Instrumental Music Shows Up

instrumental music shows up

prelude

• rise of instrumental music in the renaissance governed by
    * exploitation of compositional styles and genres idiomatic to the instruments and independent of vocal music
    * reliance on preexisting vocal genres
• categories of emerging instrumental music
    * dance music
    * arrangements of vocal music
    * settings of existing melodies
    * variations
    * abstract instrumental works

dance music

• social dancing was popular in the renaissance especially for well-bred people - they were expected to be good dancers
• it was basically the only place you could go to find love
• suuuuper high expectations
• dance music was improvised but started to be published after the invention of the printing press
• music served two very different purposes in the renaissance
    * dances for ensemble were functional and suitable for accompanying dancers
      * typically plain uppermost principal melody
      * homophonic
    * dance pieces for solo lute are stylized and intended for the enjoyment of the listener
      * earliest form to gain independence from vocal music
• each dance follows a particular meter, tempo, rhythmic pattern
• distinguished by the particularity of rhythm and form
• feature distinct sections, usually repeated, with two, three, or more sections depending on the dance
• danserye - specific parts for specific instruments aren't named in the scores until the 17th century
    * most instruments were built in families covering the range from soprano to bass so that any instrument could take any part
    * mixed ensembles using instruments from different families became more popular
    * toward the end of the sixteenth century contrasting sounds became the rule in instrumental music, moving towards combination of strings and winds
• dances were grouped in pairs or threes - slow dance in duple meter followed by fast one in triple meter on the same tune
    * pavane - stately dance in three repeated strains (AABBCC)
    * galliard - followed the same form with a variant of the same melody

arrangements of vocal music

• instruments doubled or replaced voices in polyphonic compositions, reading from the vocal parts and adding embellishments
• lutenists and keyboard players made arrangements of vocal pieces, either improvised or written down as tablature (intabulations)
• examples of renaissance tendency to rework existing music

settings of existing melodies

• many instrumental settings of chansons
• could be played as background music or for their own pleasure
• catholic services could alternate between choir chant and organ cantus firmus
• lutheran hymns could alternate between unison congregation and polyphonic setting for choir or organ

variations

• combined change with repetition, taking a given element and presenting an uninterrupted series of variants on it
• achieves length and coherence in pieces without words
• variations on dance tunes written for lute
• solo lute repertory was developed independently of mainstream vocal music and became the first to harbor a style idiomatic to the instrument
• lute variations on standard poetry
• became popular with english keyboardists (virginalists)
• interest in varying melodies rather than bass patterns and bare melodic outlines

abstract instrumental works

• cultivated several types of music that were truly independent of dance rhythms or borrowed tunes
• improvising figuration on polyphonic instruments or drawing on imitative textures from vocal music
• ranked among the earliest examples of solo instrumental music and became mainstays of the repertory for solo player
• canzona - leading genre of contrapuntal instrumental music, embellished and later thoroughly reworked chansons
    * long-short-short opening figure
    * features a series of themes that differ from each other in melodic outline and rhythm
    * giovanni gabrieli
    * divided choirs