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 correspondencesexample: “alone”

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

3. Emotional connotationsexample: (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 descendingShe spied a maiden Queen the same ascending,Attended on by all the shepherds’swain;To whom Diana’s darlings came

running down amainFirst two by two, then three by three togetherLeaving 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 billAnd 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 eyesO grevious to be spoken.

JOHN FARMER

(English Renaissance Madrigalist)

Fair Phyllis

Fair Phyllis I saw sitting all aloneFeeding 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-likeshapes

Form lots of imitation of tiny bits of melody

Dynamics mostly at one level, changes are made in the volume by adding togethermore 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 (1477-78)– 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