Renaissance Music

Music of the Renaissance

(1450-1600)

Renaissance means “Rebirth”

New scientific & geographical exploration Copernicus  Columbus  Magellan 

Power Shift 

“The” Church (Catholic Church) loses some power to secular governments (Nobility of court system - Kings, Queens, etc.)

– Still important patron of the arts – Authority challenged • Martin Luther (1483-1546)

HUMANISM New intellectual movement  Focused on human accomplishments  Rediscovery of Greek and Roman books and culture via the Middle East 

Resulting Changes in Art 

Artists make art that has to do everyday HUMAN feelings  Artists look back to Greek and Roman Art – Ancient Greek and Roman music had a “RHETORICAL” quality •

Meant to represent a feeling or idea

– Ancient Greek and Roman visual art was about mythological subjects or real people of nobility; these people were represented in a life-like manner with an emphasis on sensuality of HUMAN body

How did Renaissance composers write more rhetorical music?  

More “life-like” text rhythms Word Painting 1. Literal or mimetic correspondences example: “alone”

2. Figurative or symbolic depiction (punning & double meanings) example: “high on the mountaintop”

3. Emotional connotations example: (chromaticism) on “pain and sorrow”

Word Painting 

Musical representation of specific images - for example, a falling melodic line ot accompany the word descending - often found in Renaissance and Baroque music

THOMAS WEELKES (c. 1575-1623) As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending madrigal genre  a cappella vocal composition  text is a sonnet (Renaissance poem) in the vernacular (English)  sung 1 on a part in intimate setting  includes both imitative polyphony and homophony  lots of examples of text painting 

Madrigal 

Composition for several voices set to a short secular poem, usually about love, combining homophonic and polyphonic textures and often using word painting; common in Renaissance music

A cappella (literally means“of the church” in Latin, but can refer to both sacred and secular music)

 Choral

music without instrumental accompaniment

As Vesta was from Latmos hill descending She spied a maiden Queen the same ascending, Attended on by all the shepherds’swain; To whom Diana’s darlings came running down amain First two by two, then three by three together Leaving their Goddess all alone, hasted thither; And mingling with the shepherds of her train, With mirthful tunes her presence did entertain. Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana: Long live fair Oriana!

JOHN WARD (English Renaissance Madrigalist)  Upon

a bank with roses set about

Upon a bank with roses set about, Where pretty turtles joining bill to bill And gentle springs steal softly murmuring out, Washing the foot of pleasure’s sacred hill, There little Love sore wounded lies, His bow and arrows broken, Bedewed with tears from Venus’s eyes O grevious to be spoken.

JOHN FARMER (English Renaissance Madrigalist)  Fair

Phyllis

Fair Phyllis I saw sitting all alone Feeding her flock near to the mountain side. The shepherds knew not wither she had gone, But after [her], her lover Amyntas hie’d. Up and down he wandered while she was missing; When he found her, oh, then they fell a-kissing.

JOSQUIN DESPREZ (c. 1440-1521)  Two

types of SACRED Renaissance music GENRES –MASS –MOTET



SACRED Renaissance music DOES NOT use Text Painting – Emphasis is on musical structure and religious “otherworldly” musical qualities

Motet  Polyphonic

choral work set to a sacred Latin text other than that of the mass; one of the two main forms of sacred Renaissance music

Rhythm

"speech-like" and gently flowing rhythms

Melody

longer melodies with larger rangers (more higher and lower notes); smooth,more scalar melodies(pitch movement by step) with arch-like shapes

Form

lots of imitation of tiny bits of melody

Dynamics

mostly at one level, changes are made in the volume by adding together more voices

Texture

mostly polyphonic (some homophony, more imitative polyphony)

Harmony

very consonant (secular music uses dissonance for text painting)

Timbre

almost all vocal music; use of full mixed (men and women/children) choirs or small groups (1 on a part) ; a cappella

Musical Rhetoric •Refers to the emotive (causing a listener to feel a specific way) or persuasive (causing the listener to "see" a scene or "hear" a story) power of music •An example of musical rhetoric is the way a composer tries to "paint" a picture of a scene, story, or idea in the listener's mind of a written text, which is either sung or given to the listener in the form of a program.

FRANZ SCHUBERT Erlköing (The Elfking)  Lied

(leet) / Lieder (leader)

– An art song with a German text

ANTONIO VIVALDI First Movement: Allegro from La Primavera [Spring], Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra, Op. 8, No. 1 from The Four Seasons

Spring has come, and joyfully, The birds greet it with a happy song. And the streams, fanned by gentle breezes, Flow along with a sweet murmur. Covering the sky with a black cloak, Thunder and lightning come to announce the season. When these have quieted down, the little birds Return to their enchanting song.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) 

Painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, & scientist  A “Renaissance” Man – Emphasis on education 

Mona Lisa – Real person

Botticelli (1445-1510) 

The Birth of Venus (1485) – Mythological deity – Emphasis on reality & sensuality of human body



La Primavera (147778) – Mix of real people & mythological characters – Depiction of everyday HUMAN emotions

Michelangelo (1475-1564) 

David (1504) – Biblical character – Real person – Emphasis on reality & sensuality of human body

Raphael (1483-1520) 

Aristotle and Plato (1511) – Greek and Roman influence – Real persons



The School of Athens (1511) – Greek and Roman influence – Emphasis on reality with use of perspective

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) 

Playwright who writes about real and mythological persons – Example: Romeo & Juliet • Focuses on everyday HUMAN feelings