 Protestant Reformation ◦ Martin Luther ◦ Chorale ◦ Vernacular language used in church service instead of Latin ◦ German Mass (much like the Holy Roman Catholic Mass)

◦ Chorales  German hymns  Metric, rhymed, strophic poetry for unison, unaccompanied performance by the congregation  Luther wrote many chorales himself.  German version of Gregorian Chant

 Purposes ◦ Group singing in home settings ◦ Performance in church by choirs, alternating stanzas with the congregation in unison ◦ Luther wanted "wholesome" music for young people, to "rid them of their love ditties and wanton song."  Chorale Motets  Chorale appears as a cantus firmus in long notes in some motets.

◦ Homophony  Popular in the last third of the century  Tune in the highest voice  Accompaniment in block chords  After ca the accompaniment was usually played on organ, with the choir singing the melody in unison.

 The Anglican Church/Church of England ◦ English replaced Latin text  Anthem English equivalent of motet ◦ Sung by the choir ◦ Texts come from the Bible or the Book of Common Prayer ◦ Full anthem: unaccompanied, contrapuntal ◦ Verse anthem: for solo voice(s) with organ or viol accompaniment, alternating with passages for full choir doubled by instruments

 Composers  Thomas Tallis (ca ) ◦ His style weds the melody to the natural inflection of speech.  William Byrd (ca ) ◦ The most important English composer of the Renaissance ◦ Probably studied with Thomas Tallis ◦ Composed both Anglican service music and Latin music ◦ Also composed secular music ◦ His style shows the influence of continental imitative techniques.

 Composers Continued ◦ Adrian Willaert (ca ) ◦ Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525/ ) ◦ Tomás Luís de Victoria ( ) ◦ Orlando di Lasso ( )  He composed over two thousand pieces. Fifty- seven masses, and over seven hundred motets  Composed Italian, French, and German songs  Believed in adding expression to music

 Amateur music-making inspired a flowering of national styles, in contrast to the fifteenth-century unification of styles. Amateurs wanted secular music in the vernacular.  Homophonic genres for easy singing were popular in Spain and Italy.

 The ability to read and perform music became a social grace in the sixteenth century. ◦ Among the elite nobility first and eventually also among middle class ◦ Amateurs constituted an eager market for a variety of secular genres.

 The frottola ◦ Four-part strophic song set syllabically and homophonically. ◦ Melody in the upper voice, simple harmony, and marked rhythmic patterns ◦ Composed by Italian composers for the amusement of the courtly elite ◦ Performed by solo voice with lute ◦ Composer Marco Cara (ca ) ◦ The rhythm moves in six beats per measure, sometimes divided into three groups of two, other times two groups of three (hemiola effect).

 The Italian madrigal ◦ The genre became an experimental vehicle for dramatic characterization. ◦ The poem consists of a four-line ripresa and a six-line stanza.  Form ◦ Single stanza with no refrains or repeated lines ◦ The music is through-composed, with new music for every line of poetry.

 Poetry ◦ Composers often chose texts by major poets. ◦ Topics included love songs and pastoral scenes.  Music ◦ Composers used a variety of techniques and textures. ◦ All voices played an equal role, similar to the motet. ◦ Madrigals first were composed for four voices and later composed for five or more voices. ◦ Performance could be vocal, or some parts could be played on instruments.

 Madalena Casulana (ca ca.1590s), who served the duchess of Bracciano, was the first woman whose music was published and the first to regard herself as a professional composer.  Women performed madrigals with men, and some became professional singers.

 Italian Madrigal Composers ◦ Adrian Willaert ◦ Associated major thirds and sixths with harshness or bitterness, and minor intervals with sweetness or grief

 English madrigals ◦ Italian culture was in vogue in sixteenth-century England. ◦ Italian madrigals began to circulate in England in the 1560s. ◦ Musica Transalpina, 1588 ◦ A collection of Italian madrigals translated into English ◦ Published by Nicholas Yonge, who wrote in his introduction that gentlemen and merchants sang the repertory at his own home. ◦ This and similar collections inspired composers to start writing their own madrigals in English.

 Lute songs (or airs) ◦ Solo song with lute accompaniment was a popular genre in the early 1600s. ◦ More personal genre than the madrigal ◦ Less word-painting, with lute always subordinate to the melody ◦ The lute part was written in tablature, a notation telling the player where to place fingers on the strings rather than indicating pitch.

 English Madrigal Composer ◦ Thomas Morley  Wrote a treatise, A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practiall Musicke (1597) Aimed at unlearned amateurs and covered everything from basic notation to composing in three or more voices  My bonny lass she smileth is based on the Italian balletto form. Strophic, with each stanza comprising two repeated sections (AABB)  Each section begins homophonically.  Sections end with a "fa-la-la" contrapuntal refrain.

 The Madrigal and Its Impact ◦ The madrigal and the other vernacular genres inspired by it reflect the growing influence of humanism on music. ◦ Expressive codes developed after Willaert's time led to the development of opera. ◦ The vogue for social singing declined after 1600, but the madrigal in English survived to some extent from its origins to today.

 Examples ◦ ◦ feature=related feature=related ◦ ◦ ◦ ature=related ature=related ◦ ◦ ◦