Enjoyment of Music 3rd Ed. pgs. 77-81 ADA Compliant

1. THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC
ESSENTIAL LISTENING
EDITION
by
Kristine Forney
Andrew Dell’Antonio
Joseph Machlis
THIRD EDITION
Lecture Slides

2. Chapter 16
Remember Me: Personalizing the Motet in
the Renaissance

3. The Renaissance Era:~1425 - 1600
• Period of recovery from the Middle Ages (also
known as the “Dark Ages”)
– Arts and sciences were revived.
– French word for “rebirth” - after the Plague (Italy, 1348) and
the Hundred Years’ War (England vs. France, 1337-1453)
– Age of humanism--intellectual and cultural movement that
explored human interests and values through science,
philosophy, literature, painting, sculpture, and music
• Humanism-union of pagan & Christian beliefs
– Emphasis on the human & nature vs the otherworldly & divine
– Affect on Fine Arts: Use of balance & order
• Individual achievement important
• Belief that all things were knowable with the right kind of study

4. The Renaissance Period
• Interest revived in Greek and Roman arts,
philosophy, architecture, science, and mathematics
• The age of exploration: Christopher Columbus, Vasco
da Gama, Ferdinand Magellan.
• Rebirth of science: Nicolai Copernicus and Galileo
Galilei.

5. The Renaissance Era
• Economic growth, particularly in Italy and the Low
Countries (i.e., modern-day Belgium and the
Netherlands)
• New World “discovered” by Columbus in 1492.
• Kingdoms, duchies, city-states got bigger and richer.
• Ideal “Renaissance Man”--knowledge of a variety of
arts and sciences
– Human reason and individuality became very
important values.
• Movable type invented in mid-15th century. Music
printing established by 1500.

6. Renaissance Artists
• Botticelli
• Michelangelo
• Leonardo da
Vinci
• Raphael

7. The Renaissance Era: Music
• Composers brought words and music
together in unity better than ever before.
• Sound was based on polyphony--equal
voice parts.
• Most music had 3, 4, 5, or even 6 parts.
• Strong attention to text being sung, even
when polyphonic melodies were complex

8. More About Polyphony
• Four or five melodies performed
simultaneously
• Entrances of the melody staggered by the
voices; different voices imitated original
melody and counterpoint at different times.
• Counter melodies performed while main
melody is being heard: called “counterpoint.”
• Texture was thick and complex.

9. • Golden age of the a cappella style
• Harmonies based on “sweeter” sounds of
thirds and sixths
• Use of fixed melody (cantus firmus) and triple
meter
Remember Me: Personalizing the
Motet in the Renaissance

10. Renaissance Music
• 1450
– Composers began to add line below chant for
more solid foundation
– Beginning of today’s voice arrangement
• Superius-soprano
• Altus-alto
• Tenor
• Bassus-bass

11. Musical Compositions (Genres) of
the Renaissance
• Masses: settings of the Ordinary of the Mass
– Polyphonic texture
• Madrigals: secular songs, originating in the
Italian courts and spreading to other countries
– Secular songs about romantic love or nature
– Settings of sonnets or pious devotions

12. Musical Compositions (Genres) of
the Renaissance
• Motets: sacred or secular pieces in polyphonic
style
– Each part had different words.
– One part in a secular motet was based on a chant
in long notes: called the cantus firmus.
– Generally 3 parts during this period

13. Characteristics of Renaissance
Music
• Texture
– Primarily polyphonic
• Rhythm & Melody
– Each melodic line has greater rhythmic independence
– Scale with larger leaps vs. more step-wise movement
• Words & Music
– Vocal music more important than instrumental
– Word painting

14. Josquin des Prez
• ca. 1450-1521
• Born in Flanders(Belgium)
• Greatest composer of the early
Renaissance
• Contemporary of da Vinci
• Known for chansons(French polyphonic
songs) & motets
• Demanded high salary, changed jobs
often
• Hired by Duke of Ferrara to be a
composer for his court
• Other compositions:
– Missa Pange Lingua (a Mass)
– Missa La Sol Fa Re Mi (another Mass)
– Ave Maria. . . virgo serena

15. Josquin des Prez
• Quote from Martin Luther- “God has His Gospel
preached also through the medium of music; this may be seen
from the compositions of Josquin, all of whose works are cheerful,
gentle, mild, and lovely; they flow and move along and are neither
forced nor coerced and bound by rigid and stringent rules, but, on
the contrary, are like the song of the finch.”

16. Ave Maria…Virgo serena
(Hail Mary…Serene Virgin); 1475
• 4-voice motet
• Latin prayer to the Holy Virgin
• Uses polyphonic repetition,
overlapping of phrases
• Adapted melody from Gregorian chant,
but rest of motet not based on chant
• Varies texture, imitation in upper
voices, homorhythmic sections
• Change from triple to duple meter
• Final couplet: simple texture, example
of humanistic spirit

17. Ave Maria…virgo serena
• Ave Maria...virgo serena

19. Josquin des Prez--“The Cricket”
• Polyphonic--4 distinct voices, equally
important
• Uses word painting--(e.g., long notes on
words “hold a long line” and chirping sounds
which imitate a cricket)
• Music written to a humorous poem; an
attempt to enhance the spirit of the poetry

20. The Cricket
• The Cricket

21. by
Kristine Forney
Andrew Dell’Antonio
Joseph Machlis
Lecture Slides
THIRD EDITION
THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC
ESSENTIAL LISTENING EDITION
http://wwnorton.com/web/enjoyess2