Music in the Early Renaissance  Merging of music (more of an international style)  Moved toward composing polyphonic music that was often imitative  Concentrated on three main types: Mass, motet and secular song  Foremost composers were John Dunstable ( ) of England and Guillaume DuFay of France ( ) Both men spent many years living outside of their native country; therefore, being exposed to diverse musical styles. These new musical styles made their way into the composer’s music.

The Renaissance Mass  Through most of the Middle ages, all of the music of the mass was sung in plainchant.  In the advent of polyphony in the 12 th and 13 th century, some parts of the mass began to be sung polyphonically.  Composers begin to concentrate on the parts of the mass that remain the same regardless of the day, feast, or season.  These sections include: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei = collectively known as the Ordinary of the Mass.  Traditionally, these five sections are set to music. This began in the fourteenth century and continues today.  The musical setting of a Renaissance Mass is based on imitation

The Mid-Renaissance  Technique of unifying a composition by the use of imitation became fully established.  Composers also experimented with ways of linking the five different sections of the Ordinary by drawing the musical material for them from a single source: a piece of plainchant or popular song of the day – as the basis for the entire setting.  The source melody usually appears in the tenor voice

Josquin’s Pange Lingua Mass  Took almost all of his musical ideas from a 100 year old plainchant.  Each vocal line in every section of the mass is derived from the chant in some way  Mass is polyphonic, for four voices: soprano, alto, tenor and bass  The mass unlike the plainchant has rhythm  Hymn would have been very familiar to Josquin’s audience

Three Characteristics of Josquin’s Musical Style  1. He gives each short segment of the music its own point of imitation – a musical passage that presents a single tiny musical phrase imitated among the voices.  2. Usually the music is controlled by overlapping cadences: the next group of voices begins its statements just as the first group comes to a cadence.  3. The imitation is usually paired imitation: One pair of voice begins the imitation and another pair answers.

The Late Renaissance  Increasing focus on expressing the meaning of the words  The final chord was thought to only use “perfect” intervals (octaves and fifths) in late Renaissance, composers began to think that final chords should present the fullest sound possible and therefore should include the third, as well as the root, fifth and octave of the chord.  The Counter-Reformation had important consequences on music