Renaissance Music Online Lesson

Renaissance music can be divided into two sections - Religious (Sacred) and non-religious (secular).

Sacred

Motets and masses

The main forms of church music were the mass and the motet. This was music of the Catholic Church. Composers were now writing their music for at least four parts. (Composers had begun to explore the range of pitch below tenor - by writing a part we now call Bass.) Music was still based on Modes.

German Chorale

In 16th Century Germany, where the Protestant church led by Martin Luther was seeking ways of bringing its people into a more direct contact with God, there grew up a tradition of hymn writing to be sung in German by the whole congregation - rather then Latin by a trained choir.

These tunes sometimes newly composed, sometimes adopted from plainchant or even popular songs.

Church Music in England

Besides many motets and masses composed for Catholic Church services, some composers wrote Anthem to be sung by the choir during services in Protestant Churches. The Anthem grew out of the motet, but it was sung in English not Latin.

There are two types of Anthem:

FULL ANTHEM	sung by choir throughout, usually accompanied
VERSE ANTHEM	verse sung by one or more soloists, accompanied by organ or viols, alternate with sections where the whole choir joins in.

16th Century Venice

St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice. There were two organ lofts and two choir galleries set high up on the opposite sides of the building. This gave composers opportunities to write for two separate choirs. Pieces in this style are described as polychoral - meaning music for more than one choir. A phrase from the left is answered by the same, or perhaps a different phrase from the right.

Venetians were fond of using instruments as well as voices in their church music and so included various instruments, each group linked to its own choir. Some of the most impressive polychoral piece are by Giovanni Gabrieli.

Secular

Alongside these developments in Renaissance Church Music, there was a rich flowering of secular songs. These were amazingly varied in style and expressing every kind of human mood and emotion. Some are very contrapuntal in texture, making greater use of imitation, while others are chordal, joyful with clear dance-like rhythms.

Madrigal

	Usually one singer per part, performed in homes of keen music lovers everywhere. In England their came to be three kinds of Madrigal; the ballett, the ayre and the madrigal proper. Thomas Morley was the most famous English Madrigal composer.

	Madrigal Proper	Through composed - a new tune for each new line of text. A madrigal proper is usually very contrapuntal, with much use of imitation. this makes all the voices equally important. Words and music are closely matched, and the composer introduces word-painting.
	The Ballett	The ballett was sometimes danced as well as sung. A ballett is lighter in style than a madrigal proper. It has clear dance rhythms and the texture is mainly chordal. Whereas a madrigal proper is through-composed, a ballett is strophic. The most noticeable feature of a ballett is the 'fa-la-la' sections that are sung.
	The Ayre	Ayre = song. Ayres were often printed on two facing pages of a book - the melody on the left, the lower parts on the right. Beneath the melody were the words and also a version of the lower parts arranged for lute. An ayre can be performed in a variety of ways: by a solo voice with lute accompaniment; by a solo voice accompanied by other instruments such as the viol; or with all parts sung by voices, with or without accompaniment.