Objectives
- Recognize the differences between the Medieval and Renaissance periods in terms of society, religion, art, science, and freedom.
- Explain how Renaissance musicians made their living.
- Use relevant musical vocabulary to analyze Renaissance a cappella singing.
- Distinguish the characteristics of Renaissance music, and differentiate between Renaissance music and Medieval music.
- Illustrate how composers used the motet, a sacred genre with a Latin devotional text, to experiment in musical style and texture.
- Describe how Renaissance composers set texts from the Ordinary of the Mass for their polyphonic Masses.
- Describe how instrumental dance music was performed by professional and amateur musicians.
Sacred Music in the Renaissance (1450-1600)
The secular tradition
Several important aspects of Renaissance music can only be understood when we look at the secular and instrumental music of the era. Most of the major sacred music composers of this period also wrote secular music. Guillaume Dufay, for example, wrote more than seventy chansons setting verses in the fashionable forms of the time: the ballade, the virelai, and rondeau. In addition, most of the forerunners of modern instruments, if not the instruments themselves, originated during the Renaissance. Finally, some of the most important musical genres established during the Renaissance involved the creation of new secular music forms.
Composer: Anonymous
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"Rodrigo Martinez"
In addition to being a time of great religious fervor, the sixteenth century was also a period of bawdy earthiness, irreverent humor, and celebration of sensual love. The same composers who created works to further the glory of God also wrote compositions of an entirely different character. In Italy and England, the principal form of secular music was the madrigal, which in France was called chanson, and in Germany the lied. The madrigal is one of the most representative examples of new developments in vocal music.
Renaissance musicians looked at Italy for models and inspiration. In Italy, the notion of academies, organized associations of intellectual aristocrats, led to the frequent gathering and exchange of ideas between artists, poets, musicians, and to the regular performance of new musical works. Early operas such as Peri's Euridice (1600), Monteverdi's Orfeo (1607), and Cesti's L'Argia (1670) were conceived at academies. By the middle of the 16th century, there were some 200 academies in Italy. This type of activity was soon imitated all over Europe. Music was no longer just accessible to the aristocracy and nobility, but slowly became infiltrated into the daily lives of common people. By the end of the century, some academies, including three of the five in Ferrara, Italy, were already specializing in the study of music.
Secular Vocal Music
The Madrigal
The characteristic Renaissance madrigal is a poem set to music. The texts, written in the vernacular—the language of the people—were often twelve-line poems whose subjects were sentimental or erotic. The main function of the music was to enhance the poetry through a technique called "word painting," which attempted to capture the expressive possibilities of words throught musical means. Even though texts are almost always about love—love lost, love found, pure love, and even lust—themes could also be pastoral or mythological. Regardless, the tone of the madrigal is generally playful, even in works with sad texts.
The madrigal originated in 14th-century northern Italy. The earliest ones (ca. 1320) are usually set to two voices. These early madrigals have nothing in common with the later 16th-century pieces of the same name. The later madrigals (ca. 1525-50) were written in a predominantly homophonic style, and usually featured three, and sometimes four voices. Similar to the motet, they mixed homophonic and polyphonic textures. In terms of structure, they followed the verse/chorus form.
Composer: John Dowland
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"Come again: Sweet Love Doth Now Invite"
Composer: John Farmer
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"Fair Phyllis"
Later, during the final phase of the Italian madrigal and into the Baroque period, i.e., from around 1580 to 1620, madrigals became even more elaborate compositions: They were written for four and, sometimes up to five or six voices, used forms other than the verse/chorus form, ventured into a rich chromatic language, enhanced virtuosity, and featured more even more vivid word painting.
By 1588, a volume of madrigals translated from the Italian had been published in London. This event led to the adoption of the madrigal by English composers. In their work, which featured simpler melodies and harmonies, the madrigal became lighter, less complicated, and more humorous in style.
In addition to being a time of great religious fervor, the sixteenth century was also a period of bawdy earthiness, irreverent humor, and celebration of sensual love....
John Farmer (1570-1601)
John Farmer's Faire Phyllis I saw sitting all alone included in his madrigal collection of 1599, is probably one of the best-known examples of a four-part madrigal. Although the facts of Farmer's life are obscure, he is known to have been organist of Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, and, later, to have lived in London. Farmer is considered to be one of the most accomplished madrigalists of the English school.
Faire Phyllis
John Farmer (1570-1601)
Faire Phyllis I saw sitting all alone,
Feeding her flock near to the mountainside.
The shepherds knew not whither she was gone,
But after her lover Amyntas hied.
Up and down he wandered whilst she was missing;
When he found her, Oh then they fell a-kissing.
At some point or another, almost every composer in the late 16th century composed madrigals or regional variations of madrigals. Again, keep in mind that most of these composers also wrote sacred or instrumental music.
Motet
During the Renaissance period, many new methods of writing motets were introduced. The most prolific motet composer was Josquin des Prez, whose compositions consisted of four to six voices. Like the motets of the Medieval period, the text was always in Latin and taken from either the Bible or the liturgy of the Mass.
Composer: Josquin des Prez
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"Ave Maria...virgo serena"
Anthem
Anthems were sung in English but followed the overall structure of the Renaissance motet. The full anthem is like the four-part hymns we sing today, while the verse anthem alternated soloists, instrumentalists and choral sections.
- The Full Anthem: Entire choir singing in motet style throughout a piece.
- The Verse Anthem: Combination of soloists, chorus, and instrumental music.
Composer: Orlando Gibbons
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"O Clap Your Hands"
Composer: 0
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"The Verse Anthem"
Chanson
In the 16th century, the chanson (the French word for "song") was to France what the madrigal was to Italy and England. Early chansons were developed in the work of Clement Janequin (c.1485-1558). Chansons had strongly accented rhythms, frequent repetitions, and short phrases with all parts ending simultaneously. They were usually sung by three, four, or five voices, and sections of simple imitation alternated with sections that were essentially homophonic. One of the most interesting elements of the madrigal style was word painting, which was a new attempt to represent the literal meaning of the text through music. Word painting occurred frequently in the early chansons. Janequin wrote several program chansons, in which the music imitates a nonmusical ideal. An example is his Chant des Oiseaux (Song of the Birds), in which the singer's voices imitate the sounds of birds such as the cuckoo.
Composer: Josquin des Prez
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"Faulte d'argent"
Composer: Clément Janequin
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"Le Chant des Oiseaux"
Ayre
Ayres, primarily homophonic compositions, were, in some instances, sung by vocal ensembles accompanied by the lute. The main goal of all writers of lute songs was to convey the story and the emotions behind the verse. John Dowland (1563-1626) was the most famous lutenist-composer of his day.
The Lied
In Germany, the counterpart to the French chanson was the lied, meaning "song." The lied (plural, lieder) dates from the middle of the 15th century. The early lieder provided the Lutheran church with many melodies for chorale tunes. The first important lied composer was Heinrich Isaac (c.1450-1517).
A few secular song types from the Middle Ages, such as the French chanson and the English carol, survived into the 15th century. Numerous other song types also emerged, including the villancico in Spain, the quodlibet in Germany, and the frottola in Italy, to name a few. These songs, written in the local vernacular, achieved varying levels of sophistication and polyphony. Nonetheless, the madrigal was the most popular and innovative vocal genre to emerge from the Renaissance.
The Renaissance was the golden age of music in England...
