The Renaissance Era | Recording

Renaissance roughly 14 ; rebirth of society influenced by classical antiquity (Greeks and Romans).

Fall of Constantinople in $1453$ ; Greek/Roman texts reach Western Europe, especially Italy via scholars to places like Venice.
Three big themes shaped later culture: humanism, the Reformation, and the Counter-Reformation.

Return to classical sources (Greek/Roman texts); in Christianity, a push to return to the sources of Christian texts.
Education of nobles becomes important; nobles study liberal arts, including music, as a display of culture.
Humanism changes how music relates to text and emotion:
- Music and text: stronger link between words and music (rhetoric influence).
- Word painting: musical depiction of textual ideas (e.g., high/low picturing meaning).
- Emotions: music considered capable of producing emotional states, tied to ideas about modes and math of sound.
Education and amateur music: more music written for amateurs; women’s music as a display of marriageability.

Renaissance is a revival of Greek/Roman ideals; not a faithful copy of ancient practice, but a rethinking.
The period loosely follows the fall of Constantinople and the influx of ancient texts, enabling new musical ideas.
Important figures cited as sources include Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Pythagoras, Cicero (Greek and Roman thought).

Vocal music remains dominant; instrumental music grows but does not supplant vocal music.
Texture: mainly polyphonic with some homophony; more detailed notation is used than in medieval times.
Consonance and tuning: emphasis on triads (three-note chords) and smoother thirds due to tuning changes.
- A triad example: ${C, E, G}$ .
Bass register used more; rhythms become more regular and less violently accented; some syncopation exists.
Melodic motion tends to stepwise motion with fewer large leaps.

Word painting and rhetorical technique elevate the text: music mirrors textual meaning more directly than in the medieval era.
Emotions linked to music not just through text illumination but through producing mood and affect.

Catholic tradition: Mass and motets are central sacred genres.
Protestant tradition (varieties): hymns, chorales, and devotional home music become prominent; private family worship more common.
Motet: a polyphonic vocal work with Latin text not taken from the Mass Ordinary; can be liturgical or devotional; often performed in church or home.

Flemish composer who achieved massive fame in his time; comparable to Beethoven in later conception of fame.
Roles and places: sang in the Papal Chapel; worked for Louis XII in France; held high church positions (e.g., provost associated with Notre Dame area near the France-Belgium border).
Josquin’s impact: widely admired during life and after; among the earliest composers whose fame persisted through generations.
Example studied today: Ave Maria Virgo Serena (a motet by Josquin).

Type: motet for sacred use; opening based on a chant (plausible liturgical reference familiar to listeners of the time).
Structure: a piece that cannot be slotted into a mass; it is an independently composed motet.
Texture evolution in the opening: polyphonic imitation creates a ‘waterfall’ effect as voices imitate and then diverge.
Voicing: four parts (SATB) with independent lines that imitate and then proceed to more varied textures.
Other textures: imitative pairings (soprano-alto, then tenor-bass) to produce complex polyphony.
Texture terms to know:
- Polyphonic imitation: voices enter in imitation; overlapping melodic lines.
- Homophony: voices move together in a chords-like structure with related rhythms.
Section-by-section listening plan (guided):
1) Section 1: polyphonic imitation; later more independence.
2) Section 2: a duet imitated by a trio; shift toward polyphony.
3) Section 3: polyphonic duets with imitation; more independent lines.
4) Section 4: duets with imitation.
5) Section 5: move to triple meter; easier to hear the texture change.
6) Section 6: back to duple meter; concluding with a perfect fifth.
Practical listening tip: listen for texture changes (imitation, duets, fuller polyphony) and for how the music serves the text.

Motet: polyphonic sacred vocal work with non-Mass Latin texts; devotional use.
Mass: main Catholic liturgical service.
Hymn/Chorale: Protestant home/singular worship songs; church and family use.
Polyphony vs. homophony: multiple independent lines vs. one dominant line with accompaniment.
Word painting: music depicting textual meaning directly.
Consonance and triads: harmonic sounds that are pleasant; triad example ${C, E, G}$ .
Bass register and rhythm: expanded bass range; steady beat with some syncopation.
Rhetoric influence: Greek/Roman idea that rhetoric guides how text and music interact.