Music of the Renaissance - Forest Hills High...
Transcript of Music of the Renaissance - Forest Hills High...
Music of the Renaissance 1450 - 1600
• Renaissance – French word that means “rebirth”
• A Period of intellectual awakening
Music of the Renaissance Historical Themes
• A Rebirth of Classical learning
Rediscovery and reevaluation of writings of the ancient Greeks and Romans
• From feudal system to the modern state
Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, etc.
Feudal system replaced by Hierarchical State led by urban bourgeoisie or despotic nobles
Explorers expanded Europe’s view of the world
Astronomers questioned the earth-centered view of the universe held by the church
• Changed view of the earth and the cosmos
Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei
Music of the Renaissance Musical Context
• Increased Interest in Humanist Learning
Arts - important measure of learning & culture
• Territorial Expansion and Increased Wealth
Renaissance man – polymath
Music – expressive art, not science of number
Printing press – helped spread music rapidly
Colonial expansion brought wealth to European cities and courts
• Increased Patronage of Music
Travel enabled musical exchange – creation of a more international musical style
Courts and Governments supported music
Religious institutions also provided support
Music of the Renaissance Musical Style
• Sacred Music
Older forms such as Motet and Mass continue
• Instrumental Music
Clearest example of International Style
New forms reflecting national trends
Italian Madrigal, French Chanson, for example
More specific types emerged
• Common Features
• Use of four-voice choirs or groups of like-sounding instruments (consorts)
Printing – increase of amateur musicians
• Secular Music
• Harmonies that use full triads
• Melodies with balanced phrases
• Imitative or homorhythmic textures • Smooth, gentle rhythms
Music of the Renaissance Josquin des Prez (1440-1521)
• Considered the greatest composer of the Renaissance
Born in France, moved to Italy
Listening: Ave Maria
Known for both Sacred and Secular Music
Brilliant Text setter (fitting lyrics to music)
Music masks and swells over text
• Criticisms:
Josquin worked for the highest bidder
Music became more important than the words
Music far too difficult for church use
Quality of music is directly related to the amount of money you paid him.
Listening: Mille Regretz (A Thousand Regrets)
Listening: Missa Pange Lingua
Music of the Renaissance Josquin des Prez (1440-1521)
• Josquin's Mille regretz - French chanson
Mille regretz de vous abandonner Et d'eslonger vostre fache amoureuse, Jay si grand dueil et paine douloureuse, Quon me verra brief mes jours definer.
English Translation: A thousand regrets at deserting you and leaving behind your loving face, I feel so much sadness and such painful distress, that it seems to me my days will soon dwindle away. In Modern French: Mille regrets de vous abandonner et d'être éloigné de votre visage amoureux. J'ai si grand deuil et peine douloureuse qu'on me verra vite mourir.
Music of the Renaissance Historical Context – The Reformation
• Martin Luther (1483 – 1546)
German priest and professor of theology
Upset with corruption in the Church
Wrote 95 Thesis (95 reasons)
Nailed it to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral
• Contributions:
• Forbade the sale of indulgences
• Bible translated to German so his people would not have to learn Latin
Excommunicated – sent back to Germany, where he started his own church – “Lutheran”
• Priests could get married
• Composed his own tunes; took secular tunes and set religious texts to them
• He called these Hymns
Listening: A Mighty Fortress is Our God
Music of the Renaissance Historical Context – The Reformation cont.
• King Henry VIII
While in England….
Wives couldn’t give him a male heir
Wants divorce but the Pope wouldn’t allow
Kicks the Catholic Church out of England
• Act of Supremacy (1534)
Archbishop of Canterbury in Charge
Establishes the Church of England
Despite multiple marriages and affairs, Henry VIII did not have a surviving male Heir (Edward VI only lived to be 15). English throne eventual was passed to Queen Mary I, nicknamed “Bloody Mary”
Listening: Henry, Henry, Henry
Music of the Renaissance Historical Context – Counter Reformation
To save the Catholic Church, a meeting was called to stop the spread of reformation (Martin Luther)
• Emerged from the Council of Trent as the main composer of the Catholic Church
• Council of Trent (1545-1563)
An 18-year meeting where the priests tried to rectify all the wrongs Luther denounced them for
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594)
Listening: Gloria
• Asked to fix, musically, what Luther had problems with
• Tried to keep the music as close to God as possible
• Text returned to being the most important aspect of sacred music
• Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music
• Most famous 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition
Listening: Adoramus te Listening: Missa Papae Marcelli - Kyrie
Music of the Renaissance Secular Renaissance
• Music Printing – Ottaviano Petrucci (1466 – 1539)
Monopolized music printing for 20 years
Used a triple stamp press: 1st Staves, 2nd Music (Notes), 3rd words
Printed the first polyphonic book using movable type
96 chansons – containing work of Josquin
First book printed – Harmonice Musices Odhecaton
Music was:
Produced faster
Made more available
Printed with more uniform accuracy
Music of the Renaissance Secular Renaissance cont.
The Florentine Camerata (1573 – 1590)
In Greek plays was a character called the Chorus:
A group of humanists, musicians, poets and intellectuals in late Renaissance Florence
• The Camerata experimented and tried to figure out the music of
ancient Greece
Greatest interest was in Greek Plays (Drama)
• Acted as a collective voice of commentary
Wanted to learn about how the ancient Greeks did things
Gathered to write music and poetry in the style of the ancient Greece
• Sing and Music used, but no record of how it sounded or was performed
The idea of a story told entirely with music without talking – Opera was conceived
Music of the Renaissance Secular Renaissance cont.
• Thomas Morley (1466 – 1539)
Now is the month of maying, When merry lads are playing, fa la, Each with his bonny lass Upon the greeny grass. Fa la. The Spring, clad all in gladness, Doth laugh at Winter's sadness, fa la, And to the bagpipe's sound The nymphs tread out their ground. Fa la. Fie then! why sit we musing, Youth's sweet delight refusing? Fa la. Say, dainty nymphs, and speak, Shall we play at barley-break? Fa la.
Now is the month of maying is one of the most famous of the English Balletts, by Thomas Morley published in 1595. It is based on a text used by Orazio Vecchi in 1590. The song delights in bawdy double-entendre. It is apparently about spring dancing, but this is a metaphor for sex. For example, a "barley-break" would have suggested outdoor sexual activity (rather like we might say a "roll in the hay"). The use of such imagery and puns increased during the Renaissance.