1. Music of the Renaissance

2. Renaissance Timeline

3. “The Renaissance” ( )
Assigned Reading: pp (Part II/Section 2)
Listening:
Ave Maria…Virgo Serena by Josquin Desprez (c )
MOTET
Kyrie (“Pope Marcellus Mass”), by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c )
MASS
Duo Seraphim by Caterina Assandra (c )
Morir non può il mio cuore by Maddalena Casulana (c – c. 1590)
As Vesta Was Descending by Thomas Weelkes ( )
MADRIGAL
El Grillo Josquin Desprez (c )
MADRIGAL

4. The Renaissance
The Renaissance has differing dates, depending upon the specific discipline
Generally speaking: ca
Began in Italy, particularly Florence
later spread throughout Western Europe
Rediscovery, the “rebirth” of Classical Greek ideals:
philosophy
art & music
sciences

7. Renaissance: https://youtu.be/fI1OeMmwYjU

8. Music in the Renaissance
Musicologists have traced the beginning of Renaissance music back as far as 1300 to as late as the 1470s and ending in the year 1600.
We tend use
The primary musical texture of the period was polyphonic. Polyphonic music has two or more independent, separate melodic lines sounding simultaneously.
The development of printing gave more people access to written music
Renaissance music was much more varied than Medieval music
Music in the Renaissance

9. Music in the Renaissance
Word Painting was common
The rediscovery of treatises on music by Aristotle, Quintilian, and others sparked an interest in music theory’s link to Ancient Greece and Rome
Humanism inspired composers and performers to excel, making virtuosity commonplace
Pythagorean tuning systems were modified to make intervals such as the 3rd and 6th (imperfect consonances) more pleasing to the ear. This dramatically changed their approach to harmonic writing.
Music in the Renaissance

10. Sacred Music in the Renaissance
The two main sacred genres were the mass and the motet
Mass
Musical setting of the Liturgy of the Eucharist
“Ordinary” of the Mass
generally Catholic, Lutheran or Anglican
Five main – and consistent – parts:
Kyrie
Gloria
Credo
Sanctus (with Benedictus)
Agnus Dei
Guillaume Dufay, Missa L’homme armé (Mass on “The Armed Man”), “Kyrie I,” ca. 1450
     

11. Sacred Music in the Renaissance
Motet
polyphonic musical setting
sacred Latin text
not connected to the Liturgy of the Eucharist
“Proper” of the Mass
Other genres popular
Spiritual Madrigals
Lauda
Both are non-liturgical, religious songs.
As in the Middle Ages, the Church still disapproved of musical instruments being used for the performance of sacred music

12. Josquin des Prez (ca. 1450s-1521)
Considered to be the most important composer of the Franco-Flemish School
Wrote over 374 works which includes masses, chansons (French secular songs), and motets
He is best known for his motets
Worked mainly in the North but spent time in Italy in the service of the Sforza family as well as being a singer in the Papal Choir in the Vatican
Often said to be the “first true master” of the Polyphonic style of the High Renaissance
Ave Marie is an excellent example of his style. It is a motet with text from a Latin prayer to the Virgin Mary for 4 voices in an imitative, polyphonic texture
Josquin- Ave Marie:

13. Secular Vocal Music Many different types of songs were written:
chansons ballades rondeaus
secular motets lute songs various,etc.
The madrigal was one of the most popular
originates in Italy around 1522 (Italian)
very popular in England after 1588 (English)
National styles were more pronounced in secular music than sacred music

14. Secular Vocal Music
Secular music flourished in all European courts under the noble patronage
Music often set to poems in various languages (Latin, French, German, English, Italian and Dutch were most common)
Printing press helped spread popular music
All educated people were expected to sing or play an instrument
Dowland “Come Again”:

15. Secular Vocal Music Madrigal Composition for several solo voices
Normally four to five parts
Men and women could sing together
Sung a cappella
Performed by amateur musicians
Text a secular, non-Latin, love poem
Vivid imagery of text and music
“word painting”
Resulted in different moods and styles

16. El Grillo – Josquin de Prez https://youtu.be/SyubnX3s0VM
The cricket is a good singer
Who can hold a long note
Of drinking the cricket sings
But he doesn’t do what birds do,
After they’ve sung a bit,
They go somewhere else,
The cricket always stays put
And when the weather is hottest
He sings solely for love
The cricket is a good singer
Who can hold a long note
Of drinking the cricket sings

17. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525-1594)
Has been called the “Prince of Music”
Italian composer who worked around the time of the Counter-Reformation
The climate of the Counter-Reformation and the Council of Trent led him to write in a fairly conservative style
Said to have “saved polyphony” from banning by the Council of Trent with the Pope Marcellus Mass (1567)
Known for his sacred music, especially his masses
His musical style is often seen as the culmination of Renaissance polyphony
Worked almost entirely in Rome
Wrote 104 masses, 250 sacred motets, 50 spiritual madrigals, etc…
Today, it is his style that is taught to music students as the model of “perfect” 16th century polyphony
Palestrina - “Gloria from the Pope Marcellus Mass”:

18. Palestrina’s Pope Marcellus Mass
Acapella choir SATTBB

19. Musical Characteristics
Literature grew humanistic interest in music
Music was to enhance the meaning of text
Word Painting - represents poetic image
“descending from heaven …”
“running…”
“alone…”

20. Word Painting
A musical technique in which music metaphorically (or literally) imitates the text
sad harmonies accompanying lyrics about death
ascending scales to accompany lyrics about ascending into Heaven)
Exercise: In the melody above, try to find as many examples of word painting as you can. Even if you do not read music it is possible if you remember that the higher the note on the musical staff the higher the pitch and visa versa.
Comfort Ye ... Every Valley from Handel's Messiah

21. Instrumental Music in the Renaissance
Still considered to be less important than vocal music but was becoming more and more respected
Instruments were originally used only for simple dance music or to accompany singers
In the Renaissance, instrumental music became as polyphonic and sophisticated as vocal music

22. Instrumental Music in the Renaissance
Instrumental musical genres or forms can be divided into a number of general types
Improvisatory or free-form (Ex: Fantasia)
Arrangements of vocal music (Entabulations)
Newly composed dances based on popular dance forms,
Variations on famous melodies (Ex: Diferencias)
composed with a well-known repeated chord progression (Ex: Folias)
The Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Instruments is an excellence resource for learning about early instruments -

23. Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
First great composer of the Baroque era to be attacked for being too radical.
Called “the last great madrigalist and the first great opera composer”
Wrote his first opera; Orfeo (1607) while working at St. Mark’s.
Orfeo is considered the first masterpiece of Opera.
Monteverdi became the choirmaster at St. Mark’s which was considered the most prestigious musical position in Europe.
Read Orfeo.

24. Recitative vs. Aria
Recitative is dialogue, often gets across mostly plot information in the opera
While the Aria communicates the character’s emotions
Recitative:
Aria : (Nessun Dorma)

25. Opera : Carmen French composer Georges Bizet
The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on a novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée
1st performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875
Carmen has since become one of the most popular and frequently performed operas

26. Pentatonix – Evolution of Music