Renaissance mean “rebirth” or more
importantly "rediscovery." What was rediscovered
was the art, knowledge and humanistic values and
esthetics of ancient Greece and Rome. This was a
time there was explosion of knowledge,
creativity, curiosity and reform in the church.
Also, when Magellan sailed around the world,
Columbus supposedly discovered America, Martin
Luther led the Protestant reformation,
humanistic thought focused on human life and
accomplishments rather than on religious
doctrine and the afterlife. Knowledge during the
Renaissance was obtained from scholars rather
than priests. The time period or the Renaissance
in Western Europe was from about 1400 (1450 was
the year the printing press was invented) to
1600 (the invention of opera). The imitative
polyphonic Mass of the Renaissance fulfilled the
tradition of church music performed in
cathedrals. But music outside of the church
played an increasingly important role as
composers came to be employed by kings and
nobility rather than by the church. Continuing
the Medieval tradition of music for
entertainment, listening or dancing to music
increased in popularity. An educated person was
often trained in music, sang madrigals or played
the lute or vihuela. The instruments of the
Renaissance were related to the same string,
woodwind, brass, percussion and keyboard
families that exist today. Renaissance composers
continually tried to make their music more
expressive, more relevant to Renaissance society
and more reflective to their every day human
experience. Composers for the mass include
Josquin Desprez and Giovanni Palestrina the lute
include Dowland and da Milano, and the
vihuelists, Milan, Narvaez, Mudarra, Fuenllana
and Pisador.
MASS
The Sistine Madonna, details of the
Angels, Raphael,1513-1514
The most substantial composition of
the Renaissance. The main Roman Catholic service
and the music written for it. A five movement
form set to music. The five movements are Kyrie,
Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnes dei. The great
challenge for the composer was to link and unify
the sections of the church service mass with
vocal music. The Renaissance Mass was sung a
cappella, was primarily in imitative polyphony
and was written in four parts arranged Soprano,
Alto, Tenor, and Bass.
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MADRIGAL
Sermisy's Jouissance &
a Renaissance Women's Consort
A
secular vocal work for 4 to 6 voices, sung a
cappella, essentially polyphonic in texture,
light in character and employs "word
painting". The madrigal is the most important
secular genre to emerge during the
Renaissance. It is in the madrigal that the
Renaissance desire to make music more
"expressive" is most clearly observed. In
"word painting" the composers sought to
musically illustrate the meaning of their
texts.
INSTRUMENTAL DANCE MUSIC
The role of
instrumentalist in the Renaissance was such that
many of the best composers wrote for instruments
with or without voices. The dance music tended
to be more elaborate, more stylized and more
artistic. Instruments and music for instruments
developed significantly during this period.
Instrumental music was to become one of the
great glories of the Baroque era and the basis
for this was laid in the Renaissance.
Instruments often played along with singers in
vocal music and sometimes performed vocal genres
as instrumental pieces by themselves. The two
most important dances in the Renaissance were
the Pavane and the Galliard. The Pavane was a
slow a stately dance in duple meter and the
Galliard was a fast and lively dance in triple
meter.
Typical
instruments of the Renaissance:
Bosse, Abraham
Musical Society, c. 1635
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
Viol or
rebec - violin
Shawm
- oboe
Crumhorn
- bassoon
Sackbut -
trumpet or trombone
Cornetto -
clarinet
Lute or vihuela
- guitar
Harpsichord - piano
LUTE
Bartolomeo Veneto
Woman Playing a Lute, 1520
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.
A pear shaped instrument
of Arabic origin ( stems from 'ud or al'ud)
introduced to Europe partly through contact with
the Moors in Spain and partly through the
interest of returning Crusaders. Throughout
Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries the lute was the favorite instrument
for use in homes, in barbershops and taverns.
Much of the repertoire for the lute consists of
short dance movements but most importantly the
lute fantasia was developed. A fantasia for the
lute was a free formed piece that could go in
any musical direction the composer would see
fit. A fantasia is a composition inspired by the
imagination of the player. It may be that the
quiet nature of the lute made it a difficult for
people to hear in a dance hall and thus was more
suited for intimate and dreamy pieces. The
Renaissance lute had four to thirteen courses
(as the double strings where called) tuned a
fourth apart with the exception of a third
between the third and second course (tuning the
guitars third string to f# while leaving the
remaining strings as they are will achieve a
Renaissance lute tuning).
