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The Age of the Renaissance: New
7 : :
CHAPTER Currents in the Sixteenth Century
INTRODUCTION
In the field of secular vocal music, two notable developments characterized the
latter half of the Renaissance: the rise of a new genre, the Italian madrigal, and
the development of national vocal traditions, most of them popular in orientation.
‘These new national traditions included the French chanson, the Franco-Flemish
chanson, the English madrigal and lute song, and the German Lied. Instrumental
music, which had long flourished in an oral tradition, came to be notated more
frequently in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The surviving sources for
instrumental music fall into five broad categories: dance music, improvisatory
pieces, contrapuntal genres, canzonas and sonatas, and variations.
‘The treatment of vocal music of the second half of the Renaissance is divided
between Chapters 7 and 8. Chapter 7 deals primarily with secular vocal music
(with the exception of a brief discussion of a motet by Willaert and a passing
Mention of Ialian laude), while Chapter 8 centers on sacred composition. In
addition, Chapter 7 surveys instrumental music for the entire Renaissance.
LECTURE OUTLINE: THE ITALIAN MADRIGAL
AND RELATED GENRES
1. The Frottola, NAWM 36
A. Frottole, simple settings of strophic poems with lighthearted or satirical
texts, were popular in Italy in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth
centuries.
B. Despite their unpretentious style, the genre was cultivated particularly at
the sophisticated courts of Ferrara, Urbino, and particularly Mantua, where
the two outstanding composers of the gente, Marco Cara (ca. 1470-ca-
1525) and Bartolomeo Tromboncini (ca. 1470-after 1535), worked.
5960 | Chapter 7
C. The frottola was a simple homophonic song, h tie
voice. Typically four-part and strophic, it has syllabic text Setting, diatonic
harmony, and lively, repetitive rhythms,
D. In addition to its intrinsic charm, the asa forerunner
of the Italian madrigal, and may have influenced the French chanson
E. The sacred lauda was a nonliturgical song similar in Style 0 the frotolg
Il. The Italian Madrigal, NAWM 37-41
A. Social and Literary Context
- The madrigal became the domin:
teenth century; over two. thousan
lished between 1530 and 1600.
with the melody in
Srotiola is importan
ant secular genre in
Htaly in the six.
id collections of mad;
rigals were Pub.
N
apart from (and above) the lig
Pealing to composers was Peti
Sounds of words, and his ability to reinforce the Meaning of the text
through the sonic Qualities of his word choices. (For a Tepresentative
Petrarch text see NAWM 38.)
Other important Poets for madrigal texts included Bembo, Ariosto,
Tasso, and Guarini,
}. Madrigals were initiall
gatherings and at meetings of academies,
- In the late Renaissance, especially in the last Quarter of the sixteenth
century, patrons began to employ Professional singers to perform
madrigals.
In 1580, the concerto including Laura Peverara,
i, and Livia d’ Arco, was formed by Duke Alfonso d’Este
madrigals for the entertainment of the
rarch’s keen, almost musical
s
ly performed by aristocratic amateurs at social
aw
-
~
- The concerto delle donne (women’s ensemble) in Ferrara were imi-
tated by the courts at Mantua and Florence, where similar ensembles
Were organized,
~
a
“veral composers developed Special working relationships with these
ensembles, writing highly Virtuosic, subtle, and sophisticated music
for them.
» Characteristics Of the Italian Madrigal
x
wo
1. Text
‘ Benerally serious in tone, with elevated, elegant language and poetic
conceits
b. themes. Generally sentimental or Pastoral; later, they became mae
Sensuous and erotic, especially toward the end of the Renaissaneyr
yfthe Renaissance: New Currents in the Sixteenth Century | 61
The Age ¢!
¢_ usually relatively short, and cast in a single stanza rather than in a
atrophic form 4
lines of seven and eleven syllables, with free rhyme schemes
>, Musical style
a. Initially four voices
became the typical s
b. All parts were written to be sung, though instruments could replace
or double voices.
cc. Madri were through-composed, with each section of the music
seeking to capture and project the rhythm, accentuation, and meaning
of the words, often through text-painting (madrigalism)
4. Textures alternate between imitative polyphony and homophony
Ul, The Italian Madrigalists
A. Jacob Arcadelt (ca. 1505-1568), NAWM 37
1. A northerner by birth, Arcadelt’s career centered in Venice, at the
papal chapel, and later in France.
2. Arcadelt’s music is considered to be a turning point in the early his-
tory of the madrigal. He combines features of the older frottola—for
instance, predominantly homophonic textures and rather stiff rhythms—
with more forward-looking features, including some imitation, varying
voice groupings, overlapping cadences, and considerable attention to
the accentuation and meaning of the text.
3. Bemard Cirillo, a critic of contemporary church music, praised Arcadelt’s
ability to communicate feeling in his madrigals.
B. Cipriano de Rore (1516-1565), NAWM 39
1. Rore, another northerner, was a student of Willaert, and the leading
madrigalist of his generation.
the norm; after about 1550, five voices
2. His career centered in Naly, mainly at Ferrara and Parma.
3. Rore’s music was admired above all for its emotional immediacy and
expressiveness.
4. Rore’s works inaugurate a new phase in the development of the
madrigal. They display many of the features associated with the
mature madrigal: alternation between homophony and imitative poly-
phony; shifts between duple and triple meter, supple and rhythmically
varied melodic lines, often broken by rests; and juxtaposition of
distantly related harmonies. (For a representative madrigal, see EME,
pp. 266-71.)
C. Other Nontherners
1 In the years after 1550, Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594), Phitippe de
Monte (1521-1603), and Giaches de Wert (1545-1596) con ued the
Tradition of northern-born composers writing influential and widely
disseminated madrigals. Many of the finest composers of the Tate
madrigal, however, were Italians
D. Luca Marenzio (1553-1599)62 | Chapter 7
Marenzio’s career centered in Rome, where he spent time in the
service of several cardinals,
He was ane of the most protific composers of madrigals, publishing
more than four hundred madrigals in at least eighteen collections,
He is known, above all, for his word: painting and ability to create stark
musical contrasts, (For a representative work, see Dolorosi martir, in
MIR, 488-57.)
Nicola Vicentino (IST -ca, 1576) and Luzzasco Luzzaschi (1545-1607)
Vicentino’s career was centered at the court of Fertara, renowned for
the concerto delle donne.
Vicentino experimented with chromaticism, not only penning chromatic
madrigals and designing a chromatic keyboard but also promoting his
theories in a treatise, L’antica musica ridotta alla moderna prattica
(Ancient Music Adapted to Modern Practice, 1555).
Lurzaschi, like Vicentino, worked at Ferrara, and may have studied
with Rore. He also had an interest in chromatic experimentation, but
is best known for his virtuosic madrigals for one, two, and three sopra-
ros, written for the concerto delle donne. These works were the earliest
madrigals to include a part for keyboard accompaniment.
Carlo Gesualdo, prince of Venosa (ca. 1561-1613), NAWM 40
1. Gesualdo, noble by birth, is notorious for having murdered his first
wife. He was particularly active as a composer during his period at the
count of Ferrara
2. Much of his music uses a highly charged harmonic language, featur-
ing juxtapositions of distantly related chords, extreme dissonances,
and striking chromaticism (see NAWM 40).
G. Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), NAWM 41
1 Although bom at the same time as Gesualdo, Monteverdi lived well into
the seventeenth century. His early career was centered at the Gonzaga court
eamee he eventually became chapelmaster, From 1613
F death he w24 mast di cappella at St. Mark's in Venice
eeu oe oks of madrigals provide the final chapter in
approaches, yer ne mabsance Madrigal His music shows a variety of
inetment of sup oo ine chromatic harmonies, dett
finely crafted. declamaty nate. silt imitative writing, amd
3 He defended ths uven cmee forge @ unique madrigal style
(seconde praticay yle by calling it a “Second practice”
ppposed 10 the “first .
Practice” based on the rules of
SINCI Counterpoint codified by Zanting, :
music was the servant of the pactry Se eae
4. Many features of Monteverdi's
the seventeenth century
Jike lines with many 1
ca
m
: tobrphoale madrigals look ahead Ww
OF example, their declamatory, recitative-
fepeated Notes, equal: voice duet tu .
conceived bs ne so we at dca amenThe Age of the Renaissance: New Currents in the Sixteenth Century | 63
IV. Secular Song outside Italy
A, French Chanson, NAWM 42
. In the early sixteenth century,
IY, Composers in Paris developed the
chanson,” whose characteristics include strophic forms; syllabi
declaimed text setting, with the melody in the top voice of
texture; occasional imitation; and short rey
forms such as aabc or abca.
Pierre Attaingnant, the leading chanson
printed about fifteen hundred such works,
- The leading composers of French chansons in Attaingnant's antholo-
gies were Claudin de Sermisy (ca. 1490-1562) and Clément Janequin
(ca. 1485-ca. 1560). Janequin was renowned for descriptive chansons
that imitated bird calls, hunting calls, street cries, or battle sounds.
B. The Later Franco-Flemish Chanson, NAWM 43
- In areas outside Paris, a slightly different style of chanson was cul-
tivated, one that relied more heavily on the traditions of the older
contrapuntal chanson. So-called Franco-Flemish chansons were con-
‘trapuntal, and had fuller textures and more melismas than their Parisian
counterparts.
. Tilman Susato, an Antwerp publisher, played a pivotal role in the
publishing and distribution of this repertory.
. Representative composers of the later chanson include Orlando di
Lasso and Claude Le Jeune (for representative works see NAWM 43
and HAM, No. 145).
C. The English Madrigal and Lute Song, NAWM 44-45
1. Historical background
a. The publication, in 1588, of Nicholas Yonge’s Musica transalpina
(Music from across the Alps), a set of Italian madrigals in English
translation, set off a vogue for madrigal composition that lasted for
nearly forty years.
The English madrigal remained heavily indebted to Italian models,
yet leading composers like Thomas Morley, Thomas Weelkes, and
John Wilbye created a recognizable English style.
¢. Though written for unaccompanied solo voices, many madrigals
were published with title pages suggesting that they were “apt for
voices and viols” and stating that they were performed with various
combinations of voices and string instruments.
2. Thomas Morley (1557-1602)
a. Morley was particularly adept in the lighter secular forms of ballett and
canzonet (based respectively on the Italian balleito and canzonetta).
His ballets are homophonic, dancelike, and built of short sections
with clear repetition schemes. A refrain was often sung on the
syllables fa-la; such sections are found at the end of many English
secular compositions.
“Parisian
ic, quickly
a four-part
peated sections with predictable
R
Publisher of the period,
»
N
s64 | Chapter 7
x
-
w
b. Morley was also the editor of the most renowned collect
English madrigals, The Triumphes of Oriana. This set of twenty.
five madrigals by different composers in honor of Queen Elizabeyh
I (reigned 1558-1603). Each madrigal ends with the words “Long
live fair Oriana,” a reference to the name used to refer to the quees
in pastoral poetry.
Thomas Weelkes (ca. 1575-1623), NAWM 44
|. Weelkes wrote nearly one hundred madrigals, which show considerable
skill in handling imitative counterpoint and word-painting,
His O Care, Thou Wilt Despatch Me (NAWM 44) has many typical
features of the English madrigal: a fa-la refrain at the end, a clear
formal plan (A BBC DD), textural contrasts, and sensitivity to the
declamation of the English text. Weelkes’s individual imprint is
seen in the work's learned imitation in both directions at the opening,
and in the madrigal’s chromatic intensity (e.g., mm. 1-14; 24-42.
or 87-94),
English lute songs, NAWM 45
| After 1600, composers led by John Dowland (1562-1626) and
Thomas Campion (1567-1620) wrote lute songs, solo songs with
lute accompaniment.
. Lute songs typically have carefully constructed melodies to which
the lute accompaniment is distinctly subservient,
They are remarkable for their sensitive treatment of the text, and
tend to shun madrigalism or word-painting.
ion of
s
5
s
2
- German lied, NAWM 35
a. The principal form of German secular song of the Renaissance. the
Polyphonic lied (song), arose from a combination of high and low
styles, mixing the traditions of German popular song and Franco-
Flemish polyphony,
Leading composers of the lied include Ludwig Senfl (ca. 1486-
1542/3), Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612), and Orlando di Lasso.
A familiar tune is usually placed in the tenor or superius and is
Luounded by three other voices in contrapuntal style.
Later lieder, for example, those by Orlando di Lasso, begin to ap-
Proach the structure of the Italian madrigal, with all voices taking
UP phrases of the tune in imitation,
s
°
=
LECTURE OUTLINE: THE RISE OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
1. Historical Background
A. The years between 1450 and 1550
of notated instrumental works,
Saw a dramatic increase in the number
Although dances, military music, andThe Age of the Renaissance: New Currents in the Siteenth Century | 65
popular forms had long been transmitted orally, the increase in notated
music helped to codify a number of distinct styles and genres
‘Two somewhat opposing tendencies governed instrumental composition
in the Renaissance: the tendency to rely on vocal music for large-scale
compositional models, and, at the local level, the development of styles
of writing that were uniquely instrumental in conception,
C. The main instruments of the Renaissance included recorders, shawms (a
double reed similar to the oboe), krummhorns (a capped-reed instru
ment), cornetts (made of wood or ivory with cup-shaped mouthpieces),
trumpets, sackbuts (a precursor of the trombone), viols, lutes, vihuelas (a
Spanish relative of the lute), organs, clavichords, and harpsichords
D. Lute and keyboard music was often notated in tablature, a system of nota-
tion that relied on letters, numbers, or graphic representations to instruct
a player on how to produce a note.
UL Categories of Instrumental Music
A. Dance Music, NAWM 46,
1. Dancing was an important social skill in the Renaissance
Instrumental music for dancing was published in tablature and in
partbooks by many publishers, notably Petrucci and Attaingnant.
3. Dances are generally structurally simple and characterized by clearly
marked phrases, a melody in the top voice, and changing textures in
the supporting voices.
Increasingly, dances became more stylized and complex—designed
more for listening than for dancing.
5. Dances were commonly grouped in pairs (or in threes), with a slow
dance in duple meter typically preceding a fast dance in triple time.
Such pairs included the pavane and galliard in England and France,
and the passamezzo and saltarello in Italy.
6. The allemande and courante appeared in the middle of the sixteenth
century; they would become cornerstones of the Baroque dance suite
Improvisatory Pieces
1. Renaissance performers improvised in several ways: by omamenting
familiar melodies, or by adding contrapuntal parts to existing tunes,
2. Such improvised pieces, and pieces in similar styles, were written
down and titled prelude or fantasia. Such works are free in form and
typically not based on a preexisting melody. ‘The fantasias of Luis
Milin (ca. 1500-ca. 1561) are typival of improvisatory lute pieves of
the period (see CSM, 166-67)
3. The toccata was the chief form of improvisatory keyboard music, The
toccata (from the Malian for “touched") suggests improvisatory finger
work that served as a warmup or introductory piece Such pieces also
bore titles such as fantasia, intonazione, anul prelude. (For 3 keyboard
toccata, see the text, Example 7.9)
C. Contrapuntal Genres
=
»66 | Chapter 7
1. The early ricercare or ricercar (from the Malian for “to seek out”) was a
brief improvisatory lute piece, perhaps intended to test an instrument
its tuning (see EMH, 210).
2. ‘he Heereare was eventually transferred to the keyboard, where it
assumed a different character: keyboard ricercari consisted of a series
of themes, each developed in imitation, similar to a textless motet,
D. Canzona and Sonata
1. The Italian canzona, canzona da sonar (song for playing), or canzona
alla francese (song in the French manner) began, as the names Suggest,
as instrumental versions of the French chanson.
From the chanson composers took the characteristic opening rhythmic
figure (long, short, short), and animated, contrapuntal textures.
. The earliest Italian canzonas are for organ. Later in the sixteenth century,
canzonas for instrumental ensembles appear.
Eventually the canzona became a distinct instrumental genre, quite
independent of its model, the chanson. A key step in this development
was the division of the canzona into contrasting sections, each based
on a separate theme.
The Venetian sonata of the late 1500s resembles a sacred canzona,
with distinct sections, each based on a different theme. Giovanni
Gabrieli (ca. 1557-1612) was a leading composer of this type of
sonata. His Sonata pian’ e forte was one of the first instrumental
Pieces to designate specific instruments and dynamic markings.
E. Variations, NAWM 47
v
*
v
|. Improvisation over repeating bass patterns called ostinato basses
(eg. the passamezzo antico and moderno) and variations on familiar
melodic patterns (e.g., the Romanesca, Ruggiero, and Guardame las
vacas) provided two central models for instrumental variations.
In the late sixteenth century a group of English keyboard composers,
the English virginalists, led by William Byrd, wrote many variation
Sty mostly based on popular melodies having binary (two-part) forms
and clear phrase structures. The most comprehensive source for English
Keyboard music of the period is the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, which
Contains nearly three hundred works,
The variation sets b
broken figuration, el
the melody passes
x
y the virginalists inclu
laboration of the mek
between voices, and vi
ide a variety of techniques:
lody, voice exchange, where
ittuosic passagework.
SUGGESTIONS FOR SUPPLEMENTARY
READING/LISTENING/ACTIVITIES
Jerome Roche’s The Madrigal, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990)
provides a concise and useful introduction to the Senre. A superb introduction toThe Age of the Renaissance: New Currents in the Sixteenth Century | 67
ihe origins and background of the madrigal, including several challenges to received
wisdom, is found in James Haar, “The Early Madrigal: Humanistic Theory in Prac-
tical Guise,” in Essays on Italian Poetry and Music in the Renaissance, 1350-1600
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986), 49-75.
Collected editions of most of the composers mentioned in this chapter are
available; for a bibliography, see HWM, pp. 233-34.
Facsimile partbooks for a large number of Renaissance prints from the Low
Countries, which can be used for class sight-singing or to illustrate the partbook
format, are available in the series Corpus of Early Music (Brussels: Editions
culture et civilisation, 1970). A facsimile of Musica transalpina, also a good
source for class sight-singing from original notation, is published by Da Capo
Press (New York, 1972).
A concise introduction to the place of women in early modern music culture is
given in Laura W. Macy, “Women’s History and Early Music,” in Tess Knighton
and David Fallows, eds., Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Music (New
York: Schirmer Books, 1992), 93-98. This article could serve as a springboard
for a discussion class.
A good source for visual representations of musicians and instruments in the
Renaissance is lan Fenlon, “Music in Italian Renaissance Paintings,” in Tess
Knighton and David Fallows, eds., Companion to Medieval and Renaissance
Music (New York: Schirmer Books, 1992), 189-209.
While the history of the madrigal clearly centered in Italy, pedagogically it may
be beneficial to use an English madrigal to make many points about the general
features of the genre, particularly because text-music relationships are so crucial.
Thomas Weelkes's As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending has become a
standard teaching piece because of its varied textures, extensive use of word-
painting, and melodic grace.
The text presents the history of the madrigal by surveying the works of a large
number of madrigalists. Few classes will have time to study all of these musi-
cians in detail. One possibility is to concentrate on a few composers—for example,
Arcadelt, Rore, and Monteverdi—as representatives of the early, middle, and
later phases of the genre, A second approach is to assign students a single com-
poser to study in detail and have them prepare an oral or written presentation on
their research. Such reports might include a thumbnail biography, a survey of the
°s style, and a treatment of a
single work and the ways in which it typifies (or fails to typify) the composer's
usual style and the style of contemporaneous madrigals.
For the text of Bernard Cirillo’s letter praising the expressivity of Arcadelt’s
Ahime, dov'é ‘I bel viso, NAWM 37, see Gary Tomlinson, ed., Sourve Readings
in Music History, rev. ed., Vol. 3: The Renaissance (New York: W. W. Norton,
1998), pp. 90-94.68 | Chapter 7
showing the poet's keen ear for assonance and
chetypal Petrarch text, showing j $ : the
- ie eres of words, is Aspro core e selvaggio, e cruda voglia, which was set
‘enti by Willaert, NAWM 38. The first two lines make an ideal teaching
example:
Aspro core ¢ selvaggio, e cruda voglia
In dolce, humile, angelica figura
Harsh and savage heart, and a cruel will
ina sweet, humble, angelic face
On early keyboard music see Alexander Silbiger, ed., Keyboard Music before
1700 (New York: Schirmer Books, 1995). Scores for many collections of instru-
mental compositions are found in the Garland series /talian Instrumental Music of
the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries (New York: Garland Publications,
1992-95).
A useful introduction to the inst
with accompanying tecordings,
uments of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
Ages and Renaissance (London :
is David Munrow, Instruments of the Middle
Prepared for class performan
modern edition, publi
lished by Dover, 2 vols. (New York, 1963).
If one of the students plays lute, have hiner d
Alternately, assign a st i
/ : ', perhaps one whose Primary instrument is guitar, to
investigate and report on lute tablature.