Main developments in drama, music, poetry and architecture

Question 1

Tradition of drama in tudor soc (PRE-REF)

Answer 1

• Medievel miracle and morality plays were often performed in English centres such as Coventry and York
• English grammar schools followed a humanist tradion of putting on plays in Latin
• the court also put on ‘disgusings’ - elaborate performances which involved music and dandincg

Question 2

How did this tradition of drama change after the ref?

Answer 2

• The break with rome, increasing use of the printing press and noble patronage encouraged it to reach new heights
• Growth of the eng lang and vocab, plus the humanist emphasis on the study of classical Greek and Roman texts, history and language encouraged playwrights
• they could now produce their own versions of classics or rewrite Eng history (Mega propaganda)

Question 3

Big steps for drama (all under Liz)

Answer 3

• 1576: first London theatre opened by James Burbage
• 1587: the second, ‘The Rose’ was opeened
• This innovation got rid of temporary stages and allowed playwrights to use more complex staging

Question 4

Design of theatres

Answer 4

• built in the round, had pulley systems and trap doors

Question 5

Accesibilty of theatres

Answer 5

• Able to provide entertainement for the rich and poor alike
• Rich would pay to use the seating on balconies, poor could pay one penny to stand

Question 6

influential poets

Answer 6

> John Skelton - Henry VIII’s tutor. Satiricial poetry which often mocked the wealthy and powerful. I.e. ‘Why came ye not to court?’ which was an attack on Wolsey

> Wyatt and Howard were also both courtiers and poets

Question 7

The aim of poetry

Answer 7

• Aimed to improve the English language and quality of English poetry
• Both influenced by humanist learning and reading Latin/Italian Verse

Question 8

How did Wyatt and Howard work?

Answer 8

• translated the sonnets of Petrach, a 14th c italian writer, but also began to write their own poetry
• Credited with inventing the most common form of sonnet in ENgland - invented the couplet
• could be seen in things like Wyatts love sonner ‘Whoso list to hunt’
• Howard was the first person to use blank verse in his translation of Virgil

Question 9

How poetry developed

Answer 9

• The sonnet and blank verse became the most widely used literary forms by Elizabethan playwrights and poets
• Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets and used blank verse in his plays

Question 10

What does shakespeare’s career reflect?

Answer 10

• The impact of humanist thought and the Renaissance on English culture and society
• Shakespeare went to a grammar school established by ed
• In shakespeare’s work, innovations in poetry, English and drama were combined to create propaganda for the tudors.

Question 11

What were developments in music influenced by?

Answer 11

• Renaissance and European interest in polyphonal music
• English composers under the patronage of the church or the monarchs experimented with this form both in the production of religious works and, increasingly, of secular works

Question 12

Henry VIII and music

Answer 12

• liked the tradition of increasingly grand, lengthly music, but this began to chanhe during the REF when musical peices became shorter and plainer

Question 13

Ed and music

Answer 13

• Under eddy the high treble part was removed, and English texts were used instead of Latin

Question 14

Maz and music

Answer 14

• Marys reign saw a return to longer, more complex peices in Latin , which a high descant

Question 15

Liz and music

Answer 15

• LIke her religious settlement: a comprimise

- Latin could still be used but the length of peices became shorter

Question 16

How were composers musical styles and careers determined

Answer 16

• highly ingleucned by the religious changes which occured

- Early composers included John Taverner and Christopher Tye

Question 17

Tavener and music

Answer 17

• Tavener was choirmaster and organist at Wolseys cardinal college, Oxford in 1526.
• He prodcued a series of latin masses and other religious works in latin using polyphonal techniques

Question 18

Tye and music

Answer 18

• Worked a generation later than Tavener
• Had protestant sympathies and was employed at Edwards court to give advice on music
• His works were still secular but used English traditions i.e. ‘The Actes of the Apostles’ (1553) was a translation of the New Testament book dedicated to Ed

Question 19

Tallis and mysic

Answer 19

• career lasted from 1520 to 80s despite his catholicism
• proabably due to his ability to adapt
• under liz his compositions reached new heights with the ambitious Spem in Alium (1570)
• also branched out from the Latin, using English texts and composing some secular peices

Question 20

architecture and Henry

Answer 20

• the only tudor monarch to build new palaces
• in the 1530s, began building Nonsuch palace (Surrey) also embarked on ambitious and expensive rebuilding plans at whitehall and bridewell

Question 21

WHy did the later tudor monarchs not build

Answer 21

• partly because their finances were so limited

Question 22

Who did actually build in the tudor period then?

Answer 22

• their nobility, influenced by humanist and European ideas of architecture, built extravagantly
• earliest example = duke of somerset

Question 23

Building of the nobility from the 1570s

Answer 23

• from 1570s began building country houses on a grand scale
• Longleat owned by Sir John Thynee 1568. Used stoneman Smythson to help him
• Smythson went on to become one of the earliest architects, though it was not considered a profession until the 17thc
• Smythsin went on to build another famous house at Wollaton for Sir Francis Willoughby

Question 24

Other annonyomus builders

Answer 24

• constructed famous mansions - i.e. cecil’s country house Theobalds,
• the Earl of Leicester’s renobation of the medieval Kenilworth castle

Question 25

What were the style of these houses ispired by

Answer 25

• known as ‘progidy houses’
• strongly influenced by interst in Roman and Greek classical architecture
• designed for comfort and privacy. used light and space to create a pleasant living environement

Question 26

How did this new style of house differ from the old one

Answer 26

• old ones were stone castles and fortified manors of the early 16th c, main purpose was defence
• brick was now used instead of stone
• the emphasis of light and space meant the use of multiple windows

Question 27

How did this new style of the late Tudor mansion reflect the period

Answer 27

• the lack of empahsis on defence reflects the increasing political stability of the period

Question 28

How did building evolve for the general pop

Answer 28

• not just confined to tudor nobility and gentry
• surving wills show average number of rooms in a house went from 3 under Henry to 4/5 under Liz
• Prosperous yeomen under Liz may have had as many as 6-8 rooms , whilst husbandmen (small landowners) many have had 2-3
• wealtheir farmers built second floors and would include a fireplace and a chimeny
• those with less money extended houses on the gruond floor and would often build a seperate kitchen to reduce risk of fire

Question 29

Overall

Answer 29

• by the end of LIz, tudor culture had changed considerably as a result of the ref, humanist ideas and royal and noble patronage
• growth of englisn drama and poetry lef to the first theatres and a distinct english style of verse
• art was harnessed by the tudor monarchs for propaganda, whilst music also developed into something recgonisably english in style
• architecture and building had rapid growth