The document discusses music during the Renaissance period from 1400-1600. Major changes occurred in styles of composing and new genres emerged. Sacred music was most important, composed for the church in polyphonic style with multiple simultaneous melodies. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was a highly influential Renaissance composer, noted for his 105 masses and 250 motets that featured clear textures and lines that expressed reverence for sacred texts. He worked as an organist in his hometown of Palestrina and maintained a high standard across his vast body of sacred and secular works.

1. GIOVANNI
PIERLUIGI DA
PALESTRINA
The Renaissance
Period

2. THE RENAISSANCE
PERIOD
WHAT IS IT?
 Music was an essential part of civic, religious, and courtly life in the
Renaissance. The rich interchange of ideas in Europe, as well as political,
economic, and religious events in the period 1400–1600 led to major
changes in styles of composing, methods of disseminating music, new
musical genres, and the development of musical instruments.
 The most important music of the early Renaissance was composed for use
by the church.
 Polyphonic is made up of several simultaneous melodies.
The cultural rebirth that occurred in Europe from
roughly the fourteenth through the middle of the
seventeenth centuries, based on the rediscovery of
the literature of Greece and Rome.

3. INSTRUMENTATION
Lute
Recorder
Organ
Trumpet
Sackbutt
Voice

4. RENAISSANCE MUSIC
From about 1520 through the end of the sixteenth century, composers
throughout Europe employed the polyphonic language of…
- French chanso the Italian madrigal, the German tenorlieder, the Spanish
villancico, and the English song, as well as in sacred music.
The Reformation and Counter-Reformation directly affected the sacred
polyphony of these countries. The Protestant revolutions (mainly in Northern
Europe) varied in their attitudes toward sacred music, bringing such musical
changes as the introduction of relatively simple German-language hymns (or
chorales) sung by the congregation in Lutheran services.
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525/26–1594), is seen by many as the
iconic High Renaissance composer of Counter-Reformation sacred music,
which features clear lines, a variety of textures, and a musically expressive
reverence for its sacred texts.

5. GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA
PALESTRINA
 Born c. 1525, Palestrina, near Rome—died February 2,
1594, Rome, Italian Renaissance composer of more than 105
masses and 250 motets, a master of contrapuntal composition.
In 1544, Palestrina was engaged as
organist and singer in the cathedral of
his native town. His duties included
playing the organ, helping with the choir,
and teaching music.

6. MUSIC
 Palestrina’s music output, though vast, maintained a remarkably
high standard in both sacred and secular works. His 105 masses
embrace many different styles, and the number of voices used
ranges from four to eight. The time-honoured technique of using a
cantus firmus (preexistent melody used in one voice part).

7. MAJOR WORKS
 Sicut Cervus
 Missa Papae Marcelli (Pope Marcellus Mass)
 O Magnum Mysterium

8. INSTRUMENTAL WORKS DURING THE
RENAISSANCE
Canzona per Sonare No. 2
English Lute Music of the Renaissance (c. 1550-c.
1630)

9. SOURCES
 http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/renm/hd_renm.htm
 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/439795/Giovanni-
Pierluigi-da-Palestrina
 www.youtube.com