CLASS #3

Renaissance
• aspiration towards classical ideals in art

• humanism

◦ idea that started Renaissance

◦ Petrarca and Boccacia

◦ translation of Greek to Latin

◦ printing press, printing of Greek texts

◦ universities(entrance requirement), academies (any age)

• neoplatonizm

◦ Morsilio Ficino + Pico della Mirandola

• patronage

◦ patronage by governments, guilds, religious ... (not only church like medieval periods)

• began in northern part of Italy

◦ international trade routes

◦ lots of di erent powers in Italy

‣ i.e. Naples --> pope

Giorgio Vasari

◦ Lives of the Artists

‣ earned him the title of father of art history

‣ fundamental information on Italian Renaissance art

‣ used "rinascita" to describe his times

• "Renaissance" was introducted by Jules Michelet, a French historian in 1855

humanism

• occured along other Renaissance developments

• system of mode, education ???

• exploring ancient Greek and Roman writings/philosophy led to a rationalist approach to life and
learning.

Fine arts in Renaissance

◦ order

◦ ratio

7
◦ symmetry

◦ perspective - depth

same with Ancient Greece

◦ naturalism
contrast of

‣ light (Chiaroscuro), colour, tone

light and dark
◦ subject matter

‣ religious, myths/historical...

◦ example:

‣ Vitruvian man by da Vinci

• (in uenced by Vitrivius, Roman architect)

Brunelleschi

• perspective

• Dome of the Florence Cathedral

Vitruvius de Architectura

• was "rediscovered" by a humanist

• a ected other books

◦ de re aedi catoria

‣ by Leon Battista Alberti, 1452

‣ rst theorotical book on the subject written in Italian Renaissance

‣ part of a trilogoy of treatise on major arts of Renaissance:

• 2) de pictura

• 3) de statua

◦ I Quattro Libri Dell'Architettura

‣ Palladio, 1570

‣ Palladian architectural style still in uencing today's fashion

!!! da Vinci's relation to music == painting (younger sister of

painting)

Renaissance Architecture

◦ abandoned the Gothic style

◦ in uence of Roman and Greek ruins

◦ emphasis of ratio, symmetry, proportion, balance

◦ columns with capitals

◦ roundness (dome)

◦ important architects:

‣ Alberti, Palladio, Brunelleschi, Bramante

music in Renaissance

◦ interest in a ective powers of music

◦ importance of text - music relationship + rhetoric

I
‣ Plato's Republic

‣ Aristotle's Poetics

‣ Cicero's De oratore

‣ Quantilian's Institutio Oratoria

◦ polyphony becomes rich and interwoven

‣ imitative counterpoint

• alternating between homophony and imitative counterpoint

◦ revival of ancient music theory

◦ these lead to music treatises by Tinctoris, Ga urio, Glarean, Zarlino

‣ Plato's Timaeus

‣ Euclid's Elements

‣ Ptolemy's Harmonics

 ◦ harmony of the spheres

◦ balance and proportion

‣ melodies never go to high or low

‣ limited voice range

◦ owing lines

‣ little change in tempo and dynamics

sacred music

• two main forms

◦ motet

‣ polyphonic choral work

‣ not made from Bible words

◦ the mass

‣ mass is longer

secular music

• vocal music

◦ written for groups of solo voices

◦ !!! word painting

‣ orally describe what the word is trying to say by raising or lowering the notes

◦ madrigal

‣ piece for several voices

‣ short poem, usually about love

• instrumental music

◦ became more important during Renaissance

◦ primarily intended for dancing

‣ court dances in pairs

• pavane

• galliard (triple meter) ??

Florence

• center of banking activities

• Florentine Florin

◦ rst minted in 1252

É
◦ most precious money in Renaissance

• Medici Family

◦ important banking family (their symbols were coins)

◦ got money from interest

‣ 7th circle of Hell for those who lend money

• Gerion

◦ sponsored important Renaissance artists to get away from hell

◦ Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Giorgio Vasari, Leonardo da Vinci was sponsored by the Medici family.

• Guillauma Dufay

◦ consequation event

◦ composed both sacred and secular music

◦ Nuper Rosarum Flores

‣ is a motet

‣ for use in Roman Catholic church

‣ polyphonic vocalwork

• Henricus Isaac

◦ composer of Renaissance

 ◦ spend most of their life travelling around Europe

◦ when his patron from the Medici family died, he composed a piece

‣ Lament on the Death of Lorenzo de' Medici

• Jacques Arcadelt

‣ millemorti is repeated again and again

Milano

• Salvator mundi by da Vinci

Rome

• Michalengalo

◦ Pieta

‣ droppertes carved in the marble

◦ Creation of Adam

• Raphael

◦ The Stanza della Segnature with Parnassus

◦ The School of Athens 1510

‣ perspective

‣ mythology and reality

‣ paganism and christianity

• Sistine Chapel

◦ Botticelli

‣ fresco

◦ Michelangelo

‣ ceiling

‣ altar piece

◦ Raphael

‣ tapestry
É
• Josquin de Prez

◦ composer of Renaissance, north of France

◦ prestigious positions at courts and churchs

◦ expressed emotions in music for the rst time

◦ "serene Virgin" --> word painting

Counter-Reformation and Palestrina (1525 - 1594)

◦ 1517 - Martin Luther

◦ Council of Trent (1545-1563)

e
‣ the Protestant Reformation starts in Germany

‣ leading cardinals and bishops undertook a reform of Roman Catholic Church (counter-
reformation)

◦ Palestrina

‣ singer and composer at churches around Vatican

‣ "savior of church music"

‣ Palestrina's Mass -- Missa Papae Marcelli (1557)

• counter-reformation composition

• text expressed in simpler, syllabic way

◦ he found church music too complex to understand to he changed that

• more homophony

Thomas Luis de Victoria

• a Spanish composer

• O magnum mysterium

Pope Marcellus Mass (1557)

• Palestrina's most famous mass, written for cappella choir of 6 parts:

◦ soprano, alto, two tenors, two basses

• polyphonic texture, imitation

• sections:

◦ kyrie eleison --> Lord, have mercy

◦ christe eleison --> Christ, have mercy

◦ kyrie elesion --> Lord, have mercy

Venice

◦ lots of trade with east in architecture

‣ gifting portraits between Ottoman and Venice

◦ Gentile Bellini

‣ portrait of Sultan Mehmet II

‣ Miracle of the True Cross

◦ Titian/Tiziano

‣ topics from Ancient Greek sculpture, mythological

Polychoral Music at St. Mark's Cathedral

• cori spezzatti (split choirs)

◦ polychoral singing in Venice after 16th century

• instrumentalist and choirs placed at di erent points, creating the rst surround sound experience.

• Giovanni Gabrieli also applied this principle to instruments

TERMINOLOGY #3

renaissance

• revival of European art and literature under the in uence of ancient models

• 14th-16th centuries, esp. in Italy

humanism

• cultural movement which occured along other Renaissance developments

• led to a rationalist approach to life and learning

• moved away from mediavel scholasticism, putting human and earthly interests rst

reformation

• religious movement in 16th century that sought the reform of the Roman Catholic Church

• led to the establishment of Protestant churches

counter reformation

• Catholic reformation

• period of Catholic resurgence, in response to Protestant Reformation

perspective

motet

• short composition with Latin words

• made up of short sections in homophony and polyphony, which were staples of High Renaissance
style

• generally religious

madrigal

• Italian genre, popular between 1530 - 1600

• short composition set to a one-stanza poem

• typically a love poem

• rapid turnover of imitative polyphony or homophony

imitative polyphony

• use of same/similar melodies with one coming after another

polychoral music (cori spezzati)

• technique of composing for two or more choirs, placed in di erent parts of the buildings

• associated with music around Venice, 16th and early 17th centuries