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Thesis about renaissance music
Characteristics of music in the renaissance
About the baroque
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According to Greenberg (2009), the musical Renaissance by estimation began around 1400 and ended in 1600, marked by the first opera that was historically recorded which is used to begin the Baroque era. The Baroque era spans from 1600-1750 with Sebastian Bach’s death marking its end. As discussed by Greenberg (2009), the Renaissance saw many changes and advancements over a two hundred year span of evolution in music. The intellectual and social trends strayed from the absolute power of the church and secular music became admired and composed for the beauty of its art. Renaissance composers developed a more expressive style by clearly articulating lyrics “musica reservata” and a process called word painting or tone painting which reflected …show more content…
Renaissance instrumental music which was composed for dances and harmony producing instruments was normally composed just for that purpose. Baroque instrumentation was cultivated as an art form that equaled vocal music and was composed to be just that, instrumental. According to Greenberg (2011), Lutheranism influenced Latin to gradually be replaced by vernacular language in church which had a profound impact on Protestant church music. Because of the nature of the German language and its unique syllabic accentuation, it did not translate well from the more melismatic language of Italian; it was not used as a language musically until the Protestant reformation. Baroque sacred music diversified through Protestant Europe and Catholic Europe each being perceived differently, spiritually and …show more content…
Typically, Renaissance sacred music is; rhythmically moderate, melodically plain (similar to a plainchant) and lacking embellishment, the polyphony “mellifluous and homogeneous with a marked lack of chromaticism and dissonance” and scored for vocals only. The Baroque is substantially different: rhythm of dance music, melodic melodies are long and ornate; Polyphony and harmony full of “chromaticism and dissonance, driving each phrase forward in search of consonance and resolution”; and scored for both vocals and many instruments. The Baroque sacred music expresses itself in its sacred music as much as it’s secular music; “The nature of the religiosity is one of unrestrained joy and celebration, and the emotional impact is almost physical in its energy and exuberance” (Greenberg,
With the rejection of complicated Baroque style of music, the classical era came about. The idea of simpler music would appeal to a broader audience, thus making the classical era more popular. The change was not sudden; rather, the Rococo style was like a transition period. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was an important character in the changing of styles. The Rococo style was known as an expressive or sensitive style. Baroque music usually remained in the same mood throughout a piece, whereas this new style would sometimes change moods abruptly with highly contrasting ideas. The use of ornaments in music gradually went out with the complicated baroque music. Simpler, more original melodies emerged with this new style. During the Baroque era, instrumental music and vocal music were equally important. This contrasts the Classical era where instrumental music was more prominent than vocal.
A comparison of two major Baroque composers: Claudio Monteverdi and Domenico Scarlatti The purpose of this paper is to analyze two psalms by Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (1567-1643) and Giovanni Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) and compare and contrast the two pieces to find out how music changed throughout the Baroque period.
In the Baroque period, the performance venue usually was within churches and courts. These locations were not built to suit instrumental performances, and were more of just a venue to perform more than a designed venue like there is in the 21st century. Starting...
“For over one thousand years the official music of the Roman Catholic church had been Gregorian Chant, which consists of melody set to sacred Latin texts and sung without accompaniment” (Kamien 67). The credit for developing Gregorian chant music, also known as plain...
John Warrack, author of 6 Great Composers, stated, “Any study of a composer, however brief, must have as its only purpose encouragement of the reader to greater enjoyment of the music” (Warrack, p.2). The composers and musicians of the Renaissance period need to be discussed and studied so that listeners, performers, and readers can appreciate and understand the beginnings of music theory and form. The reader can also understand the driving force of the composer, whether sacred or secular, popularity or religious growth. To begin understanding music composition one must begin at the birth, or rebirth of music and the composers who created the great change.
The Baroque style of music was in prominence from the beginning of the 17th century until the mid-18th century. Some primary features of this style, particularly in the later years, include an emphasis on polyphonic textures and a continuity throughout the entire piece. Most compositions were created for specific events and sometimes written for particular instruments. (Kamien, 2015). The Trumpet Concerto for 2 Trumpets, composed by Antonio Vivaldi, is one example of these late Baroque style compositions and one we can use to analyze: the common elements, the overall effect, and the composer’s possible perspective.
The Baroque era presented music that experimented with different textures and harmonies. Composers of this era had a way of intertwining old and new styles. Composers were given the option of constructing an acapella or concerto scoring. The concerto scoring could be enhanced with independent instrumental parts that worked to complement instead of double the
From the Early Renaissance to the High Renaissance, there was a movement from vocal music to a combination of vocal and instrumental music (Brown, 1976). There are seven categories of instrumental music: 1) vocal music played by instruments, 2) settings of pre-existing melodies, 3) variation sets, 4) ricercars, fantasias, and canzonas, 5) preludes, preambles, and toccatas for solo instruments, 6) dance music, and 7) songs composed specifically for lute and solo voice (Brown, 1976). Italy dominated the stage for instrumental music at this time, and it was not until the last decades of the sixteenth century that English instrumental music became popular (Brow...
The Baroque time was filled with musical geniuses. People like Franz Josef Haydn, George Frideric Handel, and Claudio Monteverdi. All of these people were amazing when holding an instrument, sitting at a piano, or writing on manuscript paper, but the finished products were and always will be superb. Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi were among these musical prodigies.
Baroque music is characterized by its development of tonality, elaborate use of ornamentation, application of figured bass, and the expression of single affections. A considerable philosophical current that shaped baroque music is the interest in Renaissance ideas that spawn from ancient Greece and Rome. Ancient Greeks and Romans considered music to be an instrument of communication that could easily stimulate any emotion in its listeners. Therefore, musicians became progressively knowledgeable of the power one’s composition could have on its audiences’ emotions. Because of this, one of the primary goals of baroque art and music was to provoke emotion in the listener, which is closely connected to the “doctrine of affections”. This doctrine, derived from ancient theories of rhetoric and oratory, was the theory that a single piece of art or a single movement of music should express one single emotion. Intrinsically, instead of music reflecting the emotions, composers aspired to cause emotions in the listener. Ma...
...nt ideas were practiced. These differences in faith are shown through the music because in Play of Virtues the message is teaching about good and evil and is very god fearing. In “Sing Joyfully” the music is more about praising and being alive which reflects that period of individualism and a sense of redefining oneself and letting go of the harsh rules they used to follow. The differences in these pieces of music allow us to look back on society and see how far it has grown and changed since then. The transition from the strict and limited views of the Middle Ages to the open and thriving society during the renaissance has led to more transitions into societies that value creativity, expression, and a mixture of cultures. The influences from these previous eras and their cultural contributions helped to create the vast and amazing music we are able to have today.
Introduction The world is changing and so is the style of music. Often people who do not have any musical background might think that classical music is boring and only for more mature audiences. In fact, the sales of traditional Western classical music albums are decreasing and many symphony orchestras and operas are struggling to find endowments and audiences. It is considered that classical music today occupies a position similar to that of religion, as a form of art rather than entertainment or just a background noise (Johnson, 2002). Unlike popular music, classical music may be more sophisticated and complex in its form.
The baroque period was known for its “unity of mood” and lasted from 1600 to 1750. The classical period was known as the “age of enlightenment” and lasted from 1750 to 1820. Music in the baroque period was composed to order for specific events and important dates while music in the classical period was created for freelance musicians. Rhythm between both periods differs greatly, in the baroque period the rhythm was steady, regular, and constant, while in the classical period the rhythm provided variety and contrast with its unexpected pauses and frequent changes between notes. Dynamics between both periods are vastly different as well, during the baroque period the dynamics would change suddenly rather than gradually and during the classical period they could change either gradually or suddenly. Tone color of the baroque period consisted of the use of the basso continuo, however, in the classical period, the basso continuo ended and instead, wind and brass instruments were used to provide contrast. Melodies of the baroque period were often complex and hard to remember, unlike the classical period where they were the melodies were tuneful and easy to remember. In both, the harmonies were based on major and minor scales, however, in the classical period dissonance was used to provide
Introduction: The Baroque era was the building stone for the neo-classical and the rococo period. That made it to a developing style after reformations occurred and views changed. The Baroque style, which was an emphasized movement and always part of a renaissance, developed during the 16th century in Rome, Italy, and travelled later to France. Nevertheless, the Italian Baroque and the French Baroque are not comparable.
Around 1630, a new artistic movement, known as Baroque, was quickly spreading throughout Europe. Bach and Handel are the two most famous composers of the Baroque era. “The drama in their music, the contrasts between soft and strong, chorus and solo, voices and instruments, are all typical of the Baroque style.” In 1708, Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Saxe-Weimer appointed Bach as the court organist and chamber musician. Bach did most of his composing while he...