Music in the Renaissance Era

1420-1600

Part V: Instrumental Music in the 1500s

Treatises• practical– in vernacular for amateur or pro

Michael Praetorius:Syntagma musicum

Sebastian Virdung:Musica getutscht

Instrumental Families

• 1500s– 1st lasting tradition of

written, polyphonic instrumental music

– composers didn’t specify instruments

– consort—ensemble from same family

– listen to many of the instruments in this unit on the following link:• Medieval and Renaissanc

e Instruments

wind and percussion

• new instruments:

• many of the same instruments from the Middle Ages, including recorders, transverse flute, shawms, cornets, trumpets

sackbut crumhorn

plucked strings

Spanish vihuelalute: most popular household instrument

bowed strings

• viol/viola da gamba: tuned in 4ths (3rd in middle); frets

• violin—bowed, fretless, 5ths

clavichordpractice instrumentextremely quietsmall dynamic changesstrings activated by small metal rods (tangents)limited range (compass)

harpsichord (virginal, clavecin, clavicembalo)key moves plectrum that plucks a metal stringsolo instrumentensemble instrumentreplaced lute as common domestic instrumentkeyboard registers—sets of strings

organeach rank of pipes contains all the notes of the keyboardstops—knob or lever controlling a rank of pipes2, 3, or more manuals (keyboards), pedal boardby end of Baroque, organs in many churchescontinuo instrument in sacred musicsmaller organs in homes

composers often did not specify which instruments to use

KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS

•stylized• for playing or listening• for solo lute or keyboard

basse danse (low dance)—stately couples dance

branle gay—lively, triple time dance pairs—slow then fast (e.g. pavane and galliard )

Instrumental Dance Music

•functional• for dancing

• each dance has its own meter, tempo, rhythmic pattern, and form

•intabulations—lute and keyboard arrangements of vocal music• Luis de Narváez

• arrangement of Mille regretz, originally by Josquin•organists improvised/composed works based on melodies•organists played traditionally vocal parts of the mass•instrumentalists played polyphonic vocal works with singers or with other instruments•variations• theme with an uninterrupted series of variants on that theme• composed by English virginalists (keyboard composers):

Instrumental Music Based on Vocal Music

William Byrd Pavana Lachrymae

John Bull Orlando Gibbons

•organist•fantasia, ricercar, toccata, partita• improvisatory• virtuoso figuration• contrasting passages w/counterpoint or sustained chords• through-composed• Toccata no. 3• Ricercare from Fiori Musicali

Astract Instrumental Works in ItalyGiovanni and Andrea Gabrieli

•Girolamo Frescobaldi—(1583-1643)

•Both Gabrielis:• (polychoral motets)• works for groups of instruments• Giovanni Gabrieli:

• Canzon septimi toni a 8, from Sacrae symphoniae (ensemble canzona)

• In Excelsiis (Sacred Concerto)•Giovanni:• sonata—work to be played on 1 or more

instruments• designated instruments and dynamics

St. Mark’s (Basilica San Marco) in Venice