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Chapter 6
The Renaissance
New Attitudes
Key Terms
Renaissance
Paraphrase
Hymn
Mass
Chansons
Renaissance Timeline
The Renaissance
French word meaning “rebirth”
Refers to 15th and 16th centuries
Revival of ancient Greek and Roman
culture, especially in arts and sciences
New ideals and values focus on human
experience and perception
• Observation the basis of scientific method
• Sensory experience guided the arts
New Attitudes
Humanism
• Focus on human life and experience slowly
replaced focus on religious doctrine, afterlife
Exploration
• Voyages of discovery and conquest by
Columbus, Magellan, and others
Classicism
• “Rediscovery” of language, literature, art,
philosophy, and architecture of ancient Greece
and Rome
New Attitudes
Reformation
• Power of Catholic Church shaken by Martin
Luther, Jean Calvin, King Henry VIII, et al.
The printing press
• Gutenberg invented movable type c. 1450
• Incalculable effect on literacy and education
Art
• Golden age: Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Titian,
Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, da Vinci
• Inspired by the ancients, artists depicted their
world with a new realism
New Attitudes
Music
• Favors beautiful, a cappella sonorities
• Consonant harmonies prevail, dissonances
carefully controlled
• Varied textures mix imitative polyphony and
homophony
• Increasingly attempts to express human
feelings
Middle Ages vs. Renaissance
Compare Machaut’s “Quant en moy” with
Palestrina’s Pope Marcellus Mass
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Pitch and melody
Harmony
Scale, key and mode
Rhythm and tempo
Dynamics
Texture
Tone color
Middle Ages vs. Renaissance
Compared with Machaut, Palestrina’s:
• Melodies are simpler, more singable
• Harmonies are richer, more beautiful
• Modes are similar, but he creates greater
stability and clear sense of direction
• Rhythms are simpler, following the words
• Varied textures create different weights
• Textures mix homophony and polyphony
• Rich tone color features six voices a cappella
Paraphrase
Pre-existing tunes in medieval organum often
distorted beyond recognition
Renaissance paraphrase technique values
melodic character of borrowed material
• Chant melody given specific meter & rhythms
• Melody embellished with extra notes
• Emphasis on sensuous aspect of chant
Early Homophony
Paraphrased melodies emphasized, placed
in the top voice
Melody supported by polyphonic voices
But these voices move together with
melody, creating simple chords
Result sounds less polyphonic, more
homophonic (melody & accompaniment)
Plainchant harmonization emphasizes
sonorous effect of rich chords
Dufay, “Ave maris stella”
Based on plainchant hymn
Strophic form
Odd verses sung as chant
Even verses use
paraphrase of chant melody
Even verses also add
simple chordal
accompaniment
(homophonic setting)
Simple, smooth, gracious
harmonization of hymn