Transcript Renaissance music

RENAISSANCE MUSIC
Knox Academy Music Department
RENAISSANCE = ‘RE-BIRTH’
The Renaissance period falls roughly between 1450 and 1600.
In Western Europe, there was increasing interest in learning and culture,
looking back to the civilisations of ancient Greece and Rome.
This affected art, architecture, literature and music.
It was the age of Christopher Columbus, Leonardo da Vinci, William
Shakespeare, Nicolaus Copernicus and composers such as Byrd, Tallis,
Victoria and Palestrina.
THE CHURCH
The church remained an important focal point for the development of music.
Composers had moved away from plainsong and were writing more complicated
music, usually for 4 or more voices.
The Renaissance period was a time of great religious instability and this had
implications for composers and the sort of music that they wrote.
Henry VIII – Catholic, but converted to Protestantism to divorce
Edward VI – Protestant
Mary – Catholic
Elizabeth I – Protestant, but made some concessions to Catholics
Catholic monarch = music in Latin, polyphonic and melismatic
Protestant monarch = music in English, homophonic, syllabic and simple.
MASS
The mass is a musical setting of 6 religious texts. Each text is sung at a
specific point of the church service:
KYRIE (Greek) – ‘Lord, have mercy’
GLORIA (Latin) – ‘Glory to God in the highest’
CREDO (Latin) – ‘I believe in one God’
SANCTUS (Latin) – ‘Holy, holy, holy’
BENEDICTUS (Latin) – ‘Blessed is He’
AGNUS DEI (Latin) – ‘Lamb of God’
A setting of the mass is still sung or said at all Catholic and Anglican church
services.
FEATURES OF A RENAISSANCE
MASS
MOTET
A short piece of religious music, written in Latin.
It was usually written for a specific time in the church’s year, eg Advent,
Christmas, Epiphany, Easter etc.
It is similar in style to the mass – polyphonic, melismatic, imitative etc.
Eg O Magnum mysterium (O Great mystery) by Tomas Luis de Victoria – a
Christmas motet.
ANTHEM
When Protestant monarchs were on the throne, composers were not allowed
to write such fancy, polyphonic music.
Anything that was thought to be a ‘distraction’ was removed from churches:
stained glass windows, statues, priests’ fancy robes and garments.
Music had to be much simpler – homophonic, syllabic and written in English
so that people could understand the text.
Eg If ye love me by Thomas Tallis