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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

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