The Early 15th Century: Bridge to the Renaissance
John Dunstable (d. 1453) was a nobleman who fought for the English during the Hundred Years War. While on French soil, he heard the experimentation in both sacred music and the secular chansons of the time.
The music featured a new emphasis on harmony: the vertical regulation of voice parts, particularly at cadences. Instead of the free flow of voices that we heard in chant, the music is organized in chords.
Dunstable, Motet: Quam pulchra es (c. 1430)
Detail from GENTILE DA FABRIANO, Adoration of the Magi, altarpiece from Santa Trinità, Florence, Italy, 1423.
The Early 15th Century: Bridge to the Renaissance
Gillaume Dufay’s (d.1474) four-part polyphonic Mass Se la face ay pale is written in French, the vernacular, and it’s music is based on a secular chanson of that name. (“If my face is pale, the cause is love…”)
To hear the changes taking place in sacred music, compare this excerpt with one from Mauchaut’s polyphonic setting of the mass from the 14th c.. The attention paid to the regulation of consonance and dissonance between voice parts is a sign of harmonic (ie. vertical ) thinking. The texture of music has gained an added dimension of depth, comparable to the greater interest in perspective in painting of the 14th and 15th centuries. (Boyden 149)
Dufay, Mass Se la face ay pale (d.1474) Machaut, La Messe de Nostre Dame, Agnus Dei
Detail from MASACCIO, Tribute Money, Brancacci Chapel, Florence, Italy, ca. 1427.
The Late 15th Century: Josquin des Prez
Imitative Counterpoint: the French-Netherlands style
In the late 15th c. changes occurred in the texture of music which would form the basis of late Renaissance style. The most important change was the equalization of the voice parts. Each voice sings the same text, and each voice imitates the music of the other. A desire for greater sonority led to the use of four voices instead of three, and the greater number of parts necessitated a greater attention to their harmonic regulation. A chordal style in which the voice parts proceed together in the form of chords is also used to create variety to the imitative counterpoint. (Boyden 149-50)
des Prez (1450-1521) Motet: De profundis clamavi ad te
MASTER OF FLÉMALLE, detail from the Mérode Altarpiece, ca. 1425-1428. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The 16th Century: Reformation and Counter Reformation
During the 16th century forces of historical change in Europe transformed society.
New World Exploration; Emergence of the Modern Nation State; The Invention of the Printing Press; Reformation and Counter Reformation
In Germany, Protestant reformers sought to overthrow the power of the Catholic Church and create a new relationship between God and man. Martin Luther translated the Bible into German, and the new printing presses made this Bible available to the public. Luther also sought a distinctive music for the new service drawing on folk songs, old German lied, even dances.(Boyden 153)
Here is his famous German Hymn, A Mighty Fortress
Grunewald The Crucifixion 1515�Panel from the Isenheim altarpiece Musee d'Unterlinden, Colmar
Counter Reformation: Palestrina and the Pope Marcellus Mass
Alarmed by the spread of Protestantism, the Church called one of its most important councils, the Council of Trent (1563). From the decisions of this council stemmed the Counter-Reformation, aimed at internal reform and combating heresy through the Inquisition. Some churchmen wanted to ban polyphonic music from the mass, believing that such settings obscured the meaning of the Mass. Although polyphony was not banned, the Council’s critical attitude influenced composers to adapt a simpler style of polyphony. In his Pope Marcellus Mass, Palestrina (1525-94) clarifies the harmony and reduces the use of dissonance. Instead of using the old modes, the major and minor scales predominate. (Boyden 154)
Palestrina, Pope Marcellus Mass Kyrie (1570)
Raphael The small Cowper Madonna�c. 1505 National Gallery of Art, Washington
Raphael St Catherine c. 1507�National Gallery, London
Renaissance Secular Music: The Italian Madrigal
The Italian Humanists of the 16th c. revived interest in the poetry of the 14th c. sonneteer Petrarch, whose praise of his unreachable beloved Laura provided a new metaphor for God’s love- now manifested on earth.
The madrigal, the term means a rustic song, set poems to music whose themes ranged from the typical lover’s lament to more philosophical topics. Musically, the madrigal was composed in a style similar to the motet: a combination of imitative counterpoint and chordal style. The madrigal was also ‘through-composed’. (Boyden 156)
Madrigal: Geusualdo, Io parto e non piu dissi (1561-1613)
The Elizabethan Madrigal
The Italian madrigal was imported into England in the last dozen years of the 16th c. and became an instant sensation among Elizabethan composers. English poets like Spencer, Sydney, and Shakespeare had been writing sonnets in imitation of Petrarch. The poems’ themes helped affirm the love between man and woman (in marriage) as the most perfect expression of God’s love on earth. (Boyden 156-57)
Weelkes, Madrigal: O Care thou wilt dispatch me (1575-1623)
Lady Diana Cecil by William Larkin, c.1614-18
As Vesta was from Latmos hill descending,�She spied a maiden queen the same ascending,�Attended on by all the shepherds swain,�To whom Diana's darlings came running down amain,�First two by two, then three by three together,�Leaving their goddess all alone, hasted thither;�And mingling with the shepherds of her train,�With mirthful tunes her presence entertain.�Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana,�Long live fair Oriana!
Thomas Weelkes, "As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending"
Elizabethan Madrigal
Elizabeth I. Hilliard. Victoria and Albert Museum.
It was a Lover and his Lass� IT was a lover and his lass, � With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, �That o'er the green corn-field did pass, � In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, �When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding; �Sweet lovers love the spring. ��Between the acres of the rye, � With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, �These pretty country folks would lie, � In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, �When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding; �Sweet lovers love the spring.
This carol they began that hour, � With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, �How that life was but a flower � In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, �When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding; �Sweet lovers love the spring. ��And, therefore, take the present time � With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, �For love is crowned with the prime � In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, �When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding; Sweet lovers love the spring.
Music by Thomas Morley Song from As You Like It by William Shakespeare
from John Dowland’s The First Book of Songs and Airs (1597)
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex by Marcus Gheerarts the Younger, c.1596
Flow, my tears, fall from your springs! Exiled for ever, let me mourn; Where night's black bird her sad infamy sings, There let me live forlorn. Down vain lights, shine you no more! No nights are dark enough for those That in despair their lost fortunes deplore. Light doth but shame disclosure. Never may my woes be relieved, Since pity is fled; And tears and sighs and groans my weary days Of all joys have deprived. From the highest spire of contentment My fortune is thrown; And fear and grief and pain for my deserts Are my hopes, since hope is gone. Hark! you shadows that in darkness dwell, Learn to contemn light Happy, happy they that in hell Feel not the world's despite.
Dowland, Madrigal accompanied by lute: Flow my tears…(1563-1626)
Renaissance Instrumental Music
Instrumental music began to break away from a position subordinate to vocal music. Instrumental music had its origins in the many dance forms of the era, but in sacred music their role had been restricted to doubling the vocal parts. Now there was more independence. Instruments of the time included the recorder, the lute, the viol, organ and harpsichord. Many vocal pieces were transcribed for these instruments, and soon, they began to achieve idiomatic styles all their own. Towards the end of the century, the addition of instrumental parts was designated by the specific term concerto or concertato. (Boyden 156-159)
Pierre Attaingnant ,Basse danse La Magdalena
Byrd, Pavana Lachrymosa 1,Byrd, Pavana Lachrymosa 1, 2Byrd, Pavana Lachrymosa 1, 2, 3
Will Kempe, Shakespeare’s Fool
Works Cited:
Boyden
John Dunstable Motet: Quam pulchra es (The Hilliard Ensemble; Paul Hillier, dir.) on Norton Anthology of Western Music vol. 1, CD 2
Guillaume Dufay. Ballade: sel la face ay pale: (The Early Music Consort Of London; David Munrow, dir.) on Norton Anthology of Western Music vol. 1, CD 2
Josquin des Prez Motet: de profundis clamavi ad te (The Hilliard Ensemble; Paul Hillier, dir.) on Norton Anthology of Western Music vol. 1, CD 2
Carlo Gesualdo Madrigal: lo parto e non piu dissi (Les arts florissants; William Christie, dir. On Norton Anthology of Western Music vol. 1, CD 2