A BAND STUDENT’S
GUIDE TO
MUSIC HISTORY
Jump to Music
Renaissance
Music
(14001600 AD)
THE RENAISSANCE
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
 What traits distinguish medieval from Renaissance
music?
 What was the relationship between humanism and
music?
 What new harmonies did Renaissance Composers
employ and why?
 What invention fundamentally changed the way
music was performed and consumed?
 How did church politics affect the development of
Renaissance Music?
RENAISSANCE
The “rebirth” (Fr.)
Revival of the ideals
of “classical
antiquity”
 Philosophy
 Technology
 The Arts
"Man is the measure
of all things."
Sandro Botticelli, Magnificat, 1480–81,
tempera on panel, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
ROAD TO THE REBIRTH
Implications of the Black Death
Italian Origin
 Medici Family
Fall of Constantinople
 Migration of Greek and Roman scholars
Adoption of humanism
 Emphasizes the value and agency of human beings,
individually and collectively, and affirms their ability
to improve their lives through the use of reason
SCIENCE
Inventions:
 Printing Press
 Telescope
 Mechanical Clock
 Microscope
 Eyeglasses
 Gunpowder
Alchemy
 Ancestor to chemistry
Astronomy
 Move from geocentric
to heliocentric
Geography
 Cladius Ptolemy
THE AGE OF DISCOVERY
Why?
Colonialism
Mercantilism
Colonization of
Americas, Southern
Asia, Africa
Drove discovery at
great ethical
expense
RELIGION
Turmoil in the
papacy
Reformation
 Martin Luther
 Protestant led to
others
Counter-reformation
 Council of Trent
Martin Luther, shown in a portrait by Lucas Cranach the
Elder, initiated the Protestant Reformation in 1517.
ART
CLASSICAL ORDER
LINEAR PERSPECTIVE
Pietro Perugino's use of perspective in this fresco at the Sistine Chapel
(1481–82) helped bring the Renaissance to Rome.
FORESHORTENING
LEONARDO
DA VINCI
Po l y ma t h :
p a i n te r,
s c u l p to r,
a r c h i tec t ,
m u s i ci a n ,
m a t h e m a t i ci a n ,
e n g i n e e r,
i nv e n to r,
a n a to m i s t ,
geologist,
c a r to g r a p h e r,
botanist, and
w r i te r
WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE
Wr i te r, p o et ,
p l ay w r i g h t
ISAAC
NEW TON
S c i e n t i s t:
Theory of
g r a v i t y, l aw s o f
m o t i on
GALILEO
GALIEI
S c i e n t i s t:
A s t r o n o m er,
p hy s i c is t ,
t r o u b l em a ke r
CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS
E x p l o r e r,
n av i g a to r,
colonizer
MUSIC IN SOCIET Y
Secular
 “Cultural Capital”
 Courts and capella
 Composers more
mobile
Sacred
 Large patronage
 Resident composers
HUMANISM AND HARMONY
“Judgement of ears”
over tradition
Guido de Arezzo
 Musicus vs. cantor
Ramos de Pareja
 Guido was “perhaps a
better monk than a
musician”
3rds & 6ths:
CONSONANT
One example of the Guidonian hand, from a Bodleian Library MS
THE CONTENANCE ANGLOISE
The “English guise”
 Lively consonances
Dominated by 3rds,
5ths, 6ths
The Triad
John Dunstaple
 Quam pulchra es
100 Years’ War
DEPARTURES FROM MEDIEVAL ST YLE
Pervading imitation
More homogeneous
textures
More lyrical melodic
lines
 Conjunct
Increasing use of
instruments
SACRED VOCAL MUSIC
The Mass
 Cyclic mass
 Cantus firmus
 Large-scale
Motets
 Smaller-scale
 Polyphonic
 Word painting
Orlando de Lassus leading a chamber ensemble, painted by Hans Mielich
REFORMATION ERA
Chorales
 Communal
participation
Anthems
 English evolution of
motet
Council of Trent
 Polyphony on the
chopping block
 Music in service of text
A session of the Council of Trent, from an engraving
SECULAR VOCAL MUSIC
Leaning towards
homophony
Simpler harmonies
Variations:
 Chanson (Fr.)
 Madrigal (It.)
 Lied (Ger.)
 Villancico (Sp.)
 English Madrigal
Claudio Monteverdi in 1640 by Bernardo Strozzi. Monteverdi was the
most influential composer of madrigals after 1600.
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
Cornett
Sackbutt
Dulcian
Bowed strings
Shawm, bagpipes,
recorder
Organ, harpsichord
Percussion
GIOVANNI PALESTRINA
 Polyphony +
intelligible text
 Wrote mostly sacred
music
 105 masses
 140 madrigals
 300 motets
 Missa Papae Marcelli
 https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=3n8XdKkrqg
o
JOSQUIN DE PREZ
Cross-over composer
 Sacred and secular
 Wrote in all vocal
styles of the age
First master of the
“High Renaissance”
style
El grillo
1611 woodcut of Josquin des Prez,
copied from a now-lost oil painting done during his lifetime
 Frottola