The Enjoyment of Music 10th
Shorter Edition
The Enjoyment of Music 10th, Shorter Edition
Unit IV
The Renaissance
The Enjoyment of Music 10th, Shorter Edition
14. The Renaissance Spirit
The Renaissance (c. 1450–1600)
“I am not pleased with the Courtier if he be not also a
musician, and besides his understanding and cunning
[in singing] upon the book, have skill in like manner on
sundry instruments.”
—Baldassare Castiglione
The Enjoyment of Music 10th, Shorter Edition
The Arts in the Renaissance
• Shift from religious to secular
• Italy
The Enjoyment of Music 10th, Shorter Edition
Musicians in Renaissance Society
• Churches, cities, and courts
• Trades of instrument building, printing, and music
publishing
• Merchant-class music patrons
• Amateur musicians
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Renaissance Musical Style
• A cappella singing
• Polyphony based on Continuous imitation
Marenzio: “La bella ninfa mia”
• a cappella
• continuous imitation
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Renaissance Musical Style
Weelkes: “Welcome Sweet Pleasure”
Couperin: “Les barricades misterieuses” (Baroque)
• Word painting
• Cantus firmus
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The Enjoyment of Music 10th
Shorter Edition
The Enjoyment of Music 10th, Shorter Edition
15. Renaissance Sacred Music
“We know by experience that song has
great force and vigor to move and inflame
the hearts of men to invoke and praise God
with a more vehement and ardent zeal.”
—John Calvin
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The Early Renaissance Mass
• Mass Ordinary
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Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei
• Latin vs. vernacular
• Early Masses based on Gregorian chant
cantus firmus
• Requiem:
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“Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine”
“Dies irae”
Palestrina: Missa in Festis Apostolorum I, Agnus Dei
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The Motet in the Renaissance
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Single Latin text
Marian motets (Virgin Mary)
Written for 3, 4, or more voices
Cantus firmus
Josquin: Ave Maria…virgo serena
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(c. 1450–1521)
Josquin des Prez and the Motet
“He is the master of the notes. They have to
do as he bids them; other composers have to
do as the notes will.”
—Martin Luther
• Called Josquin
• Franco-Flemish origin
• Italian career
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(c. 1450–1521)
Josquin des Prez and the Motet
• Patrons
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Milan, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza
Ferrara, Ercole d’Este
Rome, papal choir
• Humanistic writing
• Sacred and secular music
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Josquin: Ave Maria . . . virgo serena
(Listening Guide)
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Renaissance motet
Combinations of voices and textures
Quotation of chant
Rest of work is newly composed
Imitative vs. homorhythmic sections
Final couplet: simple texture, example of
humanistic spirit
Listening Guide PDF
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Josquin: Ave Maria . . . virgo serena
(Listening Guide)
Opening
• Renaissance motet
• 4 voices (SATB)
• Continuous imitation
• Chant quotation
• Duple meter
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Josquin: Ave Maria . . . virgo serena
(Listening Guide)
• Combinations of voices and textures
• After opening quotation of chant
rest of work is newly composed
• Imitative vs. homorhythmic sections
• Final couplet: simple texture, example of
humanistic spirit
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The Late Renaissance Mass
• Martin Luther (1483–1546): Reformation
• Counter-Reformation (1530s–1590s)
• Council of Trent
Corruption of chant by embellishment
Use of certain instruments in religious services
Incorporation of popular music in Masses
Secularism of music
Irreverent attitude of church musicians
• Pure vocal style that respected the integrity of the
sacred texts
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Palestrina and the
Pope Marcellus Mass
• Giovanni Pierluigi da
Palestrina
– (c. 1525–1594)
– Called Palestrina
• Italian composer,
organist, and choirmaster
• Sistine Chapel Choir
– Pope Julius III
• Wrote mostly sacred
music
“Our wisest mortals have decided
that music should give zest to
divine worship. If people take great
pains to compose beautiful music
for profane [secular] songs, they
should devote at least as much
thought to sacred song, nay, even
more than to mere worldly
matters.” - Palestrina
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Palestrina: Pope Marcellus Mass, Gloria
(Listening Guide)
• Satisfies the new strict demands of the Council of Trent
• Probably performed a capella
• Written for six voice parts
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Soprano (sung by boys or male falsettists)
Alto (sung by male altos or countertenors –tenors with
high voices)
Tenor I
Tenor II
Bass I
Bass II
• Opens with a monophonic intonation
• Choral sections are polyphonic
• Text is clear and audible
Listening Guide PDF
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Palestrina: Pope Marcellus Mass, Gloria
(Listening Guide)
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16. Renaissance Secular Music
Music in Court and City Life
• Professional musicians:
courts and civic functions
• Merchant-class amateurs:
played and sang at home
• Lute, keyboard instrument
• Women and music
• Chanson and madrigal
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“Come sing to me
a bawdy song,
make me merry.”
—Falstaff, in William
Shakespeare’s Henry IV
The Chanson
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Burgundy and France in the 15th century
3 or 4 voices
Courtly love verses
Freer poetic structures
Roland de Lassus
Lassus: “O vin en vigne”
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Instrumental Dance Music
• Period of growth
• Published music
• Played vocal music
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Popular dance types
• Pavane
• Saltarello
• Galliard
• Allemande
Praetorius: Terpsichore, “Courante”
• Ronde
Praetorius: Terpsichore, “Volte”
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Susato: Three Dances
(Listening Guide) Listening Guide PDF
•
Set of three rondes from the 1551 Danserye
collection
– Instrumental dances published by Tielman Susato (c.
1515–c. 1571)
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Performed by a loud wind band
– Loud instruments included: shawm,
sackbut, cornetto, tabor, tambourine
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Binary form (A-A-B-B)
– Repeated sections with added improvised
embellishments
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The Italian Madrigal
“By shallow rivers to whose falls melodious birds
sing madrigals”
- Christopher Marlow
• Chief form of Renaissance secular music
• Italian courts
• Text: short poem of lyric or reflective nature
– Includes “loaded” words
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The Italian Madrigal
• Music: sets text expressively
• Instruments double or substitute for the voices
• Three phases of the madrigal
– First phase (c. 1525–1550)
– Second phase (c. 1550–1580)
– Third phase (c. 1580–1620)
Marenzio: “La bella ninfa mia”
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Monteverdi: Ecco mormorar l'onde
(Listening Guide) Listening Guide PDF
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Courtly poem by Torquato Tasso
Exaggerated contrasts of delight and despair
– Expressed musically with word painting
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Images include waves, rustling leaves, birds'
song, etc.
Five-voice texture
Style inspired by the famous ensemble of
professional women singers
– Concerto delle donne (Ensemble of the Ladies)
– Contrast between high and low voices foreshadows
Baroque techniques
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The English Madrigal
• English further developed the Italian madrigal
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Musica transalpina, 1588
• Simpler and lighter in style
• Refrain syllables (“fa-la-la”)
Weelkes: “Welcome Sweet Pleasure”
“Since singing is so good a thing,
I wish that all men would learne to
sing”
- William Byrd
Morley: “Those Dainty Daffadillies’
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John Farmer (c. 1570–1601)
• Active in 1590s in Dublin
• Organist and master of choirboys
at Christ Church
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Farmer: Fair Phyllis (Listening Guide)
Listening Guide PDF
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Transition I:
From Renaissance to Baroque
• Polychoral Music in Venice
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Relationship to the East
St. Mark’s Basilica
Choirmasters and organists
• Byzantine architecture
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Polychoral music
Antiphonal performance
Gabrieli: “Hodie Christus natus est”
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