Chapter 7: Music and the Renaissance | A History of Western Music, 8e: W. W.

Norton StudySpace 10/27/16, 7)25 AM

A History of Western Music: W. W. Norton

StudySpace
Chapter
7
Music and the Renaissance
Outline

I. Renaissance in Culture and Art

A. The Renaissance (French for "rebirth") began at different times for different
aspects of culture.
1. In some aspects it began in the 1300s.
2. Some areas experienced a renaissance beginning in the 1500s.
3. The term was coined in 1855 by a French historian.
4. For the purposes of HWM, the period includes the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries.
B. Developments in music
1. An international style developed due to composers from northern Europe
working in Italy.
2. New rules for counterpoint controlled dissonance and elevated thirds and
sixths in importance.
3. The predominant textures were imitative counterpoint and homophony.
4. Printing made notated music available to a wider public, including
amateurs.
5. The Reformation generated changes in music for both Protestant and
Catholic churches.
II. Europe from 1400 to 1600 (Refer to Timeline: The Age of the Renaissance, page 148)
A. European conflicts
1. Several older conflicts were resolved.
a. The Great Schism in the church ended in 1417.
b. The Hundred Years' War concluded in 1453.
c. Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks, ending the Byzantine
Empire in 1453.
2. New conflicts
a. Turks conquered the Balkans and Hungary.
b. The Reformation splintered the Roman Church.
B. European expansion
1. Europeans established colonies around the world.
2. Columbus's 1492 trip led to Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the
Americas, followed by colonies established by other countries.
C. The European economy stabilized around 1400.
1. Trade between regions with specialized products brought wealth to towns,
cities, and individuals.
2. The middle class continued to grow in numbers and influence.

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/grout8/ch/07/outline.aspx Page 1 of 6
Chapter 7: Music and the Renaissance | A History of Western Music, 8e: W. W. Norton StudySpace 10/27/16, 7)25 AM

3. Rulers glorified themselves and their principalities.

a. Impressive palaces and country houses
b. Decoration with new artwork and artifacts from ancient civilizations
c. Lavish entertainment
d. Private chapels staffed by professional musicians
D. Humanism
1. Access to Greek writings influenced thinkers.
a. Byzantine scholars fled to Italy because of Ottoman attacks, taking
ancient Greek writings with them.
b. Italian scholars learned Greek and translated Greek texts into Latin.
c. The works of Plato and the Greek plays and histories became
available to western Europeans for the first time.
2. Humanism (from the Latin studia humanitatis, "the study of the
humanities," that is, things pertaining to human knowledge)
a. Humanists emphasized the study of grammar, rhetoric, poetry,
history, and moral philosophy.
b. They believed that the humanities prepared students for lives of
virtue and service.
c. The church borrowed from classical sources and supported
humanists.
III. Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture
A. Classical models of beauty
1. Nude statues based on Greek ideals (see HWM Figure 7.1) depicted the
beauty of the human figure, as opposed to human shame in medieval art.
2. Classical Greek and Roman styles were used to portray Christian themes.
3. Musicians consulted Greek theoretical treatises for ideas on how to create
classical beauty in music.
B. Realistic depictions in painting
1. Perspective, a method of showing three dimensions on a flat surface by
orienting objects on a single point with vanishing lines toward it, made
more realistic images possible.
2. Chiaroscuro, naturalistic treatment of light and shade
3. HWM Figure 7.3 uses perspective and light to create a more realistic
image than the medieval image in HWM Figure 7.2.
C. Clarity and clean lines are the new architectural style, the opposite of the ornate
decoration of the Gothic style.
D. Interest in individuals
1. Patrons commissioned paintings to memorialize themselves.
2. Minor figures in paintings were painted in detail.
E. Musical parallels
1. Expansion of range, allowing contrast between high and low registers and
fuller textures
2. Clarity of musical structure through frequent cadences and stylistic
contrasts
3. Focusing on a single tonal center was the equivalent of using a single
vanishing point in perspective.
4. Interest in individuals is reflected in unique personal styles and memorial

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/grout8/ch/07/outline.aspx Page 2 of 6
Chapter 7: Music and the Renaissance | A History of Western Music, 8e: W. W. Norton StudySpace 10/27/16, 7)25 AM

works.
IV. Music in the Renaissance
A. Court chapels (e.g., HWM Figure 7.5)
1. Rulers, aristocrats, and church leaders had their own chapels.
2. Musicians at the chapels were on salary.
3. Because they worked for the ruler, not the Church, they could be called
upon for secular entertainment as well as sacred functions.
4. Most musicians had other duties as servants, administrators, clerics, or
church officials.
B. Music education
1. Choir schools in cathedrals and chapels taught singing, music theory, and
academic subjects to boys.
a. Most prominent composers of the fifteenth and early sixteenth
centuries came from northern Europe, which was home to the most
renowned centers for musical training: Cambrai, Bruges, Antwerp,
Paris, and Lyons (see HWM Figure 7.6).
b. In the sixteenth century, Rome and Venice became centers of
musical training, and more composers were Italian.
c. Girls and women in convents received some musical instruction.
2. Instrumentalists trained in the apprentice system.
C. Patronage for music
1. Competition for the best composers and performers erased regional
differences.
2. Court musicians in Italy came from France, Flanders, and the Netherlands
(Franco-Flemish composers).
3. English, French, and Italian styles merged into one international style in
the fifteenth century (see HWM Chapter 8).
4. Composers were able to compose in regional vernacular song styles
because of their travels.
D. The new counterpoint
1. Thirds and sixths, now seen as consonances, required new approaches to
counterpoint.
2. Johannes Tinctoris: Liber de arte contrapuncti (A Book on the Art of
Counterpoint, 1477, HWM Source Reading, page 156)
a. He references composers active ca. 1430-1477, including many
discussed in upcoming chapters of HWM.
b. His rules for counterpoint have rules for the treatment of dissonance,
including suspensions.
3. Gioseffo Zarlino's Le istitutioni harmoniche (The Harmonic Foundations,
1558) synthesizes the rules for counterpoint as developed after Tinctoris.
E. New compositional methods and textures
1. All voices became equal by the second half of the fifteenth century.
2. Composers stopped basing works on the cantus-tenor relationship and
began composing all voices simultaneously (see Pietro Aaron HMW
Source Reading, page 158).
3. Two textures emerged: imitative counterpoint and homophony.
4. Imitative counterpoint

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/grout8/ch/07/outline.aspx Page 3 of 6
Chapter 7: Music and the Renaissance | A History of Western Music, 8e: W. W. Norton StudySpace 10/27/16, 7)25 AM

a. Voices echo each other, repeating a motive or phrase.

b. Repetitions are usually a fourth, fifth, or octave away.
5. Homophony
a. All voices move together in essentially the same rhythm.
b. The lower parts accompany the cantus line with consonant
sonorities.
F. Tuning and temperament
1. Music using thirds and sixths require more sophisticated tuning than those
emphasizing perfect consonances.
2. Pythagorean intonation
a. Based on fourths and fifths and used during the Middle Ages
b. Created dissonant-sounding thirds and sixths using complex ratios
c. The ratio for a major third was 81:64, which sounds out of tune
compared to the pure major third (5:4 or 80:64).
3. Just intonation
a. Walter Odington observed that musicians used simpler ratios in
practice ca. 1300.
b. He laid the foundation for tuning based on simple ratios for thirds
(5:4) and sixths (6:5).
c. In 1482 Bartolomé Ramis de Pareia proposed a system now
known as just intonation to create perfectly tuned thirds and sixths.
4. Temperaments
a. Tuning systems designed to create the best-sounding intervals over
the range of a keyboard were developed to accommodate works that
used pitches outside the gamut.
b. Singers could sing G-sharp and A-flat at slightly different pitches,
but keyboards could not do this.
c. Mean-tone temperament employs fifths tuned slightly smaller than
perfect in order to create consonant thirds and usable black keys.
d. Temperament was now governed by accommodations to the ear
rather than adherence to past authority, in keeping with humanist
principles.
G. Words and music
1. The formes fixes fell out of fashion; texts became more varied.
2. Composers paid increasing attention to accents and meter in setting texts.
3. Cadences expressed varying degrees of finality based on the text.
4. Composers sought to dramatize the content and convey the feelings of the
texts with music.
5. The new concern with text declamation and expression was reinforced by
the rediscovery of ancient writing.
H. Reawakened interest in Greek theory
1. Greek writings on music came to the West during the Renaissance.
2. By the end of the fifteenth century, they had been translated into Latin.
3. Franchino Gaffurio (1451-1522)
a. The most influential treatise writer of his time
b. Gaffurio incorporated ideas from Greek treatises into his.
c. Topics influenced by Greek theory included the modes, consonance

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/grout8/ch/07/outline.aspx Page 4 of 6
Chapter 7: Music and the Renaissance | A History of Western Music, 8e: W. W. Norton StudySpace 10/27/16, 7)25 AM

and dissonance, relationship of music and words, and tuning.

4. Heinrich Glareanus (1488-1563)
a. Swiss theorist
b. He added four new modes in his book Dodekachordon (The Twelve-
String Lyre, 1547).
1. Aeolian and Hyperaeolian, with the final on A
2. Ionian and Hypoionian with the final on C
c. By his time, composers frequently used C and A as tonal centers.
I. New applications of Greek ideas
1. Music as a social accomplishment
2. Conveying emotion through music
a. Inspired by ancient Greek descriptions of the emotional effects of
music
b. By ca. 1500, composers used various compositional devices to
convey the feeling of the text.
c. Greek descriptions of the qualities of the modes inspired composers
to connect modes with emotional effects.
3. Chromaticism, inspired by the chromatic genus of ancient Greek music
J. Music printing (see HWM Innovations, pages 164-65)
1. Printing from movable type began around 1450 for text and in the 1450s
for chant notation.
2. Printing from a single impression (see HWM Figure 7.8)
a. Pieces of type contained the printed staff, notes, and the text
together.
b. John Rastell in London after ca. 1520
c. Pierre Attaingnant in Paris (ca. 1494-1551/52)
d. Staff lines were not continuous, but the method was a commercial
success.
3. Printing from three impressions: the printing press created the staff, the
notes, and the words in separate passes over the paper.
4. Harmonice musices odhecaton A, 1501, published by Ottaviano Petrucci
(1466-1539), HWM Figure 7.7
a. The first collection of polyphonic music printed entirely from
movable type
b. One Hundred Polyphonic Songs (actually only ninety-six)
c. Volumes B and C followed a few years later.
d. He held a patent on the process, preventing other publishers from
using it.
e. He printed both vocal and instrumental music.
5. Amateur musicians used partbooks (each book contained one voice or
part) for home gatherings, creating a large market for printed books (see
HWM Figure 7.9).
6. Effect of music printing
a. Composers' works could be heard throughout Europe and the
Americas.
b. Composers could make more money, either through publication or
through the growth of their reputations.

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/grout8/ch/07/outline.aspx Page 5 of 6
Chapter 7: Music and the Renaissance | A History of Western Music, 8e: W. W. Norton StudySpace 10/27/16, 7)25 AM

c. New musical styles evolved to satisfy demands for popular and

regional styles.
d. The music of the Renaissance is available to modern performers and
scholars.
K. New repertories
1. Music printing encouraged the rise of new repertories of music.
2. An international style was formulated in the early fifteenth century.
3. The sixteenth century saw a proliferation of regional styles.
a. Much of this music was vocal.
b. National traditions emerged in Spain, Italy, France, Germany,
England, and elsewhere.
4. The market for printed music also encouraged the development of notated
instrumental music.
L. Reformation and Counter-Reformation
1. Led by Martin Luther, the Reformation began in 1517.
2. Each church developed its own music for services.
3. The Counter-Reformation was the Catholic response and produced some
of the finest music of the century.
V. The Legacy of the Renaissance
A. The humanist focus created a musical style that would appeal to the listener.
1. Consonance
2. Natural declamation of the words
3. Emotional expressivity
B. Developments in musical language, temperament, and musical aesthetics have
persisted to the present.
C. Renaissance counterpoint continued to be the main style for Catholic church
music through the eighteenth century.
D. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, scholars began transcribing
Renaissance works into modern notation.

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/grout8/ch/07/outline.aspx Page 6 of 6