Renaissance Music: Composers, Masses, Chorales & English Church Music Study Guide

Renaissance / humanism

Renewed interest in classical Greek and Roman culture and in human intellect, effort, and lived experience rather than reliance exclusively on church authority.

Text painting / text depiction

Music illustrates a word or image in the text; e.g., 'heaven' set higher than 'hell,' or an ascending melody for 'ascend.'

Text expression

Music conveys the emotional meaning of words, not merely their literal imagery.

Imitative polyphony (fuga)

One voice presents a melodic idea and other voices enter with the same or similar idea.

Homorhythmic / familiar style

Voices move together in approximately the same rhythm; helps make the words clear.

Rhythm and sound

Subtle beat; thirds and sixths became important consonant sounds, though tuning needed adjustment.

Ottaviano Petrucci

Began printing music with movable type in 1501; associated with Harmonice musices odhecaton A-C.

Why it matters (music printing)

Printing made music more widely available to those able to buy books; early music often appeared in partbooks, with one vocal part per book rather than a modern score.

Contenance angloise

English musical sound influential in France: greater use of thirds and sixths, simple singable melodies, and regular phrasing.

John Dunstable

Important early Renaissance English composer associated with paraphrase technique and the motet.

Motet

A polyphonic setting of a sacred Latin text.

Gilles Binchois

Worked at the Burgundian court and was especially famous for chansons.

Chanson

Polyphonic musical setting of a French secular poem.

Guillaume DuFay

Well-traveled singer, composer and churchman associated with Cambrai; transitional composer blending medieval and Renaissance practices.

Isorhythmic motet

Motet using repeated rhythmic patterns (isorhythm); notes say isorhythm remained acceptable in the conservative fifteenth-century church.

Fauxbourdon

In the hymn practice described, a middle voice supplied between notated outer voices, often improvised.

Alternatim performance

Alternation between plainchant and polyphonic settings.

Mass cycle

Musically unified setting of the five movements of the Mass Ordinary.

Plainsong Mass (missa choralis)

Each movement uses the corresponding liturgical chant in its tenor; unity comes from liturgical association.

Motto Mass / head motive

Every movement begins with the same recognizable musical idea.

Cantus firmus / tenor Mass

Each movement uses the same preexisting melody, commonly in long notes in the tenor; it may be sacred or secular.

Parody / imitation Mass

Uses multiple parts or material from a preexisting polyphonic composition.

Paraphrase Mass

Adapts and distributes a preexisting melody throughout the voices rather than confining it to tenor.

Jean de Ockeghem

Wrote Masses, motets and chansons; known for sophisticated canonic and other intellectual techniques.

Canon

A rule allowing several musical parts to be derived from one notated part.

Mensuration canon

The same melody is sung simultaneously in different voices at different speeds/mensurations.

Heinrich Isaac

Flemish-born composer with international reputation; wrote Masses, motets, and secular music.

Choralis Constantinus

Collection of polyphonic settings of the Mass Propers covering the church year.

Josquin des Prez

Text-centered composer known for pervasive imitation, overlapping cadences, careful phrasing, text painting, and text expression.

Pervasive imitation

Each textual phrase gets a melodic/rhythmic motive, passed among voices; cadences often overlap to maintain continuity.

Martin Luther

Musician and reformer who valued music in education, worship, and congregational participation.

Chorale

Strophic hymn with a text and melody sung in unison; may also receive polyphonic choir settings.

Contrafactum

Putting a new text to an existing melody; example: Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen → O Welt, ich muss dich lassen.

Tenorlied style

Polyphonic chorale setting with chorale melody in tenor and other voices in counterpoint.

Service

Principal Anglican rites, including Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer and Communion.

Great Service

Contrapuntal and melismatic; often associated in notes with larger, well-funded churches.

Short Service

Homorhythmic and syllabic; less elaborate and more practical for smaller churches.

Anthem

English-language Anglican counterpart of the motet.

Full anthem

Sung by the choir throughout.

Verse anthem

Includes passages for solo singers.