General Characteristics
of Renaissance Music
• Overall sound is much smoother
and more homogeneous
• Strict and free imitation
Anonymous Chanson L’homme
armeé
• Strophic
• Rhythmic drive
• Almost entirely syllabic
Josquin Desprez (c. 1440-1521)
Kyrie from the Missa L’homme armeé
• Point of imitation technique
• Overlapping cadences
• Paired imitation
• Mass ordinary
• Cantus firmus mass
• Three sections
Palestrina (c. 1525-1594)
Motet Super flumina Babylonis
• 5 voices, 2 independent tenors
• Text/music rhythms match
• Word painting
• Variety of textures
• Exceptional blending of imitation
and homophony
Thomas Morley (1557-1602)
Two English Madrigals
• Highly imitative
• Word painting
• Secular
Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1555-1612)
Canzona Duodecimi Toni
• Purely instrumental
• Brass choirs
• Antiphonal
• Overlapping cadences
• Dynamic contrasts
• Canzona rhythm
The Renaissance
We begin with a brief review of the fourteenth century, which in
terms of music, marked the close of the Middle Ages and the
dawn of the Renaissance.
• This era saw an end to the absolute authority of the
medieval Church and an explosive growth in secular art.
• The composers of isorhythm--the most representative
compositional technique of the late Middle Ages--created
awesomely complex and highly intellectualised music.
• Guillaume de Machaut was the greatest composer and
poet of the fourteenth century.
The Renaissance
The Renaissance era was shaped by several social and intellectual
movements and events.
•
Humanism was the dominant intellectual movement of
the Renaissance, emphasizing human life and
accomplishments rather than religious doctrine and the
afterlife.
•
The Renaissance was an age of geographic
exploration.
•
Classicism--the study of the language, literature,
philosophy, art, and architecture of ancient Greece and
Rome--held special fascination for Renaissance
scholars.
The Renaissance
•
The Protestant Reformation profoundly shook the
power of the Catholic Church.
•
The invention of the printing press made possible the
broader dissemination of knowledge.
•
Visual art showed new clarity and perspective.
•
Renaissance musical composers sought to recapture
the classical Greek ideal of music: both secular and
religious composers sought to create more expressive,
meaningful music.
•
Education
The Renaissance
Several aesthetic innovations were
adopted in music during the
Renaissance.
1. The music must clearly project or articulate the
words.
2. Music should also reflect the meaning and feeling
of the spoken or written word, e.g., through tone
or word painting.
The Renaissance
Technical innovations were also adopted.
1. The Renaissance saw much experimentation with new tunings,
harmonic structures, and notational techniques. Renaissance
composers adopted the Greek view of music as a sonic
manifestation of the "order" of the cosmos.
2. The science of harmony began to evolve during the
Renaissance.
3. Composed homophony--harmonized melody--appeared for the
first time.
The Renaissance
The most representative composer in the high
Renaissance style was Josquin des Prez (c.
1440-1521).
1. Josquin was born in northern France and split his career
between France and Italy.
2. He composed in the high Renaissance style:
•
•
•
•
Melodic Surface
Melodies
Harmony
Printing Press