Renaissance

Music
1400-1600, roughly
Characteristics
1. Music still based on modes, but gradually more accidentals creep in.
2. Richer texture in four or more parts. Bass part is added below the tenor.
3. Blending rather than contrasting strands in the musical texture.
4. Harmony. Greater concern with the flow and progression of chords.
5. Church music = sacred music. Some pieces were intended for 'a cappella' performance. Mainly
contrapuntal. Lots of imitation. Some church music was accompanied by instruments - for example
polychoral pieces in antiphonal style (Antiphonal - Questions and Answers, Stereo Effect).
6. Non-religious music = secular music. There were lots of vocal pieces and dances, and lots of
instrumental pieces (However a lot of the instrumentals were in a vocal style, but sonic were suited
to instruments. Vocal music was by far the more important.)
7. The characteristic timbres of Renaissance musical instruments - many forming families.
8. Most popular instrument? VOICE.
Instrument
s
Which ones were around?
Instruments that were invented...
- Lute
- Viol
- Cornett
- Trumpet
- Lyre
- Panpipe
- Bagpipe
- Tambourine
Lute - Flow, My Tears by John Dowland
This piece demonstrates use of the lute. This song, as
the title proclaims, is meant to portray some longing and
suffering.
To show some instruments… (song: One by Metallica)
http://staryolsa.com/en/band/instruments.html
Renaissance Art
Johannes Ockeghem
- Rediscovered music in the same way that Donatello rediscovered sculpture
- We assume he was a bass because his music is a 5th lower than everyone
else’s
- Seamless polyphony--very few stopping points
- Master of technique in polyphony
- Varied groups of people singing at different times
Missa L’homme Arme by Guillaume Dufay
What’s special about it? Well, the composer used a melody from a popular tavern drinking
song as the melody for this church mass. That would be like someone taking the melody
for “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran, changing the words to be about Jesus, adding some
harmony, and singing it in church.
It was VERY controversial.
^ This is a good example of seamless polyphony. Notice ^ This is not a good example. The singers take breaks
how the singers stagger their breathing so it sounds like together all the time, so the music sounds choppy instead
someone is always singing. That’s seamless. of seamless.

What is seamless polyphony?

Seamless = without a break in texture, Polyphony = many sounds
Council of Trent
- Remember the church rules?
- From this, we get much of the look and sound of modern Catholicism (not present day, but up to
WWII)
- Musical response to the Reformation
- Church decided to ban tropes. They felt like they needed to go back to their roots.
- Polyphony
- In the end, they decided to ban anything that was “impure and lascivious”. No songs based on
drinking songs or pop songs.
- Didn’t ban polyphony because Palestrina’s music was so beautiful
Josquin Desprez
- Have a LOT of music from him
- French chansons. Italian and German as well. Even a song in Spanish.
- Secular music
- Close relationship between text and music (not commonly found in chant)
- Josquin starts with the text and then tries to represent it through music
- Will see this more in motets
- Text-painting
- Equal-voiced counterpoint
- “Mille regretz” - trend of “regrets” songs. Songs about love going south.
- Motet = most experimental of all genres in this period
- Creating 4-part harmony from a chant (recitation) = falsobordone
- Masses
- More conservative than his motets
- Still used a Cantus Firmus
Now, pull out your text-painting worksheet.
Instructions:
1. Answer the question at the top of the page.
2. On the next three slides, you will find the 3 pieces that you must listen to, but just in
case, they are listed here:
a. Mille Regretz – Josquin
b. Ave Maria – Josquin
c. Good Grief - Bastille
3. As you listen, fill out the worksheet.
4. At the bottom of the worksheet, you will find that now, you have to pretend you are a
composer. If you were writing music, what would you do to portray the ideas listed?
Josquin - Mille Regretz
Josquin - Ave Maria
Bastille - Good Grief
Follow-up...
Now that you’ve listened to those songs and done some brainstorming, go back and listen
to Good Grief by Bastille one more time.

You probably thought it sounded happy. Listen to the words. Is it?

This song is a VERY interesting example of opposite text-painting.

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
- Came right after Josquin. Will find a lot of similar features. Clear = text setting. Palestrina tries to make sure
you can hear every word.
- Wrote a TON of music
- Wrote in a style that the council of Trent liked, so they kept polyphony and didn’t ban it (“If only everyone
could write like Palestrina!”)
- Pope Marcellus Mass
- VERY influential, especially in counterpoint
- Melodies lie within a narrow range, conjunct motion, easy to sing. Sounds a ton like chant, doesn’t it? He
had mastered chant. Arching lines. Matching the tension of the breath. They fit the breath nicely.
- Avoids unnecessary chromaticism. Only the essential ficta. No unprepared dissonances. They’re there for
musical effect, not expressive effect or text-painting.
- PM Mass written for 6pt. Like Josquin, varies texture. Rarely do all 6 voices sing at the same time.
- This was perfection to the church.
Palestrina - Pope Marcellus Mass - Gloria
Music Printing
- Ca. 1450
- Originally printed with woodblocks, eventually moved to movable type around 1476
- Printing polyphonic music in moveable type was around 1501 = Odhecaton A (publisher = Petrucci
in Italy). Had to run through press 3 times to get everything
- Single impression music printing = around 1528 in Paris (by Attaignant). You only create one plate,
and you put staff lines, music, AND text all on the same one.
Madrigals
- First madrigal composers were Franco-Flemish
- Very close relationship between text and music
- Free text, through-composed
- Quality of poetry is very high
- Not intended for performance to a listening audience - couples would get together and sit across
table from significant other. You would sing your own part, without knowing what other people will
be singing.
Madrigal: Fair Phyllis - Listen to the text-painting in this
example!
Sing, cuccu, nu. Sing,
cuccu
Sing, cuccu. Sing,
cuccu, nu

Sumer is i-cumin in—

Lhude sing, cuccu!
Groweth sed and
bloweth med
And springth the wude
nu
Sing, cuccu!

Awe bleteth after lomb

Lhouth after calve cu
Bulluc sterteth, bucke
verteth—
Murie sing, cuccu!
Cuccu, cuccu
Wel singes thu, cuccu
Ne swik thu naver nu!

A Personal Favorite: Sumer is icumen in

A Personal Favorite: Sumer is icumen in – One more
madrigal, just for fun