G-Renaissance - Cardset 7 - Composers

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GUILLAUME DUFAY
1397-1474

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1.Widely acknowledged during his lifetime as the leading composer of his day.
2.His musical output embodies the transition from medieval to Renaissance style.
3.The evolution of Dufay’s style from late Medieval to early Renaissance may be most clearly seen in his motets and masses. Dufay’s motet ‘Nuper rosarum flores’ –CD2/18 score p.57 text 114, is a highly representative work of his style, written to commemorate the new dome of the Cathedral of Florence. The motet is filled with number symbolism referencing the dimesions of the Cathedral Dome, is isorhythmic (looking back in a traditional way) but is full of what would be called root position triads. Duo sections use the intervals of 3rd, 6th and 10th.

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JOHANNES OCKEGHEM – 1410-97

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1.A composer who used the idea of canonic writing to great extent.
2.His Missa Prolationem cd2/40 Kyrie I is written in double-canons in each movement. Only 2 of the 4 voices are notated. The other voices are derived by moving at different ‘prolations’ (different meters – but not notated differently – players had to be able to subtract values by thirds mentally as they performed the work).
3.Ockegham’s fascination with canon and other elaborate structural devices is typical of the Franco-Flemish composers who flourished in the late 15th and 16th centuries.
4.It must be noted that this complexity is not readily apparent to the ear just as isorhythm is not.

Missa Prolationem cd2/40 Kyrie I.

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JOSQUIN DES PREZ
1450-1521

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1.Josquin is regarded by his contemporaries as one of the greatest composers of his time, one whose reputation endured well past his death.
2.Martin Luther admired his music and 30 years after his death theorists and pedagogues were still recommending his work as a model for aspiring young composers.
3.A highly competent individual and very self-confident, he was well-aware of his talents.
4.He was attached to the court of the powerful d’Este family of Ferrara and was also a member of the Chapel Choir of the King of Anjou, and in the employ for a while of Cardinal Sforza in the Ducal Chapel of Milan and in Rome, a member of the Papal Chapel.
5.He was highly successful in his early career and throughout his life.
6.He is perhaps the first of the Great Western Music Composers.
7.Josquin wrote in every vocal genre of his time, some 18 masses and 6 individual mass mvmts. He wrote almost 100 motets and about 70 chasons.
8.Josquin lived during a transitional stage in music history. Musical styles were changing rapidly, in part due to the movement of musicians between different regions of Europe. Many northern musicians moved to Italy, the heart of the Renaissance, attracted by the Italian nobility's patronage of the arts; while in Italy, these composers were influenced by the native Italian styles, and often brought those ideas with them back to their homelands. The sinuous musical lines of the Ockeghem generation, the contrapuntal complexity of the Netherlanders, and the homophonic textures of the Italian lauda and secular music began to merge into a unified style; indeed Josquin was to be the leading figure in this musical process, which eventually resulted in the formation of an international musical language, of which the most famous composers included Palestrina, and Lassus.
9.His motet ‘Ave Maria…serena virgo’ is one of the most famous and widely admired works of his lifetime.
AVE MARIA…VIRGO SERENA 2/26 s62 t117

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GIOVANNI GABRIELI (1553 – 1612)

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In 1585 received permanent employment as organist at The Basilica* of St. Mark in Venice. The most important characteristic of Giovanni’s work is that of ‘chori spezzati’ =
'separated choirs' (antiphonal placement which utilized the acoustics of the Basilica), and the support of voices by instruments. His output in the instrumental area take the form of canzonas (Chansons for instruments), sonatas (the word only indicates an instrumental work and is virtually indistinguishable from the Canzona), sacred solo organ works, ricercars (precursor to fugue), and fantasies. He was the most prolific composer of instrumental music during his era..
Many of his instrumental works are innovative as are the 14 canzoni and 2 sonate in the volume of 'Sacrae symphoniae' published in 1597. The term sonata indictates merely that the composition is for instruments. 'Sonata pian e forte' is one of the first compositions in which specific instrumentation is designated and is the earliest known ensemble work in which dynamic contrasts are notated. The eight-voice composition is for two choirs (Coro I = cornetto and 3 trombones, Coro II = 1 violino and 3 trombones. Modern practice has excluded the cornetto and violino and added trumpets.

*a basilica is a designation for an important church building. A basilica is designated by the pope to buildings that carry special spiritual, historical, and architectural significance. Once a basilica -- always a basilica. A basilica may or may not also be the cathedral of the diocese. Basilica derives from a style of church based on the old roman basilicas which were houses of Law.

A cathedral is a church which holds a bishop's throne (called cathedra). It means it is the central church of his diocese. A cathedral may or may not be a basilica. It is the home church for the bishop or archbishop of a Catholic diocese. If the residence or 'See' of the bishop should change and no other Bishop is installed, the cathedral becomes a church.