• Europe from 14th to 16th century, starting in Italy

• Revival of Greco-Roman culture = new values

• Columbus, Magellan, Leonardo da Vinci, Copernicus, Galileo, and Shakespeare reinterpreting the world, focusing on philosophy, science, art.

New Attitudes

• Early 15th century, plainchants not as common. treated more as just melodies, not frames for polyphony.

  • Extra notes, graceful rhythms, smoothed passages- they used “paraphrase”

• Sonority (tone color, rich tone color) became more important, emphasized with paraphrase

• Plainchants heard clearly in the soprano

Early Homophony

• Plainchants seemed more homophonic w/ their accompaniment-like layers under the soprano (simple chords)

• Sensuous effect over the “intellectual process of polyphony"

• 15th century!

Guillamore Dufay (c. 1400-1474), Harmonized Hymn, "Ave Maris stella"

• Composer born raised in N. France (~modern Belgium)- later worked in Italy and lived in the French cathedral of Cambrai

• Homophonic setting of a Gregorian hymn (short tune then amen)

• Addressed to Virgin Mary, sung on her days & Saturdays

• Dorian (D) mode, triple meter

• Includes paraphrasing, extra notes/extensions

• Pretty simple for Dufay, whose compositions were long & elaborate

The Mass

• Intricate isorhythm, and then there was a simpler style (gentler, and more supple) used in polyphonic songs (chansons) including sacred music

• Compositions become considerably longer, even if they were simple

• Mass was "the largest and most important part of the Christian liturgy”

  • Kyrie: simple prayer

  • Gloria: long hymn

  • Credo: Recital of a list of Christian beliefs

  • Sanctus: shorter hymn

  • Agnus Dei: simple prayer

  • (5 section mass remains in use today!)

• New composers set religious plainchants to new music

The High Renaissance Style

~1500 new style arose, blending imitative counterpoint and homophony

Imitation

• Nonimitative polyphony mostly at the start of the 15th century

• Imitative polyphony reflects moderation and balance among parts

  • Same thing starting in different voices at different times and pitches

Homophony

Simple homophony was used “as a contrast to imitative texture and as an expressive resource in its own right” (block-chord writing)

Etc.

• Ideal tone color (especially in sacred music) was a capella, or just using human voices

• Little tempo/dynamics changes

• Fluid rhythm

Josquin Desprez (c. 1450-1521), Pange lingua Mass (c. 1510)

• Master of the high renaissance style, born in North France, lived in Italy, served many royals

• Josquin “pioneered whole new expressive genres,” wrote 18 different Mass settings (large pieces in the 5-section form)

• Four-part mass

• Kyrie I has a point of imitation, a brief passage of imitation polyphony, Kyrie II has a different point of imitation, and Christe has 2 (from the hymn). Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei all have many points of imitation interspersed with homophony (full outline given)

Music as Expression

The music of the Pange lingua mass addresses specific phrases and their sentiments, music can illustrate and express, etc.

• Renaissance composers desired to highly influence emotions

  • Declamation- words were sung to rhythms and melodies that approximately imitated normal speech

  • Word painting was used to match music to the meaning of words

Josquin, Chanson, “Mille regrets”

• Polyphonic chanson

• Strong of cliches voicing the sorrowful lament of a lover who left their beloved

• Slow rhythms and homophonic moments add to the tone

Late Renaissance Music

The high renaissance style was stable and flexible, so it continued to change. It had a wide reach too, used by Romans, Spaniards, Netherlanders, and Brits

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525-1594), Pope Marcellus Mass (1557)

• Palestrina was a Roman singer/choirmaster

• He wrote secular music (popular) in his youth, but later regretted it

• Palestrina composed more than 100 masses

  • Proved that complicated polyphony could convey sacred text

• In the Gloria section, he uses a lot of homophony, only finishing w/ polyphony

• Large and rich choir w/ 6 vocal parts

The Motet

• Invented in late Middle Ages

• Applied in many different ways over centuries, vary vastly

  • Flexibility allowed new, powerful religious messages

• 16th century motet is “a relatively short composition with Latin words, made up of short sections in the homophony and imitative polyphony”

• Almost always religious

The Italian Madrigal

• Secular Italian genre after 1530

• “Short composition, usually for four to six voice parts, set to a one-stanza poem”

• Imitative polyphony and homophony alternating

• Shorter and less strict points of imitation

• New techniques

The English Madrigal

• Madrigals were also popular in Elizabethan England

• Endorsed by Queen Elizabeth I, who loved music and played the lute

• Include “The Triumphs of Oriana”

Thomas Weelkes (c. 1575–1623), Madrigal, “As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending” (1601)

• Thomas Weelkes was just a “provincial cathedral organist-choirmaster”

• Contribution to The Triumphs of Oriana

• Uses a lot of word painting

• Two sopranos, alto two tenors, and bass

Instrumental Music: Early Developments

• Best composers focused on vocal genres (minus William Byrd), but there was a lot of instrumental development

• First violins and harpsichords, and the lute was “perfected”

• Instrumentalists often improvised their music

Renaissance Dances

• Pavan- solemn dance in duple meter, w/ participants “stepping and stopping formally”

• Galliard- faster dance in triple meter

• Pavan and galliard often paired together

• Less formal saltarello (Italian), jig (Irish), bransle (French)

• Also ballets and court dances

• Dance music mostly four to eight bars long with clear cadences and forms like aabb or aabbcc (repeats)

Tylman Susato, Pavan and Two Galliards (1551)

• Susato was a Dutch composer, instrumentalist, and music printer

  • Known for his 1551 Danserye, collection of dances

• Pavan “Mille regretz” moves Josquin’s chanson into slow, duple-meter outline

  • aabbcc

• No specified instruments

• Two galliards follow-

  • First is introduced w/ shawms (double-reed instruments)

    • ||: aabb :||

  • Second is quieter, w/ sackbuts (Renaissance trombones)

    • aabbcc