Transcript English Renaissance Music - Lissy Gulick

English Renaissance Music
By Lissy Gulick
Overview
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We think of the Renaissance Era as 1400 - 1600, but musically,
defining the beginning of the era is difficult, because the process by
which music acquired "Renaissance" characteristics was a gradual
one, and musicologists have placed its beginnings anywhere from
1300 to as late as the 1470s.
Little survives of the early music of England, by which is meant
music that was used by the people before the establishment of
musical notation (in the medieval period). And unfortunately, very
few early English manuscripts survive, largely due to Henry VII’s
dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530’s.
On the other hand, folk music, handed down by oral tradition and
crossing the Atlantic with the earliest colonists, survives better in
our Appalachians than in does at home in England!
Sacred Music
(example 1: Gloria from a mass by Byrd).
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Common genres of Renaissance sacred music were the Mass and
the motet, a Latin-texted sacred polyphonic composition whose
text is not part of the Mass Ordinary. Thomas Tallis and William
Byrd are probably the best-known English sacred music composers
of the period.
Secular Music
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In addition, secular music had an increasingly wide distribution, with
a wide variety of forms: solo songs or compositions for many voices,
of which the most famous is the madrigal; purely instrumental
music, such as performance pieces for recorder or viol consorts (
“families” of the same instrument in different sizes), and dance
music for various mixed ensembles.
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In any event, 15th century England produced an explosion of
polyphonic composing in both the sacred and the secular genres.
Polyphony simply means that, unlike solo or choral pieces, music
has several voices or parts being sung or played at the same time..
think of it as a discussion carried on by 3-8 people who don’t wait
for others to finish their thoughts before chiming in with their own!
(example 2: Frog Galliard, recorder consort and tamborine)
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The Renaissance influence
internationalized courtly music
in both instruments and
content: the lute, dulcimer and
early forms of the harpsichord
were played; ballads and
madrigals were sung; the
pavane and galliard were
danced.
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Musical knowledge became a
vital attribute for the nobleman
and woman, and playing an
instument was an almostmandatory social grace.
(example 3: Canario (dance)
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For other social classes,
instruments like the pipe, tabor,
bagpipe, shawm, hurdy gurdy
and crumhorn accompanied folk
music and community dance.
The verses of the little dance
tune, Canario, feature several
typical period instruments: lute,
recorders, finger symbals, alto
shawm, orgel, and two different
crumhorns!
The rebec- ancestor of the
fiddle – was associated with
dance music, continuing into the
18th century; you can hear its
echoes even today in the
country fiddlin’ of the United
States!
a consort of shawms
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(example 4) A Lover and His Lass (song)
We also have indirect evidence that music was part of university Christmas
revels and classically-themed plays given in Latin or Greek: we have records
of payments for performances by “townies” and university service people
who were also musicians, though not as a primary means of livelihood.
Christmas Revels
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In addition, music was specifically composed for the theater: dances were
created and song words, such as Shakespeare’s A Lover and His Lass,
were set to music. (example 4)
Music: the Madrigal
example 5: Vesta
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The madrigal was the most important
secular form of music of its time. It
was polyphonic and unaccompanied,
with the number of voices varying
from two to eight. To our ears, a
madrigal sounds melodically and
rhythmically complex, so it is difficult
for us to think of it as accessible to
untrained musicians. But its principal
role was as private entertainment for
small groups of skilled amateurs.
Anna Russell, the late great British
musical comedienne, describes
madrigal-singing as a social activity
among friends much like an evening of
cards: people sat around square tables
reading music with square notes off of
square pages! “Think of the people
you play Canasta with, singing
madrigals,” she says, “and that is
probably just about what it sounded
like.”
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However, it wasn’t long before virtuoso professional singers began to
replace amateurs at these musical evenings, and composers wrote
music for them that was not only harder to sing, but with sentiments
that tended to require soloists rather than an ensemble to be
dramatically convincing.
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A division between performers and passive audiences – not the large
audiences present at a public ceremonial spectacle, as seen earlier in
the century, but relatively small, intimate gatherings, with performers
and listeners– began to be seen.
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Much of what was once expressed in a madrigal in 1590, could twenty
years later be expressed by an aria in the new form of opera;
however, the madrigal continued to live on into the 17th century – not
to say at “Madrigal Dinners” in our own time.
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Our sample is by Thomas Weelkes, "As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill
Descending," an elaborate compliment to Elizabeth: Vesta was
descending the hill while Elizabeth was climbing up; the vestal virgins
all deserted their goddess in order to join the "maiden queen."
Music: the Ricercare
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Example 6: ricercare
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A ricercar (or ricercare) is a late-Renaissance composition. In its
most common contemporary usage, it refers to an early kind of
fugue. The term means to search out, and many ricercars act as
preludes by "searching out" the key or mode of a subsequent piece,
or explore variations on a theme from another piece. The term also
means an etude or study that explores a technical device in playing
an instrument, or singing.
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The earliest ricercari, for the lute, appeared in late 15th-century
manuscripts. Its development paralleled the motet, with which it
shared many imitative procedures. Instrumental transcriptions of
motets were common in the early sixteenth century, and composers
began to create works like them, but written for instruments alone.
Songs
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Greensleeves (EXAMPLE 7) is one of the most familiar songs in the
Western hemisphere. Not only is it heard in versions for piano, recorder,
harp, lute, guitar, and nearly every other instrument, but its tune was also
used for a well-loved Christmas carol (What child is this?)-- in the days
before copyright, it was common for melodies to be interchangeable, and
for the same melodies to be used (with differing words) for secular and
religious purposes.
 Both the lyrics and music for Greensleeves have been attributed to King
Henry VIII (though only speculatively). Greensleeves' special melodic
appeal is due at least in part to its use of the Dorian mode (one of the
medieval church modes, very similar to the minor mode). The text of is also
interesting; although its verse rhyme scheme is a fairly regular ABAB, it has
a non-rhyming refrain:
"Alas, my love, you do me wrong
To cast me off discourteously,
For I have loved you oh so long/
Delighting in your company.
Greensleeves was all my joy; Greensleeves was my delight.
Greensleeves, my heart of gold, And all for my lady Greensleeves."
(There are many variants.)
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For those of you wondering if the author of this text had a sleeve
fetish: during the Renaissance sleeves were often bedecked with
jewels and embroidery, and were detachable from the rest of the
garment; it wasn't uncommon for a lady to give her sleeve to a man
as a love-pledge.
Additionally, a large amount of Renaissance poetry and music was
about love for a married woman, so it was common to give the
beloved a "code name" (in this case, "Greensleeves").
(EXAMPLE 8) He That Would an Alehouse Keep, by contrast, is
an archetypical tavern drinking song, a piece of popular music which
has crossed the border into folk music.
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(EXAMPLE 9) Cries – We end with a
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Other resources and music can be found on my
website, lissygulick.com. ENJOY!
fascinating anomaly, by Orlando Gibbons, one of
England’s greatest polyphonic composers of the
period. In this piece, he has set to music a
myriad of street-vendors’ cries—it is in effect an
“audio recording” of everyday life. It gives us a
fascinating glimpse of the street life of
Renaissance England-- making up somewhat for
the loss of early music and manuscripts!