Transcript Musicians of the Renaissance

Musicians of the Renaissance
A Quick Look at the Lives and
Works of Renaissance
Composers
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
(1525-1594)
• One of the best known
composers of the
Renaissance
• Known today as
Palestrina
• Studied music as a choir
boy in Rome
• Married, had 3 children,
and a lifelong career as
church musician and
composer.
More on Palestrina
• His employers were from the d’Este and
Medici families
• Powerful and wealthy Renaissance
families who supported the arts in Italy
• Devoted to the Roman Catholic Church
His Work
• Rewrote books of plainchant to bring them
in line with regulations
• Wrote both sacred and secular music, but
is best known for his sacred works
(masses and motets).
• He is the master of polyphonic writing
• His work is the standard of measure …
Standard of Measure
• Perfect balance of voices
• Avoidance of dissonances
• Seamless phrasing
Secular Music
• Wrote madrigals
• Much more conservative in his subject
matter than his contemporaries
• Prolific and productive composer
His Two Works You Need to Know:
• Gloria – Palestrina
• Motet Hodie Christus Natus Est Palestrina
Just for Mark 
• What’s a motet?
• an unaccompanied choral
composition with sacred lyrics;
intended to be sung as part of a
church service; originated in the 13th
century
Claudio Monteverdi
• 1567 – 1643
• Added hummable
melodies and
instrumental
accompaniment to
Madrigals
• Invented “music
dramas” which are
known as opera
today.
Why though?
• An attempt to recreate the drama from
Ancient Greece
– Amphitheater
– Accompaniment of woodwind and string
instruments
• L’Orfeo (Orpheus) not the first opera, but
the first mature opera, or one that realized
all of its potential
More about L’Orfeo
• Arguably the first example of a composer
assigning specific instruments to parts in
operas
• One of the first large compositions in
which the exact instrumentation of the
premiere has come down to us
• plot is described in vivid musical pictures
and the melodies are linear and clear
• The first music drama
Works to Know
• L’Orfeo “Rosa del ciel”
• Motet a 6, Adoramus