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.
Music Characteristics of the Renaissance (1450-1600)
Polyphonic Music
During the Renaissance, the polyphonic experiments of the Middle Ages reached fruition. During no other time in history has polyphonic music been produced more abundantly and beautifully. Only one other figure, the baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach, surpassed the polyphonic achievements of the foremost Renaissance composers.
Composer: Thomas Tallis
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"Te Lucis Ante Terminum"
Composer: Clément Janequin
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"Le Chant des Oiseaux"
For several reasons, the Renaissance is considered the golden age of choral music...
Choral Music
For several reasons, the Renaissance is considered the golden age of choral music. First, more music was written for chorus than at any other time in music history. Second, all of the important forms of the age (motet, mass, anthem, chanson, and madrigal) were choral music forms. Third, across Europe instruments were still in the process of becoming standardized. It took another 150 years for the modern orchestra to start taking shape. The majority of choral music written during the Renaissance was performed a cappella, meaning without accompaniment.
Composer: John Farmer
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"Fair Phyllis"
Composer: Orlando Gibbons
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"O Clap Your Hands"
Composer: Josquin des Prez
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"Ave Maria...virgo serena"
Composer: Josquin des Prez
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"Faulte d'argent"
Composer: Tomás Luis de Victoria
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"O Magnum Mysterium: Kyrie"
Gregorian Chant
Gregorian chant was still used as the basis of many polyphonic church compositions. You may recall that polyphony in the Middle Ages began when composers added melodic lines above the original chant. The chant remained, taking on the name tenor. During the Renaissance, composers of sacred music continued the practice of keeping the original chant as the basis for the main melody; they called this chant the cantus firmus. The cantus firmus did not necessarily have to occupy the tenor part, although that was still the most common place for it.
Composer: Anonymous
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"Quem Quaeritis"
Composer: Jacob Obrecht
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"Missa Caput: Venit ad Petrum"
Modes and Harmony
Although Renaissance composers, particularly sacred music composers, continued to use church modes, they slowly started adopting modes that are equivalent to our present major and minor scales. Probably the most important development in Renaissance music, due in part to the work of Dunstable and other English composers, was giving harmony a much more important role within the composition. Gone were the days when two or three melodies could be placed against each other without consideration for the harmonic consequences. Renaissance composers took great care to make sure that melodies, when placed together, would produce a pleasing harmony.
Composer: Orlande de Lassus
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"Missa Entre Vous Filles: Credo"
Composer: Tomas Luis de Victoria
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"Missa O magnum mysterium: Kyrie"
Composer: Johannes Ockeghem
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"Missa Prolationum: Sanctus"
Characteristics of Renaissance Music
Before we listen to some musical examples from the Renaissance period, let's examine some of the basic characteristics of the music.
Form
- Mostly polyphonic, with the cantus firmus (chant melody) in the lowest voice
- All sorts of imitation between the voices, some of it very complicated, is an important to organizing element.
- Composers often use pre-existing music and often include the entire piece within a larger composition.
- Compositions have a number of sections. Often, each section is the setting of only one line of a text, with rarely any repetition of music from one section to another.
- Repetition and contrast are used in dance forms.
Melody
- Melody is the most important factor in Renaissance music. Harmony and/or rhythm cannot be easily separated from the melody.
- Melodies, even those for instruments, are very vocal in style. The range is rarely more than one octave.
Rhythm
- Rhythm is free from strict meters, and the rhythmic phrases are generally long and overlap between the voices.
- Rhythms are often very complicated
Harmony
- Harmony is a result of the various lines sounding together, but not as a purposeful chord.
Texture
- Texture is mostly polyphonic, until the 16th century, when some sections are homophonic for contrast and variety.
Timbre
- For much of the Renaissance, the human voice was the chosen timbre. Instruments may double the voices in both sacred and secular music.
- Instruments started to be used without voices in the 16th century, particularly the organ and harpsichord.
- Toward the end of the 16th century, ensembles of string or wind instruments were popular with composers and audiences.
- The lute was the most popular stringed instrument.
Composer: Luis de Milán
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"Tiento No. 1"
