The Genres of Renaissance Music,1420–1520

The development of musical style during the first one hundred years of the Renaissance—from 1420 to
1520—can best be traced by the works to the composers of this period. In the realm of sacred vocal music, these
genres were the Mass and motet; in secular vocal music, the chanson and frottola. Instrumental music, although
committed to writing only infrequently, preserves the keyboard and dance repertories of the time.
SACRED VOCAL MUSIC
The principal genres of sacred music in the Renaissance were the Mass and the motet. Both the Mass and the
motet reflect all of developments in three generations, from Dunstable (in the early 15th century) through Du
Fay and Ockeghem (in the middle of the 15th century) to Josquin des Prez and his contemporaries (in the late
15th and early 16th centuries).
The Mass: Du Fay and Ockeghem
Composers of the late medieval era were not interested in polyphonic1. Not until the early decades of the
15th century we begin to find pairs of movements (Gloria and Credo, or Sanctus and Agnus Dei) linked by a
single cantus firmus2 or shared thematic ideas.
Guillaume Du Fay is credited with six complete settings of the Mass. What is believed to be the first of these,
the Missa Se la face ay pale3, was written around 1450.
Two features of this Mass are significant: it is the first by any composer based on a cantus firmus, and it
is one of the first in which the tenor—the line carrying the cantus firmus—is no longer the lowest voice.
Du Fay’s Masses appear to have inspired an entire generation of composers to construct artful ways of
unifying the movements of a Mass cycle.
Johannes Ockeghem’s Missa prolationum4 (“Mass of the Prolations”), preserved in the sumptuous
Chigi Codex. In almost every movement, each voice has its own unique mensuration. When all four voices are
present, so too are all four of the basic mensurations5 (“prolations”)
Six requirements for good singing:
Concorditer (to sing with one spirit and accord)
To acquire this habit, the singers should observe one another carefully, especially when the choir is large and
the place of performance spacious.
Mensuraliter (to sing in proper measure)
To sing in proper tempo it is necessary that one give each note its value and not hold one longer than another.
Mediocriter (to sing in middle range)
To choose a medium range for each song is reasonable, because in a large choir it is difficult for all to sing the
very high or very low notes. It is important that the leader should give the starting note in the proper range.
Differentialiter (to sing with discrimination)
To sing with discrimination means to observe fittingly the necessary requirements for the church services and
the church year . . .
Devotionaliter (to sing with devotion)
To sing with devotion it is necessary . . . for each singer to maintain the notes firmly, as they are written and
handed down from the blessed Father.
Satis urbaniter (to sing with beauty and refinement)
The beautiful singing has the title of urbanus (urbane) and urbanitas in contrast to rusticus (rustic) and rusticitas,
because city people ordinarily have more delicate manners than do country people.

1
Polyphony is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical
texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, homophony.
2
cantus firmus, (Latin: “fixed song”, ) preexistent melody, such as a plainchant excerpt, underlying a polyphonic musical
composition (one consisting of several independent voices or parts)
3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ficQ9uCKPLI
4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t-rAsC9IWc
5
Mensural notation is the musical notation system used for European vocal polyphonic music from the later part of the 13th century
until about 1600.
The Mass: Josquin des Prez and His Contemporaries
From the 1470s through the 1510s, the Masses of Josquin des Prez provide a compendium6 of the
structural options available to composers in this genre in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.
Josquin’s Masses fall into one of four categories defined by the structural techniques that characterize them:
1. Cantus firmus
2. Canon
3. Imitation (or parody)
4. Paraphrase
The cantus firmus masses derive their structuring melodies from a variety of sources and apply them in many
different ways. Josquin’s cantus firmus sources include the following:
• Plainchant, either a single chant in all movements
• Secular song
Canonic Masses are structured according to the principle of strict canon, in which at least one of the notated
voices generates a second. In Josquin’s Missa ad fugam7, for example, the superius and tenor voices are canonic
throughout the entire Mass, and the other two voices are freely composed.
Imitation Masses (also known as parody Masses) incorporate all the voices of an existing work—not just a
single voice—into the fabric of the new work, or at the very least into the opening sections of key movements.
Examples by Josquin include the Missa Fortuna desperata8 of which is based on popular chansons.
Paraphrase, in contrast to imitation, involves borrowing an existing melodic idea from a different work but
elaborating it freely in all voices of a new work. In the Missa Pange lingua9, Josquin’s last Mass (1513), all four
voices use melodic material derived from the plainchant hymn of the same name (Anthology I/40) but often in
highly embellished form, with substantial interpolations between pitches.
The Motet
For all their work in the realm of the Mass, composers of Josquin’s generation devoted even more of their
energies toward the genre of the motet, a prayer text set to music. These works were written to fulfill one of
three principal functions:
• Liturgical. Motets continued to function within the liturgy of the Mass Proper but were limited largely to
Offertory texts. Motets were rarely connected with the Office, which typically used less elaborate music, either
plainchant or simple hymns.
• Devotional. Religious gatherings outside the liturgy became increasingly common during the 15th and 16th
centuries. Groups called confraternities met on a regular basis for devotional (that is, nonliturgical) services to
pray, sing hymns, and engage in contemplation.
• Occasional. Motets were often commissioned for specific occasions, such as Du Fay’s Nuper rosarum flores,
written for the dedication of the Cathedral of Florence.

The most controversial issue in Renaissance notation is musica ficta, a term applied to the practice of
sharpening or flattening certain notes even though they are not notated as such. Ficta (“imagined”) comes from
the same root word as our “fictive” or “fiction.”
Rules for the application of musica ficta can be divided into two categories: melodicand harmonic.
• Melodic rules were intended to avoid certain linear tri-tones.
• Harmonic rules were intended to avoid vertical tritones, semitones, and
cross-relations.
Sounding simultaneously was considered “the devil in music.”

SECULAR VOCAL MUSIC

Secular vocal music of the 15th century was never committed to writing. Many of the songs current during this
period were performed through a combination of memory, embellishment, and improvisation.

6
a collection of concise but detailed information about a particular subject
7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9rOP_NPd1Q&list=OLAK5uy_mFe-WB5EPr9P6O7Sab7Z_Mb3Il-NbcDRA
8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrjD3QW8LfU
9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlB1HR4BgUg
Chanson10
Stylistic developments in the chanson during the period 1420 to 1520 parallel those in the Mass and motet.
These include the move from a layered to a more homogeneous11 texture, the rhythmic equalization of parts, and
the increasing use of pervading imitation as the principal structural device.
Frottola12
For most of the 15th century, the song repertory in Italy was dominated by the French chanson. Only in the
1480s did native composers begin setting texts in their own language once again, in a genre broadly known as
the frottola (plural frottole). The texts for these songs include freely structured poems as well as poems in a
variety of established Italian literary forms.

THE RISE OF MUSIC PRINTING

Printing in various forms—most notably by woodblock—had existed long before Johannes Gutenberg in the
mid-1450s. Carving a block of wood, however, was time consuming, and they could not be reused for anything
other than the particular pages for which they had been created. Gutenberg created a far more efficient process.
A page of movable type could be assembled in fairly short order; the metal could withstand the intense pressure
needed to create a clean image on many copies; and the pieces of type could be disassembled and reused to print
another, entirely different page.

Petrucci’s printed music. A portion of Marchetto Cara’s frottola Hor

venduto ho la speranza in its original four-voice ver-
sion, as it appeared in Petrucci’s Frottole, Book 1 (1504).

From Part Song to Solo Song

Although typically notated for multiple voices, Renaissance songs were also routinely performed either on a
single instrument, such as the lute or harpsichord, or as a solo song with instrumental accompaniment.

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
Instrumental music in the Renaissance, as in the medieval era, was cultivated far more than notated sources
would indicate. Performers routinely played from memory and often improvised.

MAJOR COMPOSERS OF THE 15TH AND EARLY 16TH CENTURIES

ENGLAND
JOHN DUNSTABLE (1390– 1453) describes him as a mathematician, astronomer, and
musician. His output consists largely of motets and Mass movements.
LEONEL (LIONEL) POWER, Many of his works are included in the Old Hall Manuscript, and his settings of
the Mass are among the earliest to use a single cantus firmus in all movements.

FRANCE
GILLES BINCHOIS (1400–1460) was a contemporary of GUILLAUME DU FAY (1400–1474
The two composers cultivated many of the same genres. Binchois worked mostly in southern Belgium and
northern France
ANTOINE BUSNOYS (1430–1492) composed Masses, motets, and chansons, and like Binchois spent most of
his career in Burgundian lands.

10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGqvsSn5wJ8
11
homogeneous material or system has the same properties at every point; it is uniform without irregularities. 
12
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4sH4kHgpYk
JOHANNES OCKEGHEM (1420–1497) Ockeghem is remembered today in large part for his remarkably
complex polyphony, and contemporaries praised his music for its subtlety.
JOHANNES TINCTORIS (1435–?1511) dedicated his treatise on modes to Ockeghem and Busnoys.
JOSQUIN DES PREZ (1450–1521 was the most illustrious member of the next generation from this region.
JACOB OBRECHT (1457/8–1505) and HENRICUS ISAAC (1450–1517) Spent considerable portions of their
careers in Italy. Obrecht was music director at the Cathedral of Antwerp for a time but also worked at the court
of Ferrara, where he died of the plague.
Isaac served as organist and maestro di cappella at the court of Lorenzo de Medici in Florence, then later at the
court of Emperor Maximilian I in Vienna. He wrote some 36 Masses as well as 15 individual Mass movements
and more than 40 motets.

Renaissance Instruments
The Renaissance inherited and expanded on the rich variety of instruments used
during the medieval era.

Keyboard. The organ expanded steadily in size, range of pitches, number of pipes, and
variety of timbres over the course of the Renaissance. By the early 16th century, most
church organs of any size had multiple registers (sets of pipes). In addition to the
main register, the most common additional register was the Rückpositiv, or Chair, a
separate set of pipes situated behind or underneath the player.

Stringed Instruments.
The lute, with its pear-shaped body and backward-angled peg box, was the most
common plucked stringed instrument in the Renaissance.

The viol and violin families emerged at roughly the same time, in the late 15th century. Viols came in many
shapes and sizes. Any viol meant to be played while being held in the arm was called a viola da braccio (“viol
of the arm”); one held upright
on the lap or between the legs was called a viola da gamba (“viol of the leg”).
The violin family was somewhat slower to develop. The earliest account of four
matched instruments with the same tuning dates from the middle of the 16th century. The difference in sound
between viols and violins resulted from differences in
their construction and the way each was played.
Winds and Percussion. The earliest known recorder dates from the late 14th century.
By the end of the 15th century, this family of instruments had developed into four
standard varieties, each corresponding to a human voice range: soprano, alto, tenor, and
bass. The sopranino recorder, pitched an octave higher than the soprano, was also
available. Recorders evolved from earlier pipe instruments with the addition of a thumbhole
on the upper back part of the instrument. Renaissance recorders were made in a single piece,
which created problems of tuning and pitch control.
“Renaissance bassoon”). The racket, a related instrument with a
deep, reedy sound, achieved its effect through a system of tightly wound cylindrical
tubing that bent back on itself up to 9 times in a space of only 11 inches or so.
Slide trumpet. The mouthpiece of this instrument was attached to a piece of
movable tubing; the player held the mouthpiece firmly in one hand while
pushing and pulling the rest of the instrument according to the desired pitch.
 Percussion. included a wide range of drums, cymbals
of many shapes and sizes, tambourines, triangles, and
even wooden xylophones. Judging
from paintings and accounts of this period, these were
used far more frequently than
the surviving musical notation would suggest. The
psaltery (hammered dulcimer) was
also a favorite domestic instrument.

Conclusion
The first hundred years of the Renaissance witnessed important changes in musical style.
The standard sonority moved from a layered to a homogeneous texture.
The rise of music printing in the early 16th century, in turn, fundamentally
altered the way in which music could be distributed and consumed.
Compositions that once circulated either through oral transmission or through a mere handful of
manuscripts could now be reproduced and distributed by the hundreds.
The rapid rise of new genres of secular song in the1530s
In the realm of sacred music, printing played an equally significant role in both the Reformation and Counter-
Reformation of the 16th century.

References:

1. Richard Freedman (Author,  Haverford College), Walter Frisch  (Series editor, Columbia

University)

2. Mark Evan Bonds, (A History of Music in Western Culture), IV Edition, Boston Columbus Indianapolis
New York San Francisco.