Introduction to Music
Chapter 3 - Music in the Renaissance (1450 - 1600)
Renaissance literally means “rebirth,” and the Renaissance era in music, literature and
art refers to a rebirth of human creativity. The dominant intellectual movement was
“humanism,” which focused on human life and its accomplishments. There was much
less concern over heaven and hell in the Renaissance than there was in the Middle Ages.
Some major events and ideas outside of music during this time included: the voyages of
Christopher Columbus (1492), Vasco da Gama (1498), and Ferdinand Magellan (1519 1522); the invention of printing press with moveable type (ca. 1450); the Protestant
Reformation led by Martin Luther (1483 - 1546).
An educated man in Renaissance society was expected to be trained in music. Musicians
continued to work in churches, courts and towns, and the size of church choirs increased
greatly. A court would often have ten to sixty singers and instrumentalists (including
women), many of which would travel with the nobility from castle to castle. Due to the
humanism movement, composers were no longer content to remain unknown. They often
signed their names to their music in order to receive credit for their work.
There characteristics of music were changing from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance.
Some aspects that were changing were the words and music, the texture, and the rhythm
and melody. Vocal music was still more important than instrumental music at this time,
and the humanistic interest of this era greatly influenced the relationship between the
words and the music. The music was written to enhance the mood of the music. A
technique that was often implemented to reach this goal was called word painting. With
word painting, certain images drawn from the words would be reflected in the music.
For example, the words descending from heaven might be set to a descending melodic
line. As another example, the word sun may be sung on a very high note since the sun is
high in the sky. The texture of music during the Renaissance was mainly polyphonic,
with a typical choral piece having four to six voice parts. Homophonic music was used
mainly for light music such as dances. The bass register was used for the first time
during this era, making the music sound fuller. Stable, consonant chords were preferred
in Renaissance music, and choral music did not need accompaniment (this is often
referred to as a cappella). The rhythm of Renaissance music has a gentle flow rather
than a sharp beat due to each melodic line having rhythmic independence.
Sacred Music
There were two main types of sacred music during the Renaissance period: motets and
masses. A motet is a polyphonic choral work set to a sacred Latin text that is not a part
of the ordinary of the mass. A mass is a polyphonic choral work made up of the five
sections of the ordinary of the mass whose texts do not change: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo,
Sanctus, and Agnus Dei.
Josquin Desprez (ca. 1440 - 1521) was a Flemish composer with an international career;
however, he spent most of his life in Italy. His compositions include masses, motets, and
secular pieces, all of which influenced other composers as well as the general public.
Ave maria… Virgo Serena (1502) is a four voice motet with varying texture including
imitation (a type of polyphony) and some seemingly homophonic parts. We will listen to
this piece in class.
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (ca. 1525 - 1594) was an Italian composer who devoted
himself to music for the Catholic church. His career was centered in Rome, where he
was the music director for St. Peter’s. He wrote 104 masses and 450 other sacred works.
Church authorities have regarded his masses as models of church music due to their
calming quality. It was during his time that the Reformation took place, and other sacred
music was questioned because of their use of secular tunes, etc. It was partly because of
this that many thought polyphony should be banned from the church. However, pieces
such as Palestrina’s Pope Marcellus Mass (1562 - 1563) helped influence the Council of
Trent’s (formed to consider all that was being questioned by Martin Luther in the
Reformation) decision to keep polyphonic music in the church. This, his most famous
mass, was named for Pope Marcellus II (reigned in 1555), and was written for six voice
parts (soprano, alto, 2 tenors, 2 basses).
Secular Music
Music was often set to poems in various languages (Italian, French, Spanish, Dutch, and
English), either for groups of solo voices or for solo voice with accompaniment. Many of
these pieces used word painting. The most common type of vocal secular music during
the Renaissance was the madrigal, a piece for several solo voices set to a short poem,
usually about love. It combines homophonic and polyphonic textures much like a motet.
The Renaissance madrigal originated in Italy around 1520, and a volume of Italian
madrigals was published in London in 1588. This publication sparked a spurt of
madrigal writing by English composers in which the madrigals became somewhat light
and humorous, with simpler melodies and harmonies. As Vesta Was Descending (1601)
by Thomas Weelkes (ca. 1575 - 1623) is from The Triumphes of Oriana, an anthology
of English madrigals written to honor Queen Elizabeth.
Instruments traditionally accompanied voices or played music intended for singing.
Originally, instrumental groups performed polyphonic vocal pieces, and soloists used the
harpsichord, organ, or lute. During the 16th century, more music was written specifically
for instruments, and forms such as theme and variations were developed. Much of the
instrumental music of the day was intended for dancing. Some dances included the
pavane (stately, in duple meter) and the galliard (lively, in triple meter). Outdoor
instruments of the time included the trumpet and the shawm (an ancestor of the oboe).
Indoor instruments included the lute and the recorder. Recorders and viols (bowed string
instruments) were among the most important of the Renaissance period. Composers
often did not specify what instrument was to be played, leaving it up to the choice of the
performers and the instruments that were available.