Chapter Two Outline: “Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Music”

 

Why is history important to the study of music?

            Music represents the times in which it was created

            Awareness of the cultural, economic, religious, technological and political factors that influence the creation of music will help one understand that music

 

Periods of Western classical music

Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern

Why use these terms if there is disagreement?

Musical styles are meaningful to listeners, and each historical period does include meaningful stylistic features.

 

 

Stylistic Periods of Music

 

Medieval Music: a very large group of musical styles developed over centuries

 

            Gregorian chant: an important sacred genre of unaccompanied vocal music

                        Dies Irae: attributed to the 13th-century Thomas of Celano

                                    Monophonic, often quoted by later composers

            Motet: a vocal genre that originated in elaborations upon chant

                        Lasse! Comment oublieray…: Guillaume de Machaut

                                    Polyphonic and polytextual; a secular work for connoisseurs

 

Renaissance Music:  different from art and literature of the period due to lack of knowledge about Greco-Roman music; thus, Renaissance music is a birth of a new style, rather than a rebirth of an old one

 

            Josquin de Prez: famous 15th-century musical counterpart to Renaissance painters, sculptors, and architects

Missa L’homme Armé super voces musicales

                                    Polyphonic but uses a single, widely known text

Vocal parts share some music as well as words, written as a whole

Based on a cantus firmus: a preexisting melody used as the foundation

 

            Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: successful in reconciling functional and aesthetic demands in Catholic church music; known for his pure but complex music that sets text with care

                        Sicut cervus: a motet, sung a cappella

 

Baroque Music: strong emphasis on the direct communication of emotion

 

            Audiences: few public concerts, so most music was heard at home or in church services

            Instruments: many are unfamiliar (e.g., serpent), others have changed (e.g., trumpet); ensembles were also smaller and featured unusual instrument combinations

            Style: strong contrasts in form, dynamics, timbre, or texture; counterpoint common; lively, stable rhythms; rich harmony featuring basso continuo

            Basso continuo: an instrumental bass line that harmonizes a melody using a melodic instrument and a harmonic instrument

 

            Claudio Monteverdi: important 16th-/17th-century Italian composer; especially well known for operas, sacred music, and 9 books of madrigals

                        Io son pur vezzosetta: trio texture, vocal chamber music, complex interaction between the two voices and between each and the bass, expressively emotional volta

 

            J.S. Bach: outstanding performer and composer in whom emotion, intellect,  inventiveness, and technical mastery are perfectly balanced.

Mass in B minor: contains a wide variety of styles, but Bach only sets the musical portions of the Ordinary; styles are tailored to the text

            Not intended for use in a religious service, but a monumental summation of Bach’s work and of the Baroque movement itself