I.  Sociocultural Influences on Music

- A general renewal or rebirth of interest in the value of humankind
Reflected in the political, religious, and social institutions
- The fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Turks
Drove the Greeks out of Greece to Italy
- Protestant Reformation (1517) exercised a great influence upon religious music specifically
and European music generally
- The Roman Catholic Church remained the leading patron of musical production
- Growing tendency toward secularization
- Exploration
Columbus
Magellan - around the world (1517-1518)
- Counter Reformation
Council of Trent
- Rise of wealthy and powerful aristocratic patrons
In the ruling courts of Burgundy in the 15th century
Were powerful influences on music
Had influence on secular and religious affairs
- The invention of the printing press (Gutenburg) in 1450
Signaled the beginning of the Renaissance
Printed music from moveable type
Ottaviano Petrucci (1543-1623)
The first to employ moveable type to print partbooks
Pierre Attaignant
Published the first collection of French chansons using moveable type
in 1528
Increased the distribution of music to a wider audience than ever before

II.  Function of Music

- Primary purpose of sacred music was liturgical and devotional
It served both the traditional Roman Catholic
and the newly formed Protestant service
- Secular music provided a highly cultivated group of amateur performers
Among the aristocracy and upper middle class
- During the last half of the 16th century, instrumental music was employed
to provide society with entertainment
Performed in the salons of the nobility and homes of the wealthy
Dancing at formal court functions
Popular songs and folk dances supplied for the mass of people
Music for festivals and other social occasions
Both secular and religious

III.  Style and Performance Practice

- Music was based on polyphonic practices
There was a unity of style in both secular and religious that applied equally to vocal
and instrumental compositions as well
This was the last period in music history in which this unity was the case


- Formal Organization

One general unifying technique employs the use of cantus firmus
The imitative use of melodic material became an increasingly important organizational device
In strictly polyphonic works formal organization was episodic
Secular poetic song forms were often characterized by a formal organization that used a
principle refrain in contrast to its other musical phrases


- Melody

Melodic form was determined by textual rather than musical considerations
Melodies were modal
Largely vocal in conception
Limited to a range that rarely exceeded and octave
Wide skips were avoided
Most melodic movement was diatonic or restricted to the tones of a particular modal scale
Chromaticism was rare in the early Renaissance,
but is frequently found in the secular music of the late Renaissance


- Rhythm

Isorhythmic devices disappeared in the 15th century
Renaissance rhythms were free from strict metrical phrasing
Phrases were generally long and free from metrical accent
Rhythms of polyphonic voices were often overlapped
Often complex as a result of the polyphonic writing


- Harmony

Results from the simultaneous sounding of more or less independent lines of melody
Predetermined function of harmony gradually made its appearance at final cadences
Most common is the authentic cadence
Others commonly used were:
Plagal
Landini
Lydian
Phrygian
Harmony was essentially intervallic rather than chordal
Rules and conventions governing voice leading were determined
by the treatment of intervals among the voices
Harmonic progression was the result of voice relationships


- Texture

Polyphony was the predominant texture of Renaissance music
In the 16th century there were works in which harmonic texture was used as a contrast to
the predominating polyphonic texture.


- Instrumentation and Tone Color

The human voice, in solo and ensemble, was the most commonly accepted medium
of performance for all Renaissance music
Voices were reinforced by instruments of all kinds
The organ, harpsichord, and clavichord were used independently
String and wind ensembles became increasingly popular
The English "full consort" was an ensemble in which a consistency of tone color was achieved
They were commonly groups of viols or recorders in different ranges
The lute was probably the most popular instrument


- Performance Practice

Composers rarely indicated specific voices or instruments for their music
Notation indicated relative pitch because at the time there was no absolute or fixed pitch
such as A=440 cps
By the 16th century regular use was made of the C and F clefs to designate the ranges
corresponding to our modern soprano, alto, tenor, and bass voices
The G or treble clef began to displace the soprano C clef
in the latter part of the 16th century
No interpretive directions (tempi, dynamics, or phrasing) are to be found
until the time of Giovanni Gabrieli
Musica ficta was the common practice for the use of accidentals
Performers added appropriate accidentals
to avoid inappropriate voice leading and dissonance
Polychoral singing was cultivated, particularly in Venice,
due in part to the architecture of St. Mark's Cathedral
Two choral groups alternating in performance results in
antiphonal singing

IV.  Music for Voices

- Single-Movement Forms and Structural Devices
Motet
Hymn
Chorale
Psalms
Anthem
Frottola
Madrigal
Chanson
Quodlibet
Ayre

Miscellaneous Secular Forms

Traditional strophic forms
Virelai
Ballata
Rondeau
More simple than before
Melody was placed in the uppermost part
Chordal with little imitation


- Composite Forms

Mass
Plainsong Mass
Cantus firmus Mass
Parody Mass

V.  Music for Instruments

- Single-Movement Forms and Structural Devices
Ricercar
Canzona
In Nomine
Toccata
Fantasia
Prelude
Variation
Dance Forms


- Composite Forms

At the end of the 16th century, the pairing of dances and the grouping of several dances indicated a desire to write instrumental works of larger scope.  These combinations are among the first example of the instrumental suite, which became a standard form in the Baroque period.

VI.  Composers

John Dunstable
Guillaume Dufay
Gilles Binchois
Johannes Ockeghem
Josquin des Prez
Heinrich Isaac
Jacob Obrecht
Clement Janequin
Adrian Willaert
Thomas Tallis
Jacobus Clemens
Andrea Gabrieli
Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina
Orlando di Lasso
William Byrd
Orlando Gibbons
Tomas Luis de Victoria
Luca Marenzio
Giovanni Gabrieli
Thomas Morley
Don Carlo Gesualdo
John Dowland
Hans Leo Hassler
Claudio Monteverdi
Thomas Weelkes

VII. Historians, Theorists, and Manuscript Sources
 

Johannes Tinctoris (1435-1511) - a Belgian theorist and composer.  His "Terminorum musicae diffinitorium" (Naples 1473) is the oldest known dictionary of musical terms.  An English translation appeared in London in 1849.  Several of his writings were published in Coussemaker's complete edition of the writings of Tinctoris in 1875.

Martin Agricola (1486-1556) - a German theorist whose "Musica instrumentalis deudsch" (Wittenberg 1529) remains an authoritative work on the instruments of the time.  It is a valuable source for the history of notation.

Henricus Glareanus (1488-1563) - a Swiss philosopher, theologian, historian, poet, and musical scholar.  His "Dodechachordon" (Basle 1547) advocated the completion of the modal series to twelve and greatly influenced the concept of modality and tonality.  A German translation of this work was published in 1888.

Pietro Aaron (1489-1545) - one of the most important Italian theorists of the early 16th century.  "Thoscanello della Musica" (Venice 1523) contains descriptions of contrapuntal rules, the chord formations employed in his day.

Gioseffo Zarlino (1517-1590) - discussed various topics concerning music of his day in the four books that make up his major work "Instituzioni harmoniche" (Venice 1558).  This treatise includes rules of counterpoint, intonation, treatment of text, and the general excellence of music.

Thomas Morley (1557-1602) - wrote and published the earliest treatise on music published in England.  "A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke" (London 1597) is a discourse on all phases of music making.  Reprinted in 1937, this is the most important English book on musical theory from the Renaissance.  Another modern edition was published in 1952.

The Trent Codices contain sacred and secular polyphonic music of the 15th century in six volumes.  They include perhaps the richest collection of music by most of the masters of 15th-century polyphony.