Renaissance - conditions and trends
5
CONDITIONS AND TRENDS As prevailing concepts of music were gradually transformed in the late !th century and early "th# they were also affected $y a vital change in the technol $asis of the production and transmission of music from composer to pu$lic% The $eginnings of music printing as a commercial activity &!'(# with )enice as the and leading centre $ut with rapidly growing competition elsewhere in Europe# not $rought more music into circulation $ut ensured its distri$ution more rapidly and in more uniform te*ts than $efore% +rinters often produced su$stantial si,e &press runs of !'' to -''' copies are documented throughout the century(# and the scope of consumption must have increased enormously% A new and $ourgeois pu$lic was rising# made up largely of performing amateurs for whom m was essentially a higher form of recreation# and it was served $y a tide of poly collections# principally of secular music% This trend is visi$le in successive s .rance and /ermany# and# late in the century# in England# during the lat Eli,a$eth I0s reign and much of 1ames I0s &roughly !223"-'(# when the aestheti technical traditions of the Italian madrigal were imported wholesale into Englan the demands of a newly curious and cultivated pu$lic% Side $y side with this sec development went the increasing pu$lication of sacred music in all its varieties# $oth Catholic and +rotestant# devotional and liturgical# 4atin and ve Though the social conditions for the performance of sacred polyphony are less we understood than those governing secular music# it must $e assumed that many amateurs who sang madrigals and chansons also sang motets and the flow of pu$lications was in part designed for the use of religious instituti 5inds# in part for laymen aware of the heightened role of music in the intensifi atmosphere engendered $y the wars of religion that rac5ed the century% 6y the mi century# then# music had shed its former identity as a pure science of relations medieval sense# and had settled into the European consciousness as a form of e*p closely allied to poetry and religion and suita$le for ritual and festive occasi form of pleasura$le leisure activity normally carried on in the home or academy% naturally followed an increasing mar5et for hand$oo5s that would teach amateurs
description
poglavlje o renesansnoj muzici iz The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicias
Transcript of Renaissance - conditions and trends
CONDITIONS AND TRENDS
As prevailing concepts of music were gradually transformed in the late !th
century and early "th# they were also affected $y a vital change in the technological
$asis of the production and transmission of music from composer to pu$lic% The
$eginnings of music printing as a commercial activity &!'(# with )enice as the initial
and leading centre $ut with rapidly growing competition elsewhere in Europe# not only
$rought more music into circulation $ut ensured its distri$ution more widely# more
rapidly and in more uniform te*ts than $efore% +rinters often produced editions of
su$stantial si,e &press runs of !'' to -''' copies are documented throughout the "th
century(# and the scope of consumption must have increased enormously% A new and vast
$ourgeois pu$lic was rising# made up largely of performing amateurs for whom music
was essentially a higher form of recreation# and it was served $y a tide of polyphonic
collections# principally of secular music% This trend is visi$le in successive stages in Italy#
.rance and /ermany# and# late in the century# in England# during the latter part of
Eli,a$eth I0s reign and much of 1ames I0s &roughly !223"-'(# when the aesthetic and
technical traditions of the Italian madrigal were imported wholesale into England to meet
the demands of a newly curious and cultivated pu$lic% Side $y side with this secular
development went the increasing pu$lication of sacred music in all its forms and
varieties# $oth Catholic and +rotestant# devotional and liturgical# 4atin and vernacular%
Though the social conditions for the performance of sacred polyphony are less well
understood than those governing secular music# it must $e
assumed that many amateurs who sang madrigals and chansons also sang motets and that
the flow of pu$lications was in part designed for the use of religious institutions of all
5inds# in part for laymen aware of the heightened role of music in the intensified religious
atmosphere engendered $y the wars of religion that rac5ed the century% 6y the mid7"th
century# then# music had shed its former identity as a pure science of relationships# in the
medieval sense# and had settled into the European consciousness as a form of e*pression
closely allied to poetry and religion and suita$le for ritual and festive occasions# and as a
form of pleasura$le leisure activity normally carried on in the home or academy% There
rudiments of music8 in the Eli,a$ethan period# in some ways a microcosm of the age as a
whole# the chief e*ample is 9orley0s aptly named +laine and Easie Introduction to
+racticall 9usic5e &!:;(%
This social role was matched $y a new view of the function of music# $eginning
in the late !th century and ta5ing firm hold in the "th 3 that the main aim of music was
to heighten the meaning of a te*t% .or this the central classical authority was +lato#
chiefly The Repu$lic# $oo5 <# in which the thesis is laid down that =the harmonia and the
rhythm must follow the sense of the words0% At least some "th7century writers were
aware that this was inherent in the /ree5 view of music as including not only melody and
the characteristic harmoniae of various regional idioms such as =Dorian0 or =+hrygian0#
$ut also the te*t and even the physical gestures of mime or dance that accompanied the
recitation of lyric or dramatic poetry% As Iso$el >enderson put it# =/ree5 music was
mimetic or representative 3 a direct photography &as it were( of mental o$?ects formed $y
the ethos and pathos of the soul0 &NO>9# i# p%<2!(% The union of poetry and music was
sei,ed upon as an ideal $y Renaissance musicians and $y many poets &e%g% Ronsard(# and
+lato0s words were cited $y many musicians# including @arlino &see Strun5# p%-!"(# 6ardi
&i$id# p%-:!( and /%C% 9onteverdi &i$id# p%';(% That this view emerged from the
humanist revival of +lato is evident from its appearance as early as !'" in a passage $y
)incen,o Calmeta &cited $y +irrotta# p%<2(# and it was soon given much wider currency
$y Sir Thomas 9ore &Btopia# !"( in a passage stressing the capacity of music to
e*press the inner meaning of words% That not only $oo5ish musicians $ut seasoned
practitioners with few literary pretensions su$scri$ed to it is shown $y much evidence#
including a letter written $y +alestrina to the Du5e of 9antua &on < 9arch !;'( praising
a motet composed $y the du5e $oth for its =$eautiful wor5manship0 and for the =vital
impulse that it gives to its words# according to their meaning0%
Related to this was the notion that it is through te*t e*pression that music has
power to move the soul and to reproduce the marvellous effects attri$uted to it $y the
ancients# in the arousal and su$duing of the passions% An oft7told tale was one in which
Ale*ander the /reat was said to have $een unwittingly aroused $y music from his
$anuet ta$le to arm himself for war and was then restored to the $anuet when the
legends of Orpheus# the favoured mythical musician% hile @arlino and other moderate
critics $elieved that music of their time# if properly allied to words# could move the souls
of its hearers# others denied that polyphony could accomplish anything of the sort# citing
principally the relative unintelligi$ility of the te*t resulting from overlapping declamation
caused $y contrapuntal imitation%
This complaint came from many sides# including &in !:( the Italian 6ishop
Cirillo .ranco# who argued that in the 9ass =when one voice says SanctusF another says
Sa$aothF so that they more nearly resem$le cats in 1anuary than flowers in 9ay0# and
/alilei e*pressed similar views in !2% In sacred music solutions of various types are
found# the most drastic of which was the writing of e*tended or entire sections or
movements in a strict or slightly modified chordal style8 this approach was e*plicitly
attempted $y certain north Italian composers &e%g% )incen,o Ruffo( wor5ing in the
aftermath of the Council of Trent% The famous 9issa +apae 9arcelli $y +alestrina was
evidently intended as an attempt to reconcile the claims of te*t intelligi$ility with those of
inherent musical interest# and the perhaps apocryphal tales of its success in persuading
churchmen at Trent not to a$olish polyphony can $e ta5en as a special instance of the
general $elief in the power of music when properly ad?usted to words% A more drastic
solution was the complete $rea5 with polyphony implied $y the .lorentine Camerata#
whose spo5esmen also re?ected the efforts of even the most e*pressive7minded
madrigalists to achieve rhetorical effects through word7painting# as in the later madrigal
in Italy and in England% The monodists# on the other hand# sought to convey the
e*pressive meaning of a te*t as a whole% hat is actually involved is two opposed
aesthetic positionsG the word7painting of the madrigalists# whether 9aren,io or eel5es#
may seem e*cessively preoccupied with the single word only if it is not seen as a means
of o$taining ma*imum variety of tempo# harmonic content and te*ture within a normal
framewor5 of five or si* voices8 while the e*pressive purposes in monody# lac5ing all
possi$ility of te*tural variety# are achieved through means that ma5e the most of the
nuances of the solo voice%
It is increasingly clear that solo singing with instrumental accompaniment# far
from $eing a =discovery0 at the end of the "th century# had long $een practised and
performing polyphony regularly included the singing of a principal vocal part &at times
the tenor $ut more often the soprano( of a chanson or madrigal to the accompaniment of a
lute or other instruments% The tradition in Italian secular music for this type of
performance not only went $ac5 to the frottola $ut predated the coalescence of that mi*ed
genre into a semi7polyphonic literature# and it was a$ove all in Italy that it continued to
flourish% hat Einstein called =pseudo7monody0 was =pseudo70 only in the sense that it
was not regularly written out and was rarely pu$lished in this form# though there are
important e*ceptions# such as illaert0s arrangement of madrigals $y )erdelot for solo
voice and lute &!<"(% >ow important solo singing was may also $e ?udged from the
writings of such o$servers as +aolo Cortese &!'( and the famous words of Castiglione
&Il cortegiano# !-2(G polyphony is good $ut =to sing to the lute is much $etter# $ecause
all the sweetness consisteth in one alone and a man H understands the $etter the feat
manner and the air or vein of it when the ears are not $usied in hearing any more than one
voice H0 &>o$y translationG The 6oo5 of the Courtier# !"(% The new monody around
"'' can thus $e seen partly as a change in the norms of representing music 3 for now the
melodic line and the harmonic progressions of its accompaniment were fi*ed in notation
for the first time 3 and partly as the raising of a long7esta$lished tradition to a higher
level of dramatic intensity# adapted to dramatic poetry% Thus the roots of =6aroue0 music
can $e discovered to $e $uried deep in the "th century% >owever# even if the overlapping
of polyphonic and monodic tendencies can $e seen to have endured much longer than is
commonly thought# the full decline of polyphony as a form of e*pression did not set in
$efore the early ;th century# and the =Renaissance0 can thus $e ?ustified as a period
e*tending to a$out that time% A factor that is still poorly understood is the presumed
change in social conditions for music that may have accompanied the decline of vocal
polyphony8 $ut this would dou$tless have to $e studied on a regional $asis# as it differed
sharply from one country to another%
hile the "th century witnessed a vast growth of solo and ensem$le instrumental
music for 5ey$oard# string and wind instruments# this 5ind of music had little place in the
aesthetic notions associated with the =Renaissance0# even though ?ustification could have
$een found in ancient te*ts for admitting some degree of ethical power to instrumental
much of its repertory was in varying ways derived from# or dependent on# vocal models%
Nevertheless the continued cultivation of accompanied solo singing tended from early in
the period to glorify the virtuoso instrumentalist as well as singer# whether or not these
were em$odied in the same person# as in the case of such virtuosos as the lutenist3singer
+ietro$ono of .errara% >is followers in the "th century were similarly admired# though
most of them speciali,ed as singers# lutenists or 5ey$oard players% 6y !<" it was
conventional rhetoric# yet characteristic of the time# when the renowned vihuelist 4uis de
As prevailing concepts of music were gradually transformed in the late !th
century and early "th# they were also affected $y a vital change in the technological
$asis of the production and transmission of music from composer to pu$lic% The
$eginnings of music printing as a commercial activity &!'(# with )enice as the initial
and leading centre $ut with rapidly growing competition elsewhere in Europe# not only
$rought more music into circulation $ut ensured its distri$ution more widely# more
rapidly and in more uniform te*ts than $efore% +rinters often produced editions of
su$stantial si,e &press runs of !'' to -''' copies are documented throughout the "th
century(# and the scope of consumption must have increased enormously% A new and vast
$ourgeois pu$lic was rising# made up largely of performing amateurs for whom music
was essentially a higher form of recreation# and it was served $y a tide of polyphonic
collections# principally of secular music% This trend is visi$le in successive stages in Italy#
.rance and /ermany# and# late in the century# in England# during the latter part of
Eli,a$eth I0s reign and much of 1ames I0s &roughly !223"-'(# when the aesthetic and
technical traditions of the Italian madrigal were imported wholesale into England to meet
the demands of a newly curious and cultivated pu$lic% Side $y side with this secular
development went the increasing pu$lication of sacred music in all its forms and
varieties# $oth Catholic and +rotestant# devotional and liturgical# 4atin and vernacular%
Though the social conditions for the performance of sacred polyphony are less well
understood than those governing secular music# it must $e
assumed that many amateurs who sang madrigals and chansons also sang motets and that
the flow of pu$lications was in part designed for the use of religious institutions of all
5inds# in part for laymen aware of the heightened role of music in the intensified religious
atmosphere engendered $y the wars of religion that rac5ed the century% 6y the mid7"th
century# then# music had shed its former identity as a pure science of relationships# in the
medieval sense# and had settled into the European consciousness as a form of e*pression
closely allied to poetry and religion and suita$le for ritual and festive occasions# and as a
form of pleasura$le leisure activity normally carried on in the home or academy% There
rudiments of music8 in the Eli,a$ethan period# in some ways a microcosm of the age as a
whole# the chief e*ample is 9orley0s aptly named +laine and Easie Introduction to
+racticall 9usic5e &!:;(%
This social role was matched $y a new view of the function of music# $eginning
in the late !th century and ta5ing firm hold in the "th 3 that the main aim of music was
to heighten the meaning of a te*t% .or this the central classical authority was +lato#
chiefly The Repu$lic# $oo5 <# in which the thesis is laid down that =the harmonia and the
rhythm must follow the sense of the words0% At least some "th7century writers were
aware that this was inherent in the /ree5 view of music as including not only melody and
the characteristic harmoniae of various regional idioms such as =Dorian0 or =+hrygian0#
$ut also the te*t and even the physical gestures of mime or dance that accompanied the
recitation of lyric or dramatic poetry% As Iso$el >enderson put it# =/ree5 music was
mimetic or representative 3 a direct photography &as it were( of mental o$?ects formed $y
the ethos and pathos of the soul0 &NO>9# i# p%<2!(% The union of poetry and music was
sei,ed upon as an ideal $y Renaissance musicians and $y many poets &e%g% Ronsard(# and
+lato0s words were cited $y many musicians# including @arlino &see Strun5# p%-!"(# 6ardi
&i$id# p%-:!( and /%C% 9onteverdi &i$id# p%';(% That this view emerged from the
humanist revival of +lato is evident from its appearance as early as !'" in a passage $y
)incen,o Calmeta &cited $y +irrotta# p%<2(# and it was soon given much wider currency
$y Sir Thomas 9ore &Btopia# !"( in a passage stressing the capacity of music to
e*press the inner meaning of words% That not only $oo5ish musicians $ut seasoned
practitioners with few literary pretensions su$scri$ed to it is shown $y much evidence#
including a letter written $y +alestrina to the Du5e of 9antua &on < 9arch !;'( praising
a motet composed $y the du5e $oth for its =$eautiful wor5manship0 and for the =vital
impulse that it gives to its words# according to their meaning0%
Related to this was the notion that it is through te*t e*pression that music has
power to move the soul and to reproduce the marvellous effects attri$uted to it $y the
ancients# in the arousal and su$duing of the passions% An oft7told tale was one in which
Ale*ander the /reat was said to have $een unwittingly aroused $y music from his
$anuet ta$le to arm himself for war and was then restored to the $anuet when the
legends of Orpheus# the favoured mythical musician% hile @arlino and other moderate
critics $elieved that music of their time# if properly allied to words# could move the souls
of its hearers# others denied that polyphony could accomplish anything of the sort# citing
principally the relative unintelligi$ility of the te*t resulting from overlapping declamation
caused $y contrapuntal imitation%
This complaint came from many sides# including &in !:( the Italian 6ishop
Cirillo .ranco# who argued that in the 9ass =when one voice says SanctusF another says
Sa$aothF so that they more nearly resem$le cats in 1anuary than flowers in 9ay0# and
/alilei e*pressed similar views in !2% In sacred music solutions of various types are
found# the most drastic of which was the writing of e*tended or entire sections or
movements in a strict or slightly modified chordal style8 this approach was e*plicitly
attempted $y certain north Italian composers &e%g% )incen,o Ruffo( wor5ing in the
aftermath of the Council of Trent% The famous 9issa +apae 9arcelli $y +alestrina was
evidently intended as an attempt to reconcile the claims of te*t intelligi$ility with those of
inherent musical interest# and the perhaps apocryphal tales of its success in persuading
churchmen at Trent not to a$olish polyphony can $e ta5en as a special instance of the
general $elief in the power of music when properly ad?usted to words% A more drastic
solution was the complete $rea5 with polyphony implied $y the .lorentine Camerata#
whose spo5esmen also re?ected the efforts of even the most e*pressive7minded
madrigalists to achieve rhetorical effects through word7painting# as in the later madrigal
in Italy and in England% The monodists# on the other hand# sought to convey the
e*pressive meaning of a te*t as a whole% hat is actually involved is two opposed
aesthetic positionsG the word7painting of the madrigalists# whether 9aren,io or eel5es#
may seem e*cessively preoccupied with the single word only if it is not seen as a means
of o$taining ma*imum variety of tempo# harmonic content and te*ture within a normal
framewor5 of five or si* voices8 while the e*pressive purposes in monody# lac5ing all
possi$ility of te*tural variety# are achieved through means that ma5e the most of the
nuances of the solo voice%
It is increasingly clear that solo singing with instrumental accompaniment# far
from $eing a =discovery0 at the end of the "th century# had long $een practised and
performing polyphony regularly included the singing of a principal vocal part &at times
the tenor $ut more often the soprano( of a chanson or madrigal to the accompaniment of a
lute or other instruments% The tradition in Italian secular music for this type of
performance not only went $ac5 to the frottola $ut predated the coalescence of that mi*ed
genre into a semi7polyphonic literature# and it was a$ove all in Italy that it continued to
flourish% hat Einstein called =pseudo7monody0 was =pseudo70 only in the sense that it
was not regularly written out and was rarely pu$lished in this form# though there are
important e*ceptions# such as illaert0s arrangement of madrigals $y )erdelot for solo
voice and lute &!<"(% >ow important solo singing was may also $e ?udged from the
writings of such o$servers as +aolo Cortese &!'( and the famous words of Castiglione
&Il cortegiano# !-2(G polyphony is good $ut =to sing to the lute is much $etter# $ecause
all the sweetness consisteth in one alone and a man H understands the $etter the feat
manner and the air or vein of it when the ears are not $usied in hearing any more than one
voice H0 &>o$y translationG The 6oo5 of the Courtier# !"(% The new monody around
"'' can thus $e seen partly as a change in the norms of representing music 3 for now the
melodic line and the harmonic progressions of its accompaniment were fi*ed in notation
for the first time 3 and partly as the raising of a long7esta$lished tradition to a higher
level of dramatic intensity# adapted to dramatic poetry% Thus the roots of =6aroue0 music
can $e discovered to $e $uried deep in the "th century% >owever# even if the overlapping
of polyphonic and monodic tendencies can $e seen to have endured much longer than is
commonly thought# the full decline of polyphony as a form of e*pression did not set in
$efore the early ;th century# and the =Renaissance0 can thus $e ?ustified as a period
e*tending to a$out that time% A factor that is still poorly understood is the presumed
change in social conditions for music that may have accompanied the decline of vocal
polyphony8 $ut this would dou$tless have to $e studied on a regional $asis# as it differed
sharply from one country to another%
hile the "th century witnessed a vast growth of solo and ensem$le instrumental
music for 5ey$oard# string and wind instruments# this 5ind of music had little place in the
aesthetic notions associated with the =Renaissance0# even though ?ustification could have
$een found in ancient te*ts for admitting some degree of ethical power to instrumental
much of its repertory was in varying ways derived from# or dependent on# vocal models%
Nevertheless the continued cultivation of accompanied solo singing tended from early in
the period to glorify the virtuoso instrumentalist as well as singer# whether or not these
were em$odied in the same person# as in the case of such virtuosos as the lutenist3singer
+ietro$ono of .errara% >is followers in the "th century were similarly admired# though
most of them speciali,ed as singers# lutenists or 5ey$oard players% 6y !<" it was
conventional rhetoric# yet characteristic of the time# when the renowned vihuelist 4uis de
