The Spread of New Musical Ideas
and Practices to 1600
The Franco-Netherlands group
(or just Netherlands or Franco-Flemish)
• After the Burgundians, many prominent
musicians grew up and trained in present-day
northern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands
• Traveled widely — especially to Italy
Johannes Ockeghem (ca. 1410–1497)
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Singer, composer, director
Student of Du Fay, possibly also of Binchois
1443 — choir of Notre Dame
1445 — Burgundian chapel
Paris — court of the kings of France
– Charles VII through Louis XI
Ockeghem’s works
• Twelve Masses — expanded on Du Fay’s style
– cantus firmus type
– complex styles — intricacies reflect lingering medievalism
• Ten motets in new style
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monotextual
equality of parts, no c.f.
panconsonance with imperfect consonances
through-composed
• Twenty chansons — older cantilena type and newer style
like motet
Ockeghem’s style
• Scoring
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– more homogeneous than preceding style
– dark sound — dense
– low pitch (composer sang bass), added bass part in
clearly lower range than tenor
Rhythm — fluid
Melody — long phrases, little direction
Modal — mystical effect
Canon — “rule” for realizing several parts out of one
— takes place of isorhythm for showing composer’s
skill
Josquin des Prez (ca. 1450–1521)
• Regarded in the sixteenth century
as culminator of period style,
most skillful
• "Josquin is master of the notes,
which must express what he
desires; other choral composers
must do what the notes dictate."
Martin Luther
Josquin’s career
• Netherlands native and died there, wide-ranging career
– born in northern France
– studied with Ockeghem
• Travel to Italy — characteristic for Netherlands composers
– Milan
• cathedral 1459
• patronage of Sforza dukes 1474–1484
– Rome — Papal chapel 1486–1494
• Return to France — royal court 1501–1503
• Return to Italy — Ferrara, court of Duke Ercole 1503
• Netherlands — collegiate church of Condé
Josquin’s works
• Twenty Masses — conservative — often derivative material
– cantus firmus
– fuga based on paraphrase of preexisting melody
– parody
– soggetto cavato
• Ninety-five motets — offered more freedom, textual inspiration than Mass
Ordinary
– more progressive than Masses
– texts from liturgy, Bible, prayer
– techniques — c.f., paraphrase, free
• Ca. seventy secular pieces — most progressive
– Netherlands style of chanson — like motet
• generally more familiar style, rhythmic, syllabic
• some in fixed forms, others free
• four parts in fuga or familiar style, rather than older three-part texture
– Italian — frottola — lighter
• Some instrumental (untexted) pieces
Secular music in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries
Amateur music-making
Regional traditions
Printing and the spread of literacy
• Johannes Gutenberg (late
fourteenth century to
1468)
– invention of printing
from movable type
– Bible completed by 1455
Music printing
• Ottaviano Petrucci (1466–1539)
– music printing from movable type
– Harmonice musices odhecaton A (Venice, 1501)
Music for social use
• Rise of educated, literate class
• Musical self-entertainment in the home
• Musical participation as mark of social status and
culture
Netherlands chanson
• Conservative — motet style
– polyphonic — fuga
– rhythmically fluid
• Important publisher — Tilman Susato (ca. 1500–1560),
Antwerp
French chanson
• Familiar style, rhythmic
• Composers
– Claudin de Sermisy (ca. 1490–1562) — court of Francis I,
traveled to Italy with court
– Clément Janequin (ca. 1485 to ca. 1560) — church musician,
but known mostly for secular pieces
• onomatopoeic pictorialisms — La Guerre, Le Chant des oiseaux
• Publisher — Pierre Attaingnant (1494–1552), Paris —
from 1528
German Lied
• Monophonic tradition of noble Minnesinger continued
by trade-guild Meistersinger
• Polyphonic pieces tend to older style
– often canonic imitation
– tenor-oriented
– frequently incorporated existing monophonic song tunes
• Composers
– Heinrich Isaac (ca. 1450–1517)
– Ludwig Senfl (ca. 1490–1543)
Spanish villancico
• Popular song or modeled on style of popular music
• Rhythm — strongly marked, generally duple, but rather
irregular
• Texture — homorhythmic; three to four voices, early
with text in highest part only, later more parts sung
• Form — similar to earlier fixed forms
– estribillo (refrain) — text abba or abab, music A = abcd
– coplas (stanzas), separated by return of estribillo
• mudanza — text cddc or cdcd, music BB = efef
• vuelta — text abba or dbab, music A = abcd
• Composer Juan del Encina (1468 to ca. 1530)
Italy — the frottola
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Vernacular poetry on amorous or satirical topics
Syllabic
Familiar style (top-voice orientation)
Strong, patterned rhythms
Simple, diatonic harmony
Strophic form
Representative composer, Marco (Marchetto) Cara (ca.
1465–1525)
Italy — the madrigal
• Sources
– Netherlands-style polyphonic chanson
– frottola
– excellent poetry
• Petrarch sonnets — from fourteenth century
• Italian humanist poets of sixteenth century
• Stages of development
– Netherlands composers — simple, restrained style
• ex., Jacques Arcadelt (1504–1567)
– growing expressive devices, complexity
• ex., Cipriano de Rore (1516–1565)
Questions for discussion
• Did national taste, the predilections of particular
patrons, and the personalities of composers affect
music more in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
than in earlier periods?
• How did the printing of music affect musical style
starting in the sixteenth century? Might it have had any
negative effects on music?
• In what ways did the relationship of music to words
increase the vitality of music in the sixteenth century?
What might music have lost in exchange?