2/9/2017 Music in the Renaissance objectives • two aspects of Renaissance music • Nuper rosarum flores: – “old‐fashioned” isorhythmic motet – symbolism Renaissance themes • back to the ancients • back to nature 1 2/9/2017 Giotto, Ognissanti madonna (1310) Michelangelo, David (1504) 2 2/9/2017 Renaissance themes • back to the ancients – music theory • back to nature – 3rds & 6ths – text setting fall of the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire • 1265 • 1355 • 1450 • Christian scholars flee to Italy • no modern transcriptions of ancient Greek music until 1581 Guillaume Du Fay and Pope Eugenius IV 3 2/9/2017 Cathedral of Florence (3/25/1436) Pantheon, Rome 27 CE Du Fay, Nuper rosarum flores I. The harsh winter [of the Hebraic Law] III. Therefore, sweet parent Having past, roses, And daughter of your son, A recent papal gift, God, virgin of virgins, perpetually adorn To you your devoted The Temple of the grandest structure Populace of Florence petitions Piously and devoutly dedicated That whoever begs for something To you, heavenly Virgin. With pure spirit and body II. Today the vicar IV. Through your intercession Of Jesus Christ and successor And the merits Of Peter, Eugenius, Of your son, their lord, This same most enormous Temple Owing to His carnal torment, With sacred hands It may be worthy to receive And holy oils Gracious benefits and Has deigned to consecrate. Forgiveness of sins. Amen. Guillaume Du Fay, Nuper rosarum flores (1436) [score] • Isorhythmic motet – tenor: Terribilis est locus iste • From mass used to consecrate churches – canon 4 2/9/2017 Tenor voice = Guillaume Du Fay, Nuper rosarum flores (1436) • Isorhythmic motet – tenor: Terribilis est locus iste • From mass used to consecrate churches – canon • Symbolic proportions – 6:4:2:3 – text = 4 x 7 1 Kings 6, vv. 2‐3 2 The temple that King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty wide and thirty high. 3 The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple extended the width of the temple, that is twenty cubits, and projected ten cubits from the front of the temple. 5 2/9/2017 Guillaume Du Fay, Nuper rosarum flores (1436) • Isorhythmic motet – tenor: Terribilis est locus iste • From mass used to consecrate churches – canon • Symbolic proportions – 6:4:2:3 – text = 4 x 7 – 1 Kings 6 • King Solomon’s Temple conclusions on Nuper rosarum • isorhythmic motet as “old‐fashioned” music • work composed for specific context • composer as public relations officer The English Sound 6 2/9/2017 Objectives • I. understand the “English guise” (contenance angloise) • II. John Dunstaple, Quam pulchra es – extreme English sound quick review Two aspects of Renaissance music: 1. back to the ancients 2. back to nature (i.e., natural) ‐‐3rds and 6ths ‐‐text setting English style • 3rds and 6ths! – Theinred of Dover (12th century) • Sumer is icumen in (ca. 1250) NAWM – rota 7 2/9/2017 The “English guise” (contenance angloise) • Martin le Franc (W/T 21) Martin le Franc, W/T 21 Tapissier, Carmen, Cesaris For they have a new practice not long ago sang so well of making lively consonance that they astonished all Paris in both loud and soft music, and all who came to hear them. in feigning, in rests, and in mutations. But never did they discant They took on the guise of the English such finely wrought melody— and follow Dunstaple so I was told by those who once and thereby a marvelous pleasingness heard them— makes their music joyous and as Guillaume Du Fay and Binchois. remarkable. The “English guise” (contenance angloise) • faburden/fauxbourdon • Martin le Franc (W/T 21) • Old Hall Manuscript (1415‐21) – Mass ordinary – motets – Marian antiphons 8 2/9/2017 John Dunstaple (d. 1453) Quam pulchra es (motet), NAWM 34 • Quam pulchra es (motet) – freely composed, NO BORROWED TENOR – 3rds and 6ths – rhythm generated from text – rests – CONSONANCE – fermata section John Dunstaple 9.