The Enjoyment of Music 10th Shorter Edition

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The Enjoyment of Music 10th Shorter Edition
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Unit IV

• The Renaissance

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14. The Renaissance SpiritThe Renaissance (c.
14501600)

• I am not pleased with the Courtier if he be not
  also a musician, and besides his understanding
  and cunning in singing upon the book, have
  skill in like manner on sundry instruments.
• Baldassare
  Castiglione

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The Arts in the Renaissance

• Shift from religious to secular
• Italy

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Musicians in Renaissance Society

• Churches, cities, and courts
• Trades of instrument building, printing, and
  music publishing
• Merchant-class music patrons
• Amateur musicians

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Renaissance Musical Style

• A cappella singing
• Polyphony based on Continuous imitation

• Marenzio La bella ninfa mia
• a cappella
• continuous imitation

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Renaissance Musical Style
Weelkes Welcome Sweet Pleasure
Couperin Les barricades misterieuses (Baroque)

• Word painting
• Cantus firmus

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The Enjoyment of Music 10th Shorter Edition
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15. Renaissance Sacred Music
We know by experience that song has great force
and vigor to move and inflame the hearts of men
to invoke and praise God with a more vehement and
ardent zeal. John Calvin
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The Early Renaissance Mass

• Mass Ordinary
• Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei
• Latin vs. vernacular
• Early Masses based on Gregorian chant cantus
  firmus
• Requiem
• Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine
• Dies irae

Palestrina Missa in Festis Apostolorum I, Agnus
Dei
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The Motet in the Renaissance

• Single Latin text
• Marian motets (Virgin Mary)
• Written for 3, 4, or more voices
• Cantus firmus

Josquin Ave Mariavirgo serena
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(c. 14501521) Josquin des Prez and the Motet
He is the master of the notes. They have to do
as he bids them other composers have to do as
the notes will. Martin Luther

• Called Josquin
• Franco-Flemish origin
• Italian career

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(c. 14501521) Josquin des Prez and the Motet

• Patrons
• Milan, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza
• Ferrara, Ercole dEste
• Rome, papal choir
• Humanistic writing
• Sacred and secular music

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Josquin Ave Maria . . . virgo serena (Listening
Guide)

• Renaissance motet
• Combinations of voices and textures
• Quotation of chant
• Rest of work is newly composed
• Imitative vs. homorhythmic sections
• Final couplet simple texture, example of
  humanistic spirit

Listening Guide PDF
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Josquin Ave Maria . . . virgo serena (Listening
Guide)

• Renaissance motet
• 4 voices (SATB)
• Continuous imitation
• Chant quotation
• Duple meter

Opening
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Josquin Ave Maria . . . virgo serena (Listening
Guide)

• Combinations of voices and textures
• After opening quotation of chant
• rest of work is newly composed
• Imitative vs. homorhythmic sections
• Final couplet simple texture, example of
  humanistic spirit

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The Late Renaissance Mass

• Martin Luther (14831546) Reformation
• Counter-Reformation (1530s1590s)
• Council of Trent
• Corruption of chant by embellishment
• Use of certain instruments in religious
  services
• Incorporation of popular music in Masses
• Secularism of music
• Irreverent attitude of church musicians
• Pure vocal style that respected the integrity of
  the sacred texts

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Palestrina and the Pope Marcellus Mass

• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
• (c. 15251594)
• Called Palestrina
• Italian composer, organist, and choirmaster
• Sistine Chapel Choir
• Pope Julius III
• Wrote mostly sacred music

Our wisest mortals have decided that music
should give zest to divine worship. If people
take great pains to compose beautiful music for
profane secular songs, they should devote at
least as much thought to sacred song, nay, even
more than to mere worldly matters. - Palestrina
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Palestrina Pope Marcellus Mass, Gloria
(Listening Guide)

• Satisfies the new strict demands of the Council
  of Trent
• Probably performed a capella
• Written for six voice parts
• Soprano (sung by boys or male falsettists)
• Alto (sung by male altos or countertenors tenors
  with high voices)
• Tenor I
• Tenor II
• Bass I
• Bass II
• Opens with a monophonic intonation
• Choral sections are polyphonic
• Text is clear and audible

Listening Guide PDF
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Palestrina Pope Marcellus Mass, Gloria
(Listening Guide)
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The Enjoyment of Music 10th Shorter Edition
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16. Renaissance Secular MusicMusic in Court and
City Life

• Professional musicians courts and civic
  functions
• Merchant-class amateurs played and sang at home
• Lute, keyboard instrument
• Women and music
• Chanson and madrigal

Come sing to me a bawdy song, make me
merry. Falstaff, in William Shakespeares Henry
IV
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The Chanson

• Burgundy and France in the 15th century
• 3 or 4 voices
• Courtly love verses
• Freer poetic structures
• Roland de Lassus

Lassus O vin en vigne
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Instrumental Dance Music

• Period of growth
• Published music
• Played vocal music

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Popular dance types

• Pavane
• Saltarello
• Galliard
• Allemande
• Ronde

Praetorius Terpsichore, Courante
Praetorius Terpsichore, Volte
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Susato Three Dances (Listening Guide) Listening
Guide PDF

• Set of three rondes from the 1551 Danserye
  collection
• Instrumental dances published by Tielman Susato
  (c. 1515c. 1571)
• Performed by a loud wind band
• Loud instruments included shawm, sackbut,
  cornetto, tabor, tambourine
• Binary form (A-A-B-B)
• Repeated sections with added improvised
  embellishments

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The Italian Madrigal
By shallow rivers to whose falls melodious birds
sing madrigals - Christopher Marlow

• Chief form of Renaissance secular music
• Italian courts
• Text short poem of lyric or reflective nature
• Includes loaded words

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The Italian Madrigal

• Music sets text expressively
• Instruments double or substitute for the voices
• Three phases of the madrigal
• First phase (c. 15251550)
• Second phase (c. 15501580)
• Third phase (c. 15801620)

Marenzio La bella ninfa mia
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Monteverdi Ecco mormorar l'onde (Listening
Guide) Listening Guide PDF

• Courtly poem by Torquato Tasso
• Exaggerated contrasts of delight and despair
• Expressed musically with word painting
• Images include waves, rustling leaves, birds'
  song, etc.
• Five-voice texture
• Style inspired by the famous ensemble of
  professional women singers
• Concerto delle donne (Ensemble of the Ladies)
• Contrast between high and low voices foreshadows
  Baroque techniques

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The English Madrigal

• English further developed the Italian madrigal
• Musica transalpina, 1588
• Simpler and lighter in style
• Refrain syllables (fa-la-la)

Since singing is so good a thing, I wish that
all men would learne to sing - William Byrd
Weelkes Welcome Sweet Pleasure
Morley Those Dainty Daffadillies
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John Farmer (c. 15701601)

• Active in 1590s in Dublin
• Organist and master of choirboys at Christ
  Church

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Farmer Fair Phyllis (Listening Guide)
Listening Guide PDF
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Transition IFrom Renaissance to Baroque

• Polychoral Music in Venice
• Relationship to the East
• St. Marks Basilica
• Choirmasters and organists
• Byzantine architecture
• Polychoral music
• Antiphonal performance

Gabrieli Hodie Christus natus est
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