Renaissance Music: Genres, Masses, Tuning, and Humanism

Humanism

Renaissance movement emphasizing human potential, individual achievement, education, and classical Greek and Roman texts.

Benefice

Church position providing income to its holder; sometimes awarded through favoritism or political influence.

Just Intonation

Tuning system in which intervals such as thirds and sixths are tuned purely; performers adjust pitch to stay in tune.

Mean-tone Temperament

Tuning system that makes major thirds sound especially good, while perfect fifths are narrowed.

Equal Temperament

Tuning system dividing the octave into 12 equal semitones.

Partbook

Separate Renaissance music book containing one singer's or instrumentalist's part in a polyphonic work.

Motet

Polyphonic vocal composition, often setting a Latin sacred text; may feature texted upper voices over a cantus firmus.

English Consonance

English Renaissance preference for smooth, sweet harmonies, especially thirds and sixths.

Plainsong Mass

Mass whose movements are based on chant associated with the same text or liturgical tradition.

Motto Mass

Mass whose movements are linked by a shared opening motive or musical phrase.

Cantus-Firmus Mass

Mass whose movements use the same pre-existing melody as a structural basis.

Italian Madrigal

Secular polyphonic vocal genre with expressive text setting, vivid imagery, varied textures, and no refrain; often uses 4 voices.

Lute Song

Solo song accompanied by lute, often serious in tone and text.

John Dowland

English composer and lutenist associated with melancholy lute songs.

Narrative Chanson

French chanson focused on storytelling, often humorous or bawdy, with rapid text declamation.

Descriptive Chanson

French chanson that depicts a scene or action through musical imitation and storytelling.

Lyric Chanson

French chanson expressing personal feelings, often love, in syllabic text setting and duple meter.

Musique Mesurée

Style matching musical note lengths to French poetic stress, with longer notes on stressed syllables, inspired by ancient Greek ideas.

Text Painting

Musical technique in which the music illustrates the meaning or imagery of the words; example: Sing Joyfully by William Byrd.

Metrical Psalm

Psalm translated into vernacular verse with regular meter and rhyme, often arranged strophically.