1. Chapter 9 Renaissance Music
Insert CD 3 and click on Contents. Bring up Josquin’s “Kyrie” (CD 3, 15) and then minimize it. Have CD 1 handy for Palestrina’s “Sicut cervus” (CD 1, 16) and Weelkes’s “As Vesta” (CD 1, 19).
Chapter 9
Renaissance Music

2. The Renaissance Outlook
Rebirth of interest in ancient civilizations
Humanism
Many great works of art
Gutenberg’s invention of movable type
Age of exploration
The “Renaissance man” – Leonardo da Vinci
For over one thousand years the accomplishments of the Greek and Roman civilizations had been forgotten or held to be pagan and undesirable. Beginning around 1450 this outlook was to change. The attitudes of otherworldliness and humility gave way to optimism, naturalism, and individualism. But the most important new “ism” was humanism. It is the belief in the importance of pleasure for its own sake, in life here and now. The photos of the two statues on page 75 of the book illustrate well the differences between the Medieval and Renaissance outlooks.
An invention that changed the world was Gutenberg’s movable type, which made printed material much more accessible. Previously material had to be written by hand or engraved or printed from a block.
The Renaissance was a time of many outstanding painters: Botticelli, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Durer, Brueghel, to name a few. It was also the age when explorers sought out the New World. They include Columbus, Balboa, Magellan, Hudson, and Cabot.
The most recognized “Renaissance man” was Leonardo da Vinci. There seemed to be nothing that he did not do extremely well: design weapons, recite stories, paint, depict human anatomy, plan cities, make maps, and do mathematical analyses. His notebooks contained nearly 7,000 pages!

3. The Renaissance Mass Ordinary set to music
Based on phrase of Gregorian chant
Addition of bass voice part
Points of imitation
Josquin: Kyrie from Pange lingua Mass
© Schirmer, Cengage Learning
Renaissance composers usually wrote musical settings of only the Ordinary of the Mass in a polyphonic texture. Masses tended to use a phrase from Gregorian chant as the basis for the music. This phrase was not confined to just one part, as it is in the medieval motet.
An important change in choral music was the addition of the bass voice. This allowed for a greater range of pitches available to composers, and it also gave the music a firmer tonal foundation.
A technique that is apparent in Josquin’s Kyrie and Palestrina’s “Sicut cervus” is the use of points of imitation. The initial seven or so notes of a phrase would enter one after another. After the short segment containing imitation was done, the voice part continued in free counterpoint. One reason for this technique was to make the text clearer. In polyphonic music the voice parts do not sing the same words at the same time. A point of imitation gives the listener a lead-in to the text, something like saying, “O, say can you see” with the realization that listeners know that the following words will be, “by the dawn’s early light.”
Josquin’s Kyrie from Pange lingua Mass (CD 3, 15) is based on a phrase of Gregorian chant, contains a bass voice part, and presents points of imitation.
Copyright © 2010 by Schirmer Cengage Learning

4. The Renaissance Motet Sacred polyphonic work for voices
All parts sing same text
Sung in Latin
Sung by small groups of men and boys
The Renaissance motet is quite different from the medieval motet. Both are polyphonic works for voices, but there the similar largely ends. The Renaissance motet has all the parts singing the same text, which because it is a religious work, is in Latin.
Composers did not specify the number of singers who should sing the work, but we know that choral groups were small at that time. Many of them consisted of between eight and twelve singers. The soprano and alto parts were sung by boys or men singing in falsetto voice. (Women were not permitted to sing in worship services at that time.)

5. The Renaissance Motet New lines of text introduced in imitation
No strong feeling of chord progressions
Limited feeling of meter
Sung without accompaniment (a cappella)
The points of imitation mentioned in conjunction with Josquin’s Kyrie can be heard in “Sicut cervus” (CD 1, 16). Because a motet is conceived in a linear sense, it lacks a sense of chords progressing. Motets also have little feeling of meter, although they have an even flow. In fact, the music for motets did not have bar lines during Palestrina’s lifetime. Measure bars were added later by editors.
The ideal of the motet is a purity of sound, which indicates that it should be sung a cappella. However, during the Renaissance it was not at all unusual for instruments to double the voice parts. But composers did not write any accompanying parts for motets.

6. The Renaissance Motet Very singable and smooth vocal lines
Form determined by text
Polyphonic voice lines fit together beautifully
Restrained, reverent quality
Palestrina: “Sicut cervus”
The range of voice parts usually stays within one octave, except for the bass. The form of a motet depends on the form of the text. Normally there is little repeating of lines of music.
The beauty of a work like “Sicut cervus” lies in Palestrina’s great skill in weaving lines together. It is not that any of the lines is an outstanding melody, or that the work builds to a climactic point. Rather, it is in clarity and beauty of the combinations of notes. The restrained quality was strongly encouraged by the Council of Trent ( ), which wanted a return to the purity of earlier music in the Church. Palestrina’s work (CD 1, 16) certainly achieves that goal.
Copyright © 2010 by Schirmer Cengage Learning

7. The Madrigal Secular work, often polyphonic, for small vocal group
Differs from a motet
Vernacular languages
Texts often deal with love
Tend to be more rhythmic
Sung at social gatherings
Madrigals are similar in some ways to motets. They are for small groups of singers, are usually sung without accompaniment, and have singable vocal lines. But there are important differences. They are in vernacular languages – French, Italian, English, German. Their texts are certainly not spiritual. Actually, some of them are quite earthy and erotic.
Madrigals tend to be more rhythmic than motets. Their tempos are usually faster and the voice parts often move together. And madrigals were not sung in churches. Instead, they were sung at social events and meetings of learned societies.

8. Word Painting Often music depicts words being sung
Weelkes’s “As Vesta Was . . ” examples:
“descending”
“came running down amain”
“two by two,” “three by three,” “together”
Word painting is also referred to as “text painting.” It was an attempt by the composer to depict the words of the text. “As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending” by Thomas Weelkes contains several clear examples of word painting.
If you bring up the Active Listening Guides and click on Weelkes’s “As Vesta,” you will see a button for “Hot Words.” Clicking on one or more of those buttons will play just the portion that illustrates the particular use of word painting.
Copyright © 2010 by Schirmer Cengage Learning

9. Renaissance Instrumental Music
Lute
Dance music
Pavane
Galliard
Although vocal music predominated in the Renaissance, some instrumental music was composed. The lute was the most prominent instrument. Lute players would sometimes play a version of a madrigal on their lutes.
They also played dance music, as did other instruments including early versions of string instruments (such as gambas) and woodwinds (including shawms).
Copyright © 2010 by Schirmer Cengage Learning

10. Summary The Renaissance outlook The Renaissance Mass
Josquin: Kyrie
The Renaissance motet
Palestrina: “Sicut cervus”
The Madrigal
Weelkes: “As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending”
Renaissance instrumental music
Potential examination items
Terms Chanson
Renaissance motet
A cappella
Madrigal
Text painting
Melodies
Rhythm
Texture
Dynamic levels
Performance media
Forms
Information Intellectual outlook of the Renaissance
Features of the Renaissance Mass
Characteristics of the Renaissance motet
Usual voice parts of a choral group
Characteristics of a madrigal
Who Josquin Des Prez was
Who Giovanni Palestrina was
Nature of Renaissance instrumental music