IHUM 201 Review

Choral Polyphony

Most important innovation in Renaissance Music

Blending

Balance

Harmony

Renaissance Musical Elements

Clarity of line & mathematical perspective

Balance and symmetry

Restraint - uncluttered arrangement

Visual art elements

Imitative Counterpoint

All voices share equally in the musical material. A short theme is passed from voice to voice

Declamation

match the emotion of the text with the expressive quality of the music

Expansion of the musical space

nearly 5 octaves. Mirrors the scientific interest with the immensity of the universe

Growing secularization and tension

the cantus firmus (formerly Gregorian chant) sometimes borrowed from secular melodies. I.e. the chanson mass from the secular chanson

Dufay

One of the first to replace the cantus firmus with a secular melody (familiar folk tune)

Josquin des Prez

Strongest application of imitative counterpoint, choral polyphony, and declamation. Sistine Choir

Palestrina

Father of Catholic Music. Directed all music for the Vatican

Palestrina

Who rejects secular cantus firmus?

Josquin des Prez

Who used frottola - setting of humorous or amorous poem for 3-4 parts, simple folk quality, nonsense syllables?

Josquin des Prez

Who used Renaissance motet - balance, order, overlapping voices, symmetry, declamation, imitative counterpoint?

Dufay

Who helped the Chanson become Chanson Mass?

Ficino

Priest and Platonic scholar and writer of Theologica Platonica. Friend of Cosimo’s. Translated all of Plato’s works into Latin.

Ficino

Who talked about Platonic love - the spiritual bond between two persons joined together in the search for the true, the good, and the beautiful?

Pico della Mirandola

Friend of Lorenzo’s and companion of Ficino. Believed all learning could be synthesized to basic truths

Pico della Mirandola

Who wrote the 900 Theses - a summation of all current learning and understanding?

Pico della Mirandola

Who argued human nature has no limits, we are not flawed by original sin?

Castiglione

Who was an aristocrat and intellect, a versatile writer that serves in diplomatic corps of Milan, Mantua?

The Courtier

Examines the well rounded individual. Discussion of the essential ingredient of grace.

Sprezzatura

Effortless mastery of accomplishments

Machiavelli

• Humanist diplomat exiled from Florence

• Rejected Christianity and immersed himself in Roman classical models

• Avoided style and intellectual patterns of the Medieval

• Writes The Prince

The Prince

• First purely secular study of political theory in the West

• Pragmatic use of power for state management

• Balance

• View of human nature

• Pragmatic realism

• Ends justify the means

• Concrete examples from history

Erasmus

• Christian Humanist

• concerned with corruption, ignorance, and hypocrisy in Catholic Church

• Brilliant intellectual and playful

• Challenging perspectives and avoiding medieval thought patterns

• Interested in classical models

• Praise of Folly (Encomium Moriae) - Praise of More

Praise of Folly

• Powers and pleasures of folly

• Reevaluate and challenge folly

• “Christian Fool”

• Using satire to challenge authority and examine personal piety

14th century - calamity and upheaval

• 100 years war between France and England

• Black Death - over 30% dead in Europe

• The Great Schism and Babylonian Captivity of Pope -rival claim to the Papacy

• These events loosen the authority of the Catholic Church and allow for social mobility

Proto-Renaissance

Historical style for all art except architecture

combination of Medieval styles and foreshadowing Renaissance

Look for the transitional features

Late Gothic

Style for architecture in the 14th century

Giotto

Father of Western Painting

Sacred Late Italian Gothic

Historical style with these characteristics:

• No flying buttresses

• Solid walls with few Gothic windows

• Clear glass

• Colorful stone and mosaics

• Classical elements of horizontal lines, geometric shapes, and pediments

Humanism

Optimistic view that humans can be perfected through education and then improve society

Renaissance Thought

• Emphasis on man

• Tendency to express uniqueness of the individual

• Fundamental Classicism - elegance, neatness, and clarity of style

• Revives philosophy of ancient thinkers

Florence

Center of the early renaissance; where the Renaissance begins

The Medici family

• commissioned artwork

• Education and philosophy

Why does the Renaissance begin in Florence?

Forshortening

Seeing a long object head on so that it looks compressed. An object coming out towards us or receding into the background.

Aerial perspective

Forms in the distance are less clear

Forms in the distance are paler and more blue

Fra Savonarola

Friar with a lot of power. “You fill the churches with your own vanity. Do you think the Virgin Mary went about dressed as she is shown in paintings.”

Raphael

Human warmth with divine

Pyramidal configuration

3d modeling

Aerial perspective

Venetian Renaissance

• More secular - cosmopolitan and Eastern influence

• Emphasizes nature and landscapes, oftentimes creating a mood

• Uses oils for greater texture, vivid colors, and chiaroscuro

• Complex composition progresses from foreground to middle ground to background

• Dynamic lines and dramatic lighting chiaroscuro influence the coming Baroque style

Tempura

Medium used in the Proto Renaissance

Veronese

Artist with increased secularization

Fresco

Painting on wet plaster

Tintoretto

The Last Supper

New Perspective, chiaroscuro

Drama, mysticism

Titian

Coloring, use of red