Renaissance Era Music Guide: A History of

Renaissance Music
Written by MasterClass

The Renaissance era of classical music saw the growth of polyphonic music, the rise of new
instruments, and a burst of new ideas regarding harmony, rhythm, and music notation.

When Was the Renaissance Period of Music?

The Renaissance period of classical music spans approximately 1400 to 1600. It was preceded by
the Medieval period and followed by the Baroque period. The Renaissance era of music history
came significantly later than the era of Renaissance art, which arguably peaked during the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, yet the Renaissance music era proved to be equally robust.

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A Brief History of Renaissance Music

The Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation of the sixteenth century
liberalized some forms of art, and both church music and secular art music thrived during the
Renaissance era. Meanwhile, the 1439 invention of the printing press helped standardize music
notation across Europe, although it would continue to evolve during the Baroque era and
Classical era. The Renaissance era itself spans three phases:

 Early Renaissance: The music of the early Renaissance centered around the Burgundian
School, a group of composers led by Guillaume Dufay in northern France and the Low
Countries. Early Renaissance music followed closely in the spirit of late Medieval music,
but with less syncopation and a greater focus on harmonic cadences. As the early
Renaissance period gave way to the middle Renaissance, church composers Johannes
Ockeghem and Jacob Obrecht pushed new boundaries in polyphony in their intricate
masses.
 Middle Renaissance: The middle Renaissance began around the time that the Catholic
church's Council of Trent issued edicts discouraging the use of excessive polyphony in
vocal church music. This led to a rollback of techniques used by Obrecht and Ockeghem,
but it gave rise to a new generation of Renaissance composers who embraced simpler
forms of harmony. The most enduring composers of the middle Renaissance are the
Franco-Flemish composer Josquin des Prez and the Italian composer Giovanni Pierluigi
da Palestrina of the Roman School. Josquin was a master of sacred music, and Palestrina
introduced the independent interlocking melody lines we now call counterpoint. At times,
however, both Josquin and Palestrina would pay homage to the simple monophonic
melodies that defined the Medieval era.
  Late Renaissance: The late Renaissance gave way to a style known as mannerism,
wherein music was embellished with various forms of ornamentation, suspension, and
even chromaticism. This would set the table for the bold, dynamic, heavily embellished
music of the Baroque era.
Renaissance Period Musical Forms
The Renaissance period gave rise to musical forms like the motet, the madrigale spirituale, the
mass, and the laude, all of which were liturgical styles of music. Secular music also had a place
in the Renaissance era; secular forms included the secular motet and motet-chanson, the secular
madrigal, the villancico, the frottola, the rondo, the ballade, the lute song, and the canzonetta.

3 Characteristics of Renaissance Music

Renaissance music represented a great leap in sophistication from the Medieval era music of the
Middle Ages. Key characteristics of Renaissance music include:

1. 1. Polyphony: While Medieval music is often characterized by homophonic singing (as

in Gregorian chants), Renaissance music by composers like Josquin, Palestrina, and
Thomas Tallis emphasized multiple voices singing in a polyphonic style. The same was
true for multi-part instrumental music.
2. 2. Tonal music: Most music of the Middle Ages was modal, meaning it followed musical
modes as opposed to the major scale or minor scale. In the Renaissance era, this began to
change. Some music, particularly vocal music, remained modal in nature, but newer
forms like the English madrigal and the Italian madrigal embraced the tonal music that
remains popular to this day. Tonal music places strong emphasis on cadences at the end
of sections or entire pieces; this way a listener’s ear can be anchored in a particular key.
3. 3. Increased risk-taking: Early Renaissance music, like that of Guillaume Dufay,
maintained the harmonic rules of Medieval music from the late Middle Ages. But as new
styles emerged over the course of the sixteenth century, Renaissance music began
pushing boundaries and introducing moments of dissonance. Italian and German a
cappella music employed a style called musica reservata, featuring notable chromaticism
and ornamentation. Meanwhile, musically bold passages by composers like Palestrina
would heavily influence early Baroque musicians, such as the Venetian composer
Claudio Monteverdi.

Instruments of the Renaissance Period

The Renaissance period saw a mix of new musical instruments and holdovers from earlier music.
Common Renaissance instruments included:

 Harpsichord
 Clavichord
 Viol
 Lute
 Rebec
 Lyre
 Guitar
 Recorder
  Cornet
 Trumpet
 Trombone (known at the time as sackbut)
 Tambourine
 Transverse flute
3 Influential Renaissance Composers
The musical literature of the Renaissance has not endured to the degree that Baroque, Classical,
and Romantic era music has. Still, several Renaissance composers remain highly influential to
this day.

1. 1. Josquin des Prez: Josquin des Prez was a prodigious composer of both church music
and secular music. His liturgical motets are widely taught in music schools as examples
of Renaissance harmony and notation. He was particularly known in his lifetime for
composing 32 religious masses.
2. 2. Carlo Gesualdo: Better known in his lifetime as Gesualdo da Venosa, this late
Renaissance composer was perhaps the most famous of his era to emerge from Italy. He
was also notorious for a string of murders he is alleged to have committed. Gesualdo
published six volumes of Italian madrigals, which featured chromaticism that would not
be equaled until deep into the Baroque era.
3. 3. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Simply known as Palestrina to most, this Roman
School composer is sometimes credited as the link between Renaissance and Baroque
music. Palestrina's mastery of counterpoint was among the most robust of his era.
Palestrina was known for his masses, such as the Missa Papae Marcelli (Pope Marcellus
Mass), which made him famous in his own lifetime.