Lesson 2: Q1

• Renaissance

  Rinascimento - Rebirth
• Renaissance period

  • Started in Florence from the 14th to 16th century
  • Golden age of polyphony
  • Period of exploration and adventure - saw the voyages of Columbus and Magellan
  • Produced the likes of Da Vinci (painter, architect, sculptor, engineer, scientist and a great musician)
• Catholic Church musician


  Less influential during the Renaissance
• Education during the Renaissance

  • No longer dominated by the Church
  • Education is a status symbol for the aristocrats and middle class
  • Musical horizons were expanded
  • educated person was expected then to be trained in music
• Musicians during the Renaissance

  • Worked in churches, courts, and towns
• Renaissance music texture

  • Fuller
  • Bass register is used for the first time
  • Instrumental accompaniment is not needed
  • Golden age of "a capella"
  • Instruments were combined with voices in choral music
  • Duplication of sound to reinforce the sound
  • Part of the missing singer is done by the instrumentalist
  • Written music for the instruments is rarely found
  • polyphonic texture
  • choral piece has 4, 5, or 6 voice parts
  • homophonic texture with succession of chords is also used in dance
• Vocal forms in Renaissance music

  • Motet
  • Mass
• Mass


  made up of 5 sections: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei
• Josquin des Prez


  • Franco Flemish master
  • Served in the Papal church and dukes' private chapels
  • Wrote masses, motets and secular vocal pieces
  • Ave Maria
• Giovanni da Palestrina


  • Writer of church music
  • 104 masses and other 405 sacred works
  • Pope Marcellus Mass (written for a capella choir of six voice parts)
• Guillaume Dufay


  • Earliest composer of Burgundian school
  • Active at the court of Philip the Good and Duke of Burgundy
• Secular music in the Renaissance

  • Vocal works
  • singers were supported by instruments
  • Growth of solo instrumental music
  • keyboard and lute
• Madrigal


  Aristocratic form of poetry and music

  Polyphonic in texture

  Expressive in moods

  Written in vernacular language

  Text was short poem of lyric,

  longer than 12 lines

  Themes include love, political themes, scenes and incidents of country life
• Madrigal's musical characteristics

  • Rich chromatic harmony
  • Vocal virtuosity
  • Rich portrayal in music of emotional words
• Prominent composers of the Renaissance period

  • Thomas Morley
  • Claudio Monteverdi
• musical horizon were expanded

  printed music, church choirs, composers, performers
• motet - set to a sacred latin text other than the ordinary of the mass
• 6 voice parts - SATTBB
• What does SATTBB means

  soprano, alto, tenor 1, tenor 2, bass 1, and bass 2
• Polyphony - simultaneous combination of sounds in music
• who is the duke of bergundy

  philip the good
• motet

  short composition, 3 - 4 notation
• mass

  long composition, 6 - 10 compositions
• homophonic - one sound
• full name of giovanni - giovanni pierluigi da palestrina
• pope marcellus mass - written for Pope marcellus II
• Thomas Morley - theorist, editor, and organist at St. Paul's Cathedral/ famous renaissance composer of secular music in Elizabethan England/ foremost memeber of english madrigal school/ received bachelor degree in music in oxford
• Claudio Minteverdi - spent 12 years at the court of duke of mantua/ appointed as the chairmaster of St. Mark's in venice in 1613/ originated 'Stille Conciato"