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. 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. 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. 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.