, an instrumental ensemble consisting of

4-7 instruments. Composers did not specify instruments.

n Recorders, transverse flutes, shawms, cornetts, trumpets

(from Middle Ages)

n Percussion: tabor, side drum, kettledrums, cymbals, triangles,

bells (from Middle ages). Parts were never written for
percussion. Performers improvised or played from memory.

n Sackbut (early form of trombone), crumhorn (sounds like a

soft bagpipe)
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Dance Music

Often grouped dance music in pairs or threes:

• Slow dance in duple meter followed by a fast one in triple

meter on the same time (the second is a variation)

• Pavane and galliard

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Dance became instrumental
repertoire in the 16th century
n Allemande (stately dance in 4/4 that begins with an upbeat)
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Abstract Instrumental Repertoire

Compositions resembling improvisations

Prelude

Fantasia

Toccata

Ricercare (with elements of imitation)

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Venice: Basilica San Marco
(Church of St. Mark)

n City for trade, patronage for the arts

n Instrumental performers reached a high level in the 16th and

17th centuries (Late Renaissance to Early Baroque)

n Serves as a transition to the Baroque era

n Position of choirmaster: Willaert, Rore, Zarlino, Monteverdi

n Organists: Merulo, Andrea Gabrieli, Giovanni Gabrieli (3

decades)
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Venetian church music:
Polychoral motets
n Works for 2 or more choirs (cori spezzati)

n 1560s: Alessandro Striggio composed a mass for forty voices

divided into eight choirs

n Inspired Thomas Tallis to write a motet for eight 5-voice

choirs, Spem in alium

n G. Gabrielli (and other Venetian composers) applied the idea

of divided choirs to instruments: Gabrielli’s Sacrae
symphoniae of 1597 and 1615