History of Renaissance Era of Music

• introduction
• composers
• see also:
  • History of Music
  • History of Medieval Era of Music
  • History of Baroque Era of Music
  • History of the Classical Period of Music
  • History of the Romantic Era of Music

Introduction:

• in music parlance, Renaissance era covers that between medieval and baroque (ie. early 15thC to early 17thC)
• new instruments:
  • harpsichord:
    • a mechanised form of the medieval plucked string instrument, the psaltery
    • developed during 15thC, earliest surviving example was made in 1521, but has been referenced as a clavicimbalum as early as 1404
    • the virginal, a plucked keyboard instrument, was developed in 1460
    • the spinet was in use from late 15thC to end of 18thC
  • viol - developed 2nd half of 15thC and used mainly for courtly music, but superseded by violin family
  • violin family:
    • viola da gamba (leg viols):
      • violoncello (cello) - early 16thC
      • double bass - 16thC
    • viola da braccio (arm viols):
      • viola
      • violin:
        • 3 string early 16thC
        • 4 string mid 16thC:
          • for dancing rather than courtly music
          • perfected by Andrea Amati of Cremona ~1560
          • further developed by Stradivari
  • lira family:
    • lira da braccio (offshoot of fiddle)
      • evolved 2nd half of 15thC
      • 7 string including 2 drones, played against shoulder like a violin (eg. Leonardo da Vinci played it)
    • lira da gamba (lirone)
      • a combination of bass viol & lira da braccio, held between knees, used in court entertainments 1550-1650
  • spanish guitar (vihuela de mano) - 16thC
  • flageolet
    • late 16thC instrument - end-blown flute type with 4 finger holes & 2 thumb holes
  • cornett - hybrid brass mouthpiece, woodwind finger technique peak use 1500-1600 (cw cornet, 1st used in orchestra in 1829)
• new music styles:
  • motet:
    • sometimes called Cantiones Sacrae
    • a form of short unaccompanied choral composition which was used from 13thC-15thC as exclusively sacred music, reached its apogee as a sacred composition in 16thC with the madrigal as its secular counterpart, and superseded the conductus form.
    • master composers were Machaut, Despres, Ockeghem, Palestrina, Victoria, Morales, Tallis, Byrd, Bull & Taverner.
    • Du Fay introduced secular melodies as the cantus firmus of the motet
  • madrigal:
    • vocal composition of Italian origin for several voices usually unaccompanied
    • texts usually secular (amorous, satirical, or allegorical)
    • 1st sung in 13thC, it was revived in a different style in 16thC by Italian composers (Donati, Marenzio, Gesualdo, Monteverdi) and Flemish (Arcadelt, Verdelot, Willaert)
    • superseded by cantata in 17thC
  • new modes, creating our major & minor scales:
    • Swiss monk, Henry of Glarus (Henricus Glareanus) in 1547 published book called Dodecachordon which espoused that there should be 12 modes and not 8 as had been the case for 1,000yrs since Pope Gregory, leading to our current major & minor scales
  • reformist hymnals:
    • sacred songs composed for the congregation to sing not just choirs
    • Martin Luther (early 16thC)
    • English psalmody from 1562
    • American psalmody from 1640
  • English country dance (contredanse):
    • popular in Elizabethan courts
  • la folia:
    • a type of wild Portugese dance (eg. Corelli's)

Composers:

• Byrd, William (1543-1623):
  • English composer
• Monteverdi, Claudio (1567-1643):
  • Italian composer, organist & viol player
• Allegri, Gregorio (1582-1652):
  • Italian priest, composer, singer
  • composed the celebrated Miserere in 9 parts which was kept exclusively in Sistine Chapel until Mozart wrote it out after hearing it.

THE RENAISSANCE

• The term renaissance is of a relatively recent date:
• in his Histoire de France, 'History of France', the French writer Jules Michelet coined the word renaissance', lit. 'rebirth', to denote a period from roughly 1450-1600, known as the quattrocento (the 1400s) and cinquecento (the 1500s)

Humanism

• Humanism, a term which usually goes hand-in-hand with the term 'renaissance', is this new emphasis on human instead of spiritual, as it supposedly was during the Middle Ages
• The idea of humanism also implied the supposed 'revival' of ancient Greek culture and its 'spirit', which were 'born  again' in Italy and its culture, arts, music, and literature
• Humanism is often associated with another supposedly ancient Greek idea, that of Classicism, i.e. 'classical' understanding of form, balance, symmetry

Patronage

• Sponsors of arts and music:
• Secular rulers, such as princes and other famous and rich Italian falimiles
• The Medici in Florence
• The Este in Ferrara
• The Sforza in Milan
• The Gonzaga in Mantua
• And religious dignitaries, including popes and cardinals, including the members of the powerful Medici family, such as Lorenzo de' Medici
• Like the chapels established by several dukes at the duchy of Burgundy in the 15th century, these sponsors promoted arts and music in their own chapels, at cathedrals, at their residences and courts
• Isabella d'Este, a member of the Ferrara Este family, became wife of Marchese Francesco II Gonzaga, from Mantua, thus combining two powerful family lineages in one person -- she was known for her patronage of arts and music

The 16th Century International Style

• Italian sponsors and their lavish patronage of arts attracted many northern composers from Flanders and the Low Countries, bringing the international style, begun a century earlier, to its peak
• until 1550, it was the northerners who dominated Italian music
• In Rome, the Papal chapel becomes a musical center which attracts many skilful musicians and composers, both Italian and foreign, from the north of Europe
• In Venice, the Church of St. Mark becomes another famous musical center in which many famous names of the time worked as music directors or cantors




---


Optional

Music Printing

• around 1450, Johann Gutenberg developed printing in Europe basing on the Chinese movable type of printing
• around 1473, the Gutenberg printing was used for publishing the first editions of liturgical books with plainchant
• 1501, Ottaviano Petrucci (1466-1539) printed in Venice the first volumes of polyphonic music
• about 1520, John Rastell prints music in London
• 1528, Pierre Attaingnant prints music in Paris
• 1534, music printing began in Germany
• 1538, music printing began in the Netherlands
• The main printing centers in Europe were: Venice, Rome, Nuremberg, Paris, London, Louvain, Antwerp
• The use of printed music scores and part-books influenced the way composers wrote their polyphonic music and constructed harmonies between the voices
• 1577, the earliest ensemble music scores appeared

 
Important for Class Discussion:  Think how this impact of printing on music production might have irreversibly influenced the uniformity of music and making of virtually endless number of copies of the same piece.  This obviously affected improvisation and 'freedom' to change music.  One might possibly relate this universal acceptance of printing in European music to Charlemagne's suppression of the Gallican Chant and imposition of the Roman Chant as the official and uniform chanting style in his kingdom.

Music Theory

• Rebirth of interest in ancient Greek ideas of ethos in music
• Plato's Republic and Laws
• Aristotle's Politics
• Rebirth of interest in other ancient Greek theoreticians such as Ptolemey, Euclid, Pythagoras
• Translation into Latin of ancient Greek theories on music
• The renaissance theoreticians assumed that the ancient Greek Modes, the tonoi, and the Medieval Chruch Modes were identical, and that
• both types of modes had the same emotional and ethical powers and effects

Music Theoreticians

1. Johannes Tinctoris (ca. 1435 - ca. 1511)
• Liber de arte contrapuncti, 'A Book on the Art of Counterpoint', 1477
• In this treatise, the Flemish theoretician Tinctoris, who in the 1470s settled in Naples, wrote instructions on the 15th century counterpoint, contrapunctus, i.e. polyphonic treatment of voices
• Tinctoris defined, delineated, and set strict rules on consonance and dissonance
• Tincoris' rules were further developed by later Italian theoreticians, and finally sinthetsized by Zarlino (see below)
 
2. Franchino Gaffurio (1451-1522)
• Theorica musicae, 'Theory of Music', 1492
• Practica musicae, 'The Practice of Music', 1496
• De harmonia musicorum instrumentorum opus, 'A Work On the Harmony of Musical Instruments', 1518
 
3. Heinrich Glareanus (1488-1563)
• Dodekachordon, 'Twelve Strings' ['The Twelve-Stringed Lyre'], 1547
• in this treatise, the Swiss theoretician Glareanus recognized, in addition to the existing eight medieval Church Modes (see above), two more modes: that on A and C, but avoided, like Guido d'Arezzo, the mode on B
• The two modes on A and C, and their plagal pairs are:
• Aeolian, i.e. the 9th mode on finalis A, with its plagal Hypoaeolian or the 10th mode
• Ionian , i.e. the 11th mode on finalis C, with its plagal Hypoionian or the 12th mode
• Glareanus' theory of modes was more in touch with practice than the previous music theory (see, for example, Musica ficta, above)


4. Gioseffo Zarlino (1517-1590)

• Le institutioni harmoniche, 'The Harmonic foundations', 1558
 


---


Your Reading Assignment

Tuning System

• Pythagoreaan tuning
• Just intonation
• Musica ficta

I. THE RENAISSANCE IN THE NORTH: The Netherlands

• 1450-1550: French, Flemish, and Netherlandish composers and their music dominated Europe
• These composers were in the service either of the French king, the pope, or the Holy Roman Emperor the latter might have been either Spanish, German, Bohemian or Austrian
• Also in service of many Italian aristocratic and ruling families in Naples, Florence, Ferrara, Mantua, Modena, Milan, Venice

1. Johannes Ockeghem (c. 1420-1497)

• 1443: a singer in the choir in the cathedral of Antwerp
• the mid 1440s: moves to France to serves Chales I, duke of Bourbon
• 1452: enters the royal chapel in France
• Composed:
• thirteen Masses
• ten motets
• some twenty chansons

Canon

• Mensuration canon

The Mass

• Missa prolationum
• Missa cuiusvis toni
• Ockeghem's Masses are built on cantus firmuses (see above Dufay's Cantus firmus missa), which are drawn either from secular songs or from plainchant melodies

The Chanson

 
• Music Example  -- Chanson (NRAWM CD2:20 [CD1:32])
• D'ung aultre amer, "To love another [man]," by Johannes Ockeghem

The Odhecaton

• c.  1470-1500: the printed anthology of chansons
• 1501: published by Petrucci n Venice, under the title hermonice musices adhecaton, 'One Hundred Songs of Harmonic Music'
• four-voice chansons
• imitative counterpoint
• harmonic structure
• equality of voices
• duple meter

2. Jacob Obrecht (c. 1452-1505)

• a pupil of Ockeghem
• worked in Cambrai, Bruges and Antwerp
• traveled to Italy and worked in Ferarra
• Compositions:
• twenty-nine Masses
• twenty-eight motets
• a number of chansons, songs in Dutch
•  
  • instrumental pieces

  3. Josquin des Prez (c. 1440-1521)

  • the most renown and influential composer of the Franco-Flemish genertation, which included Ockeghem and Obrecht
  • a pupil of Ockeghem
  • 1459-1472: sang in the choir of the cathedral in Milan and then joined the chapel of the Sforza family, and still later the Papal chapel in Rome, also serving at the court in Ferrarad
  • Compositions:
  • eighteen Masses
  • one hundred motets

  seventy secular vocal pieces

  Masses

  • Secular tunes used for cantus firmuses
  • Imitation Mass or Missa parodia, i.e. the 'parody Mass' -- quoting melodies or other technical features of pre-existing works, i.e. 'imitating' the pre-existing work
  • Missa parodia slowly replaced the earlier type of the Cantus firmus missa (see above)
  • the model for Missa parodia was usually a motet or madrigal

  The Chanson

  • blended popular, courtly and countrapuntal elements
  
   
  • Music Example  -- Chanson & Arrangement for vihuela (NRAWM CD2:21, 22 [CD1:33, 34])
  • Mille regretz, "A thousand regrets," by Josquin des Prez and arranged by the Spanish composer Luis de Narváez (1538)

  Motets and Falsobordone

  • influence of Itlian popular music
  • four-part homorhythmic music
  • pairs of voices in imitation
  • homophonic structure
  • falsobordone -- root triads
  • compare this to Dunstables fauxbourdon, in which the thirds and sixths had the major harmonic role instead of the triads
  • homophonic sections made text more understandable
  
   
  • Music Example  -- Motet (NRAWM CD2:23-26 [CD1:35-38])
  • Tu solus, qui facis mirabilia, "You alone, who make wonders," by Josquin des Prez
   
  • Music Example  -- Motet (NRAWM CD2:27-30)
  • De profundis clamavi ad te by Josquin des Prez

  4. Heinrich Isaac (c. 1450-1517)

  • a pupil of Ockeghem
  • wrote chanson-like pieces
  • homophonic chordal style, precursor of the German choral
  
   
  • Music Example  -- Lied (NRAWM CD2:31)
  • Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen, "Innsbruck, I must leave you," by Heinrich Isaac
The Renaissance in Flandria and Italy -- New Trends in the 16th Century

---

Optional

II. THE FRANCO-FLEMISH RENAISSANCE: The first half of the 16th century

• 1520-1550: a style, known as Franco-Flemish Renaissance, dominated European music in this period

1. Nicholas Gombert (c. 1495 - c. 1556)

2. Jacobus Clemens (c. 1510 - c. 1556)

3. Ludwig Senfl (c. 1486 - 1542)

4. Adrian Willaert (c. 1490 - 1562)

---

III.  THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE: The first half of the 16th century

• National styles slowly replace the earlier International Style of the 14-15th c. in Italy, Burgundy, Flanders, Low Countries, France, as well as the 16th century International Style in Italy

The Italian national style

• for the next 200 years, Italy will be the center of European music
• Venice -- The Church of St. Mark
• A chain of teachers-students, all music directors at St. Mark's:
1. Adrian Willaert
2. Andrea Gabrieli (c. 1533 - 1586), student of Willaert
3. Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1533 - 1612), nephew and student of Andrea Gabrieli
4. Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672), student of Giovanni Gabrieli

 
• The main musical forms:
1. Frottola
2. Lauda
3. Madrigal
4. Villanella
5. Canzonetta and Balleto

1.  The Frottola

• Italian strophic solo secular song
• forerunner of the 16th century Italian madrigal (see below)
• the late 15th to the early 16th century
• Pettrucci published 11 collections of frottolas
• homophonic
• syllabic
• four parts
• melody in upper voice
• 1509: Franciscus Bossniensis (Francisco from Bosnia) published large number of frottolas for lute and voice by various composers
• the best known composers of frottola:
• Marco Cara
• Bartolomeo Trombocino (c. 1470 - c. 1535)

Marco Cara (c. 1470 - c. 1525)

• Italian composer of frottola
• frottolas with simple rhythms and simple root chords

 
• Music Example  -- Frotolla (NRAWM CD2:32-38)
• Io non compro più speranza, "I'll buy no more hope," by Marco Cara

2.  The Lauda

• religious polyphonic counterpart to frottola
• popular, non-litrugical devotional song
• Texture: strophic and homophonic
• Text: Italian or Latin
• four parts
• secular melodies
• 1507-1508: Petrucci published 2 books of laudas

3.  The Madrigal

• the 16th century musical form in Italy which resembles 14th century madrigal (see above) only in name
• madrigal were composed to the texts of the famous late 15th and the early 16th century poets and writers, including Petrarca who lived some century and a half earlier:
• Francesco Petrarca (1303-1374)
• Pietro Bembo (1470-1547)
• Jacopo Sannazaro (1457-1530)
• Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533)
• Torquato Tasso (1544-1595)
• Giovanni Guarini (1538-1612)
• as is texts, madrigal used several poetic forms, all of which musically became known as madrigal:
• sonnet
• ballata
• canzona
• other poems
• syllabic lines: 7 or 11 syllables
• Topics:
• sentimental
• erotic
• homophonic and contrapuntal textures
• 1570: professional groups of virtuoso singers are formed
• At this time madrigal appears in plays and other theatrical productions, thus slowly becoming a dramatic form and a precursor of the early opera
• 1520-1550: madrigals set in four voices, one voice per part, becoming a form of chamber music

The Petrarcan Movement

• 1501: Pietro Bembo edited Petrarca's Canzoniere, thus reviving interest in this 14th century poet
• link between music and poetry through such technical literary and musical features as:
• assonance
• piacevolezza: pleasingness
• gravità: severity
• 1520: Pisano published 17 settings of Petrarca's canzones
• 1559: Willaert composed one set of Petrarca's sonnets
• Cipriane de Rore composed 11 madrigals on Perarca's Virgini, invocations to the Virgin Mary that concludes his famous cycle of poems On the Death of madonna Laura -- a woman he was in love with

 

The Madrigal Composers

• Philippe Verdelot (cc. 1480-1545), Franco-Flemish, active in Florence
• Bernardo Pisano (1490-1548), Italian, active in Florence
• Francesco de Layolle (1492 - c. 1540), Italian, active in Florence
• Constanzo Festa (c. 1490 - 1545), Italian, active in Rome
• Jacob or Jacques Arcadelt (c. 1505-1568), see below
• Adrian Willaert (c. 1490 - 1562),  see below

1. Jacob Arcadelt (c. 1505 - c. 1568)

• Flemish, active in Rome and France
• Arcadelt was a transition from the homophonic type of madrigal to a more polyphonic imitative madrigal

 
• Music Example  -- Madrigal (NRAWM CD2:39-41 [CD1:39-41])
• Ahime, dov'è'l bel viso, "Alas, where is the pretty face," by Jacob Arcadelt

2. Adrian Willaert

• Flemish
• music director in the Church of St. Mark, Venice

 
• Music Example  -- Madrigal (NRAWM CD2:42-46)
• Aspro core e selvaggio, "Harsh heart and savage," by Adrian Willaert
• Music analysis:
• Petrarcian moods expressed in music
• Chromaticism

3. Cipriano de Rore (1516-1565)

• Flemish, worked in Italy, in Ferrara and Parma
• briefly succeeded Willaert as music director at St. Maark
• composed music on Petrarcian sonnets
• homophony
• root chords
• shift of tonality

 
• Music Example  -- Madrigal (NRAWM CD2:47-50 [CD1:42-45])
• Datemi pace, o duri miei pensieri, "Give me peace, oh my jarring thoughts," by Cipriano de Rore

Later Madrigalists and Chromaticism

-- The second half of the 16th and the early 17th century

1. Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa (1561-1613)

• Music Example  -- Madrigal (NRAWM CD2:51-53)
• "Io parto" e non più dissi, "'I depart' and I said no more," by Gesualdo da Venosa

 
• Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594)
• Philippe de Monte (1521-1603)
• Luca Marenzio (1553-1599)

2. Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

• born in Cremona
• 1613-1643: Music director at St. Mark , Venice

Monteverdi's Madrigals

• Montevedi's madrigals are collected in eight books
• 1587-1605: the first five books of madrigals published
• smooth continuation of homophony and polyphony
• free use of chromaticism and dissonance
• declamatory sections - precursor of recitative in the early opera
• duets over harmonic base supported by the bass
• ornaments and dissonances are written in the score itself
• On the later concertato style of Monteverdi's madrigals from the Seventh and Eighth Books, see below
 
• Music Example  -- Madrigal (NRAWM CD2:54-58 [CD1:46-50])
• Cruda Amarilli, "Cruel Amaryllis," by Claudio Monteverdi

4. The Villanella

• 1540s: secular part-song
• Napels

5. The Canzonetta and Balletto

• secular 'folksy' songs
• Leading composer:
• Composer:
• Giacomo Gastoldi (d. 1622)
Reformation and Counter-Reformation -- Church Music of the Late Renaissance

I. REFORMATION IN GERMANY: The Emergence of the Protestant Church

• 1517: Martin Luther's reformation of the Church and Christianity

 

---

The Reformation of the 16th century was a movement within Western Christendom to purge the church of medieval abuses and to restore the doctrines and practices that the reformers believed conformed with the Bible and the New Testament model of the church. This led to a breach between the Roman Catholic church and the reformers whose beliefs and practices came to be called Protestantism.
CAUSES
The causal factors involved in the Reformation were complex and interdependent. Precursors of the Reformation proper included the movements founded by John Wycliffe (the Lollards) and John Huss (the Hussites) during the 14th and 15th centuries. These reform groups, however, were localized (in England and Bohemia) and were largely suppressed. Changes in the intellectual and political climate were among the factors that made the reform movement of the 16th century much more formidable.
The cultural Renaissance that occurred during the preceding century and a half was a necessary preliminary, because it raised the level of education, reemphasized the ancient classics, contributed to thought and learning, and offered humanism and rhetoric as an alternative to scholasticism. Especially through its emphasis on the biblical languages and close attention to the literary texts, the Renaissance made possible the biblical exegesis that led to Martin Luther's doctrinal reinterpretation. Moreover, Christian humanists like Desiderius Erasmus criticized ecclesiastical abuses and promoted the study of both the Bible and the church fathers. The invention of printing by Johann Gutenberg provided a powerful instrument for the spread of learning and Reformation ideas.
That grave ills were spreading through the church was already evident at the Fourth Lateran council in 1215, at which Pope Innocent III called for reform. The papacy itself was weakened by its move from Rome to Avignon (1309-77), by the Great Schism of the papacy, which lasted four decades thereafter, and by the doctrine that supreme authority in the church belonged to general councils (conciliarism). The Renaissance popes were notoriously worldly. Abuses such as simony, nepotism, and financial excesses increased. The church was riddled with venality and immorality. The sale of indulgences was a particularly unfortunate practice because it impinged upon true spiritual repentance and improvement of life. At the same time a genuine upsurge of popular religiosity manifested itself and increased the disparity between the people's expectations and the church's ability to satisfy spiritual needs. Some turned to mysticism and inward religion, but the great mass of people were restless and dissatisfied.
A significant political change occurred during the later Middle Ages as well. The Holy Roman Empire, which had lost cohesion partly as a result of its struggle with the papacy in the investiture controversy, was weakened by the growth of virtually independent territorial princedoms and free imperial cities. Externally the empire was weakened by the gradual evolution of the nation-states of modern western Europe. The monarchies in France, England, and, later, Spain were developing dynastic strength and unity that enabled them largely to control the church within their borders.
Economically, the rise of commerce and the shift to a moneyed economy had the effect of creating a stronger middle class in a more urban society. The church met financial difficulty during this time because it had become involved in the manorial economy, possessed landed wealth, and had trouble meeting its many obligations.
DEVELOPMENT
   Luther
The Reformation began in Germany on Oct. 31, 1517, when Martin Luther, an Augustinian university professor at Wittenberg, posted 95 theses inviting debate over the legitimacy of the sale of indulgences. The papacy viewed this as a gesture of rebellion and proceeded to take steps against Luther as a heretic. The German humanists supported Luther's cause during the early years. The reformer's three famous treatises of 1520, An Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation Concerning the Reform of the Christian Estate, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, and On the Freedom of a Christian, also won him powerful popular support. He was excommunicated in 1521, but in April of that year at the Diet at Worms he stood before Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the German princes and refused to recant unless proven wrong by the Bible or by clear reason. He believed that salvation was a free gift to persons through the forgiveness of sins by God's grace alone and received by them through faith in Christ.
Luther was protected by Frederick III, elector of Saxony, and other German princes--partly out of intellectual and religious conviction, partly out of the desire to seize church property, and partly to assert independence of imperial control. In 1530 many princes and cities signed the Augsburg Confession presented at the Diet of Augsburg as an expression of the evangelical faith. After years of conflict the settlement reached in the Peace of Augsburg (1555) provided that each German prince would determine the religious affiliation (Roman Catholic or Lutheran) of the territory he ruled. Lutheranism also became the established religion of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. Apart from the role of the princes, however, the Reformation spread rapidly as a popular movement. It penetrated Poland, Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, and Transylvania.
   Zwingli
The Reformation in Switzerland initially developed in Zurich under the leadership of the priest Ulrich Zwingli. Zwingli had been influenced by Erasmus and by Christian humanism. He arrived at an evangelical understanding of Christianity from his study of the Bible and from contacts with Lutherans. On Jan. 1, 1519, he began a 6-year series of sermons on the New Testament that moved the city council and the people of Zurich toward reform. The favorable response to The Sixty-Seven Articles, which he prepared for public disputation with a papal representative in 1523, proved the popularity of his program. He called for the abolition of the Mass (and its replacement by a symbolic Lord's Supper), independence from episcopal control, and a reform of the city-state in which both priests and Christian magistrates would conform to the will of God. His influence spread to other Swiss cantons such as Basel, Saint Gall, and Bern.
   Calvin
Through Lutheran tracts and merchant missionaries, the evangelical movement spread to France, where it won many converts, among whom was John Calvin. In 1536, Calvin went to Geneva, where a reformation led by Guillaume Farel was well under way. Calvin was persuaded to stay in Geneva and helped organize the second major surge of Protestantism. In his Ordinances of 1541, he gave a new organization to the church consisting of pastors, doctors, elders, and deacons. His Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536) had great influence in France, Scotland (where John Knox carried the Calvinist reformation), and among the puritans in England. Geneva became the center of a great missionary enterprise that reached into France, where the Huguenots became so powerful that a synod met in Paris in 1559 to organize a nationwide church of some 2,000 reformed congregations. As a result of the French Wars of Religion, the Huguenot party was checked and the French monarchy kept the kingdom Catholic. (see Calvinism; Presbyterianism; Reformed churches).
   England
Although England had a religious reform movement influenced by Lutheran ideas, the English Reformation occurred as a direct result of King Henry VIII's efforts to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. The formal break with the papacy was masterminded by Thomas Cromwell, the king's chief minister. Under Cromwell's direction Parliament passed the Act in Restraint of Appeals (to Rome; 1533), followed by the Act of Supremacy (1534) fully defining the royal headship over the church. As archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer annulled Henry's marriage to Catherine, allowing the king to marry Anne Boleyn. Although Henry himself wished to make no doctrinal changes, Cromwell and Cranmer authorized the translation of the Bible into English, and Cranmer was largely responsible for the Book of Common Prayer, adopted under Henry's successor, Edward VI. The gains that Protestantism made under Edward (r. 1547-53) were lost under his Catholic sister Mary I (r. 1553-58). The religious settlement (1559) under Elizabeth I, however, guaranteed the Anglican establishment. (see England, Church of).
   The Radicals
The radicals consisted of a great variety of sectarian groups known as Anabaptists because of their common opposition to infant baptism. The Anabaptist leader Thomas Munzer played a leading role in the Peasants' War (1524-26), which was suppressed with the support of Luther. In Munster, radical Anabaptists established (1533) a short-lived theocracy in which property was held communally. This too was harshly suppressed. The radicals also encompassed evangelical humanists and spiritualists who developed highly individualistic religious philosophies.
RESULTS
An obvious result of the Reformation was the division of Western Christendom into Protestant and Catholic areas. Another result was the development of national churches; these strengthened the growth of modern national states, just as, earlier, growing national consciousness had facilitated the development of the Reformation. The Catholic Counter-Reformation--including the founding of the Jesuits by Ignatius Loyola (sanctioned 1540), the Council of Trent (1545-63), the Inquisition, the Index, and reformed clergy like Charles Borromeo--gave new life to the old church and was in part a result of the Reformation movement. Finally, the Reformation introduced radical change in thought and in ecclesiastical and political organization and thus began many of the trends that are taken to characterize the modern world.
(The Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, 1998)


Lutheran Liturgy

• 1526: Deutsche Messe, the 'German Mass'

The Lutheran Chorale

• Choral or Kirchenlied, the 'church song' -- strophic congregational hymn
• at first sung in unison, later became harmonized or with accompaniment

The Chorale Motet

• Lutheran polyphonic church music

Composers

1. Hans Leo Hassler  (1526-1612)
2. Michael Praetorius (c. 1571-1621)
3. Johann Hermann Schein (1586-1630)

---

Optional

Reformation Outside of Germany

1. France

2. England and the Anglican Church

Reformation and Counter-Reformation -- Church Music of the Late Renaissance -- Continued

II. THE COUNTER-REFORMATION: The Response of the Catholic Church

• The program of internal reforms undertaken by the Catholic Church in response to the Reformation of the Protestant Church that developed and spread in the north
• 1527: the capture and pillage of Rome by Spanish and German mercenaries
• 1534-1549: Pope Paul III, whose secular name was Alessandro Farnese, was the leading advocate of reform

---

General Background - Optional
• Until recently, historians tended to stress the negative elements of Counter-Reformation, such as the Inquisition and the Index of Forbidden Books, and to concentrate their attention on its political and military aspects
• They now show greater appreciation for the high level of spirituality that animated many of its leaders (1998 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia)
• The Counter-Reformation was activist, marked by enthusiasm for the evangelization of newly discovered territories, especially in North and South America; for the establishment of religious schools, where the Jesuits took the lead; and for the organization of works of charity
• Jesuits:
• Pope Paul III approved the organization of a new and the largest Roman Catholic religious order, the Jesuits, also known as the Society of Jesus
• The order of Jesuits was founded by Saint Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556)
• Noted for its discipline, based on the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius, and for its lengthy training period of as much as 15 years, the society is governed by a general who lives in Rome
• This may be compared with a similar lengthy process of training and initiation rituals among the Sufi orders of Turkey
• Jesuits do not wear a special habit and are not subject to local ecclesiastical authority
• Professed members are bound by a vow of obedience to the pope
• The Jesuits began as a group of seven men who as students in Paris took, in 1534, vows of poverty and chastity.  Ordained as priests, they placed themselves at the disposal of the pope, Paul III, who gave formal approval to the society in 1540. In 1541, Ignatius became its first general
• From the first, the Jesuits concentrated on foreign missions, education, and scholarship
• Saint Francis Xavier, one of the original seven, was the first Jesuit to open the East to missionaries
• Matteo Ricci and others followed at the court of China
• Jesuits established missions throughout South America, which, owing to them, will become known as 'Latin' America, and founded a model commune for Paraguayan Indians
• When the Counter-Reformation was launched, the Jesuits weres its driving force
• The English mission, a bold attempt to reclaim England for Catholicism during the reign of Elizabeth I, 1558-1603, was led by Edmund Campion and included the poet Robert Southwell
• Among the Jesuits at that time was John Carroll, who later became the first Catholic bishop in the United States
• In the early 19th century, in the United States, Jesuit schools and universities, such as Georgetown, Fordham, and St. Louis, were opened



The Council of Trent (1545-1563)

• 1545-1563: the 19th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, held in Trent, in northern Italy
• Also known as the Tridentine Council

---

General Background - Optional
• The council met during three separate periods: 1545-1547, 1551-1552, 1562-1563, under the leadership of three different popes: Paul III, Julius III, and Pius IV (1559-1565)
• 1564: All decrees of the Council of Trent were formally confirmed by Pope Pius IV, whose secular name was Giovanni Angelo de'Medici, in his papal bull Benedictus Deus, 'The Blessed God'
• The need for such a council had long been perceived by certain church leaders, but initial attempts to organize it were opposed by Francis I of France, who feared it would strengthen Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and by the popes themselves, who feared a revival of conciliarism
• Conciliarism:
• Conciliarism is both a theory and a movement in the history of the Roman Catholic Church
1. As a theory, it holds that an ecumenical council is superior in authority to the papacy. In this view, the pope is like a constitutional ruler who receives his authority from the entire church membership, and whose decisions may be reviewed by the church community through an ecumenical council.
2. As a movement, conciliarism originated with various canonists of the 12th and 13th centuries and was enunciated by the Council of Constance, 1414-1418. It later appeared in other forms, mostly nationalistic movements such as Gallicanism. Conciliarism was condemned by the First Vatican Council, 1869-1870
• Doctrine:
• The Tridentine Council refused any concessions to the Protestants and, in the process, crystallized and codified Catholic dogma far more than ever before.
• It directly opposed Protestantism by reaffirming the existence of seven sacraments, transubstantiation, purgatory, the necessity of the priesthood, and justification by works as well as by faith. Clerical celibacy and monasticism were maintained, and decrees were issued in favor of the efficacy of relics, indulgences, and the veneration of the Virgin Mary and the saints. Tradition was declared coequal to Scripture as a source of spiritual knowledge, and the sole right of the church to interpret the Bible was asserted (1998 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia)
• The council also took steps to reform many of the major abuses within the Church that had partly incited the Reformation:
• Decrees were issued requiring episcopal residence and a limitation on the plurality of benefices, and movements were instigated to reform certain monastic orders and to provide for the education of the clergy through the creation of a seminary in every diocese (1998 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia)
• Politics and Application:
• Several European monarchs kept their distance from the council's decrees, only partially enforcing them or, in the case of the French kings, never officially accepting them at all
• The Council of Trent helped, however, to catalyze a movement within the Catholic clergy and laity for widespread religious renewal and reform, a movement that yielded substantial results in the 17th century (1998 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia)

---

• The Council's Decrees on Music:
• Complaints by some delegates that the Mass was profaned, with secular cantus firmuses or chansons
• Complicated polyphony which obstructed the smooth understanding of liturgical texts
• The Council did not make any major pronouncements on music, nor did it ban it, so that its rules remained rather general (see vignette in Grout and Palisca 1996:250)

---

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525/6-1594)

• born in a small town Palestrina, nearby Rome
• 1551: choirmaster of the Capella Giuilia at the Basilica of St. Peter, Rome (today Vatican)
• Palestrina's patron was Pope Julius III, one of the leaders of the Counter-Reformation and the Tridentine Council (see above)
• Also was a teacher at a newly founded Jesuit Seminary, in Rome
• Palestrina supervised the revision of the official chant book, the Graduale, after the Council of Trent
• 1614: The Graduale was completed and published, twenty years after Palestrina's death, and it remained in use until 1908, when it was published by the monks of the monastery of Solesmes, France, and accepted by Rome as as the definitive Vatican Edition

 
• Compositions:
• 104 Masses
• about 250 Motets
• many Liturgical Compositions
• some 50 Spiritual Madrigals with Italian texts
• some 100 Secular Madrigals

 

Stile da Palestrina -- The Palestrina Style

• According to Grout and Palisca, Palestrina "captured the essence of the sober, conservative aspect of the Counter-Reformation" (1996:251)
• Palestrina's style became the standard for writing polyphonic church music
• Palestrina's style was consciously preserved by later musicians who also referred to it as stile antico, 'The Old Style', or as stile grave, 'The Severe Style'
• Contrary to the current practice of the use of chromaticism in the madrigals of Gesualdo da Venosa and Claudio Monteverdi (see above), Palestrina avoided chromaticism, especially in his Masses
• Full triads on each beat
• Diatonic harmonies
• Palestrina's counterpoint, i.e. polyphony, conforms to the teachings of the Willaert school and the theory of Zarlino expressed in his treatise Le insitutioni harmoniche
• Control of Dissonance
• Consonance is the prevalent interval
• Dissonance appears mostly as suspension
• A play of tension and relaxation
• Easy Text Comprehension
• Texture
• six-voice choir:
• Cantus
• Altus
• Tenor I
• Tenor II
• Bassus I
• Bassus II

 
• Music Example  -- Mass (NRAWM CD3:14-18)
• a) Credo from Missa Papae Marcelli, "The Mass of Pope Marcellus," by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
• Music Example  -- Mass (NRAWM CD3:19 [CD2:4])
  • b) Agnus Dei I from Missa Papae Marcelli by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

2. Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611)

• Spanish composer
• Wrote exclusively religious music
• 1565: enrolled in the Jesuit German College in Rome, where he may have studied with Palestrina, who also taught in the same seminary
• 1587: returned to Spain and became the royal chaplain to the Empress Maria

 
• Music Example  -- Motet (NRAWM CD3:20-24)
• a) Motet O magnum misterium, "O, Great Mystery," by Tomás Luis de Victoria

 
• Music Example  -- Mass (NRAWM CD3:20-24)
• b) Kyrie from the Mass O magnum misterium, "O, Great Mystery," by Tomás Luis de Victoria

3. Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594)

• One of the most famous 16th century composers of motets, and with Palestrina the most outstanding composer of religious music in Italy
• Collection of motets Magnum opus musicum, "Great Work of Music," published posthumously by Lasso's son, in 1604
• Under the influence of the Counter-Reformation, Lasso wrote spiritual madrigals

 
• Music Example  -- Motet (NRAWM CD3:25-28 [CD2:5-8])
• Motet Tristis est anima mea, "Sad is My Soul," by Orlando di Lasso
• published in 1565

4.  William Byrd (1543-1623)

• the last of the outstanding 16th century composers of Catholic religious music
• although a Catholic, Byrd became a member of the royal chapel
• Compositions:
• English polyphonic songs
• Keyboard pieces
• Music for the Anglican Church
• Latin Masses and Motets
 
• Music Example  -- Anthem (NRAWM CD3:29-32 [CD2:9-12])
• Anthem Sing Joyfully unto God, by William Byrd

---


Reading

Andrew Davison.  1998.  Secularism and Revivalism in Turkey: A Hermeneutic Reconsideration.  New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

• Chapter One: "Interpreting Alternative Modernities" (pp. 18-50)


Issues Discussed:

• Invention of the Renaissance
• Mythologizing the past
• Secular Modernity
• The Renaissance Neopaganism
• Enlightenment: Fontenelle and Voltaire