7 - Folder 2 - Renaissance: Secular Music Flashcards
Describe how Secular Music was growing in importance during the Renaissance.
a. Humanism and the Reformation supported the growth of secular culture
b. General flourishing of the secular arts
c. Support of wealthy patrons like Lorenzo de Medici in Florence, Italy
d. Rise of music printing disseminated secular works for enjoyment at home
e. Secular genres were more progressive, without the traditions and restrictions of the church
What is the Frottola?
a. Italian secular genre
b. Sung mainly in the Italian courts
Describe the musical characteristics of the Frottola.
i. Three or four parts
ii. Syllabic (one note for each syllable of text)
iii. Strophic form (same music for each stanza of text)
iv. Simple rhythms
v. Homophonic, with all parts in vertical alignment
vi. Top part sung
vii. Lower parts either sung or played on instruments
Describe the Madrigal.
a. Direct successor to the frottola
b. Most important genre of Italian secular music in the 16th century
c. Early ones in four parts, but five parts became the typical at the end of the century
d. All parts sung
Madrigal texts were written by which of the greatest Italian poets of the period?
i. Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
ii. Torquato Tasso
With Madrigals, describe Through-Composed Form.
i. new music for each stanza, no refrains or large scale repetitions of material
ii. allowed composers to match every meaning and nuance of the words with their music
Describe word painting (text painting) in madrigals.
i. Illustrating the meaning of the words with elements of the music
ii. Carried to great extremes in Renaissance madrigals
Name the first generation of Madrigal performers and describe the structure of the Madrigal.
i. Adrian Willaert (c. 1490–1562)
ii. Jacques Arcadelt (c. 1505–c.1568)
iii. Style remained somewhat close to that of the frottola
iv. Four-part texture was typical
v. Used some polyphony
vi. Through-composed form
Who was Cipriano de Rore (1516–1565)?
i. First great innovator in the composition of madrigals
ii. Born in Flanders (connected to Franco-Flemish School of the High Renaissance)
iii. Student of Willaert
iv. Succeeded Willaert at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice
Describe Cipriano de Rore’s style.
- Deeply influenced by humanism and contemporary poetry
- Chose elevated and sophisticated texts to set (sep. poems by Petrarch)
- More extensive use of word painting
- More extensive use of chromaticism for expressive and illustrative purposes
- Expansion to five or six parts
Describe late 16th and early 17th century madrigals.
i. Increasing use of chromaticism (for word painting)
ii. Striking dissonances and harmonic shifts
iii. Five-or six-part texture
iv. More imitation, mixed with homophony and non-imitative polyphony
Who was Luca Marenzio (1553–1599)?
i. First major proponent of this late, chromatic madrigal style
ii. Monteverdi’s teacher
Who was Carlo Gesualdo (c. 1561–1613)?
i. Prince of Venosa
ii. Unusual life and personality
iii. Murdered his wife and her lover
iv. Intensely chromatic, experimental style
Who was Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643)?
i. Transitional figure between late Renaissance and early Baroque music
ii. One of the greatest and most influential composers in Western music history
iii. Worked in several courts of Northern Italy
iv. Choir master at St. Mark’s cathedral in Venice
v. Wrote extensively in secular and sacred genres, as well as the new genres of the Baroque (especially opera)
Describe Monteverdi’s Madrigals. What were some of his innovations?
- Composed twelve books (collections) of madrigals
- Early books are polyphonic, but show some innovations:
a. More declamatory (speech-like) sections
b. Breakdown of the equality of the voices
c. Free use of dissonance (unprepared, not according to established rules of counterpoint)
d. Some madrigals in the Book 5 include a figured bass part for harmonic support
e. Madrigals in Books 6–12 move more toward Baroque style
