The Renaissance And Renaissance In Music

The Renaissance and Baroque eras played a very important role in today’s music. The Renaissance was also known as the “awakening” or like many scholars call it the “rebirth,” The Renaissance era was both a change in the culture and society but most importantly also in music and its form. The Renaissance era took place in Europe during the 14th-17th Century. During this period many people started to question many things in society they didn’t believe many thing they had been told or they didn’t understand why they had to do certain thing without any explanation. As far in music many people did not know how to read music and at this time also instrument were being introduced to music. The ability to read music, or to sing was considered a privilege, and only those of royalty took great pride in those abilities. In the baroque era in music spanning from the 1600’s to mid 1700’s is known as the age of Absolutism. The word baroque comes from the Portuguese language, and originally was used to describe something in a negative way. For example, composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau described it as “Baroque music is that in which harmony is confused, charged with modulations and dissonances, the melody are harsh, the intonation difficult and the movement horrible.” These two eras have been the backbone of what 20th Century music is composed, and has been a journey through vocal and instrumental music throughout the 15th, 16th, and 17th century (Bonds).
The development of the style of music during the renaissance can be traced back to the genres of importance to the music composers of that time. Sacred vocal music in the 15th century had two genres known as the Mass and motet the composers of this time cultivated these genres intensely. The ...

... middle of paper ...

...f only two octaves and required much work using both hands doing completely different things. The clavicord eveled in the 15th century and the harpsichord also emerged in the late 14th century and smaller varieties emerged later. The stringed instruments in the renaissance era consisted of the lute, which is a pear shaped instrument and a backwards peg box, was the most common plucked string instrument. The vihuela and guitar that originated in Spain, the cittern and orpharion had a flat back. The mandora and mandolin were also popular. Viola and Violin families also played a huge role in the renaissance when they emerged in the late 15th century The Shawm and the crumhorn remain the principle double-reed instruments throughout the renaissance. Also the slide trumpet and many other brass instruments came to life and were started to be used even more (Bonds 144-147).