The era of the High Renaissance.
(From the history of Italian music since 1500)
The Renaissance is a period of change in all areas of art - painting, architecture, sculpture, music. This period marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity. The period between 1500 and 1600, called the High Renaissance, is the most revolutionary period in the history of European music, the century in which harmony was developed and opera was born.
In the 16th century, music printing first spread; in 1501, the Venetian printer Ottaviano Petrucci published Harmonice Musices Odhecaton, the first major collection of secular music. This was a revolution in the spread of music, and also contributed to the Franco-Flemish style becoming the dominant musical language of Europe in the next century, since, being an Italian, Petrucci mainly included the music of Franco-Flemish composers in his collection. He subsequently published many works by Italian composers, both secular and sacred.
Italy becomes the center for the creation of harpsichords and violins. Many violin-making workshops are opening. One of the first masters was the famous Andrea Amati from Cremona, who laid the foundation for a dynasty of violin makers. He made significant changes to the design of existing violins, which improved the sound and brought it closer to its modern appearance.
Francesco Canova da Milano (1497 - 1543) - an outstanding Italian lutenist and composer of the Renaissance, created Italy's reputation as a country of virtuoso musicians. He is still considered the best lutenist of all time. After the decline of the late Middle Ages, music became an important element of culture.
During the Renaissance, the madrigal reached the pinnacle of its development and became the most popular musical genre of the era. Madrigalists sought to create high art, often using reworked poetry of the great Italian poets of the late Middle Ages: Francesco Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio and others. The most characteristic feature of the madrigal was the absence of strict structural canons; the main principle was the free expression of thoughts and feelings.
Composers such as the Venetian school, Cipriano de Rore, and the French-Flemish school, Roland de Lassus, experimented with increasing chromaticism, harmony, rhythm, texture and other means of musical expression. Their experience will continue and culminate in the Mannerist times of Carlo Gesualdo.
In 1558, Josephfo Zarlino (1517-1590), the greatest music theorist from the time of Aristotle to the Baroque era, created the “Fundamentals of Harmonics”, in this largest creation of musical science of the 16th century, he revived the ancient concept of sounding number, substantiated the theoretical and aesthetic justification of large and small triads. His teaching about music had a significant influence on Western European musical science and formed the basis for numerous later characteristics of major and minor.
The Birth of Opera (Florentine Camerata)
The end of the Renaissance was marked by the most important event in musical history - the birth of opera.
A group of humanists, musicians, and poets gathered in Florence under the patronage of their leader Count Giovanni De Bardi (1534 - 1612). The group was called the "camerata", its main members were Giulio Caccini, Pietro Strozzi, Vincenzo Galilei (father of the astronomer Galileo Galilei), Giloramo Mei, Emilio de Cavalieri and Ottavio Rinuccini in his younger years.
The first documented meeting of the group took place in 1573, and the most active years of the Florentine Camerata were 1577 - 1582.
They believed that music had "gotten bad" and sought to return to the form and style of ancient Greece, believing that the art of music could be improved and that society would improve accordingly. Camerata criticized existing music for its excessive use of polyphony at the expense of text intelligibility and the loss of the poetic component of the work, and proposed the creation of a new musical style in which text in a monodic style was accompanied by instrumental music. Their experiments led to the creation of a new vocal-musical form - recitative, first used by Emilio de Cavalieri, who was subsequently directly related to the development of opera.
At the end of the 16th century, composers began to push the boundaries of Renaissance styles, giving way to the Baroque era with its own characteristics and new discoveries in music. One of them was Claudio Monteverdi.
Monteverdi. Presso in Fiume Tranquillo.
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (05/15/1567 - 11/29/1643) - Italian composer, musician, singer. The most important composer of the Baroque, his works are often seen as revolutionary, marking the transition in music from the Renaissance to the Baroque. He lived in an era of great changes in music and was himself a man who changed it.
Monteverdi.Venite, Venite.
Monteverdi. From the opera "Orpheus"
The first officially recognized opera that meets modern standards was Daphne, first performed in 1598. The authors of Daphne were Jacopo Peri and Jacopo Corsi, libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini. This opera has not survived. The first surviving opera is “Euridice” (1600) by the same authors - Jacopo Peri and Ottavio Rinuccini. This creative union also created many works, most of which are lost.
Jacopo Peri. Tu dormi, e I dolce sonno.
Jacopo Peri. Hor che gli augelli.
Church music of the 16th century.
The 16th century is characterized by a very strong influence of the Catholic Church and its Inquisition on the development of art and science in Europe. In 1545, the Council of Trent met, one of the most important councils in the history of the Catholic Church, the purpose of which was to respond to the Reformation movement. Among other things, church music was discussed at this council.
Some delegates sought to return to single-voice Gregorian chant and exclude counterpoint from the chants; behind the scenes there was already a ban on the use of polyphonic style in sacred music, including almost all sequences. The reason for this position was the belief that polyphonic music, due to contrapuntal interweaving, pushes the text into the background, and the musical euphony of the work is also disturbed.
A special commission was created to resolve the dispute. This commission commissioned Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1514-1594), one of the greatest composers of church music, to create trial masses, taking into account all the requirements of the parties. Palestrina created three six-voice masses, including his most famous "Mass of Pope Marcellus", dedicated to Pope Marcellus II, his patron in his youth. These works had a strong influence on the clergy and put an end to the dispute; protests against the use of counterpoint in church music ceased.
The work of Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina is the pinnacle of the development of contrapuntal sacred music a capella, combining all possible combinations of polyphony and clarity of texts.
Palestrina. Sicut Cervus.
Palestrina. Gloria
Renaissance music, like fine art and literature, returned to the values of ancient culture. She not only delighted the ears, but also had a spiritual and emotional impact on listeners.
Revival of art and science in the XIV-XVI centuries. was an era of great change, marking the transition from a medieval way of life to modernity. Composing and performing music acquired special significance during this period. Humanists who studied the ancient cultures of Greece and Rome declared composing music to be a useful and noble activity. It was believed that every child should learn to sing and master playing musical instruments. For this reason, eminent families welcomed musicians into their homes to give lessons to their children and entertain guests.
Popular tools. In the 16th century new musical instruments appeared. The most popular were those that were easy and simple for music lovers to play, without requiring any special skills. The most common were violas and related plucked flowers. The viola was the forerunner of the violin, and it was easy to play thanks to the frets (wooden strips across the neck) that helped you hit the right notes. The sound of the viola was quiet, but it sounded good in small halls. To the accompaniment of another fretted plucked instrument - the lute - they sang, as they do now with a guitar.
At that time, many people loved to play the recorder, flutes and horns. The most complex music was written for the newly created ones - the harpsichord, virginel (an English harpsichord, distinguished by its small size) and organ. At the same time, the musicians did not forget to compose simpler music that did not require high performing skills. At the same time, changes occurred in musical writing: heavy wooden printing blocks were replaced by movable metal types invented by the Italian Ottaviano Petrucci. Published musical works quickly sold out, and more and more people began to get involved in music.
Musical directions.
New instruments, the printing of music, and the widespread popularity of music contributed to the development of chamber music. As its name implies, it was intended to be played in small halls in front of a small audience. There were several performers, vocal performances predominated, since the art of singing at that time was much more developed than music-making. In addition, humanists argued that the listener is most strongly influenced by the “wonderful fusion” of two arts - music and poetry. Thus, in France, the chanson (multi-voice song) emerged as a genre, and in Italy, the madrigal.
Chansons and madrigals.
Chansons of those years were performed in several voices to touching poems with a wide thematic range - from the sublime theme of love to everyday rural life. Composers composed very simple melodies for poetry. Subsequently, from this tradition a madrigal was born - a work for 4 or 5 voices on a free poetic theme.
Later, already in the 16th century, composers came to the conclusion that the madrigal lacked the depth and power of sound that Ancient Greece and Rome had always strived for, and began to revive ancient musical meters. At the same time, a sharp change in fast and smooth tempos reflected changes in mood and emotional state.
Thus, music began to “paint words” and reflect feelings. For example, an ascending tone could mean a peak (emotion), a descending tone could mean a valley (vale of sadness), a slow tempo could mean sadness, faster tempo and pleasant-to-hear harmonious melodies could mean happiness, and a deliberately long and sharp dissonance could mean grief and suffering. In earlier music harmony and coherence prevailed. Now it was based on polyphony and contrast, reflecting the rich inner world of man. The music became deeper, it acquired a personal character.
Musical accompaniment.
Celebrations and celebrations were a hallmark of the Renaissance. People of that era celebrated everything from saints' days to the arrival of summer. During street processions, musicians and singers read ballads from richly decorated stages on wheels, performed complex madrigals, and performed dramatic performances. The public was especially looking forward to the “living pictures” with musical accompaniment and decorations in the form of a mechanical cloud, from which the deity provided for in the script descended.
At the same time, the most majestic music was composed for the church. By today's standards, the choirs were not so large - from 20 to 30 people, but their voices were amplified by the sound of trombones and trumpets-cornets introduced into the orchestras, and on major holidays (for example, Christmas) singers were gathered from all over the area into one huge choir . Only the Catholic Church believed that music should be simple and understandable, and therefore set the example of the sacred music of Giovanni Palestrina, who wrote short works on spiritual texts. It should be noted that later the maestro himself came under the influence of the expressive and powerful “new” music and began to write monumental and colorful works that required considerable choral singing skills.
During the Renaissance, instrumental music developed widely. Among the main musical instruments are the lute, harp, flute, oboe, trumpet, organs of various types (positives, portables), varieties of harpsichord; The violin was a folk instrument, but with the development of new string instruments such as the viol, the violin became one of the leading musical instruments.
If the mentality of a new era first awakens in poetry and receives brilliant development in architecture and painting, then music, starting with folk songs, permeates all spheres of life. Even church music is now perceived to a greater extent, like paintings by artists on biblical themes, not as something sacred, but something that brings joy and pleasure, which the composers, musicians and choirs themselves cared about.
In a word, as in poetry, in painting, in architecture, a turning point occurred in the development of music, with the development of musical aesthetics and theory, with the creation of new genres, especially synthetic forms of art, such as opera and ballet, which should be perceived as Renaissance, transmitted centuries.
The music of the Netherlands of the 15th - 16th centuries is rich in the names of great composers, among them Josquin Despres (1440 - 1524), about whom Zarlino wrote and who served at the French court, where the Franco-Flemish school developed. It is believed that the highest achievement of Dutch musicians was the a capella choral mass, corresponding to the upward thrust of Gothic cathedrals.
Organ art is developing in Germany. In France, chapels were created at the court and musical festivals were organized. In 1581, Henry III established the position of "Chief Intendant of Music" at court. The first "chief intendant of music" was the Italian violinist Baltazarini de Belgioso, who staged "The Queen's Comedy Ballet", a performance in which music and dance were presented as stage action for the first time. This is how court ballet arose.
Clément Janequin (c. 1475 - c. 1560), an outstanding composer of the French Renaissance, is one of the creators of the polyphonic song genre. These are 4-5-voice works, like fantasy songs. The secular polyphonic song - chanson - became widespread outside France.
In the 16th century, music printing first became widespread. In 1516, Andrea Antico, a Roman-Venetian printer, published a collection of frottolas for keyboard instruments. Italy becomes the center for the creation of harpsichords and violins. Many violin-making workshops are opening. One of the first masters was the famous Andrea Amati from Cremona, who laid the foundation for a dynasty of violin makers. He made significant changes to the design of existing violins, which improved the sound and brought it closer to its modern appearance.
Francesco Canova da Milano (1497 - 1543) - an outstanding Italian lutenist and composer of the Renaissance, created Italy's reputation as a country of virtuoso musicians. He is still considered the best lutenist of all time. After the decline of the late Middle Ages, music became an important element of culture.
In 1537, the first music conservatory, Santa Maria di Loreto, was built in Naples by the Spanish priest Giovanni Tapia, which served as a model for subsequent ones.
Adrian Willaert (c.1490-1562) - Dutch composer and teacher, worked in Italy, representative of the Franco-Flemish (Dutch) polyphonic school, founder of the Venetian school. Willaert developed music for double choir, a tradition of multichoral music that would reach its peak at the beginning of the Baroque era in the work of Giovanni Gabrieli.
During the Renaissance, the madrigal reached the pinnacle of its development and became the most popular musical genre of the era. Unlike the earlier and simpler madrigals of the Trecento, Renaissance madrigals were written for several (4-6) voices, often by foreigners who served in the courts of influential northern families. Madrigalists sought to create high art, often using reworked poetry of the great Italian poets of the late Middle Ages: Francesco Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio and others. The most characteristic feature of the madrigal was the absence of strict structural canons; the main principle was the free expression of thoughts and feelings.
Composers such as the representative of the Venetian school Cipriano de Rore and the representative of the French-Flemish school Roland de Lassus (Orlando di Lasso during his Italian creative life) experimented with increasing chromaticism, harmony, rhythm, texture and other means of musical expression. Their experience will continue and culminate in the Mannerist times of Carlo Gesualdo.
Another important polyphonic song form was the villanelle. Originating on the basis of popular songs in Naples, it very quickly spread throughout Italy and later went to France, England, and Germany. The Italian villanelle of the 16th century gave a strong impetus to the development of chord steps and, as a consequence, harmonic tonality.
The birth of opera (Florentine camerata).
The end of the Renaissance was marked by the most important event in musical history - the birth of opera.
A group of humanists, musicians, and poets gathered in Florence under the patronage of their leader Count Giovanni De Bardi (1534 - 1612). The group was called the "camerata", its main members were Giulio Caccini, Pietro Strozzi, Vincenzo Galilei (father of the astronomer Galileo Galilei), Giloramo Mei, Emilio de Cavalieri and Ottavio Rinuccini in his younger years.
The first documented meeting of the group took place in 1573, and the most active years of the Florentine Camerata were 1577 - 1582.
They believed that music had "gotten bad" and sought to return to the form and style of ancient Greece, believing that the art of music could be improved and that society would improve accordingly. Camerata criticized existing music for its excessive use of polyphony at the expense of text intelligibility and the loss of the poetic component of the work, and proposed the creation of a new musical style in which text in a monodic style was accompanied by instrumental music. Their experiments led to the creation of a new vocal-musical form - recitative, first used by Emilio de Cavalieri, who was subsequently directly related to the development of opera.
The first officially recognized opera that meets modern standards was Daphne, first performed in 1598. The authors of Daphne were Jacopo Peri and Jacopo Corsi, libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini. This opera has not survived. The first surviving opera is Euridice (1600) by the same authors - Jacopo Peri and Ottavio Rinuccini. This creative union also created many works, most of which are lost.
Northern revival.
The music of the Northern Renaissance is also interesting. By the 16th century There was a rich folklore, primarily vocal. Music was heard everywhere in Germany: at festivals, in church, at social events and in a military camp. The Peasant War and the Reformation caused a new rise in folk song creativity. There are many expressive Lutheran hymns whose authorship is unknown. Choral singing became an integral form of Lutheran worship. The Protestant chorale influenced the later development of all European music.
The variety of musical forms in Germany in the 16th century. It’s amazing: ballets and operas were performed on Maslenitsa. It is impossible not to mention such names as K. Paumann, P. Hofheimer. These are composers who composed secular and church music, primarily for the organ. They are joined by the outstanding French-Flemish composer, representative of the Dutch school O. Lasso. He worked in many European countries. He summarized and innovatively developed the achievements of various European music schools of the Renaissance. Master of religious and secular choral music (over 2000 compositions).
But the real revolution in German music was accomplished by Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672), composer, bandmaster, organist, teacher. The founder of the national school of composition, the largest of I.S.’s predecessors. Bach. Schütz wrote the first German opera “Daphne” (1627), the opera-ballet “Orpheus and Eurydice” (1638); madrigals, spiritual cantata-oratorio works (“passions”, concertos, motets, psalms, etc.).
Renaissance, or Renaissance, is a period in the cultural history of Western and Central Europe, spanning approximately the XIV-XVI centuries. This period received its name in connection with the revival of interest in ancient art, which became an ideal for cultural figures of modern times. Composers and music theorists - J. Tinktoris, G. Tsarlino and others - studied ancient Greek musical treatises; in the works of Josquin Despres, who was compared to Michelangelo, according to contemporaries, “the lost perfection of the music of the ancient Greeks was revived”: which appeared at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries. the opera was guided by the laws of ancient drama.
Music theory classes. From an engraving of the 16th century.
J. P. Palestrina.
The development of Renaissance culture is associated with the rise of all aspects of society. A new worldview was born - humanism (from the Latin humanus - “humane”). The emancipation of creative forces led to the rapid development of science, trade, crafts, and new, capitalist relations took shape in the economy. The invention of printing contributed to the spread of education. The great geographical discoveries and the heliocentric system of the world of N. Copernicus changed ideas about the Earth and the Universe.
Fine arts, architecture, and literature reached unprecedented prosperity. The new attitude was reflected in the music and transformed its appearance. She gradually departs from the norms of the medieval canon, style is individualized, and the very concept of “composer” appears for the first time. The texture of the works changes, the number of voices increases to four, six or more (for example, the 36-voice canon attributed to the largest representative of the Dutch school, J. Ockeghem, is known). In harmony, consonant consonances dominate; the use of dissonances is strictly limited by special rules (see Consonance and Dissonance). Major and minor scales and a clock system of rhythm, characteristic of later music, are formed.
All these new means were used by composers to convey the special structure of feelings of the Renaissance man - sublime, harmonious, calm and majestic. The connection between text and music becomes closer, music begins to convey the mood, or, as they said then, the affects of the text; individual words, such as “life”, “death”, “love”, etc., are often illustrated with special musical means.
The music of the Renaissance developed in two directions - church and secular. The main genres of church music are mass and motet - polyphonic polyphonic works for a choir, unaccompanied or accompanied by an instrumental ensemble (see Choral music, Polyphony). Among the instruments, preference was given to the organ.
The development of secular music was facilitated by the growth of amateur music-making. Music sounded everywhere: on the streets, in the houses of citizens, in the palaces of noble nobles. The first concert virtuoso performers appeared on the lute, harpsichord, organ, viol, and various types of longitudinal flutes. In polyphonic songs (madrigal in Italy, chanson in France), composers talked about love and everything that happens in life. Here are the titles of some of the songs: “Stag Hunt”, “Echo”, “Battle of Marignano”.
In the XV-XVI centuries. The importance of the art of dance increases, numerous treatises and practical manuals on choreography, collections of dance music appear, which include popular dances of that time - bass dance, branle, pavane, galliard.
During the Renaissance, national music schools were formed. The largest of them is the Dutch (French-Flemish) polyphonic school. Its representatives are G. Dufay, C. Janequin, J. Okegem, J. Obrecht, Josquin Depres, O. Lasso. Other national schools include Italian (J.P. Palestrina), Spanish (T.L. de Victoria), English (W. Bird), and German (L. Senfl).
The Renaissance ends with the emergence of new musical genres: solo song, oratorio, opera, the true flowering of which comes in the next century (see Western European music of the 17th-20th centuries).
Renaissance music
1.Music sounded everywhere: in the streets and squares, in the houses of citizens, in the palaces of noble nobles and kings. Music, along with grammar, rhetoric and poetry, was part of the so-called “human sciences”.
The leading position was still occupied by sacred music, sounding during church services.
Gradually, the works of church composers begin to penetrate secular trends. The themes of folk songs that are not at all religious in content are boldly introduced into the polyphonic fabric of church chants. But now this did not contradict the general spirit and mood of the era. On the contrary, music amazingly combined the divine and the human.
2. Sacred music reached its highest flowering in the 15th century. in the Netherlands.
Here music was revered more than other types of art. Dutch and Flemish composers were the first to develop new rules polyphonic (polyphonic) performance - classical "strict style"
The most important compositional technique of the Dutch masters was imitation - repetition of the same melody in different voices. The leading voice was tenor, who was entrusted with the main repeating melody.
3. The Renaissance began professional composing
Dutchman's music Orlando Lasso(1532-1594), combines improvisation and impeccable logic.
He introduced many innovative techniques into his favorite motet genre.
He is the one who attempted to master genre passions. Lasso created Passions to all four Gospels. They lacked solo singing, and a choir of five voices opened the way to the genre of operatic art. One of the composer's musical masterpieces was song "Echo".
4. Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina(1525-1594)
He is called the last great polyphonist. He worked at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and was the official papal composer. His art is devoid of sensual passions, full of harmony and beauty.
He is the brightest representative of the classical music school of Italy.
His legacy consists of many works of sacred and secular music: 93 masses, 326 hymns and motets.
5. B Germany works of sacred music in the native language were relevant. Martin Luther himself wrote chorales intended to be performed by the entire religious community. Their simple melodies gained popularity among the people, and professional composers subsequently made polyphonic arrangements of them. (J.S.Bach)
Were also popular genres of polyphonic miniature:
conductor, motet.
They could enter texts in their native language.
Choral singing was the most popular type of music making.
6. Began to appear secular choral genres:
Ballat A(dance song),
Chanson (polyphonic song)
and Italian madrigal.
7. The most popular genre of secular music has become madrigals(Italian madrigale - song in native language) - polyphonic choral works written to the text of a lyric poem of love content.
Most often, poems by famous masters were used for this purpose: Dante, Francesco Petrarch and Torquato Tasso. Madrigals were performed not by professional singers, but by a whole ensemble of amateurs, with one singer leading each part. The main mood of the madrigal is sadness, melancholy and melancholy, but there were also joyful, lively compositions.
Madrigal lived from 1520-1620s. The idea of the madrigal was revolutionary for the Renaissance, because... set the task of translating a poetic text into music. That's why madrigal can be roughly called a 16th century romance.
8. An equally popular genre of secular music was song accompanied by musical instruments. Unlike the music played in the church, the songs were quite simple in performance. Their rhymed text was clearly divided into 4-6 line stanzas. In songs, as in madrigals, the text acquired great importance. When performed, poetic lines should not be lost in polyphonic singing.
Particularly famous were the songs of the French composer Clément Janequin (1485-1558), who became famous for his ability to reproduce the voices of living nature in music.
9. In the second half of the 16th century, a stormy development of instrumentalism. Families of string and wind instruments are growing, their range is expanding, and secular and home music playing is spreading.
Appear new instrumental genres:
prelude ( before the game) – introductory piece
ricercar (exquisite piece) – polyphonic writing,
canzone (song without words) - the predecessor of the fugue.
10 . There is a need for public performance of music.
A concert is being formed.
First appears in London - paid and in Venice - subsidized by the city magistrate.
The Renaissance ends with the emergence of new musical genres: solo song, oratorio and opera.
If earlier the center of musical culture was the temple, then from that time on music began to sound in the opera house.
The development of music was facilitated by invention of music printing.
Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation
Moscow State Open Pedagogical University
them. M.A. Sholokhova
Department of Aesthetic Education
R E F E R A T
"Music of the Renaissance"
5th year students
Full-time - correspondence department
Polegaeva Lyubov Pavlovna
Teacher:
Zatsepina Maria Borisovna
Moscow 2005
Renaissance is the era of the flourishing of the culture of Western and Central Europe during the transition from the Middle Ages to modern times (XV-XVII centuries). The culture of the Renaissance is not of a narrow class nature and often reflects the mood of the broad masses; in musical culture it represents several new influential creative schools. The main ideological core of the entire culture of this period was humanism - a new, unprecedented idea of man as a free and comprehensively developed being, capable of limitless progress. Man is the main subject of art and literature, the work of the greatest representatives of Renaissance culture - F. Petrarch and D. Boccaccio, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian. Most of the cultural figures of this era were themselves multi-talented people. Thus, Leonardo da Vinci was not only an outstanding artist, but also a sculptor, scientist, writer, architect, composer; Michelangelo is known not only as a sculptor, but also as a painter, poet, and musician.
The development of the worldview and the entire culture of this period was influenced by following ancient models. In music, along with new content, new forms and genres are also developing (songs, madrigals, ballads, operas, cantatas, oratorios).
Despite all the integrity and completeness of the Renaissance culture in the main, it is characterized by features of inconsistency associated with the interweaving of elements of the new culture with the old. Religious themes in the art of this period not only continue to exist, but also to develop. At the same time, it is so transformed that the works created on its basis are perceived as genre scenes from the life of noble and ordinary people.
Italian culture of the Renaissance went through certain stages of development: having emerged at the end of the 14th century, it reached its peak in the mid-15th - early 16th centuries. In the second half of the 16th century. a long-term feudal reaction sets in, due to the economic and political decline of the country. Humanism is in crisis. However, the decline in art is not immediately apparent: for decades, Italian artists and poets, sculptors and architects created works of the highest artistic significance, the development of connections between various creative schools, the exchange of experience between musicians moving from country to country, working in different chapels, becomes a sign time and allows us to talk about trends common to the entire era.
The Renaissance is one of the brilliant pages in the history of European musical culture. The constellation of great names Josquin, Obrecht, Palestrina, O. Lasso, Gesualdo, who opened new horizons for musical creativity in the means of expression, the richness of polyphony, the scale of forms; the flourishing and qualitative renewal of traditional genres - motet, mass; the establishment of new imagery, new intonations in the field of polyphonic song compositions, the rapid development of instrumental music, which has come to the fore after almost five centuries of subordinate position: other forms of music-making, the growth of professionalism in all areas of musical creativity: changing views on the role and possibilities of musical art, the formation of new criteria of beauty: humanism as a really manifesting trend in all spheres of art - all this is connected with our ideas about the Renaissance. The artistic culture of the Renaissance is a personal beginning based on science. The unusually complex skill of polyphonists of the 15th – 16th centuries, their virtuoso technique coexisted with the brilliant art of everyday dances and the sophistication of secular genres. Lyrical-dramaticism is increasingly expressed in his works. In addition, they more clearly reveal the personality of the author and the creative individuality of the artist (this is typical not only for musical art), which allows us to talk about humanization as the leading principle of Renaissance art. At the same time, church music, represented by such major genres as the mass and the motet, to a certain extent continues the “Gothic” line in the art of the Renaissance, aimed, first of all, at recreating an already existing canon and through this glorifying the Divine.
Works of almost all major genres, both secular and sacred, are built on the basis of some previously known musical material. It could be a single-voice source in motets and various secular genres, instrumental arrangements; these could be two voices, borrowed from a three-voice composition and included in a new work of the same or another genre, and, finally, a full three or four voices (motet, madrigal, playing the role of a kind of preliminary “model” of a work of a larger form (mass).
The primary source is equally a popular, well-known tune (chorale or secular song) and some author’s composition (or voices from it), processed by other composers and, accordingly, endowed with other sound features, a different artistic idea.
In the motet genre, for example, there are almost no works that do not have some kind of original original. Most of the masses of composers of the 15th – 16th centuries also have primary sources: for example, in Palistrina, out of a total of over one hundred masses, we find only six written on a basis free from borrowings. Fr. Lasso did not write a single mass (out of 58) based on original material.
It can be noted that the range of primary sources on whose material the authors rely is quite clearly defined. G. Dufay, I. Okegem, J. Obrecht, Palestrina, O. Lasso and others seem to compete with each other, again and again turning to the same melodies, drawing from them each time new artistic impulses for their works, comprehending in a new way melodies as initial intonation prototypes for polyphonic forms.
When performing the work, the technique used was polyphony. Polyphony is polyphony in which all voices have equal rights. All voices repeat the same melody, but at different times, like an echo. This technique is called imitative polyphony.
By the 15th century, the so-called polyphony of “strict writing” was taking shape, the rules (norms of voice guidance, formation, etc.) of which were recorded in theoretical treatises of that time and were an immutable law for the creation of church music.
Another combination, when performers pronounced different melodies and different texts at the same time, is called contrasting polyphony. In general, a “strict” style necessarily presupposes one of two types of polyphony: imitative or contrasting. It was imitative and contrasting polyphony that made it possible to compose polyphonic motets and masses for church services.
A motet is a small choral song, which was usually composed to some popular melody, most often to one of the ancient church chants (“Gregorian chants” and other canonical sources, as well as folk music).
With the beginning of the 15th century, the features inherent in the Renaissance began to appear more and more clearly in the musical culture of a number of European countries. The most prominent among the early polyphonists of the Dutch Renaissance, Guillaume Dufay (Dufay) was born in Flanders around 1400. His works, in fact, represent more than half a century of history in the history of the Dutch school of music, which emerged in the second quarter of the 15th century.
Dufay led several chapels, including the papal one in Rome, worked in Florence and Bologna, and spent the last years of his life in his native Cambrai. Dufay's legacy is rich and abundant: it includes about 80 songs (chamber genres - vireles, ballads, rondos), about 30 motets (both spiritual content and secular, “songs”), 9 complete masses and their individual parts.
An excellent melodist who achieved lyrical warmth and expression of melodies, rare in the era of strict style, he willingly turned to folk melodies, subjecting them to the most skillful processing. Dufay introduces a lot of new things into the mass: he expands the composition of the whole more widely, and uses the contrasts of choral sound more freely. Some of his best works are the masses “The Pale Face” and “The Armed Man,” which use borrowed melodies of song origin of the same name. These songs, in various versions, form a broadly extended intonation and thematic basis that holds together the unity of large choral cycles. In the polyphonic development of a remarkable contrapuntalist, they reveal previously unknown beauties and expressive possibilities hidden in their depths. Dufay's melody harmoniously combines the tart freshness of the Dutch song with the softening Italian melodiousness and French grace. His imitative polyphony is devoid of artificiality and clutter. Sometimes the sparseness becomes excessive, and voids appear. This reflects not only the youth of art, which has not yet found the ideal balance of structure, but also the characteristic desire of the Cumbrian master to achieve an artistic and expressive result with the most modest means.
The work of Dufay's younger contemporaries - Johannes Ockeghem and Jacob Obrecht - is already attributed to the so-called second Dutch school. Both composers are major figures of their time, determining the development of Dutch polyphony in the second half of the 15th century.
Johannes Ockeghem (1425 - 1497) worked most of his life at the chapel of the French kings. In the person of Ockeghem, before Europe, enchanted by the soft, melodious song lyricism of Dufay, the naively meek and archaically bright euphony of his masses and motets, a completely different artist appeared - “a rationalist with a dispassionate eye” and a sophisticated technical pen, who sometimes avoided lyricism and sought to quickly capture in music there are certain extremely general laws of objective existence. He discovered an amazing skill in developing melodic lines in polyphonic ensembles. His music has some gothic features: imagery, non-individual expressiveness, etc. He created 11 complete masses (and a number of their parts), including one on the theme “The Armed Man,” 13 motets and 22 songs. It is the large polyphonic genres that come first for him. Some of Ockeghem's songs gained popularity among his contemporaries and repeatedly served as the basis for polyphonic arrangements in larger forms.
Ockeghem's creative example as a great master and pure polyphonist was of great importance for his contemporaries and followers: his uncompromising focus on the special problems of polyphony inspired respect, if not admiration, it gave rise to a legend and surrounded his name with a halo.
Among those who connected the 15th century with the next, not only chronologically, but also in essence of creative development, the first place, without a doubt, belongs to Jacob Obrecht. He was born in 1450 in Bergen op Zoom. Obrecht worked in chapels in Antwerp, Cambrai, Bruges, etc., and also served in Italy.
Obrecht's creative heritage includes 25 masses, about 20 motets, 30 polyphonic songs. From his predecessors and older contemporaries he inherited a highly developed, even virtuosic polyphonic technique, imitative and canonical techniques of polyphony. In Obrecht’s music, which is entirely polyphonic, we sometimes hear a special strength of at least non-personal emotions, the boldness of contrasts within large and small limits, completely “earthly”, almost everyday connections in the nature of sounds and particulars of formation. His worldview ceases to be gothic. He is moving towards Josquin Despres, a true representative of the Renaissance in musical art.
Obrecht's style is characterized by individual features, including a departure from Gothic detachment, evoking contrasts, strength of emotions, and connections with everyday genres.
The first third of the 16th century in Italy was the period of the High Renaissance, a time of creative growth and unprecedented perfection, embodied in the great works of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo. A certain social layer is emerging, through which theatrical performances and musical festivals are organized. The activities of various art academies are developing.
A little later, a period of high prosperity began in the musical art, not only in Italy, but also in Germany, France, and other countries. The invention of music printing was of great importance for the dissemination of musical works.
The traditions of the polyphonic school remain strong (in particular, the reliance on a model remains as important as before), but the attitude towards the choice of topics is changing, the emotional and figurative richness of the works is increasing, and the personal, authorial element is strengthening. All these features are already evident in the work of the Italian composer Josquin Despres, who was born around 1450 in Burgundy and was one of the greatest composers of the Dutch school of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Gifted with a wonderful voice and hearing, from his adolescence he served as a singer in church choirs in his homeland and in other countries. This early and close contact with high choral art, the active and practical assimilation of the great artistic treasures of cult music largely determined the direction in which the individuality of the future brilliant master, his style and genre interests then took shape.
In his youth, Despres studied the art of composition with I. Ockeghem, with whom he also improved in playing various musical instruments.
Subsequently, Josquin Despres tried his hand at all musical genres that existed at that time, creating psalms, motets, masses, music for the Passion of the Lord, compositions in honor of St. Mary and secular songs.
The first thing that catches your eye in Depre's works is the amazing contrapuntal technique, which allows us to consider the author a real counterpoint virtuoso. However, despite his complete mastery of the material, Despres wrote very slowly, examining his works very critically. During the trial performance of his compositions, he made a lot of changes to them, trying to achieve impeccable euphony, which he never sacrificed to contrapuntal textures.
Using only polyphonic forms, the composer in some cases gives the upper voice an unusually beautiful flowing melody, thanks to which his work is distinguished not only by its euphony, but also by its melody.
Not wanting to go beyond strict counterpoint, Despres, in order to soften dissonances, prepares them, as it were, by using a dissonant note in the previous consonance in the form of a consonance. Despres also very successfully uses dissonances as a means to enhance musical expression.
It should be noted that J. Despres can rightfully be considered not only a talented contrapuntist and sensitive musician, but also a magnificent artist, capable of conveying in his works the most subtle shades of feelings and various moods.
Josquin was technically and aesthetically stronger than the Italian and French polyphonists of the 15th century. That is why, in the purely musical field, he influenced them much more than he was influenced by them. Before his death, Despres led the best chapels in Rome, Florence, and Paris. He has always been equally dedicated to his work in promoting the spread and recognition of music. He remained a Dutchman, a “master from Condé.” And no matter how brilliant the foreign achievements and honors bestowed upon the “lord of music” (as his contemporaries called him) during his lifetime, he, obeying the irresistible “call of the earth,” returned to the banks of the Scheldt in his declining years and modestly ended his life’s journey as a canon .
In Italy, during the High Renaissance, secular genres flourished. Vocal genres are developing in two main directions - one of them is close to everyday song and dance (frotolas, villanelles, etc.), the other is associated with the polyphonic tradition (madrigal).
The madrigal, as a special musical and poetic form, provided extraordinary opportunities for the manifestation of the composer's individuality. Its main content is lyrics and genre scenes. Genres of stage music flourished in the Venetian school (an attempt to revive ancient tragedy). Instrumental forms (pieces for lute, vihuela, organ and other instruments) gained independence.
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Renaissance, or Renaissance, is a period in the cultural history of Western and Central Europe, spanning approximately the XIV-XVI centuries. This period received its name in connection with the revival of interest in ancient art, which became an ideal for cultural figures of modern times. Composers and music theorists - J. Tinktoris, G. Tsarlino and others - studied ancient Greek musical treatises; in the works of Josquin Despres, who was compared to Michelangelo, according to contemporaries, “the lost perfection of the music of the ancient Greeks was revived”: which appeared at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries. the opera was guided by the laws of ancient drama.
Music theory classes. From an engraving of the 16th century.
J. P. Palestrina.
The development of Renaissance culture is associated with the rise of all aspects of society. A new worldview was born - humanism (from the Latin humanus - “humane”). The emancipation of creative forces led to the rapid development of science, trade, crafts, and new, capitalist relations took shape in the economy. The invention of printing contributed to the spread of education. The great geographical discoveries and the heliocentric system of the world of N. Copernicus changed ideas about the Earth and the Universe.
Fine arts, architecture, and literature reached unprecedented prosperity. The new attitude was reflected in the music and transformed its appearance. She gradually departs from the norms of the medieval canon, style is individualized, and the very concept of “composer” appears for the first time. The texture of the works changes, the number of voices increases to four, six or more (for example, the 36-voice canon attributed to the largest representative of the Dutch school, J. Ockeghem, is known). In harmony, consonant consonances dominate; the use of dissonances is strictly limited by special rules (see Consonance and Dissonance). Major and minor scales and a clock system of rhythm, characteristic of later music, are formed.
All these new means were used by composers to convey the special structure of feelings of the Renaissance man - sublime, harmonious, calm and majestic. The connection between text and music becomes closer, music begins to convey the mood, or, as they said then, the affects of the text; individual words, such as “life”, “death”, “love”, etc., are often illustrated with special musical means.
The music of the Renaissance developed in two directions - church and secular. The main genres of church music are mass and motet - polyphonic polyphonic works for a choir, unaccompanied or accompanied by an instrumental ensemble (see Choral music, Polyphony). Among the instruments, preference was given to the organ.
The development of secular music was facilitated by the growth of amateur music-making. Music sounded everywhere: on the streets, in the houses of citizens, in the palaces of noble nobles. The first concert virtuoso performers appeared on the lute, harpsichord, organ, viol, and various types of longitudinal flutes. In polyphonic songs (madrigal in Italy, chanson in France), composers talked about love and everything that happens in life. Here are the titles of some of the songs: “Stag Hunt”, “Echo”, “Battle of Marignano”.
In the XV-XVI centuries. The importance of the art of dance increases, numerous treatises and practical manuals on choreography, collections of dance music appear, which include popular dances of that time - bass dance, branle, pavane, galliard.
During the Renaissance, national music schools were formed. The largest of them is the Dutch (French-Flemish) polyphonic school. Its representatives are G. Dufay, C. Janequin, J. Okegem, J. Obrecht, Josquin Depres, O. Lasso. Other national schools include Italian (J.P. Palestrina), Spanish (T.L. de Victoria), English (W. Bird), and German (L. Senfl).
