Unit 6: Classical music in Practice

Assignment title: Renaissance Music

Task 1

The Development of Western Art Music through the Renaissance Period

The renaissance period was a period of cultural movement that affected the Europeans intellectual overview of life completely in the early modern period. Beginning in Italy it spread to the rest of Europe its influence was felt in topics such as history, literature, philosophy, art, and politics and had an immense on the development of classical music in particular. Then here begins the birth of Renaissance music. Its notable birth was around 1400 around the end of the medieval era and ended at the beginning of the baroque, which was around 1600.

Renaissance music was mainly split up into two types of music, which was Sacred, and Secular music. Furthering in the explanation of sacred music and secular music.

Firstly sacred music is music composed for religious use or through religious influence. Musical features of sacred music in Renaissance include songs/pieces with lots of vocal harmonies, it is primarily a vocal piece, due to fact it is a vocal piece it features no instrumental accompaniment and has modal quality in oppose to tonal quality.

Musical features in Secular music was much more melodic as the melodic passages were more consistent making it more tuneful. It was not limited in the music creativity and this includes more harmonic variation and lyrical content.

Sacred music developed though experimental polyphony in terms of chant where melodic lines were performed simultaneously in contrast to the monophony of the Gregorian chant, which was formed by the influence in the development of Renaissance music, in addition there was a renewed study on the classical Latin language which influenced composers created music that closely fitted the meaning and the rhythm of that text and as times evolved sacred music took over where the theme was the biggest change where the lyrics became more non-religious aswell as composers experimented over freer forms. One of the most notable and credible individuals was a composer who went by the name of Guillaume de Mauchaut who wrote both secular and sacred music.

The main musical characteristics of Renaissance music included: Music based on Modes, Richer textures in four or more parts, Blending rather than contrasting strands in the musical texture and harmony with greater depth with the progressions of chords.

Common sacred genres were the mass which is a form of sacred composition commonly a choral composition, a motet which is a polyphonic choral composition on a sacred text usually without instrumental accompaniment, a madrigal with a more secular like text in oppose to a sacred text topics in madrigal often included love.

Instrumental music in secular music included consort music for recorder or viol.

Renaissance music then sparked the birth of baroque music where secular music influenced the new polychoral style as well as the development of the following styles madrigals, and opera.