Historical and Cultural Background of the Renaissance

• The Renaissance period flourished in Florence, Italy, where wealthy families could afford to fund artists. One of these wealthy families that provided significant support for the arts was the Medici family, who then ruled Florence.
• Humanism


  Many aimed to restore the values and ideals of these two great ancient powerhouses, which then brought about a movement called humanism.
• Printing Press


  The Renaissance saw the beginning of the printing press. Among other things, the printing press became a tool that communicated the ideals of humanism very easily.
• Realism

  The Renaissance was a time of realism. This meant that from the more earthy state of the art during the medieval ages that lacked depth, artists began to have a sense of depth of perception and employed the use of light and shadows in their works.
• Musical Characteristics

  • Genres like the motet and the chanson received an overhaul, and new genres like the polyphonic mass cycles and the sonata emerged. 
  • Texturally, the music of the Renaissance would be mostly imitative counterpoint where one melodic line is sung by one voice, then restated by another, whether in the same or a different key. 
  • Homophony, a texture that entails a single voice holding the melody, is accompanied by other voices that establish its harmony with very little rhythmic differentiation, was also very common.