Hwm- New Currents In The Sixteenth Century- 07

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Franco-Flemish Generation

Back 1

1. Trends
a) Between 1520 & 1550 the dominant Franco-Flemish style underwent a
transformation - partly because northerners working in Italy & Germany
assimilated the musical idioms of their adopted countries
b) Instrumental music increased in both importance & production
(1) affected by musicians' migrations
(2) affected by the changing character of vocal music
c) Church music changed more gradually
(1) Some composers returned to the continual contrapuntal style of Ockeghem
(2) But the canons and similar devices of the older school were almost completely
abandoned
(3) Imitation Mass gradually replaced the Cantus Firmus mass of the older school
(4) Chant melodies were more freely treated and still served as subjects for
Masses
(5) Masses & motets were being written for 4, 5, or 6 voices rather than 4

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Composers

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a) Nicolas Gombert
(1) Exemplified the northern motet style of 1520-1550
(2) Thought to have been a student of Josquin
b) Jocobus Clemens (ca. 1510-ca.1556)
c) Adrian Willaert (ca. 1490-1562)
(1) A pioneer in bringing text and music into closer rapport
i) first to insist that syllables be printed under their notes
ii) that scrupulous attention be paid t the stresses of Latin pronunciation
(2) Experiments in chromaticism & rhythm were on the cutting edge of new
developments
(3) Of the Franco-Flemish composers of his generation he was the most affected
by the humanist movement & Italian musical practice
(4) Captured the essence of a Mode
i) how to preserve modality which was being undermined by musica ficta was
a problem faced by early Renaissance composer
ii) they saw the modes as a link between the Christian tradition and the
emotional effects of ancient music
(5) Taught Andrea Gabrieli (ca. 1553-1612) while director of music at St. Mark's in
Venice

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The Rise of National Styles

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1. Italy
a) Trends
(1) National styles would eventually rise to prominence and eventually transform
the prevailing style
(2) By late 16th century Italy had replaced France & the Low Countries as the
center of European musical life - and would last for almost 200 yrs
(3) But each country also continued to develop a national style of its own
(4) Early madrigals were social music - written & sung for the enjoyment of the
performers - not concert pieces for presentation

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Italian Genres: Frottola

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i) background
a- essentially a tune for singing the poetry, marking the end of each line with
a cadence and usually two long notes, with the lower parts providing a
harmonic foundation
b- florished in the late 15th & early 16th centuries it was a generic term that
included a variety of poetic types
c- a four part strophic song that was set syllabically and homophonically,
melody in the upper voice, marked rhythmic patterns, & simple diatonic
harmonies
d- important as a forerunner of the Italian Madrigal and subtle influence on
the French chanson appearing in the 1520's
ii) music/text
a- usually the upper voice was sung and the other parts played
instrumentally
b- neither popular or "folk" despite simple music and earthy/satirical texts -
flourished in princely Italian courts

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Italian Genres: Lauda

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i) Italian or Latin texts set in four parts with the melodies taken from secular
songs
ii) religious counterpart to the Frottola, a popular nonliturgical devotional song
iii) commonly sung in semi-devotional gatherings
iv) sung either a cappella or with instruments playing the 3 lower voices

Front 6

Italian Genres: Madrigal

Background

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a- the most important genre of Italian secular music in the 16th century and
made Italy the leader in European music for the first time in its history
b- Madrigal composers aimed both to match the seriousness, nobility, and
artfulness of the poetry and to convey its ideas, images and passions to
their performers and audience
c- like the frottola, a generic term that included a variety of poetic types
d- earliest madrigals resembled the frottola in texture - mostly homophonic
with leisurely cadences at the line endings

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Italian Madrigal: Music

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a- a piece of vocal chamber music intended for performance with one singer
to a part - often though instruments would double or replace a voice
b- no refrains or any other features of the old formes fixes
c- rather composer made up new music suited to the rhythm and sense of
the words for every line of poetry - through-composed
d- how to preserve modality which was being undermined by musica ficta
was a problem faced by early Renaissance composer

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Italian Madrigal: text

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a- poetry was more elevated and serious than the frottola with many texts
written my major poets
i- Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374), Pietro Bembo, Jocopo Sannazaro
(1457-1530), Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533), Torquato Tasso (1544
-1595), Giovanni Batista Guarini (1538-1612)
b- in contrast to the fratolla, the Madrigal dealt much more freely with the
verses, using a variety of homophonic and contrapuntal textures in a
series of overlapping sections - each based on a single phrase of the text
c- texts consisted of a single stanza with a free rhyme scheme, moderate
number of 7 & 11 syllable lines (hendecasyllabic)
d- subject matter was sentimental or erotic with scenes and allusions
borrowed from pastoral poetry
e- usually had an epigrammatic (witty) ending that served as a climax in the
last line or two

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Italian Madrigal: Petrarchan Movement

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a- The rise of the Madrigal was inseparably bound up with the currents of
taste in Italian Poetry
b- Led by Cardinal Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) there was a return to the
sonnets and canzoni of Petrarch (1304-1374) and the ideals embodied in
his works
c- Bembo discovered a music of vowels, consonants, & sounding syllables
that could inspire composers to imitate these effects in their counterpoint
d- rhythm, distance of rhyme, number of syllables per line, patterns of
accents, lengths of syllables, & sound quality of vowels and consonants
all contributed to making a verse either pleasing or severe - composers
became sensitive to these values
e- Madrigal composers favored the sonnet because it contained no internal
repetition, and progressed toward a climax & resolution

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Other Italian Secular Vocal Genres

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(1) Villanella
i) also called canzon villanesca (peasant song)
ii) first appeared in the 1540's and flourished in the Neapolitan area
iii) use of parallel fifths, lively strophic piece in the homophonic style, 3 voice
parts
iv) over time grew to resemble the madrigal so much that it lost its identity
(2) Canzonetta (little song) & Balletto
i) homophonic style, clear distinct harmonies, evenly phrased sections - often
repeated
ii) the balletto was intended for dancing as well as singing & playing -
identifiable by the "fa-la-la" refrains

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Chromaticism

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(1) Composers began to explore the chromatic scale partly to revive the chromatic
& enharmonic genera of Greek music
i) through half step motion
ii) excursions out of the mode
(2) Nicola Vicentino was the most influential experimenter
i) L'antica musica redotta alla moderna prattica (1555) this treatise proposed
such a revival of Greek music
ii) designed an arciembalo & arciaorgano to perform such music which were
impossible to play on standard keyboard instruments
(3) Chromatic notation which came into fashion around middle of the 16th century
was simply writing music in 4/4 time instead of the older alle breve style (cut
time)
i) the resulting increase in solid noteheads gave the notation it's name -
chromatic - that is colored or "a note nere" (in black notes)

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Early Madrigal Composers

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a) Philipe Verdelot (ca. 1480-1545)
(1) see a transition in his madrigals to the motet like texture of frequent imitation,
varying voice groupings, & overlapping parts at cadences
b) Bernardo Pisano (1490-1548)
c) Francesco de Layolle (1492-ca. 1540)
d) Costanzo Festa (1490-ca. 1540)
(1) one of few Italian members of the Papal Chapel in the early 16th century
(2) one of few Italians to compete with northern emigre composers
e) Adrian Willaert - exemplifies the Petrarchan Movement's treatment of words &
music
f) Jacques Arcadelt (ca. 1505-ca. 1568)
(1) for a time the head of the Pope's chapel
(2) Il bianco e dolce cigno - work illustrates a transitional style
i) mainly homophonic motion and square rhythms ally to the frottola &
chanson
ii) but first 3 lines do not follow the structure of the poem
iii) preserves the syntax and meaning
g) Cipriano de Rore (1516-1565) - exemplifies the Petrarchan Movement's treatment
of words & music

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Later Madrigalist

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a) the leading madrigalists toward the end of the 16th century were Italians
b) Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594)
(1) most important as a church composer
(2) equally at home with the madrigal, chanson, & lied
c) Philippe de Monte (1521-1603)
(1) productive in both sacred & secular domains
(2) worked under the Hapsburg Emperors in Vienna & Prague
d) Giaches de Wert (1535-1596)
(1) born near Antwerp, but spent almost entire life in Italy
(2) continued to develop the madrigal composition begun by Rore
e) Luca Marenzio (1553-1599)
(1) favored pastoral poetry
(2) most celebrated madrigal is Solo e pensoso on Petrarch's sonnet
f) Carlo Gesualdo (ca. 1561-1613)
(1) came under the influence of Luzzasco Luzzaschi (1545-1607) who improvised
on Vecentino's chromatic-enharmonic arcicembalo and a specially built
enharmonic organ
(2) Gesualdo's chromaticism was a deeply moving response to the text
g) Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1605)
(1) his compositions made the crucial stylistic transition from the polyphonic vocal
ensemble to the instrumentally accompanied solo and duet
(2) his first five books of madrigals (1587-1605) are monuments in the history of
the polyphonic madrigal
(3) his compositions indicate that Monteverdi was moving swiftly toward a new
idiom
i) many of the musical motives are not melodic but declamatory - in the
manner of the later recitative
ii) the texture often departs from the medium of equal voices and becomes a
duet over a harmonically supporting bass
iii) ornamental dissonances and embellishments - previously occurring only in
improvisation were written into the score

Front 14

Secular Songs outside Italy

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a) France
(1) French composers of the early 16th century continued to write Masses &
motets in a modified version of the prevailing style

Front 15

Parisian Chanson

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i) during the reign of Francis I (1515-1547) composers working in and around
Paris developed a type of chanson called the "Parisian chanson" - more
distinctively national in both poetry & music
a- a light, fast, strongly rhythmic song for four voices
b- text in any number of verse forms, was set syllabically with many
repeated notes
i- favored subjects were situations that allowed for double meaning
ii- though serious texts were occasionally chosen
c- mostly in duple meter
d- texture was largely homophonic with short points of imitations
e- principal melody was in the highest voice
f- form was distinct short sections repeated to provide an easily grasped
pattern (aabc or abca)

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Principal Composers of Chanson

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a- Claudin de Sermsy (ca. 1490-1562)
b- Clèment Janequin (ca. 1485-1560)
iii) hundreds of chanson transcriptions were published during the 16th century
in France & Italy

Front 17

Music Publishers

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i) between 1528 & 1552 Pierre Attaingnant (1494-1551) the first French
music publisher brought out more than fifty collections of such chansons
ii) Jacques Moderne in Lyons
iii) Tilman Susato in Antwerp
a- focused on Franco-Flemish composers
b- published Gombert, Clemens, Pierre de Manchicourt, & Thomas
Crecquillon

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Later Franco-Flemish Chanson

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i) the polyphonic tradition remained alive longest in the north as exemplified
by the Dutch composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621)
ii) In France the tradition was modified by a lively interest in the Italian
madrigal
iii) Orlando Lasso (1532-1594) influenced by the Italian Madrigal his musical
personality impressed itself on the chanson as it did on every other type of
vocal composition

Front 19

Musique Mesurés

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i) reflected the treatment of rhythm by the members of Acadèmie de Poèsie et
de Musique
ii) poet Antonine de Baïf wrote strophic French verses in ancient Greek &
Latin meters (vers mesurès à l'antique) - the classical long & short syllables
rather than the modern stress accent
iii) since French lacked any consistant distinction between long and short
vowels theorists of vers mesurèe assisgned them durations and composers
set them accordingly
iv) leading exponent was Claude Le Jeune (1528-1600)
v) too artificial to endure for long but musique mesurèe did introduce irregular
meters into the air de cour (dominant French vocal music after about 1580)

Front 20

Germany

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(1) Secular polyphony developed later in Germany than the rest of Europe
(2) monophonic art of the Minnesinger flourished in German courts through the
1300's, that of the Meistersinger in cities & towns from about 1450 throughout
the 1500's - with Franco-Flemish music appearing about 1530

Front 21

The Lied

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i) a distinctive type of German polyphonic song blending traditional German
songs with Franco-Flemish contrapuntal technique
ii) Lied Composers
a- Heinrich Isaac (1450-1517)
b- Heinrich Finck (1445-1527)
c- Paul Hafhaimer (1459-1537)
d- Ludwig Senfl (ca. 1486-1542/43)
i- German text
ii- but full-fledged motets of the northern type

Front 22

Major Composers

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i) Orlando de Lasso (1532-1594)
ii) Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612) greatest German composer of the late 16th
century

Front 23

Spain

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1) By late 15th century the works of Burgundian and Franco-Flemish composers
were known in Spain while a national school of polyphonic composition was
growing
(2) Villancico
i) Villancico was the principal genre of secular polyphony
ii) Spanish equivalent of the Italian frottola
(3) Juan del Encina (1469-1529) was the principal poet & composer of the early
16th century

Front 24

Eastern Europe

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(1) late medieval & Renaissance music reflected musical developments in
western Europe
i) Catholic Church music of the two areas had a common basis in Western
Chant
ii) foreign elements mixed with native popular traditions - i.e. adapted
vernacular texts to melodies of sequences, tropes, & liturgical dramas
iii) western European composers serving at eastern European royal courts
iv) local musicians trained in Germany, France, or Italy

Front 25

Eastern Composers

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i) Nicholas of Radom (fl. 1420-1440) was among first to use term faux
bourdon
ii) Waclaw of Szamotul (ca.1520-ca.1567) & Jacob Handl (1550-1591)
leading composers of Catholic Church music

Front 26

England

Back 26

(1) The golden age of secular part song came to England later than the continent
(2) The English Madrigal
i) this and other transcriptions in the next decade gave impetus to a period of
English madrigal compositions which flourished from the 1590's-1630's
ii) Nicholas Youge published Musica transalpina in 1588 - a collection of
Italian madrigals (translated into English)
iii) Madrigals, ballets, and canzonets were all written primarily for ensembles
of unaccompanied voices - and the ablility to read a vocal or instrumental
part in such pieces was expected of educated persons in Elizabethan
England

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English Composers

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a- Thomas Morley (1557-1602)
i- Most prolific of these three
ii- wrote light madrigals as well as balletts & canzonets
iii- published The Triumphs of Oriana - the long lines of music are never
obscured
a- highlighted the difference between English & Italian madrigal
b- the overall musical structure in the English madrigal received
greater attention
b- Thomas Weelkes (ca.1575-1623)
c- John Wilbye (1574-1638

Front 28

English Lute Songs

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i) the solo song with lute & viol accompaniment became popular in England
with the decline of the madrigal during the early 1600's
a- lute accompaniments always carefully subordinate to the voice
b- they have a certain rhythmic & melodic independence
c- lute & voice parts usually printed on the same page in vertical alignments
(to allow singers to accompany themselves)
d- 3 part alternative versions contained in some collections with lute part
written for 3 voices
e- 4 part alternative versions could be performed by voice, instruments, or
both
ii) the madrigal and air were indebted to foreign models
iii) consort songs came out of a native English tradition of singing solos or
duets to a consort (ensemble) of viols

Front 29

Composers

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a- John Dowland (1562-1626)-produced Second Booke of Ayres (1600)
b- Thomas Campion (1567-1620)

Front 30

Summary

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a) During the last decades of the century, composers found new ways to express
intense passions and the conceits of modern poetry
(1) the generation of Heinrich Issac & Josquin des Prez reached a height of
technical perfection in the a cappella meduium
(2) Northern composers such as Gombert, Clemens, Mouton, and Senfl
consolidated that technique
(3) Willaert & Arcadelt did likewise but the spirit of Humanism drove them to seek
a closer rapport between music & text
(4) Vicentino, Rore, & Lasso (pupils of Wallaert & their contemporaries) continued
to seek a close music/text bond
i) but did tilt the balance toward the expression of a poems varied feelings &
images
ii) losing a certain cohesion and homgenity of style
b) Most characteristic genre to emerge from the widespread cultivation of vocal music
in the British Isles was the lute & consort song

Front 31

Instrumental Summary

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1. The Rise of Instrumental Music
a) Between 1450 & 1550 distinct styles, genres, and forms of instrumental music
emerged
(1) earlier most that survive are keyboard transcriptions
(2) but seeming increase starting around 1450 meant that it was finally be written
down
i) prior parts were memorized or improvised
ii) vocal part music was often performed instrumentally or voice & instrumental
combinations
iii) later performer embellishments were still improvised however

Front 32

Books on Instruments

Back 32

a) Publications that describe instruments or give playing instructions manifest the
16th century growing regard for instrumental music
(1) showed problems with pitch, temperament, & tuning
(2) about the art of embellishing a melodic line
b) First was Musica getutscht und ausgezogen (A summary of the Science of Music) -
in German, (1511)
c) The second volume (1618) of Syntagma musicum (A Systematic Treatise of Music)
by Michael Praetorius contains descriptions and woodcuts of the instrumets then
in use
(1) instruments were built in sets or families
i) uniform timbre was available from soprano to bass
ii) complete set (called a "chest or consort") consisted of 4 - 7 instruments
(2) most of the winds had a softer sound than their modern counterparts

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Principal Instruments

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(1) winds
i) shawms, krummhorn, korholt, rauschpfeife, tranverse flutes, cornetts,
trumpets, sackbuts
(2) strings
i) viols differed from the modern in tuning, a fretted neck, 6 strings rather than
4
ii) viola di gamba was held between legs, viola di braccio played on the arm
(3) organ
i) by 1500 the large church organ was similar in essentials to modern
example
ii) portative organ (medieval) had gone out of fashion but the positve organs
had reed pipes and a quiet strident tone
(4) keyboards
i) clavichord
a- essentially a solo instrument suitable for small rooms
b- metal tanget struck strings and remained in contact with it
ii) harpsichord
a- served both solo and ensemble playing in spaces of moderate size
b- used a quill to pluck the string
(5) lute
i) most popular household instrument of the Renaissance
ii) built in various sizes, some with costly materials
iii) fretted instrument (leather frets)
iv) tablature was a special notation developed for the lute - showed finger
position rather than pitch - also used for viols & keyboard instruments

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Relation of Instrumental to Vocal Music

Back 34

a) At opening of the 16th century, instrumental music was still closely associated -
both in style & performance - with vocal music
(1) a large proportion of solo & ensemble instrumental music derived from vocal
music
(2) but increasingly composers began to write for instruments - if not always for
specific instruments
b) Instrumental Arrangements
(1) ensembles of instruments read from the vocal parts performing the work
polyphonically - often adding their own embellishments
(2) This music (printed in great quantities in the 16th century) was often
characterized "for singing & playing"
c) Polyphonic Elaborations of Chant or Secular Melodies
(1) trend started by John Taverner (ca. 1490-1545) when he made an
instrumental arrangement the passage "in nomine Domini" from the
Benedictus of his mass "Gloria tibi Trinitas"
(2) his arrangement follows the vocal parts note for note - others used the "in
nomine" cantus firmus as a theme for creative elaboration
(3) Organ pieces on liturgical or other cantus firmus were also written as
independent works
i) analogous to vocal cantus firmus motets or mass movements
ii) short organ pieces based on chant melodies were called verses or versets -
sometimes replacing portions of the service normally sung

Front 35

Compositions Modeled on Vocal Genres: canzona

Back 35

(1) the Canzona
i) began as an instrumental composition in the style of the French chanson
ii) became the leading genre of contrapuntal music in the late 16th century
iii) Ensemble canzona appeared around 1580 and eventually developed into
the sonata da chiesa (church sonata) of the 17th century
a- essential step in this development was the division of the canzona into
more or less distinctive sections
b- themes of contrasting character, each theme worked out in turn - effect of
contrasting sections

Front 36

Sonata

Back 36

i) the Venetian sonata of late 1500's - the sacred version of the canzona
consisted of a series of sections
a- based on a different subject
b- variation of single subject
ii) Sonata pian' e forte (Giovanni Gabrieli ca. 1557-1612) was among first
instrumental pieces to specify specific instruments in the printed parts - also
among first indicating piano or forte

Front 37

Preludes and Other introductory pieces

Back 37

(1) Compositions that resemble improvisations are earliest specimens of music for
solo players
i) Appeared under various names - prelude, preambulaum, fantasia, or
ricercare
ii) Not based on any preexisting melody, unfold freely, often rambling, varying
textures, & without adhering to any definite meter or form
(2) Toccata was the chief form of keyboard music in an improvisatory style
(3) Ricercare consisted of successive themes without marked individuality or
contrast - each developed in imitation and overlapping with the next at the
cadence (in effect a textless imitative motet)

Front 38

Dance Music

Back 38

(1) Social dancing was widespread and highly regarded in the Renaissance
i) people of breeding were expected to be expert dancers
ii) considerable percentage of 16th century instrumental music consisted of
dance pieces for lute, keyboard, or ensembles
(2) Dances were commonly grouped in pairs or threes and these sets (precursors
of the later dance suites) consisted of stylized dances rather than music for
dancing
(3) Written dance music tells us much about improvisatory practice
i) ornamented a given melodic line
ii) added one or more contrapuntal parts to a given melody
(4) Forms
i) Allemande - came into favor in the middle of the 16th century - in moderate
duple meter & retained in stylized form in later dance suites
ii) Courante - fast, flowing triple meter also retained in later dance suites
iii) Basse danse - courtly dance improvised over a borrowed tenor

Front 39

Variations

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g) Variations
(1) composed or improvised performance over an ostinato pattern
(2) over standard treble airs - many folk tunes of the time also served as subjects
(3) enjoyed an extraordinary flowering in the late 16th century among a group of
English keyboard composers called "virginalists"

Front 40

Composers

Back 40

i) William Byrd (1543-1623)
ii) John Bull (ca. 1562-1628)
iii) Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)
iv) Thomas Tomkins (1572-1652)
(5) Keyboard collections began with the Mulliner Book (ca. 1540-1585) - most
comprehensive is the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (1609-1619)
(6) Use of the 6 notes of the hexachord (ut, re, me, fa, sol,la) for counterpoints

Front 41

Summary

Back 41

1. Instrumental music evolved out of the vocal dominated oral tradition
2. Dance music dominated but by end of century many other independent instrumental
genres could be distinguished by their function and procedures
a) first identified with a particular instrument they spread to other instruments & to
ensembles
b) i.e. toccata, ricercare, prelude, fantasia, canzona, sonata, and sets of variations
3. Around 1600, English lute and keyboard composers took the lead in instrumental
writing