RENAISSANCE MUSIC

RENAISSANCE MUSIC

RENAISSANCE MUSIC PROJECT

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

During  the  Renaissance,  the  Church  underwent  some  internal turmoil  that  broke  the  unity  of  Christianism.  New  Protestant  religions  looked for  new  forms  for  their  liturgy. The  Catholic  Church  reacted  against  Protestantism  with  the  so  called Counter-Reformation,  and  continued  with  its  rich  musical  tradition.

MUSIC CHARACTERISTICS

Renaissance music had a polyphonic texture: compositions for several voices (which followed different melodies and/or rhythms). The most used polyphonic writing technique was the imitative counterpoint, where the different voices imitate each other.

 Listen to this piece.
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RELIGIOUS VOCAL MUSIC

Religious vocal music had similar characteristics in all of Europe’s kingdoms.

·  Composers were hired as chapel masters at cathedrals and travelled very often.

·  Main religious vocal music genres:

o   Motet. Piece for several voices (4 or 5), religious text in Latin, polyphonic texture, use of the counterpoint.

o   Mass. A collection of the main prayers in a mass, in sung form: Kyrie eleison (‘Lord, have mercy’), Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei (‘Lamb of God’).

Main composers: Josquin des Prez, Orlando di Lasso, Giovanni Perluigi da Palestrina, Cristóbal de Morales, Francisco Guerrero and Tomás Luis de Victoria
Listen to this fragment from the Ave Maria Stella mass by the great Spanish Renaissance composer Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548 – 1611).
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Listen to this Ave María by Tomás Luis de Victoria and  follow the track with the help of  the  score. 
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SECULAR VOCAL MUSIC

Secular  vocal  music  became  more  and  more  important  in  relation  to  religious  vocal  music.

Musical  forms  varied  depending  on  the  country  and have a close relation with the poetry of the time, dealing  with  all  kinds  of  subjects regarding  humans  and  their  emotions.

The main vocal musical genres were:

• Chanson. Lyrics in French, simple melodies, sung by 4 or 5 voices, diversity of themes (love, satirical, etc). It has a descriptive character  and  it  often  uses  musical  onomatopoeias  like  the  singing  of  birds.
• Madrigal. Lyrics in Italian, by 4 or 5 voices, with compound  polyphonic  texture. love themes. The  most  important  composers  were  Orlando  di Lasso  (1531-1594),  Carlo GesuaIdo (1560 -1630)  and Claudio Monteverdi  (1567 -1643).

In Spain, secular vocal polyphony had a strong popular character,  which provided European music with a completely original repertoire,  based on traditional melodies, syllabic style and  simple homophonic textures.

• Villancico. Usually made up of four voices with simple homophonic  texture, it follows a text structured in choruses and coplas". lts main  characteristic is that the last verses of the copla act as a <volta>,  repeating the melody of the chorus. Main composers of villancicos: Juan del Encina and Juan Vázquez.

Listen to the following musical fragments and, bearing in mind the explanation above, state which genre each one belongs to. 

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You will hear, now, four fragments which belong to two vocal pieces and their two corresponding instrumental versions.
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Listen to a fragment of the villancico Cu-cu by Juan del Encina, adapted by two different performers.
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Listen to a fragment of Now is the month of maying by the composer Thomas Morley
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INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

The  concept  of  orchestra  as  a  stable  group  did  not  exist  in  group  music  yet.  That  is  why  instruments  were  not  specified  on  the  score  and the  pieces  were  performed  according  to  the  available  means  of  the occasion.

Instrument  families  were  divided  into  two  categories  depending  on sound  power  and  not  on  their  timbric  or  performing  similarities:

- Haut*  music:  formed  by  instruments  with  great  sound  power (Winds and percussion). These were  groups  intended  for  outdoor  performances  or  public  events.

- Bas*  music:  formed  by  instruments  of  soft  sound  intensity (Plucked string and struck string). These were  groups  intended  for  indoor  performances.

The  favorite  solo  instruments  were  plucked  string  instruments  (lute and  vihuela)  and  keyboard  instruments  (organ  and harpsichord),  all of  them  polyphonic.

The  number  of  wind  instruments  increased  and  many  of  them  were built  in  families  of  different  sizes  in  order  to  cover  the  complete  tessitura  of  voices.

Listen to the following three fragments from Renaissance instruments.
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RENAISSANCE INSTRUMENTS

Here you have a magnificent collection of videos about Renaissance.

 And here you'll learn everything about the "Piffaro Renaissance Band".