This document provides an overview of instruments, important figures, artists, composers, and music of the Renaissance period between 1450-1600. It includes descriptions and images of common instruments of the time like recorders, brass instruments, woodwinds, and early keyboards. It also summarizes influential people like Martin Luther, Galileo, Michelangelo, Da Vinci, and composers like Josquin Des Prez, William Byrd, and Palestrina. Finally, it discusses genres of music from the era like masses, motets, madrigals, and examples of dances that were popular.

1. The Renaissance
1450 - 1600

2. INSTRUMENTS
We will start by looking at pictures of nine
common instruments of this time period.
After each picture slide, there will be a video
where you can see and hear, or just hear, the
sound of the instrument being played.

3. Recorders
The plastic recorders you played in elementary
music have come from a family of wooden
recorders that are made in many different sizes.

5. Serpent
• This is an early brass instrument. It was called a serpent because they had
to curl it up like a snake in order to reach all of it.

6. Sackbut
• Today we call this instrument a trombone. It hasn’t changed very much.

7. Shawm
This is an
early version
of the oboe.

8. Crumhorn
These instruments have double reeds
under a mouthpiece “cap”. They come in
different sizes.

9. Racket
This is a double
reed instrument
with a harsh sound.
The video lets you
hear them play with
other instruments.

10. Virginal
This is an early
kind of piano.
The video will
demonstrate
how it works
and sounds.

11. Harpsichord
This instrument was invented
in between the virginal and
the piano. It could play louder
than the virginal could.
The video will show you two
different kinds of harpsichords
and how they work.

12. This next short video shows a
performance of a piece on the
harpsichord that is played at an
extremely fast speed. This was written
by an Italian composer named
Dominico Scarlatti. His music was very
popular in the Renaissance.

13. Pipe Organ
This video is from “How it’s made” and shows you how this instrument is built

14. Next is an organ piece that is an
example of a popular organ style in
the Renaissance.

15. Greensleeves – a song we still sing
One theory is that this song was originally written by Henry VIII as a love song to a
woman in his court who always wore green. She would not have anything to do with
him – too many of his wives ended up dead. Henry VIII had 6 wives in his lifetime.
"King Henry the Eighth, to six wives he was wedded. One died, one survived, two
divorced, two beheaded." His wives names were Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn,
Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. He kept going
through wives because he wanted a son, and was only having daughters, so he blamed
the women he married.
We use the melody he wrote
now at Christmas
with different words,
and call it “What Child is This”

16. Important
People in the
Renaissance

17. Martin Luther

18. Martin Luther
• Led the Reformation of the Catholic church. This is
where we got the other churches we have today
such as Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist, etc.
• He was the first to put the Bible into the common
people’s language – German. Before this it was all
in Latin and only the priests understood it.
• Challenged the Catholic church teaching on
indulgences – a system of buying your way into
heaven. This is no longer done.
• Made it possible for regular people to sing in
church service instead of just a choir or priests.
• Wrote hymns including “A Mighty Fortress Is Our
God”, which you will hear on the next slide.

19. Christopher Columbus
• Christopher Columbus was an explorer,
navigator, and colonizer, born in the Republic
of Genoa, in what is today northwestern Italy.

20. • Galileo

21. Galileo
• Galileo Galilei was an Italian scientist who
supported the idea that Earth orbits the sun.
He was tried by the Roman Inquisition, was
found "suspect of heresy“, and spent the rest
of his life under house arrest. (Heresy means
supporting ideas that disagree with the
church. The church taught that the earth was
the center of everything because God created
it first.)

22. Artists
Of the
Renaissance

23. Michelangelo

24. Michelangelo
• Painter, sculptor, architect and poet
Michelangelo, one of the most famous artists
of the Italian Renaissance, was born and
named Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti
Simoni on March 6, 1475.
• He lived to be 88.

25. Sistine Chapel – a church in Rome where he did all of the paintings.
This is a view of the ceiling of the church, showing Bible stories

26. A view of the Sistine Chapel from a balcony.

27. Pieta
One of his
most famous
sculptures, this
Shows Mary
holding Christ’s
body after the
crucifixion.

28. Leonardo Da Vinci
• Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an
Italian Renaissance polymath:
painter, sculptor, architect, musician,
mathematician, engineer, inventor,
anatomist, geologist, cartographer,
botanist, and writer.

29. Da
Vinci

30. Mona Lisa – painted by Da Vinci

31. The Last Supper – painted by Da Vinci

32. Inventor
• Da Vinci may well have been the greatest
inventor in history, yet he had very little effect on
the technology of his time. Da Vinci drew
sketches and diagrams of his inventions, which he
preserved in his notebooks, but either he lost
interest in building them or was never able to
convince one of his wealthy patrons to finance
construction of his designs. As a result, almost
none of da Vinci's inventions were built during his
lifetime. And, because he never published his
diagrams, nobody else knew about them until his
notebooks were discovered long after his death.

33. Donatello
• Donato andi Niccolò
di Betto Bardi,
known as Donatello,
was born in Florence, Italy
around 1386 and died
there in 1466.
The powerful
expressivity of his art
made him the greatest
sculptor of the early
Renaissance.

34. Sculpture, and painting
done on a church
ceiling by Donatello

35. Raphael
• Painter and Architect
• Italian

36. Raphael’s St. George and the Dragon

37. Developments in art
• Artists started to sign their work
• Themes included more still lifes, portraits, and
landscapes as well as religious subjects.
• Patronage system was developing for artists,
performing musicians, composers
– You were paid to work for a particular person and
compose or paint for their needs/wishes

38. Composers
Of the
Renaissance

39. Josquin Des Prez
• Considered to be the greatest composer of his
time.
• Worked for a while for kings and queens
• Composed in polyphonic style – this means
many melodies were combined at the same
time.
• He wrote sacred (church) and secular (not
church) music.

40. This piece called “The Cricket” was meant to be
a joking way to ask to be paid. It sings about a
cricket who sings for free. Josquin’s boss hadn’t
paid him for a long time.
The style of singing you will hear now is an
example of the sound of popular music of that
time.

41. The next piece you will hear is called “Ave
Maria” and is a church song Josquin wrote to
honor Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

42. William Byrd

43. William Byrd
• English composer.
• He wrote in many styles that were popular in
England at the time, including various types of
sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard and
instrumental music
• Next is an example of dance music he wrote
for the queen.

44. Palestrina

45. Palestrina
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was an Italian
composer.
• Palestrina had a major influence on the
development of Roman Catholic church music.

46. Palestrina
• The next slide is a Latin church song
called “Sicut Cervus”
• The words mean: As a deer longs for
the flowing streams, so longs my soul
for thee, O God.

47. Kinds of music that
Were often heard
In the Renaissance

48. Masses and Motets
• Sacred music – written for church use
• Often a composer would write all of the music
for the parts of the “Mass” for an entire
service in the Catholic church

49. Madrigals and Ballads
• Secular music – popular outside of the church
• Told stories of people/heroes of the day
• Many were love songs
• Next is a short example and explanation of
some popular music of that time

50. Renaissance Dance
• There were many kinds of
popular dances, just like there are
now. Next is an example of a
dance done in a play. The kinds
of dances you see were typical of
dances done at the time.

51. • Next is a style of dancing done only by men,
called “Morris Dancing”.

52. • The last video is an example of a Maypole
dance. The 6th grade does a Maypole dance
when they have their special history day each
spring.