Renaissance I. Renaissance in Culture and Art A.

The Renaissance (French for "rebirth") began at different times for different aspects of culture. 1. In some aspects it began in the 1300s. 2. Some areas experienced a renaissance beginning in the 1500s. 3. The term was coined in 1855 by a French historian. 4. The Renaissance time was more of a cultural movement than a specific set of musical styles. B. Developments in music 1. New rules for counterpoint controlled dissonance and elevated thirds and sixths in importance. 2. The predominant textures were imitative counterpoint and homophony. 3. Printing made notated music available to a wider public, including amateurs. 4. The Reformation generated changes in music for both Protestant and Catholic churches. Europe from 1400 to 1600 (The Age of the Renaissance) A. European conflicts 1. Several older conflicts were resolved. a. The Great Schism in the church ended in 1417. b. The Hundred Years' War concluded in 1453. c. Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks, ending the Byzantine Empire in 1453. 2. New conflicts a. Turks conquered the Balkans and Hungary. b. The Reformation splintered the Roman Church. B. European expansion 1. Europeans established colonies around the world. 2. Columbus's 1492 trip led to Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the Americas, followed by colonies established by other countries. C. The European economy stabilized around 1400. 1. Trade between regions with specialized products brought wealth to towns, cities, and individuals. 2. The middle class continued to grow in numbers and influence. 3. Rulers glorified themselves and their principalities. a. Impressive palaces and country houses b. Decoration with new artwork and artifacts from ancient civilizations c. Lavish entertainment d. Private chapels staffed by professional musicians D. Humanism 1. Access to Greek writings influenced thinkers.

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Byzantine scholars fled to Italy because of Ottoman attacks, taking ancient Greek writings with them. b. Italian scholars learned Greek and translated Greek texts into Latin. c. The works of Plato and the Greek plays and histories became available to western Europeans for the first time. 2. Humanism (from the Latin studia humanitatis, "the study of the humanities," that is, things pertaining to human knowledge) a. Humanists emphasized the study of grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, and moral philosophy. b. They believed that the humanities prepared students for lives of virtue and service. c. The church borrowed from classical sources and supported humanists. Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture A. Classical models of beauty 1. Nude statues based on Greek ideals depicted the beauty of the human figure, as opposed to human shame in medieval art. 2. Classical Greek and Roman styles were used to portray Christian themes. 3. Musicians consulted Greek theoretical treatises for ideas on how to create classical beauty in music. B. Realistic depictions in painting 1. Perspective, a method of showing three dimensions on a flat surface by orienting objects on a single point with vanishing lines toward it, made more realistic images possible. 2. Chiaroscuro, naturalistic treatment of light and shade C. Clarity and clean lines are the new architectural style, the opposite of the ornate decoration of the Gothic style. D. Interest in individuals 1. Patrons commissioned paintings to memorialize themselves. 2. Minor figures in paintings were also painted in detail. E. Musical parallels 1. Expansion of range, allowing contrast between high and low registers and fuller textures 2. Clarity of musical structure through frequent cadences and stylistic contrasts 3. Focusing on a single tonal center was the equivalent of using a single vanishing point in perspective. 4. Interest in individuals is reflected in unique personal styles and memorial works. Music in the Renaissance A. Court chapels 1. Rulers, aristocrats, and church leaders had their own chapels. 2. Musicians at the chapels were on salary. 3. Because they worked for the ruler, not the Church, they could be called upon for secular entertainment as well as sacred functions.

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Most musicians had other duties as servants, administrators, clerics, or church officials. Music education 1. Choir schools in cathedrals and chapels taught singing, music theory, and academic subjects to boys. a. Most prominent composers of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries came from northern Europe, which was home to the most renowned centers for musical training: Cambrai, Bruges, Antwerp, Paris, and Lyons. b. In the sixteenth century, Rome and Venice became centers of musical training, and more composers were Italian. c. Girls and women in convents received some musical instruction. 2. Instrumentalists trained in the apprentice system. Patronage for music 1. Competition for the best composers and performers erased regional differences. 2. Court musicians in Italy came from France, Flanders, and the Netherlands (Franco-Flemish composers). 3. English, French, and Italian styles merged into one international style in the fifteenth century. 4. Composers were able to compose in regional vernacular song styles because of their travels. The new counterpoint 1. Thirds and sixths, now seen as consonances, required new approaches to counterpoint. 2. Johannes Tinctoris: Liber de arte contrapuncti (A Book on the Art of Counterpoint) a. He references composers b. His rules for counterpoint have rules for the treatment of dissonance, including suspensions. 3. Gioseffo Zarlino's Le istitutioni harmoniche (The Harmonic Foundations, 1558) synthesizes the rules for counterpoint as developed after Tinctoris. New compositional methods and textures 1. All voices became equal by the second half of the fifteenth century. 2. Composers stopped basing works on the cantus-tenor relationship and began composing all voices equally and simultaneously 3. Two textures emerged: imitative counterpoint and homophony (two parts or more parts moving together in harmony). 4. Imitative counterpoint a. Voices echo each other, repeating a motive or phrase. b. Repetitions are usually a fourth, fifth, or octave away. 5. Homophony a. All voices move together in essentially the same rhythm. b. The lower parts accompany the cantus line with consonant sonorities. Tuning and temperament

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Tuning System a. Musicians experimented with new tuning systems because they wanted consonances to sound sweeter. b. They wanted to expand their tonal vocabulary to include notes of the chromatic scale 2. Pythagorean intonation a. Based on fourths and fifths and used during the Middle Ages b. Created dissonant-sounding thirds and sixths using complex ratios c. The ratio for a major third was 81:64, which sounds out of tune compared to the pure major third (5:4 or 80:64). 3. Just intonation a. Walter Odington observed that musicians used simpler ratios in practice ca. 1300. b. He laid the foundation for tuning based on simple ratios for thirds (5:4) and sixths (6:5). c. In 1482 Bartolom Ramis de Pareia proposed a system now known as just intonation to create perfectly tuned thirds and sixths. 4. Temperaments a. Tuning systems designed to create the best-sounding intervals over the range of a keyboard were developed to accommodate works that used pitches outside the gamut. b. Singers could sing G-sharp and A-flat at slightly different pitches, but keyboards could not do this. c. Mean-tone temperament employs fifths tuned slightly smaller than perfect in order to create consonant thirds and usable black keys. d. Temperament was now governed by accommodations to the ear rather than adherence to past authority, in keeping with humanist principles. Words and music 1. The forms fixes fell out of fashion; texts became more varied. 2. Composers paid increasing attention to accents and meter in setting texts. 3. Cadences expressed varying degrees of finality based on the text. 4. Composers sought to dramatize the content and convey the feelings of the texts with music. 5. The new concern with text declamation and expression was reinforced by the rediscovery of ancient writing. Reawakened interest in Greek theory 1. Greek writings on music came to the West during the Renaissance. 2. By the end of the fifteenth century, they had been translated into Latin. 3. Franchino Gaffurio (1451-1522) a. The most influential treatise writer of his time b. Gaffurio incorporated ideas from Greek treatises into his. c. Topics influenced by Greek theory included the modes, consonance and dissonance, relationship of music and words, and tuning. 4. Heinrich Glareanus (1488-1563)

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Swiss theorist He added four new modes in his book Dodekachordon (The Twelve-String Lyre, 1547). 1. Aeolian and Hyperaeolian, with the final on A 2. Ionian and Hypoionian with the final on C c. By his time, composers frequently used C and A as tonal centers. New applications of Greek ideas 1. Music as a social accomplishment 2. Conveying emotion through music a. Inspired by ancient Greek descriptions of the emotional effects of music b. By ca. 1500, composers used various compositional devices to convey the feeling of the text. c. Greek descriptions of the qualities of the modes inspired composers to connect modes with emotional effects. 3. Chromaticism, inspired by the chromatic genus of ancient Greek music Music printing 1. Printing from movable type began around 1450 for text and in the 1450s for chant notation. 2. Printing from a single impression a. Pieces of type contained the printed staff, notes, and the text together. b. John Rastell in London after ca. 1520 c. Pierre Attaingnant in Paris (ca. 1494-1551/52) d. Staff lines were not continuous, but the method was a commercial success. 3. Printing from three impressions: the printing press created the staff, the notes, and the words in separate passes over the paper. 4. Harmonice musices odhecaton A, 1501, published by Ottaviano Petrucci (1466-1539 a. The first collection of polyphonic music printed entirely from movable type*** b. Ninety-six Polyphonic Songs c. Volumes B and C followed a few years later. d. He held a patent on the process, preventing other publishers from using it. e. He printed both vocal and instrumental music. 5. Amateur musicians used partbooks (each book contained one voice or part) for home gatherings, creating a large market for printed books. 6. Effect of music printing a. Composers' works could be heard throughout Europe and the Americas. b. Composers could make more money, either through publication or through the growth of their reputations. c. New musical styles evolved to satisfy demands for popular and regional styles.

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The music of the Renaissance is available to modern performers and scholars. K. New repertories 1. Music printing encouraged the rise of new repertories of music. 2. An international style was formulated in the early fifteenth century. 3. The sixteenth century saw a proliferation of regional styles. a. Much of this music was vocal. b. National traditions emerged in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, England, and elsewhere. 4. The market for printed music also encouraged the development of notated instrumental music. L. Reformation and Counter-Reformation 1. Led by Martin Luther, the Reformation began in 1517. 2. Each church developed its own music for services. 3. The Counter-Reformation was the Catholic response and produced some of the finest music of the century. The Legacy of the Renaissance A. The humanist focus created a musical style that would appeal to the listener. 1. Consonance 2. Natural declamation of the words 3. Emotional expressivity B. Developments in musical language, temperament, and musical aesthetics have persisted to the present. C. Renaissance counterpoint continued to be the main style for Catholic church music through the eighteenth century. D. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, scholars began transcribing Renaissance works into modern notation.

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