Musical Reform: Polyphony and the Renaissance

Elizabeth Peterson Junior Division Individual Website

Ever since I was young, I have loved music of all types. In all aspects, it has affected me, so I wanted to learn about how it affected other people in history. My original plan for this project was to research music from the Renaissance Era until now, but after beginning research, I decided that the time frame was to large. I restricted my research to the Renaissance and Polyphony. I have researched art in the Renaissance previously, but I decided to look into the musical aspects of this time period. Music greatly changed society during the Renaissance. I began researching my topic in September. I first look into books, and went to my local library. I picked out quite a few books, but in the end, I had just two. After reading through these books for information concerning my topic, I began my internet research. I looked for articles concerning my entire topic. These gave me general information. I began working on my website, thinking that this was enough information. I realized that each individual topic, such as The Counter-Reformation, required extra knowledge, so I conducted extra research. I realized that I was lacking primary sources. I looked for the help of the choir director at my school, who is knowledgeable on music history. She guided me to other sources. My first primary source was an actual piece of music by Palestrina that was inside one of the books I got from the library. I concluded that this would be a good source regarding the styles of music. After finding other primary sources I began composing the content on my website. I chose a website for this topic because I could have actual music audio on it. In other categories, I would have to demonstrate these live, which is beyond my musical level, or simply not have songs. I decided that I should have songs in a project about music, so I chose the website category. I created my website by first dividing my information into categories. I fully explained each one as I would if there was no word limit, and when it was completed, I removed anything that was not crucial to my message. I worked on music before the Renaissance, and

worked my way through the timeline of my project. I made five categories and spent most of my free time writing and uploading files onto my website. Upon the completion of my project, I completely reviewed my work and concluded that it was ready. The development of Polyphony interupted the ordinary life styles of the Renaissance, which makes it an excellent example of Reform. Musical Reform, among other things, influenced the Protestant Reformation, which in turn led to the Counter-Reformation. It also effected the social lives of peasants because music before polyphony was not involved in life outside church. Technologically, music brought new instruments and was spread by the printing press. Overall, musical development in the Renaissance greatly affected the normal flow of society.