The Renaissance period was a time of both rediscovery of ancient times as well as new innovations. Some of the inventions included the clock, gunpowder, thw printing press, and the telescope. Due to the invention of the printing press, music became accessible to not only the aristocrats, but to the common man. Alongside the new innovations, there was a rise in musical instruments.
The instruments of the time were classified into two sections. There was the “bas” and “haut” or “low” and “high”. The instruments were divided not by range of pitch, but by volume. The bas instruments or soft instruments were used to play indoors and they were the harp, lute, psaltery, transvers flute, and recorder. The haut instruments or loud instruments were used
…show more content…
to play outdoors or for dance music. These instruments were the cornetto, shawm, trumpets, and the one that doesn’t exactly fit in… the sackbut . The word sackbut was not the standard name nor spelling.
Depeding on where the individual resided, the instrument had a different spelling. The word “sackbut” means to push and pull which refers to the use of a slide. It’s origin comes from the Latin root “Sambuca” which is where we developed the different spellings of sackbut. According to Galpin’s The Sackbut, It’s Evolution and History, Kastner suggests a French use of the word: “saccades bouter” which means to use a jerking motion which gives the impression of the use of a slide . As the time progressed the definition of the word became more precise. The French used the word “saqueboute” which was a combination of “saquier”, to pull, and “boter”, to push . This is important to know because it proves the existence of the instrument as well as where it was commonly …show more content…
seen. During the Renaissance period, instruments were being used more and more.
The difficult part is to actually know where they were used. According to Herbert’s The Sackbut and Pre-Reformation English Church Music, trombonist (sackbuttists) were salaried members of the royal music establishment . Although in sheet music we do not see a part for the sackbut, a set instrumentation was not a common use. However, the English drew pictures of brass instruments giving the assumption that the sackbut was used during that time period. The English also show records of paying the musicians. Herbert demonstrates that the sackbuttists were paid musicians as
so: “The earliest reference to the trombone in an English source is found in the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VII. It mentions the following payments : Item. To 9 Trumpets for their wags £1 8.0.0 To 4 Shakbushes for ther wags £7.0.0 To 3 Stringmynstrels for their wags £0.100.0”. This was only the beginning of what would be an explosion of genres for the use of the sackbut. The use of a sackbut, much like other instruments, came from vocal music. During the Renaisance period music was written for a cantus, altus, and tenor. As the vocal music reached for new compositional methods, the instrumentalist had to keep up with them. Traditionally for a trio a Shawm and two other voices with similar range were used . However when themusic called for a bassus (bass) part, the only instrument that could cover that bassus was the sackbut. The standard then became a shawm, alto shawm, slide trumpet, and a sackbut . It wasn’t much longer before the instrumentation changed to a more homogenous sound. The sackbut had an important counterpart that truly complimented the strecths and weaknesses of playing the the horn. This instrument was the cornett . the sackbut is ancestor of the medieval trumpet, so it only makes sense that the timbre would be similar to a cornett. The sackbut’s range excelled in the bass and tenor voices, so naturally it played those two voices. However, sackbuts lacked the flexibility to use ornamentation but the cornett could play the role of the soprano with ease. Thus the ensemble of cornetts and sackbuts became more common than the use of shawms and sackbuts.
It is believed that the Irish brought to the region the fiddle and the pipes. It is believed that the first stringed instrument, the dulcimer was brought by the Germans, Norwegians, Swedish and French. The dulcimer became known as the 1“Hog Fiddle” or “Music Box”.
The next logical step in this evolutionary chain was as sure as a spoiled child’s demands. Now that I have what I want I want more of it. Thus came the psaltery (diagram 2). The psaltery was a great leap fourth from the monochord. It was a small trapezoid shaped box with many strings stretched over it. However unlike the monochord the psaltery did not have movable bridges to change the pitch while playing and furthermore these bridges were much more like the bridges of modern string instruments. The psaltery was played by picking the strings (which were obviously tuned to different pitches) with the fingers or with a pick. This was an extremely popular instrument in the Middle Ages but as the music got more complicated and simple accompaniment wasn’t enough it was soon swallowed by progress.
Renaissance means rebirth, which came from a revival of interests in art and literature. Trumpets changed constantly to expand their sound and accessibility to play. During the Renaissance age, trumpets had the biggest change in the types of trumpets made, the uses for them, and their abilities.
The piano is the most commonly known and most used. The saxophone has the ability to produce a unique sound. The clarinet has a reed connected to the mouthpiece, which the player blows through to create music. The trumpet is another a popular instrument. The trombone is descended from the trumpet that’s with played in bass clef or treble clef. With the larger size the double bass, the player usually has to stand up. The drums include the bass drum, snare drum, and cymbals. Last but not least, it’s good to have a vocalist because songs will sound
The Renaissance period of history occurred during the 15th and 16th centuries. Renaissance in its basic definition means rebirth. According to Merriam Webster, renaissance formally means, “a movement or period of vigorous artistic and intellectual activity” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary). Renaissance is the title given to the period of great change in music and art. The Renaissance period ushered in a culture of music that the public could enjoy. Most importantly it was a period that encouraged musicians and composers to create music and take risks with voices, instruments and notes.
Music has shaped the lives of people throughout history. Even in its earliest forms, music has included use of instruments. One of the oldest musical instruments known is a variation of the flute; the original flute is thought to date back nearly 67,000 years ago. Tonight we are going to move throughout the eras with a history of instrumental music. This concert will begin with the Renaissance Era and continue through time until we have reached modern instrumental music.
The major classes of musical instruments used in the High and Late Renaissance include plucked strings, bowed strings, brass, double reeds, other winds, keyboards, and percussions (McGee, 1985). Lutes, drums, and trumpets were often used, but the instruments that were especially popular during the Renaissance include the bass viol, treble viol, viola, violin, tenor sackbut, cornetto, bass sackbut, curtal, tenor shawm, bass recorder, and harpsichord (McGee, 1985).
The Renaissance means the rebirth of ancient learning. The renaissance can be divided into two parts Early Renaissance (1420-1500) and High Renaissance (1500-1520). The Renaissance era was one of the most productive time periods in history as far as the advancement of music goes. At first it was rigid, structu...
During the middle ages, music was not very unique. A single melody, or plainchant, would be sung to words from the Bible or other religious texts. Songs were also performed at castles and marketplaces by composer-poets known as minstrels, troubadours, and trouveres. Composers included the German nun Hildegard von Bingen and the popular French trouvere Blondel de Nesle (Novak). Music either associated with the king and nobles, or it was composed for religious reasons. It was a very limited amount of creativity, only singing about heroism and nobility. Music in France had been influenced by many other European countries. They all shared the same style during that time. The instruments that were used during this time period, included wind, string, and percussion instruments.
Since the early sixteenth century, the Island music scene was greatly influenced by the Spanish presence, which included a variety of European extraction with instruments including drums, harp, bells, the guitar and harpsichord, among others. Religious ceremonies introduced for the decade of 1670 an organist and choirmaster, which were part of religious services of the ‘Cathedral of San Juan.’
Music throughout the ages has changed dramatically. Starting in the Medieval period, from 400-1475, music was in the form of what is called the Gregorian chant. Instruments were very rarely used at this time. Since songs during this period were either troubadour or trouvere these chants had no real harmony. One example of this type of medieval composition is “Viderunt Omnes” by Leoninus. Like most Gregorian chants the texture of this piece is monophonic and polyphonic. “Viderunt Omnes” is a typical Gregorian chant in that it uses diatonic, not chromatic notes of the scale. Musical compositions during the Medieval period was made mostly by members of the church for the church. It was and is a very slow and steady movement that was meant to create a feeling of peace for worship purposes.
This initiated the Renaissance Era in Europe, as these luxury items attracted more people to Europe, bringing about remarkable economic development, especially in regards to overseas trade. The Renaissance Era was a time in which Europe rebirthed, in a sense. They made lots of advancements in sciences and mathematics, art and culture was revived.
In fact it would be more suiting if the Renaissance would be known as an era of invention and reinvention. They perfected many things that had already been discussed and perhaps attempted to create before. For instance they took the medieval garden designs and just altered them a little. Instead of using man made walls they just tweaked that though a little bit and started using nature. So they broke down these big walls that were surrounding the gardens and this gave them more room to create their gardens. A hedge wall in fact surrounded many of the gardens so they still were using that enclosure technique but just modified. Another invention that you see them using is the water piping that Roman’s created. Although it is now a little more advanced this creation helped them in the invention of the
The concert was officially launched with the first piece of the “Water Music” suite which was a mix of horns and strings (Handel, 1886). Musically, the crescendo and the tuning were odd as both the horns and the trumpets were played in unison. The strings produced French tunes and linked with the soft solos from the conductor. Although the uniformity of the two sounds was marred by the bursting brass, it was still an intimate and festive atmosphere. From a musical perspective, the major elements such as tempo, dynamics, color and rhythm were all clearly audible during the performance by the Le Concert
Additionally, it should also be remembered that the Renaissance was a time of exploration and great change in practice. Many of the values held by musicians today were introduced or further developed during