Renaissance

1550-1600 Renaissance-Key Features

1550-1600 Renaissance-Genres,Context,Composers

Renaissance - Music Appreciation Site - interactive w/listening examples

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/musicappreciation_with_theory/chapter/introduction-the-renaissance/

Music Instruments from Renaissance to 19th Century - Text Book

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2XBMRkY9S4KcWx5cTNaWU9wN1U

Renaissance Composers Timeline

Renaissance Period - Melody

General characteristics of melodies in the Renaissance period

Melodies were mainly based on modes - types of scale found in the Medieval and Renaissance periods.
Most of the melodies were conjunct with the occasional leap. This is because the majority of compositions were still vocal. Step-wise melodies are very suitable for singers.
The range of most Renaissance melodies was limited to the vocal range for which the melodies were written. Instrumental melodies have similarly narrow ranges.

Melodic devices

Imitation

Imitation can be found in a lot of sacred choral music from the Renaissance period. A melody would often be sung in one voice - eg soprano - and then copied by another voice shortly afterwards.

An example of this can be found in the motet Sicut cervus by Giovanni Pierlugi da Palestrina. The tenor opens with a simple conjunct melody, which is imitated by the alto line shortly afterwards - a perfect fifth above. The soprano and bass then imitate the same melody. All of the entries in this motet are imitative. It is worth listening to the whole thing to hear how the individual lines work together.

Another example of imitation can be heard in William Byrd’s Civitas sancti tui:

Word-painting

Composers of Renaissance madrigals often used word-painting to set their chosen texts as expressively and effectively as possible. In Weelkes’ madrigal As Vesta was from Latmos Hill Descending, the word “descending” is set to a descending scale, and the word “ascending” is set as an ascending scale. The music descends when the voices sing “running down amain”, and Thomas Weelkes even reflects “two by two”, “three by three” and “together” in the number of voices singing each time.

Decoration

A lot of Renaissance instrumental music is decorated with ornaments. These include mordents, trills and turns. They appear in a lot of keyboard and lute music of the time. A good example is My Lady Nevell’s Ground by Byrd.

A mordent is formed by playing a note, the note above and then returning to the first note.

Trill

A trill is two adjacent notes that are played rapidly one after the other.

Turn

A turn is a short decoration consisting of the note above the one indicated, the note itself, the note below the one indicated, and the note itself again. It is marked by a mirrored S-shape lying on its side above the stave.

Renaissance period - Harmony and tonality

General characteristics of harmony and tonality in the Renaissance period

Harmonies in the Renaissance period usually came from the combination of polyphonic melodies.
The overall tonality of the music was based on modes - types of scales found in the Medieval and Renaissance periods - or major, or minor, scales.
The chords created by polyphony were mainly major or minor. Occasionally, the final chords had no third and were neither major nor minor.
Dissonant notes in chords had to be prepared and resolved.
False relations were used to create harmonic interest.
Drones were often used as a basic accompaniment.

Harmony from polyphony

In vocal music, chords were formed from the individual melody lines interweaving, or polyphony. These were usually major or minor chords. The score below is from Sicut Cervus by Giovanni Pierlugi da Palestrina. The notes on the first and third beats of the bar form part of a chord in G major - the key of the piece. Also, the dissonance in the soprano line is prepared and resolved by step.

The final chord of Thomas Tallis’ If ye love me is an open fifth – there is no third. This is frequently found in Renaissance music.

False relation

A false relation is a type of dissonance that occurs in Renaissance music. It is a harmonic clash that happens when a note in one part is played or sung at the same or immediately before or after a chromatically altered version of the same note in another part. The example below is from William Byrd’s Ave verum corpus. The F sharp and F natural are sung very close to each other in the tenor and bass parts.

Renaissance (and Baroque) periods - Structure

A number of forms were developed in the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Structures in the Renaissance period were mainly based on the text being used. Religious music was written to be sung by choirs in churches. It often took the form of masses or motets. The congregation would not have sung at all. Outside the church, the madrigal was a popular song form and there were also many types of dance music, eg the galliard or the pavane.

Binary form - AB

Binary form has two sections. It was commonly used by Baroque composers - especially in dances. Binary form also followed some conventions in terms of tonality:

Section A - begins in the tonic key, ends in the dominant key and is usually repeated.
Section B - begins in the dominant key and returns to the tonic key.

Ternary form - ABA

Ternary form is made up of three sections. It was commonly found in the minuet and trio in Baroque dances. It then evolved into a movement within the Classical symphony. The repeat of section A is not always exact, but is very close to the opening section.

Ritornello form - ABACA

In ritornello form, the section A returns between each new section. It was commonly used in the Baroque period. The ritornello section - A - would often return in keys related to the tonic, for example, the dominant or the relative minor. If the original section was long, it would often return in a shortened version. The sections between the ritornello sections are called episodes. Ritornello form evolved into rondo form in the Classical period. Ritornello form can be found in many concerti grossi, such as Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos.

Da capo aria - ABA

This was a common form found in several types of vocal music including operas by composers such as George Frederick Handel and oratorios - perhaps the most famous is Handel’s Messiah. A da capo aria is one where the voice returns to the top of the movement (da capo) and repeats the first section of the music. It was common for the soloist to add ornamentation when the first section was repeated. “He was despised” from Handel’s Messiah is an example of a da capo aria.

Ground bass

A ground bass is a repeated bass line over which harmonies and melodies change. Ground bass was popular in Baroque music. An example can be found in Henry Purcell’s Music for a While or “Dido’s Lament” from Dido and Aeneas.

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