music ( composers & works )

• Troubadour Music


  Secular music which was not based on Catholic traditions, emerged in Europe by groups of musicians called Troubadours
• Troubadour Music


  • Usually monophonic
  • Sometimes with improvised accompaniment
  • Tells of chivalry and courtly love
  • Originated in France
  • Written in the French language
• Famous Composer of the Medieval Period

  Adam De La Halle
• Adam de la Halle was also known as Adam le Bossu (Adam the Hunchback)
• Adam de la Halle was the son of a well-known citizen of Arras, Henri de la Halle
• Adam de la Halle received his education at the Cistercian Abbey of Vaucelles, near Cambrai
• Adam de la Halle was destined for the church but he eventually married
• Adam de la Halle's patrons were Robert II, Count of Artois, and Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis IX
• Adam de la Halle

  • He was a trouvére, poet, and musician
  • His literary and musical works include chansons and jeux-partis (poetic debates) in the style of the trouveres, polyphonic rondel, and motets in the style of early liturgical polyphony
  • His musical play, Jeu de Robin et de Marion was considered the earliest surviving secular French play with music
• Adam de la Halle's works

  • Le Jeu de Robin et de Marion
  • La Chanson du roi de Sicile
• Renaissance


  Rebirth, revival, and rediscovery
• The Renaissance Period is a period of looking back to the Golden Age of Greece and Rome
• Invention of printing in the 1400s


  • Paved the way for wide distribution of renaissance compositions
  • Emergence of the bourgeois class led to renaissance music becoming popular as entertainment and activity for amateurs and the educated
• Lute


  Prominent instrument of the renaissance era
• Influence of the Roman Catholic Church

  Started to decline as new music genres arose
• Sacred music was still of great importance, but secular music became more prominent in the renaissance period
• The renaissance period was known as the "golden age" of a cappella choral music
• Other historical facts during this era include the discovery of the actual position of the earth in the solar system by Copernicus, the invention of the compass creating wider navigation, and Martin Luther's Protestant reformation
• Characteristics of Renaissance Music

  • Mostly polyphonic
  • Imitation among the voices is common
  • Use of word painting in texts and music
  • Melodic lines move in a flowing manner
  • Melodies are easier to perform because these move along a scale with a few large leaps
• Mass


  A form of sacred musical composition that sets texts of the Eucharistic liturgy into music
• Characteristics of the Mass

  • Polyphonic
  • May be sung a cappella or with orchestral accompaniment
  • Text may be syllabic, neumatic, or melismatic
• Five Main Sections of Mass

  • Kyrie "Lord Have Mercy"
  • Gloria "Glory to God in the Highest"
  • Credo "Apostle's Creed" or "Nicean Creed"
  • Sanctus and Benedictas "Holy, holy:" and "Blessed Is He"
  • Agnus Dei "Lamb of God"
• Listen to the link below that features one of the main sections of the Mass, "Gloria" by Joasquin de Prez
• Madrigal


  A secular vocal polyphonic music composition which originated from courtly social gatherings, the most important secular form during the Renaissance period
• Characteristics of the Madrigal

  • Polyphonic
  • Sung a cappella
  • Through-composed
  • Frequently in 3 to 6 voices
• Listen to "April Is in My Mistress' Face" by Thomas Morley
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

  The greatest master of Roman Catholic Church music during the Renaissance period, majority of his compositions are sacred music, committed to sacred music and satisfying the desires of church leaders in the sixteenth century
• Palestrina's Pope Marcellus Mass is held up as the perfect example of counter-reformation style, Kyrie is part of the first two sections of the Pope Marcellus Mass
• Palestrina


  • Received early training and spent majority of career in various churches in Rome, including the Pope's chapel, was an organist and choir master at both the Sistine Chapel and at St. Peter's Basilica, which may have influenced his distinctively pure and restrained style in musical compositions, also served as an organist in St. Agapito, his first book, Masses became popular and was greatly appreciated by Pope Julius III
• Palestrina had two sons but lost them both during the plague epidemic that struck Rome in 1570s, he had planned to become a priest but eventually changed his mind and married a wealthy widow, this improved his wealth and enabled him to pursue a musical career for the rest of his life
• Listen to the links below that feature the opening Kyrie (Excerpt from "Pope Marcellus' Mass")
• Thomas Morley


  The most famous composer of secular music in his time, was a singer in the local cathedral during his childhood and was believed to have studied music with William Byrd, an Elizabethan composer of sacred music, received his Bachelor's degree in Oxford and became an organist at St. Paul's Cathedral in London
• Madrigals


  Light and easy to sing with some aspects of composing that show a variety of color, form, and technique
• Madrigals with English text were published in 1588 by Nicholas Yonge
• Thomas Morley


  Veered towards Italian style, published his own collections of madrigals and made significant contributions to the history of music
• Thomas Morley's works


  • "Fire, Fire My Heart"
  • "Sing and Chant 11"
  • "Fantaste"
  • "April is an My Mistress' Facy"
  • "It Was a Lower and Jls Lass"
• Research and listen to Thomas Morley's works
• The word Baroque is derived from the Portuguese word barroco which means "pearl of irregular shape"
• Great composers of the Baroque period

  • George Friedrich Handel
  • Johann Sebastian Bach
  • Claudio Monteverdi
  • Antonio Vivaldi
• Baroque music


  • Highlighted grandiose and elaborate ornamentation
  • Developed new instrumental techniques and changes in musical notation
  • Created major and minor tonality