Renaissance Music
Humanism
• Renewed interest in Greek and Roman arts,
philosophy, scholarly writing
• Encouraged secularism and pursuit of worldly
pleasures
• Interest in beauty and aesthetics
• Individual expression was encouraged
Sacred Music
• Motets and masses performed in Latin continued to
dominate Catholic music
• Protestant churches utilized simpler music and German
text
• Interest in technical mastery of the voice or instrument
increased the complexity and difficulty of music
• Modal polyphony continued to be popular
• Intervals of unison, fourth, fifth, and octave were
considered consonant, or “perfect,” while all other
intervals were considered dissonant and were to be
used sparingly and with great care
Notable Composers
• Josquin Deprez (1440-1521)
– French
– Acclaimed composer, one of the first to have his works
published in his lifetime
– Ave Maria—motet
• Giovanni Palestrina (1525-1594)
– Melodic lines tend to include a small range without
any wide intervals
– Utilizes dissonance carefully—thirds, suspensions
– “Tu Es Petrus”
Secular Music
•
Reflect a change in society
– Music making was a social activity, though the groups that assembled were small
•
Madrigal
– Sung and played by upper and middle class members of society
– Polyphony and homophony both used
– Imitation-a melodic idea is presented in one voice then immediately repeated (often
transposed a fourth or fifth away) in another voice
– Text often on topics of love or nature, many are light-hearted and humorous
– Word painting—meaning of the words are manipulated as literal representations in the music
(i.e. an ascending melodic line on the word “ascending”)
– “Fa la la” or other syllable sometimes used in place of text—thought by some to be a way to
censor inappropriate subject matter
– “As Vesta Was From Latmos Hill Descending”
– “Now Is the Month of Maying”
– “Fair Phyllis I Saw”
•
Chanson
– French counterpart to the Madrigal
Notable Composers
• Orlando de Lassus
• England
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–
–
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Thomas Morley
Thomas Weelkes
John Dowland
John Farmer
• France
– Claudin de Sermisy
• Italy
– Carlo Gesualdo