The Renaissance
(1450 to 1600)

In Western music history, the word 'Renaissance' comes from the French word, meaning 'rebirth', referring to the objective of artists of the time to disclaim the previous era (the Middle Ages). The Renaissance also restored the philosophical and artistic ideals of classical antiquity. In addition, this musical period also saw the rebirth of the appreciation of music in the lives of everyday people. Music began to reflect the exhilaration of discoveries that people were making in their own lives. In the past, many people did not appreciate the arts. But as more people started to learn in school, about history, cultures, and science. This gave people the opportunity to not only appreciate the arts, but to understand it as well. The musical features during the Renaissance time period reflected upon music such as the chansons, which were French polyphonic songs of the late Middle Ages, but the music was much smoother and obtained more flowing lines.

The Renaissance began around 1450 and lasted until the 1600s, in northern Italy, which was held by the urban bourgeoisie or the depostic nobles. There was a gradual change from the feudal system of the Middle Ages to the modern state. For this reason, several historians also called the Renaissance the Early Modern Era. Several changes came about, including the views of the earth and the cosmos. Christopher Columbus (1451? -1506) was a European discoverer who was born in Italy. Columbus set out on sea at the age of fourteen and was shipwrecked off Portugal. His plan was to reach India by sailing west, but was later rejected from John II of Portugal. Ferdinand Magellan then supported him. Ferdinand Magellan (c 1480-1521), who a Portuguese who wanted to travel to Southeast Asia, because of their rich spices, Magellan's king could not finance his voyage, so he received help from Spain instead. He was hoping to find a passage through South America so that he could sail form the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Both Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan expanded Europe's view of the world. The astronomical studies of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), which was later championed by Galileo Galilee, (1564-1642) allowed the old-earth to become a well-organized universe.

The Renaissance music is mostly polyphonic, which is music having two or more independent, but harmonically related melodic parts sounding together. The Renaissance music was known to be the 'golden age' due to the Acapella choral music. Vocal music became more important during the Renaissance rather than instrumental music. During this period, many people started to write and compose their music to express their feeling and emotions in a more lively way. Composers during this period wanted to blend their music together rather than being made up on top of each other or layer by layer. In order to achieve this texture, the key device was called imitation. Imitation was one voice part that introduces an idea and is copied by another voice part. The Renaissance music sounded more rounded then medieval music, because the new sound of the bass line caused the harmony to sound richer. The music sounded very relaxing and mild mainly because the consonant chords were favored and triads occurred often. The Renaissance music was expressed in a natural and moderate way and did not include any ultimate rhythms or contrasts of dynamics. The melodies of the Renaissance music had rhythmic independence and were easy to sing. The sounds were gentler rather than having a sharp defined beat. The Renaissance music had harmonies that had progression chords and a greater flow.

During the late fourteenth centuries, there were an increasing number of people singing in chapels and cathedrals. This led to the rise of 'choral polyphony'. This is a contrapuntal music for choirs, with a number of singers to each voice a part. Most of the music was intended to be sung in an Acapella (no instrumental music accompaniment). There were two forms of church music. These two forms were the 'mass' and the 'motet'. The mass is a musical setting, which is usually performed during the celebration of the Eucharist in the Roman Catholic Church. Palestrina (Italy, 1525-1594), Byrd (England, 1543-1623) and Victoria (Spain, 1549-1611) were important composers of Renaissance masses. The motet is a form of polyphonic music with words that are unrelated to the mass. Despres (1450-1521), Monteverdi (1567-1643), Palestrina (1525-1594) were important composers of motet. The mass and the motet were composed in four parts creating a richer texture.

The development of Church music introduced secular songs. These songs expressed human feelings, moods, and emotions. The main styles of secular songs were the Italian Madrigal. The Italian Madrigal included emotional content and poetry, which were written in single stanzas. There are three types of madrigal music, the Madrigal Proper, the Ballet, and the Arye. The madrigal proper consisted of equal voice parts, lots of imitation, a light springy texture, and the words and music were closely matched. The Ballet is clean-cut dance rhythms with textures that are mainly chordal. The Arye was solo voice parts with other instruments playing or with all parts sung by voices. Three important composers of secular songs were Byrd, Dowland, and Moorley.

Instrumental music was a great interest for composers around the 16th century. The instrumental music included music for people to play, listen, and dance to. There were several types of instrumental music. One type was the Canzons, which was written in a similar style to vocal music. Toccata's was another type of instrumental music, which was played on the organ or harpsichord, which were string instruments. The Ricercar was similar to Motet music, which treated melodic ideas with imitation.

A 'ground' is a tune, which repeats itself over and over again with the bass that changes the musical material. There are two broad groups of instruments during the Renaissance music period. One group is the bas, which was a blend of low and soft instruments. The second group was the haut, which was a mixture of high and loud music. Composers of instrumental music during the Renaissance period were Taverner, Byrd, and Moorley.

Many instruments we very popular during the Renaissance time period. Most of instruments were string instruments. Of those stringed instruments, the spinet and the viol were constantly used. The lute is played by striking the strings by using your fingers. The viol contains a bow made out of string and is played by having the bow played against the strings on the instrument. The spinet is similar to the piano and each key has a string that is hit with a soft mallet when the key is pressed. The popularity of stringed instruments tremendously grew during the Renaissance period mainly because of the amount of expression that is created when a musician is playing one of these unique and beautiful instruments. The most popular and most played instrument during the period was the lute. It was used during story-telling as well we for musical purposes. The lute looked similar to a guitar except it bent backwards at a 90-degree angle. The difference between the guitar and the lute is the shape and figure and that the flute can have as many as thirteen pairs of strings running the length of the body. This characteristic makes it difficult to play the lute and almost impossible to keep the beat or rhythm in tune. The reason why the lute fell out of popularity was because of the problems with tuning and playing. As far as the advancement of music, the Renaissance era was one of the most productive time periods. The music became more and more expressive and the quality of the instruments became more pleasant to listen to. The harpsichord, the spinet, and the lute became more than just an accompaniment for singers, but they also became an outlet for emotions.

Instruments During the Renaissance
Instrumental music of the Renaissance period became more popular and developed music that was very distinct from vocal music. Although instrumental music did not equal the vocal music, it played an integral part during this era in terms of quantity and quality. Instrumental music included specific characteristics during this music time period. These characteristics included that there was extensive ornamentation including embellishment and coloration, there were rapid and long scale passages, and there were several wide skips. The instruments musicians played during this time period improved day-to-day and year-to-year. These instruments included the keyboards, winds, and strings.

There were two primary keyboard instruments used during the Renaissance time period. These two instruments were the keyboards and organs and were commonly found in churches. Pedal boards were not built into such organs and regals or positive organs were in wide use since the medieval period, while the organ died out during the 1600s. In addition, there were two other types of keyboard instruments also played in the musical world today. These keyboard instruments were the clavichord and the harpsichord. During the Renaissance, keyboard instruments were used for solos and were rarely accompanied with vocal polyphony.

During the Renaissance time period, the most popular and important wind instrument was the recorder. The recorder was a versatile instrument that was used in many different types of musical styles. The recorder was a hollow, end-blown wooden flute. The shawm and the cromorn, double reed woodwinds were other notable wind instruments played during the Renaissance. During the early years in the Renaissance, early trumpets and trombones were also played. These instruments were the first emerging and were confined to fanfares or to outdoor musical festivals.

There were two types of string instruments, the bowed strings and plucked strings. String instruments grew tremendously during the Renaissance period because of the amount of expression that was played when a musician is playing one of these beautiful instruments. During the 17th century, ancestors of the violin family created the Renaissance viol. This instrument included six strings tuned in fourths with a third in the middle. They were used in various ensembles called consorts, which consisted of entirely viols or in mixed consorts, which had the recorder and other various instruments. The lute, which was a plucked string instrument was the most popular solo instrument played during this time period. It was mostly used to tell stories and for musical purposes. The lute looked similar to a guitar and had an angled neck and pear shaped body. The characteristics were that it has six strings tuned, like the viols. The lute's music was mostly written in tablature, a special kind of musical notation that indicates the fret and string for a given note. This instrument was widely used for solo musicians and accompaniment and for music purposes. The lute began to fall out of popularity mainly because of these problems with tuning and playing.

The Renaissance time period was one of the most productive time periods because of the advancement of music. The music had a pleasant sound and became very expressive because of the quality of the instruments. Instruments such as the spinet and the harpsichord became an outlet for emotions and expressed several different feelings. It was known that when a musician or composer creates a certain musical piece, the listener could almost picture and see how the composer or musician was feeling at the moment.

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