Sacred Genre of the
Renaissance (1450-1600)
• MASS
• Service music of Church
• MOTET
• Based on sacred Latin text
Important composers of
the Renaissance
• Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474)
• Josquin des Prez (c. 1440-1521)
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c.
1525-94)
RENAISSANCE MASS
• concentration on the Ordinary
• texts do not change
• Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus
Dei
• Secular Influences
• using non-religious songs in the Mass
Guillaume Dufay(1397-1474)
• Born in Burgundy, worked in Italy, then
returned to Cambrai
Kyrie from L’homme armé Mass
• By Dufay
• Kyrie: first musical part of the Mass
• Text in three parts: Lord have mercy,
Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy
• Sound: different from Medieval music?
• Texture: homophonic or polyphonic?
• Meter: triple or duple?
Kyrie from L’homme armé Mass
• Listening Guide 7
• Based on popular tune called L’homme
armé
• Use of preexisting tune is called
CANTUS FIRMUS
• Slow notes, in tenor voice
• Three sections or music: (Lord have
mercy-Christ have mercy, Lord have
mercy)
Josquin Desprez
• (c. 1440-1521)
• Another Flemish composer who worked
in Italy:
• Ducal chapel at Milan,
• Sistine chapel in Rome
• Ferrara
• Later returned north-provost of church of
Notre Dame in Conde sur ‘Escaut.
Josquin Desprez
• One of the first composers to have his
works widely performed throughout
Europe
• Emerging concept of genius
Josquin, Ave Maria… Virgo serena
• Listening guide 8
• Motet
• A sacred work in Latin
• Different Textures
• IMITATION: a melody is presented in one voice
and restated in another
• homophony: melody and accompaniment
Josquin Ave Maria
• homophonic writing used to bring out
the text in specific places-- as a type
of musical rhetoric
• At Hail, true virginity
• at the personal prayer-- “Remember ME”
• Different combinations of voices
• How is the sound different from that of
Medieval music?
Church History
• Protestant reformation
• Early 16th century
• Counter-Reformation
• Response of Catholic church to reformation
• Council of Trent
• Reform movement in Catholic Church
• 1545-63
• Decided that text should be understood in
church music
Giovanni Palestrina
• Most important composer of late
Renaissance
• 1525-94
• Italian, worked in Rome at Sistine
Chapel and St. Peter’s.
Pope Marcellus Mass (Gloria)
• By Palestrina
• The Legend of Palestrina
• Six voice texture (full sound)
• Clear text setting
• Ideals of Council of Trent (1545-1563)
• Different combinations of voices
• Often uses reduced voicing