Renaissance Music Influence

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Plato once said this, “Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the

mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” Throughout

history, music has widely developed and has brought its listeners to experience despair, awe,

rage, or pure joy by the joining together of single notes to create complex masterpieces.

Hundreds even thousands of instruments exist, each part of a family according to their sound or

the way in which their sound emanates. Instruments alone do not produce music; it also flows

from the mouths of humans. It can be heard as winds rustle through trees and as waves roll

across oceans. Music created during the Middle Ages significantly impacted the world and

produced
…show more content…
The Renaissance period was so widely recognized, it is not surprising it has greatly

influenced our world today. “In modern Western culture, music is often defined as the art of

feeling or the language of the soul. This conception of music has its origins in the musical

humanism of the Renaissance, whose influence on musical thought was as enduring as it was

widespread” (www2.warwick.ac.uk/). In order to greatly appreciate music during the

Renaissance period, it is important to look at the impact it had on the world as it is known today.

Renaissance humanism helped develop music as a communicative art and linked music and

thoughts. A music style during this period called Ars subtilior, extremely complex music, was

not matched until the twentieth century, during which time orchestral pieces were composed on a

much more difficult level. The Play of Daniel, a liturgical drama in the thirteenth century, was

recreated modernly in 1958. Composed music was often completed orally with no place to write

it down; this made it hard to understand medieval music. “What does remain has been

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