Renaissance 1450-1600 Flashcards
Aaron, Pietro
1480-1550 Theorist
Writing include discussion of the application of the theory of modes to polyphonic compositions
Counterpoint and cadence formation in four voices
Agricola, Alexander
Ca 1446-1506
Contemporary of Josquin represented in the Odhecaton
Wrote mostly secular music including 80 chanson, 8 masses
Anthems
English version of the motet
Full Anthem is for chorus throughout usually in contrapuntal style and unaccompanied
Verse anthem was for one or more solo voices with organ or viol accompaniment and with brief alternating passages for chorus
Binchois, Gilles
1400-1460
Worked in the Burgundian court in the early part of the 15h century
Contemporary of Dufay (leading composers of their day)
Smooth rhythmic and consonant sonorities
Secular music about 60 rondeaux for 3 voices and top voice dominant
Many pieces are in fauxbourdon
Byrd, William
1543-1623
One of the greatest English composers of the 16th century
Composed both Catholic and Protestant music for the church (he was catholic)
Studied with Thomas Tallis
Most important contributions are his motets and masses
Burden
A refrain especially that of the 15th century carol
14th/15th century England it was the lowest part of a polyphonic piece thus the term “Faburden”
Burgundian chanson
Three voice songs with French taxed in the upper voice only
Style influenced by the English, thus smooth rhythms and lots of thirds and sixths
Composers: Dufay, Binchois, Busnois (Burgundian court)
Burgundian motet
Interested in intellectual organization
Isorhythmic extended to pan Isorhythm
Dufay constructed Nuper rosarum flores with proportional rhythms in the Cantus firmus
Busnois, Antonie
1430-1492
Composer in the service of the duke of Burgundy
30 Chanson, most for three voices with French texts in the formes fixes especially the rondeaux
His Missa L’homme arme is the first of the “armed man” masses
It is a strict cantus firmus mass with non-imitative counterpoint in various textures
Calvin, John
1509-1564
Leader of the reformation in France who opposed the retention of elements of the Catholic liturgy and ceremonial much more strongly than Luther did
Prohibited singing of texts not in the Bible
Psalters - rhymed metrical translations of the Book of Psalms
Cambiata
Melodic figure in which a voice leaps a third down to a consonance instead of approaching it by step
Canon
Compositional technique in which one voice strictly imitates another in both pitch and rhythm
Earliest example is Sumer is icumen in.
Italian caccia, French chance and the Latin fuga
Dufay, Josquin, Palestrina and de la Rue wrote canons
Cantus firmus technique
The process in which a borrowed Melody becomes the foundation for a new polyphonic work
The earliest use of cantus firmus borrowed from Gregorian chant and placed in the tenor voice
Later the cantus firmus could either be sacred or secular, used in Isorhythm, strictly or paraphrased
Dufay - L’homme arme, Josquin Missa Hercules dux Ferrarie
Canzona
Originally an instrumental transcription by Italian composers of a French chanson
Later it referred to an instrumental work that used the chanson as a model having repeated sections with contrasting meters and textures
The ensemble canzona eventually gave way to the sonata, concerto and other multi-movement genres of the Baroque
Canzon villanesca all Napoletana
Lighter variety cultivated in Italy in the 16th century
Peasant song that appeared around Naples in the 1540s
Three voice, strophic lively piece in a homophonic style
Lots of parallel 5ths to suggest the country, rustic character
Eventually grew to resemble the madrigal and lost its identity
Carol
In the middle ages the Carol was an English song with a text Austin dealing with a virgin Mary or Christmas
In the renaissance it was several things; 1: pieces associated with dancing and processions, 2: religious carols with monophonic music similar to the lauda, 3: a polyphonic Carol either conductus-like or more elaborate polyphonic works composed in various forms like those of Davy and Cornysh
Clemens non Papa
1510-1556
A Flemish composer of the generation after Josquin
He composed chansons, 15 masses, over 200 motets and 4 books of psalms
His motets are similar to Gombert’s but with clearer phrase definition, melodic motives shaped to the meaning of the words and attention to modal definition through cadences and melodic profile
Compere, Loyset
1455-1518
Contemporary of Josquin
Composed elegant court music and specialized in small lyric forms like chansons
Concise clear cut phrases, forward looking to text settings, melodic planning, harmonic procedures and textural homogeneity
Cori Spezzati
(Broken choir)
Venetian school and in particular Willaert, Andrea and Giovanni Gabrielli
Inspired by the architecture of San Marco in Venice
Cultivated in Europe and found in music of Palestrina, Victoria, Lassus, Schutz and others
Cornetto
“Brass” instrument of wood or ivory
Came in three sizes and comprised a mouthpiece attached to a straight conical tube, punctuated by finger holes
Used in church and chamber music from 1550-1700
Council of Trent
1545-1563
Part of the counter reformation held formulate and give official sanction to measures for purging the church of abuses and laxities
Concerning music: too much secularism, excessive complexity (obscured words), bad pronunciation, carelessness and irreverent attitude of the singers
Pronouncement of the Council was extremely general, polyphony and secular models were still used
Countenance angloise
(English Guise)
Martin Le Franc used the term in a poem which describes the new musical style of Dufay and Binchois as being influenced by the smooth and consonant style of the new English composers liek Dunstable
Des Prez, Josquin
Ca 1440-1521
Works include: 18 Masses, 100 motets, and 70 chansons and other secular works
Masses are most conservative of his works, and use secular tune as the Cantus firmus
He was known for the care he took to suit his music to the text
Associated with the mid-16th century style development called Musica Reservata
Dodekachordon
Treatise by Swiss theorist Glareanus published in 1547
Expands the 8 church modes to 12 (adding modes based on A and C)
Double versicle
Versicle = phrase or sentence of text
In the sequence parallel versicles are often paired making a double versicle
Dufay, Guillaume
1400-1474
His contemporaries regarded him as one of the greatest of their age
Included by John Dunstable and the English Style
Sacred music into 3 categories:
1 hymns, antiphons, mass movements and some motets written in the treble-dominated style in which a borrowed melody is placed in the top voice and in fauxbourdon
2 Musically complex motets in for parts which are isorhythmic or polytextual
3 Mass pairs or cycles unified by mode, mensuration, and head motives.
He also wrote a lot of secular songs and three voices with French text (rondeau predominates)
Examples: Missa se la face ay pale , Missa L’homme arme (secular tune)
Dunstable, John
1390-1453
His contemporaries and successors in England and on the continent recognized him as the foremost English composer of the 15th century
Most works are in three voices except for voice isorhythmic motets
His works are mainly known through continental sources and features smooth rhythms and continent thirds in sixths
Eclogue
Pastoral poems often pathetic in tone
Eton Choirbook
The largest source of English church music from the turn of the 16th century
Contains votive antiphons and Magnificats but no complete mass cycles
Most of the music in the Choirbook
Faburden
And English technique of polyphonic vocal improvisation from 1430 until the late 16th century
In improvising a Borrowed melody from chant would be embellished by thirds and fifths above and parallel fourths below
in Faburden, the preexisting melody was probably placed in the middle voice
Falsobordone
Completely chordal harmonizations of psalm tones and other liturgical recitatives found especially in Spanish and Italian sources of the sixteenth century
Fantasia
Add imaginative instrumental composition meant to sound improvised
In the 16th century it was used synonymously with ricercare, which as an instrumental version of the motet
Fauxbourdon
A 15th century French technique of compositions in which two voices are notated. A third voice is improvised of forth below the top voice creating parallel six chords.
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain
The powerful king and queen of Spain in the 15th century. In 1492 they defeated the Moors and drove them out of Spain and later drove out of Sephardic Jews. Everyone was forced to convert to Christianity. Many historical ballads and villancico (ABBA) were written telling these stories.
Historical ballades
Fitzwilliam Virginal
A manuscript of keyboard music copied in England between 1609 and 1619 which contains nearly 300 compositions written in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. It includes transcriptions of madrigals, contrapuntal fantasias, dances, preludes, descriptive pieces and many sets of variations
Folia
Dance song of Spain in the early 17th century with wild singing and dancing. In the baroque, composers wrote variations on the Folia
Frottola
Secular solo song with accompaniment propagated by Isabelle d’Este in Mantua in the late 15th century and early 16th century. It has the refrain-stanza form of the ballata (AaabA). The musical material is limited, using a varied form of the refrain for the stanzas
Gabrielli, Andrea
1510-1586
Uncle of Giovanni Gabrielli
Organist at St. mark’s in Venice in 1566
One of the first Italians whose works were able to escape the Netherlandish style
Music tends to be homophonic, syllabic, polychoral, and sonorous
He composed in nearly every genre; madrigals, sacred vocal music (Masses psalms motets concerti), secular vocal works and many instrumental compositions.
Contributed the new style: concertato, canzonas, ricercare and other intabulations for keyboard
Gabrielli, Giovanni
15557-1612
Nephew and pupil of A Gabrielli
Influence in continuing the new concertato style and establishing the new monody
Purely instrumental music is prominent in his output, including ricercare, canzonas and sonatas
Significant influence on Schutz and developments in Germany
Glarean, Heinrich
1488-1563
Swiss theorist most famous for his treatise Dodecachordon (the twelve-sting lyre) in which a 12 mode system is advocated and its application to monophony and polyphony discussed.
He added four new modes to the traditional eight (Aeolian, Hypoaeolian, Ionian and Hypoionian)
Gombert, Nicholas
1495-1556
Pupil of Josquin
Exemplifies the northern motet style of the period 1520-1550, wrote more than 160
His style involves a generally smooth and uniformly dense texture, without many rests, with most dissonances carefully prepared and resolved
Hexachord
A collection of six pitches
Hexachords are important in the history of solemnization and and 20th century 12 tone theory
Solemnization by means of hexachords prevailed from the 11th century with its development by Guido through the 16th century
According to Guido’s system there were three hexachord (C, F, G) That could be used and overlapped in order to create the “gamut”
Pictures in the hexachords were considered music recta, And pictures not in the hex accords were musica ficta
L’homme arme
The “armed man”
A secular tune that was used widely as a Cantus firmus for polyphonic masses from the second half of the 15th century
First was written by Busnois, other composers: Josquin, Obrecht, Ockeghem, La Rue, Palestrina and others
It seems with this tune, composers were constantly trying to one up each other compositionally
The melody itself contains many leaps of 4th and 5th
Humanism
The intellectual movement of the Renaissance
The revival of ancient learning (rhetoric, poetry, history and moral philosophy)
In music this translated into many things: the choice of a mode what is a Composers key to the listeners’ emotions; new rules derived for the control of dissonance; use of Pythagorean tuning
L’Institione harmoniche
Theorist Zarlino wrote this book in 1558
Based on teachings by Willaert
Zarlino focuses a chapter on how effectively to express the words of a text through music in counterpoint
These were the rules which Palestrina exemplified in his compositions
Intabulation
An arrangement of a composition for keyboard or pluck the strings notated in tablature
Italian intabulations of French chansons resulted in canzonas
Continued through the 17th century often in style brise
In nomine
An English instrumental genre of the 16th and 17th c which all use the antiphon “Gloria tibi trinitas” as a Cantus firmus
Isaac, Henry
1450-1517
Flemish composer who worked in Florence, Vienna and Innsbruck
Absorbed many musical influences from Italian, French, German, Flanders and Netherlands so his style is fully international more so than anyone else of his generation
Wrote many songs with French, German and Italian texts
Janequin, Clement
1485-1560
French composer particularly celebrated for his long descriptive chansons, similar to the Italian 14th century caccie, with onomatopoeic imitations of bird calls, street cries,
Lasso, Orlando di
1532-1594
Chief among the international composers in Germany in the 16th century
He composed madrigals, chansons and motets which totaled over 2000
In contrast to Palestrina his style was more restrained and classic, impulsive, emotional and dynamic
Lauda
A non-liturgical religious song of greatest importance in the 13th-15th century Italy
Resembles the ballata with a refrain alternating with strophes
Luther, Martin
Started the reformation in German when he nailed his 95 thesis to the door of the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg in 1517
Dissatisfied with the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church
The Lutheran church retained much of the traditional Catholic liturgy as well as much Catholic music both plainsong and polyphony
Sometimes the original Latin text was kept sometimes the original text was translated into German and sometimes new German texts were adopted to old melodies (contrafactum)
Madrigal
Secular vocal pieces written in the 16th century
Music style taken from the motet and included petracian poetry
Early composers: Arcadelt, Verdelot
Later: Rore, Willaer, Gesualdo, Monteverdi, Luzzaschi and Marenzio
Music became increasingly more dissonant
Music to express text
Continuo madrigal
The late madrigal in the 16th century and early 17th century was often set in the new style of monody with basso continuo accompaniment (Monteverdi, Caccini)
Mass
One of the most important genres for Renaissance composers especially Palestrina
Settings in the Renaissance were on the Ordinary texts
Three primary techniques:
Cantus firmus - uses borrowed melody in strict form as the foundation for the work
Motto mass - A mass unified by the recurring musical idea in the opening of each movement
Paraphrase mass - mass uses preexisting melody (chant, chanson, motet) and freely adapts and embellishes it in the setting. Cantus firmus is often cut up amongst sections or movements and altered with regard to rhythm, and/or pitch
Parody Mass - uses a persistent polyphonic work as a model. Each phrase is quoted before the new work continues in free counterpoint (Palestrina, Missa Papae Marcelli)
Medici, Lorenzo de
Banker, Unofficial ruler of Florence in the late 15th century who promoted carnival songs
Meistersingers
A member of the guilds of the 14th-16th century formed to perpetuate or emulate the tradition of the Minnesinger, the Medieval German lyric singers and poets
Mensuration Canon
Compositional technique in which the subject is transformed into different mensurations making a complex web of the same subject in different rhythmic values. It was favored by the Netherlandish composers.
Missa Ad Fugam
Josquin’s strictly canonic mass which uses no borrowed material
Missa Papae Marcelli
Romance by Palestrina that contains many other traits approved by the council of Trent in 1563. It is not based on a secular model and makes the text very intelligible
De Morales, Cristobal
1500-1553
The most eminent Spanish composer of the early 16th century and member of the people Chapel from 1535 to 1545
Spanish sacred music was marked by our particular sobriety of melody and moderation in the use of contrapuntal artifices together with a passionate intensity in the expression of religious emotion
Wrote 22 masses, 16 magnificats a set of lamentations and over 80 motets
Extensive use of imitation
Morley, Thomas
1557-1602
English composer particularly concerned with cultivating the English madrigal
Many of his madrigals are Italian madrigals with new texts and slight changes
It was because of him that the Italian madrigal came to England
Now is the month of Maying and Sing we and chant it
Motet-chansons
Polyphonic work of the renaissance that combines a Latin sacred text in one voice usually (tenor or bass) in longer note values with a secret text in the vernacular in other voices.
Tradition of polytextual motets of the 13th century
Mouton, Jean
1459-1522
French composer and contemporary of Josquin (style emulates him)
Masses and motets include smooth melodic lines
Teacher of Willaert
Musica Nova
Published in 1559
Collection of 25 madrigals on sonnets by Petrarch composed by Willaert
Musica reservata
Mid-16th century term used to describe the new style of those composers who motivated by a desire to give a forceful and detailed reflection of the words introduced chromaticism model variety ornaments and contrasts of rhythm and texture in their music. There is also the implication that such music was reserved for a particular patron’s Chambers
Musica Transalpina
Title of 2 anthologies of Italian madrigals with English words
The first printed collections of Italian madrigals in England and had a great influence on English composers of the period
Musique mesuree a l’antique
How late 16th century French phenomenon in which long and short word syllables were sent by long and short notes in the ration 2:1.
Obrecht, Jacob
1452-1505
Flemish contemporary of Josquin
29 Masses, 28 motets, and a number of chansons, songs in Dutch, and instrumental pieces
Ockeghem, Johannes
1410-1497
Franco-Flemish composer
Leading composer of the generation between Dufay and Josquin
Best known for his masses
Little of his music survives
Style = rich contrapuntal texture
All voices are of equal importance more or less
Odhecaton
Anthology of polyphonic music published in 1501 by Petrucci
First instance in which polyphonic music was printed using movable type
Includes a wide variety of 15th century music 96 pieces
Old Hall Manuscript
The most important collection of English sacred music before the Eton choirbook
Copied in the early 15th century
Contains 147 works composed during 1350-1420
Palestrina, Giovanni Perluigi da
1525-1594
Entire career in Rome
Wrote mostly sacred music including 104 masses, 250 motets, and many other liturgical compositions
100 secular madrigals are conservative
Supervised the revision of music in the official liturgical books to accord with the changes made by the order of the Council of Trent
His music epitomized the sober, conservative aspect of the counter-reformation
His almost complete avoidance of chromaticism
Vertically, voices meet at downbeat except for suspensions
Dissonances may appear between downbeat and upbeat provided the motion is stepwise
The exception to this rule was the cambiata
His style is was 17th century composers had in mind when they spoke of stile antico
Panisorhythm
Early 15th century
A French and English practice of using Isorhythm in all voices of a motet
Dunstable wrote 10 pan isorhythmic motets of his 12
Importance: Panisorhythm was a logical evolution of isorhythm it’s musical importance lies in the fact that it reach the degree of complexity and perfection which could not be heightened or improved
As compositions became longer, difficulty of listening to and composing such works lead to a move in a 1450 used to abandon isorhythm in favor of clear textures in audible texts
Parisian chanson
Clearly shaped melodies and homophonic (or lightly contrapuntal) texture of these Parisian chansons
Chansons with amazing subtlety and depth
Pervading imitation
16th century
The practice by the composers of the post-Josquin generation of creating a continuous flow of sound held together by all possible permutations of the technique of imitation
Petricci, Ottavino de
Printed the first collection of polyphonic music from musical type in Venice in 1501, the Harmonice Musices Odhecaton
Piacevolezza/ gravita
“Sweetness” or “grace”
Singled out by poet Pietro Bembo - two qualities for being expressed by the sounds and rhythms of words
Bembo’s analysis of poetry opened the way for musical settings in which more attention was paid to the way music can establish the reading of a poem. This attitude was instrumental in the development of the madrigal
Pleiade
A group of poets in mid 16th century France who let the discussions about music in the ancient world
Urges poets to imitate classical forms and meters
Power, Leonel
1370-1445
English composer
50 liturgical works, treatise on discant
Many of his works are found in the Old Hall Manuscript
Ricercar
From ricercare, “to seek”
What type of instrumental piece solo or ensemble during a 16th and 17th centuries
There are three main divisions just before its evolution to Sonata and fugue
1: Early they were improvisatory for solo instruments
2: Middle duos written for the instruction of beginners in part music; exercises in sight reading
3: Late best-known equivalent to the vocal motet. The difference between the motet and the ricercar Are that the instrumental pieces use a wider variety of melody and fewer themes
Romanesca
Harmonic bass pattern often used as an ostinato in arie pour cantar and dance variations
Spanish-Italian origin used from 1550-17th century
Rondeau
French
A significant Medieval type of vocal chanson of the form ABaAabAB
One of the formes fixes or the refrain forms
Formes fixes = ballade, ballata, madrigal, rondeau, virelai
Rore, Cipriano da
1516-1565
Flemish composer who worked in Italy and was a leading madrigalist of his generation
He was an important innovator who set the trends at the magical was to follow in the second part of the century
Rue, Pierre de la
1460-1518
Composer of the Burgundian Court
Shunned general rhetoric but did tend to express the general mood of the poem
Hans Sachs
16th century Meistersinger (portrayed by Wagner in his Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg)
Wrote more than 6000 songs, mostly set in notes of equal length, syllabically declaimed
Sarum chants
Anglican chant (English chant)
Hi simple type of harmonized Melody used in the Anglican church for singing on metrical texts, principally the songs and the canticles
Exclusively English product
Tallis, Morley, Byrd, Gibbons
Seconda Practica
Late 16th and Early 17th centuries
New concerns regarding music’s relation to text
Primary goal was to make the words the master of the music and not its servant
Expressive setting of the text
“Prima practica” perfection of harmony considered above the importance of text
Sermisy, Claudin de
1490-1562
Associated with the Parisian chanson of the 1530s and 1540s
Excelled at composing delicate and sophisticated love songs
Soggetto cavato
“Carved subject”
A device used by Josquin in his masses
The CF is determined by the vowel sounds of a patron’s name
The vowels are fit to conform as closely as possible to solmization syllables
These solmization syllables then form the ostinato bass CF for the entire mass
Strambotti
A type of poem used around 1500 in frottola and madrigals
Each verse usually had eight lines of 11 syllables with a rhyme scheme abababcc
Tallis, Thomas
1505-1585
English composer
1575 he and Byrd produced the volume of Latin motets called Cantiones sacrae
He was brought up in the Catholic tradition and his earlier music includes several Latin liturgical settings often on a grand scale
Music influence by the need of syllabic settings of Latin required by the Anglican Church
Taverner, John
1490-1545
English
Composed many fine masses in a large-scale festal manner
Tenorlieder
15th and 16th century
The basic form of German secular song at this time
Tenor refers to the borrowed tune or CF which was the only part to be underlaid with complete text
Tinctoris
1435-1511
Franco-Flemish contemporary of Dufay
Theorist, composer (5 settings of the mass)
Wrote first published dictionary of musical terms in 1495, Terminorum Musicae Diffinitorum
His writings are valuable source of information for instruments performance practice notation of the late 15th century
Trent codices
Seven manuscript volumes of 15th-century polyphonic music discovered in the library of the cathedral of Trent
1500 pieces included in these volumes
By far the most extensive collection of 15th century music
French, English, Italian and German composers represented
Vicentino, Nicola
1511-1572
One of the “classical madrigalists” of the late 16th century who followed in the footsteps of Willaert
Victoria, Thomas Luis de
1548-1611
Spanish
One of the three greater Spanish polyphonists of the 16th century spent many years in Rome and his music reflects the contact he had with Palestrina
Church music
Wrote no madrigals nor any other secular music of any kind
His music is devout pious and intense
Villancico
Italian songs counterpart to French chanson, German lied and Italian Madrigal
Votive antiphon
Any of the 4 important antiphons for the Blessed Virgin Mary (Marian antiphons) sung at the end of Compline or a polyphonic setting of one of these
4 Marian antiphons are: Alma Redemptoris Mater, Ave Regina Caelorum, Regina Caeli laetare, Salve Regina
11th century and after
More elaborate than the antiphons of the psalms and canticles and have been set polyphonically by numerous composers especially in the 15th and 16th centuries
Willaert, Adrian
1490-1562
Flemish composer
A pioneer in bringing text and music into a closer rapport
The text determines every dimension of the musical form
He was one of the first to insist that syllables be printed carefully under notes
Zarlino, Gioseffo
1517-1590
Leading Italian theorist in the 16th century
Famous for a series of large treatises in which he tried to elucidate Greek music theories as well as teach practical matters such as counterpoint
Among his most influential ideas was the concept of word painting as used in later magical’s, the different emotional qualities of major and minor chords, and the suggestion of dividing the scale into equal intervals, as later developed into equal temperament
Le insitutioni harmoniche “The principles of harmony”
