Renaissance Exam

Humanism

  • The 15th century movement that was based on the conviction that personal fulfillment could come from the intellect and one’s own effort

contenance angloise

  • Term to describe the “sweetness” of early Renaissance music 

John Dunstable

  • English composer who exemplified early Renaissance style 

  • Created a new consonant style of 3rds and 6ths 

Burgundian school

  • Term used to denote a group of composers active in the 15th C

  • Now northern and eastern France, Belgium, and Netherlands

  • Centered on the court of Dukes of Burgundy

Guillaume Du Fay

  • Singer and churchman

  • Wrote sacred music but also motets in cantus firmus style 

  • Part of the Burgundian school 

  • Employed head motives 

Fauxbourdon

  • False bass 

  • Produced by three voices in the mostly parallel motion first inversion triads

  • Only two of three voices were noted 

cantus firmus

  • “Fixed melody”

  • Usually of very long notes

  • Often based on a fragment of Gregorian chant that served as the structural basis for a polyphonic composition

motto, head motive

  • One of the unifying features Du Fay often used concerns the repetition of a pre-existing musical idea that begins the each of the ordinaries in a mass

Franco-Netherlands school

Johannes Ockeghem

  • First great composer of the Franco-Netherlands School 

  • Singer, composer, and director at the royal court in Paris 

  • Followed the tradition of cantus firmus 

    • Relied on formes fixes 

Josquin des Prez

  • Most famous and influential composer of the Renaissance 

  • Composed sacred and secular music 

maestro di cappella

point of imitation

  • Passage in a polyphonic work in which two or more parts enter in imitation 

musica reservata

  • Term applies to High/Late Renaissance composers who “suited the music to the meaning of the words, expressing the power of each affection”

  • Fancy word for text painting 

St. Mark's basilica

  • Church in Veince 

Gioseffo Zarlino

  • Important italian theorist of counterpoint 

  • Wrote Le istitutioni harmoniche 

    • Helped establish the field of counterpoint 

Le istitutioni harmoniche

  • Written by Zarlino 

  • One of the most influential music theory treatises

  • Advice to composers on how to express emotions 

Ottaviano de Petrucci

  • First printer of polyphonic music 

  • “Petrucci press” 

  • Created first collection of polyphonic music printed entirely from moveable type 

  • Used a triple-impression process (Music went thru the press 3 times) 

  • This process was patented 

Harmonice musices odhecaton A

  • Book printed in 1501 

  • First ever to be printed from a portable printing press

  • Printed by Petrucci

Pierre Attaingnant

  • Popular french publisher 

  • Printed more than 50 collections of chansons 

chanson/madrigal

Chanson

  • A french developed style of vocal chamber music in the 16th C. 

Madrigal 

  • Renaissance secular work originating in Italy for voices, with or without instruments

  • Set to a short lyric love poem

  • Popular in England 

Claudin de Sermisy

  • Famous french chanson composer 

Cipriano de Rore

  • Leading composer of the mid-century madrigal

  • Was a maestro di cappella @ St. Marks 

Crumhorn

  • double - reed instrument

  • Soft and suitable for indoor playing 

Sackbut

  • Predecessor of the modern trombone 

viol, viola da gamba

  • The player holds the instrument in between their legs (da gamba) 

  • Bowed, fretted string instrument 

  • Six strings

  • Flat back

  • Smaller treble viol was played on the player’s lap

Archlute

  • Large, low-pitched lutes

  • Plucked instrument 

broken consort

  • A mixed ensemble of different types of instruments 

  • Included one or more recorders

  • Both plucked and bowed instruments and a keyboard 

Clavichord

  • An early keyboard instrument

  • Small

  • Intimate tone

harpsichord

Tablature

  • Notation that indicates how to pluck, stop, or touch each string rather than indicate a pitch 

basse danse

  • One of the most important types of dances in the 15th c. 

  • Generally in triple rhythm 

  • France, Italy 

Fantasia

  • Instrumental composition that reflects the untrammeled freedom of the imagination exercised in the composition

Toccata

  • An improvisatory instrumental piece 

Reformation

  • A religious movement of the 16th century that began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic church

  • Resulted in the creation of Protestant churches 

Martin Luther

  • 95 thesis, posted in 1517

  • Led to religious reform in Germany

  • Denied papal power and absolutist rule 

  • Claimed there were only 2 sacraments: baptism and communion

Deutsche Messe

  • German mass

  • Published by Luther-followed main outlines of Roman mass

  • Replaced elements of Proper and Ordinary with German hymns 

Chorale

  • A German Lutheran hymn tune with its text 

Counter-Reformation

  • Reaction of the Roman Catholic church to the Reformation 

Council of Trent

  • Discussed general principles for Roman Catholic music after the middle of the 16th c. 

  • Called by Pope Paul III

  • Was to reform church and secure reconciliation with Protestants 

  • Lutherans and Calvinsists did not attend 

Palestrina

  • Became the model composer for the music of the Counter-Reformation

  • Clarity and conservative were characteristics of his music 

  • Worked at St. Peters in Rome

Tomas Luis da Victoria

  • Studied with Palestrina

  • More expressive style 

  • Wrote O Magnum Mysterium 

  • Was a chaplain to Maria 

Luca Marenzio

  • Brought to its peak the use of texts at the inspiration and shaping force for the madrigal 

Carlo Gesualdo

  • One of the most important madrigal composers (Italian) 

  • Brought madrigals to the height of chromaticism 

  • Actual meaning of the words became less important than the generally wrought-up feelings of the speaker 

Musica transalpina

  • A collection of Italian madrigals published in English 

cori spezzati

  • Spaced out choirs

  • Polychoral scoring

  • Popular in northern Italy (15th c.) 

  • Associated with St. Marks basilica in Venice 

Giovanni Gabrieli

  • Nephew of Andrea Gabrieli 

  • Organist (St. Marks) 

  • Mastered the polychoral technique

  • Used broad, simple rhythmic gestures

  • Good deal of familiar style scoring to support and clarify the musical dialogue