Renaissance Period Freddiean R.

Cuenco


Thomas Tallis (1510-1585)
Thomas Tallis, an English composer, flourished as a
church musician, and is considered one of the church's best early
composers. Tallis served under four English Monarchs and was
treated very well. Queen Elisabeth granted him and his pupil,
William Boyd, exclusive rights to use England's printing press to
publish music; a first of its time. Although Tallis composed many
styles of music, the majority of it is arranged for choir as Latin
motets and English anthems.

Josquin Des Prez (1440-1521)
Widely recognized by just his first name, Josquin Des Prez
was Europe's most sought after musician during his lifetime. His
popularity, no doubt, was a result of combining many
contemporary styles of music, his originality, and his ability to
unveil the meaning and emotions of a text through music. Much of
Josquin's music survives today, with his masses and chansons
being the most popular.

Josquin Des Prez (1460-1518)
Pierre de La Rue wrote many styles of music, almost as
much as Josquin. La Rue's repertoire consists entirely of vocal
music. His style of voicing shows that he preferred low voices,
often composing C's and B flats below the bass clef. His most
popular work, the Requiem, and one of the earliest surviving
Requiem masses, emphasizes the lower voices. As well as low
voicing, various rhythmic patterns and long, flowing melodies are
main characteristics of La Rue's music.

Renaissance Period Freddiean R. Cuenco


Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Linking the Renaissance to the Baroque, Claudio
Monteverdi's revolutionary music included the first dramatic
opera, Orfeo. Much of Monteverdi's early years were spent
composing madrigals; nine books in total. These books clearly
mark the change in thinking and compositional style between the
two periods. Book 8, Ottavo Libro, includes what many consider
to be the perfected form of the madrigal, Madrigali dei guerrieri
ed amorosi.

William Byrd (1543-1623)
William Byrd is perhaps the greatest English composer of
all time. With hundreds of individual compositions, Byrd
seemingly mastered every style of music that existed during his
lifetime, outshining Orlando de Lassus and Giovanni Palestrina.
Apart from his choral works, Byrd is considered by many to be the
first "genius" of the keyboard. Many of his piano works can be
found in "My Ladye Nevells Book" and the "Parthenia."

(1526-1594)
With over hundreds of published works, Italian composer,
Palestrina was the most famous representative of the Roman
School of musical composition, and greatly influenced the
development of music in the Roman Catholic Church. Because its
voicing is extremely well balanced and beautifully harmonized,
Palestrina's polyphonic music is smooth, pure, and transparent in
sound.

Renaissance Period Freddiean R. Cuenco



Orlando de Lassus (1530-1594)
Orlando de Lassus was also known for his smooth
polyphonic style. His beautiful motets combined the rich northern
style of polyphony, the superb French style text-setting, and the
expressive Italian melody. With over 2,000 written works for all
styles of music, including all Latin, French, English, and German
vocal genres, Lassus easily remains one of Europe's most versatile
composers.

Giovanni Gabrieli (1553-1612)
Giovanni Gabrieli also bridges the Renaissance to the
Baroque and is most known for his mastery in the style of the
Venetian School. Gabrieli preferred composing sacred works, and
using the unusual layout of the San Marco Church, he was able to
create stunning musical effects. Unlike those before him, Gabrieli
meticulously created and planned the use of antiphone (a choir or
group of instruments first heard on the left, followed by a response
from another group of musicians on the right).