Pre Baroque Period

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    Until recently, music written before 1600 was little known, seldom performed, and poorlyunderstood. However, musicological research and development of ensembles and musicalsocieties specializing in early music have done much to make this reach treasury of musicavailable to the present day listener.

    Though there is a wealth of preserved material from the ancient civilization in sculpture,architecture, poetry and drama, there are but a few extant fragments of actual music datingbefore the birth of Christ. Philosophical and theoretical writings from ancient Greece,Egypt, China and other countries give us some insight into the highly significant role musicplayed in these societies but provide little understanding of the music itself.

    The early Christian church developed a body in monophonic liturgical music that eventuallywas called Gregorian chant, after Pope Gregory.

    Among the earliest extant examples of secular music are a few songs of the goliards andjongleurs, travelling students and minstrels from the early middle ages. Many songs of thetroubadours and trouvenes, courtly poet-musicians in France in the 12th centuries andpreserved in beautifully illuminated manuscripts called chansonniers.

    Around year 1300 a significant change occurred in the development of music. The 13 thcentury ars antique (old art), with its emphasis on scared music was replaced the 14 th centuryars nova (new art).

    In the Burgundian School of the early 15 th century, composers showed a preference formelodic and harmonic thirds and sixths, and for higher tessitura, motets of these period are infree polyphonic texture.

    The Renaissance period in music roughly from 1450 to 1600 and includes the Flemish,Venetian, Roman, Spanish, English schools. The 16th century, one of the most fertileperiods of all music literature, saw the culmination of sacred polyphonic writing.

    I. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

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    1. RECORDER-> a woodwind musical instrument of the family known asfipple flutes or internal duct fluteswhistle-like instrumentswhich include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown andthe mouth of the instrument is constricted by a woodenplug, known as a block or fipple. It is distinguished fromother members of the family by having holes for sevenfingers (the lower one or two often doubled to facilitate the

    production of semitones) and one for the thumb of theuppermost hand. The bore of the recorder is taperedslightly, being widest at the mouthpiece end and narrowesttowards the foot on Baroque recorders, or flared almostlike a trumpet at the bottom on Renaissance instruments.

    2. VIOL-> is any one of a family of bowed , fretted and stringedmusical instruments that first appeared in the mid to late

    15th century and was most popular in the Renaissance

    and Baroque periods.

    II. MUSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

    1. Repetition and Contrasts were the dominant principles;2. Irregular in motive and phrase construction;3. Variation principle became important4. Church mode

    III. PRE-BAROQUE MUSICAL

    INSTRUMENTS

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    3. CORNETTO-> The cornett, cornetto, or zink is an early wind

    instrument that dates from the Medieval,

    Renaissance and Baroque periods, popular

    from 1500-1650. It was used in what are now

    called alta capellas or wind ensembles. It is not to

    be confused with the trumpet-like cornet. The

    sound of the cornett was produced by lip

    vibrations against a cup mouthpiece. It consists

    of a conical wooden pipe covered in leather,about 24 inches long, and has finger holes and a

    small horn or ivory mouthpiece.

    4. ORGAN -> the organ (from Greek organon, "organ, instrument, tool") is a keyboardinstrument of one or more divisions, each played

    with its own keyboard, played either with thehands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively

    old musical instrument in the Western musical

    tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of

    Alexandria who is credited with inventing the

    hydraulis. By around the 8th century, it had

    overcome early associations with gladiatorial

    combat and gradually assumed a prominent place

    in the liturgy of the Catholic Church.Subsequently it re-emerged as a secular and

    recital instrument.

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    5. LUTE-> Lute can refer generally to any string instrument having the strings running in a plane parallel to thesound table (in the HornbostelSachs system), more specifically to any plucked string instrumentwith a neck (either fretted or unfretted) and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument

    from the family of European lutes.

    The European lute and the modern Near-Eastern oud both descend from a common ancestor viadiverging evolutionary paths. The lute is used in a great variety of instrumental music from theMedieval to the late Baroque eras and was the most important instrument for secular music in theRenaissance. It is also an accompanying instrument, especially in vocal works, often realizing a bassocontinuo or playing a written-out accompaniment. The player of a lute is called a lutenist, lutanist,"lewtist" or lutist, and a maker of lutes (or any string instrument) is referred to as a luthier.

    The words "lute" and "oud" derive from Arabic al-ud ( - literally "the wood").Recent research by Eckhard Neubauer suggests ud may in turn be an Arabized version of thePersian name rud, which meant "string", "stringed instrument", or "lute". It has equally been suggestedthe "wood" in the name may have distinguished the instrument by its wooden soundboard from skin-faced predecessorsGianfranco Lotti suggests the "wood" appellation originally carried derogatoryconnotations because of proscriptions of all instrumental music in early Islam.

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    4. CONDUCTUS-> in medieval music, a metrical Latin song of ceremonial character for one, two, or three voices. Theword first appeared in mid-12th-century manuscripts with reference to processional pieces.

    In the 13th century the conductus was one of three genres that dominated French polyphonic music.Unlike the organum and the motet, however, which were based on preexisting chants, the conductuswas a freely composed setting of a single metrical Latin text. Of particular importance for futuredevelopments was its homophonic texture (all voices moving at the same rhythmic rate or, from themodern perspective.

    5. ORGANUM-> originally, any musical instrument (later in particular an organ); the term attained its lasting sense,however, during the Middle Ages in reference to a polyphonic (many-voiced) setting, in certain

    specific styles, of Gregorian chant.

    In its earliest written form, found in the treatise Musica enchiriadis (c. 900; Musical Handbook),

    organum consisted of two melodic lines moving simultaneously note against note. Sometimes asecond, or organal, voice doubled the chant, or principal voice, a fourth or a fifth below.

    6. CLAUSULA-> in music, a 13th-century polyphonic genre featuring two strictly measured parts: notable examplesare the descant sections based on the Gregorian chant melisma (several notes to a syllable), which in

    the organa of the Notre-Dame school alternated with sections featuring coloratura-like passages inrelatively free rhythm above a slower-moving cantus firmus.

    7. ANTHEMS-> The term anthem means either a specific form of Anglican church music (in music theory andreligious contexts), or more generally, a song (or composition) of celebration, usually acting as asymbol for a distinct group of people, as in the term "national anthem".8. HYMN-> a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer,and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The wordhymn derives from Greek (hymnos), which means "a song of praise". Collections of hymns areknown as hymnals or hymnbooks.

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    B. SECULAR FORMS.

    1. TROUBADOUR, TROUVERE, and MINNESINGERS SONGS-> These included various musical and poetic forms, usually sectional in nature.2. MADRIGAL-> The 14th century Madrigal is a fixed secular form with two or three verses with the samemusic followed by a stanza with contrasting music. Madrigal texts maybe concerned with love,philosophy, the beauties of nature, or similar themes, Like Motet, they are written witheffective word painting.

    3. THE FRENCH CHANSON-> The French Chanson is more clearly sectional than the Madrigal. It can often beidentified by characteristic dactylic opening rhythms.

    4. THE POLYPHONIC LIED-> The German equivalent of the Madrigal is often based on a folk melody.

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    It can be difficult to separate myth from reality in the life of

    Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. He was one of the most

    highly acclaimed musicians of the sixteenth century, but wasnot the "Savior of Church Music." He did write a

    tremendous number of musical works, refining the very

    musical style of his time. He did not single-handedly transmit

    The Way to Write Spiritual Music, but apparently he was a

    diligent and reasonably pious family man, hard-nosed in his

    business dealings and savvy in manipulating professional

    contacts. He was not a priest, though he once considered

    Holy Orders after losing a wife and two sons to the plague. The balance and elegant moderation ofhis music may derive more from conservative melodic and harmonic style than from divine mediation.

    But centuries after his death, Palestrina's music is still actively serving devotional needs across the

    world, and echoes of his first biographer's awe still cling to his name. Palestrina's life is generally well

    documented: He spent all of his career around Rome, working in churches with good archival records.

    His exact birth date remains unknown, but his age at death is given in a famous eulogy. Whether he

    was born in Rome or in the provincial town of Palestrina, "Gianetto" received his first musical training

    in Rome as choir boy at Santa Maria Maggiore by 1537. In 1544, he accepted a post as organist for

    the Cathedral of Palestrina. While there, he married Lucrezia Gori and met the future Pope Julius III

    (whom Palestrina honored with the dedication of his First Book of Masses). He returned to Rome in

    1551, serving as Master of the Boys for the Vatican's Capella Giulia and then, at Pope Julius'

    instigation, singing in the Sistine Chapel. Fired by a later Pope because of his marital status, he

    quickly became choirmaster for Saint John Lateran (a job previously held by Lasso). The 1560s

    PRE-BAROQUE REPRESENTATIVE

    COMPOSERS

    PALESTRINA, GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA(Italian, 1525-1594)

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    were a time of great professional development for Palestrina: He served the basilica of Santa Maria

    Maggiore, the Seminario Romano and the wealthy Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, published four more

    books of music, and turned down an offer to become chapelmaster for the Holy Roman Emperor.

    His last professional appointment was a long tenure (1571-1594) as master of the Capella Giulia in

    St. Peter's. In addition, he performed freelance work for at least 12 other Roman churches and

    institutions, managed his second wife's fur business, and invested in Roman real estate. Palestrina

    marketed his immense compositional output in nearly 30 published collections during his lifetime; many

    more of his roughly 700 works survive in manuscripts. He is best known for the 104 masses, though he

    composed in every other liturgical genre of his day, as well as nearly 100 madrigals. The polished

    reserve of his style helped fuel the myth first published in 1607 that his Pope Marcellus Mass was

    written to save polyphony from banishment in the church; the German theorist Fux enthroned his

    style for centuries to come in his 1725 Gradus ad parnassum.

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    Latin Orlandus Lassus, also called Roland De Lassus

    (born 1530/32, Mons, Spanish Hainautdied June 14,1594, Munich), Flemish composer whose music stands at theapex of the Franco-Netherlandish style that dominatedEuropean music of the Renaissance.

    Renaissance composer Orlande de Lassus was born inMons and got his start as a choirboy. An often disputedstory has the child Lassus kidnapped three times on accountof his beautiful singing voice; the only certainty is that by

    1544 he had joined the service of Ferrante Gonzaga,Viceroy of Sicily. A stopover in Mantua allowed Lassus to absorb prevailing Italian influences.Lassus spent less than a year in Sicily and transferred to Milan for the remainder of the 1540s. Heoften used an Italian form of his name, Orlando di Lasso. In 1551, Lassus was made choirmaster atSt. John of Lateran in Rome, but remained only until 1553, being succeeded by Palestrina. Lassusreturned to Mons in 1554, receiving word that his parents were ill, but upon his arrival found themalready dead and buried. In 1555, Lassus' first book of madrigals and a collection of various secularworks appeared simultaneously in Antwerp and Venice, thus beginning his status as a one-manindustry of musical publications. Lassus' work accounts for three-fifths of all music printed in Europe

    between 1555 and 1600.

    In 1557, the German Duke Albrecht V engaged Lassus' services as a singer at the court in Munich.Lassus' status was upgraded to Kapellmeister in 1561. His position enabled considerable travel, andLassus made frequent trips to Venice, where he met and made friends with the Gabrielis. Judgingfrom the range of settings, both sacred and secular, coming from Lassus in these years, it is apparenthe was asked to supply music for a wide variety of events at the court of Duke Albrecht. The floodof published editions, both authorized and not, of Lassus' music during this time established him asthe most popular composer in Europe, and in 1574 he was made a Knight of the Golden Spur byPope Gregory XIII.

    In 1579, Duke Albrecht V died, and the longstanding extravagance of his court left his successor,Duke Wilhelm, with little choice but to make deep cuts in the entertainment budget. This had a directand negative effect on Lassus' fortunes, but nonetheless he declined an offer in 1580 to relocate tothe Court at Dresden. By the late 1580s, the number of new pieces Lassus undertook began to

    ORLANDO DI LASSO(Flemish, 1532-1594)

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    slow down. In the months before his death, Lassus succeeded in bringing to life his last greatmasterwork, the Lagrime di San Pietro, in itself a summation of the highest forms of Renaissancemusical art. He died at about the age of 62, and in 1604 his sons published an edition of his collectedworks entitled Magnus opus musicum. This was used as the basis for the first modern edition of

    Lassus' music, published in Leipzig between 1894 and 1926.

    Among his key works, the Sibylline Prophecies (1553) and Penitential Psalms (1560) reflect theinfluence of Italian mannerism. While later music contains occasional chromatic alterations, matureLassus works favor a unique style that combines an intensely dramatic sense of text painting, nervousand excited rhythmic figurations, and glorious, rolling counterpoint. Late works demonstrate aconcern for terseness in expression, and texts are realized in a highly compressed state. No verifiableinstrumental music is known from Lassus, and his masses are generally considered unfavorably in lightof Palestrina's achievement in that realm. But his other worksmotets, madrigals, French chansons,

    and German liederare considered second to none in the context of the late Renaissance, andseveral of his secular songs were known from king to peasant in the second half of the sixteenthcentury.

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    Even in an era so richly stocked with greatnames, William Byrd demands particularattention as the most prodigiously talented,prolific, and versatile composer of hiscontemporaries. Byrd was born in about1543, and it is assumed that he was achorister in the Chapel Royal (his brotherswere choristers at St. Paul's Cathedral)and a student of Thomas Tallis. He wasnamed organist and master of choristers ofLincoln Cathedral at the age of 20, wherehe wrote most of his works in English and

    music for Anglican services. This music and his anthems provided the young English church withsome of its finest music. In 1570 he was appointed a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, where heshared the post of organist with Thomas Tallis. Queen Elizabeth I, despite Byrd's intensecommitment to Catholicism, was one of his benefactors, and granted him and Tallis a patent to printmusic in 1575. Their first publication was a collection of five- to eight-part, Latin motets, but they

    published little else. Around the same time, Byrd began composing for the virginal. His contributionto the solo keyboard repertoire comprises some 125 pieces, mostly stylized dances or exceptionallyinventive sets of variations which inaugurated a golden age of English keyboard composition.

    During the 1580s and 1590s, Byrd's Catholicism was the driving motive for his music. As thepersecutions of Catholics increased during this period, and occasionally touched on Byrd and hisfamily, he wrote and openly published motets and three masses (one each in three, four, and fiveparts), which are his finest achievement in sacred music, almost certainly composed for small chapelgatherings of Catholics. Byrd had taken up the publishing business again, printing the first English

    songbook, Psalmes, Sonets and Songs in 1588. This and his other songbooks include Byrd'scompositions in the leading secular genres of the day: the ayre or lute song, the madrigal, and theconsort song for solo voice and viols. The consort song's finest hour came at the hands of Byrd, whopreferred texts of a high moral (frequently religious) or metaphysical tone. They are notable for theway the viol parts lead an existence independent of the vocal line. He openly published twoGradualia in 1605 and 1607, with music for the Propers of all the major feast days. His last

    WILLIAM BYRD(English, 1543-1623)

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    collection, Psalmes, Songs and Sonnets from 1611, consisted mostly of previously published works,but did include two of his viol consort works. Byrd is at his most distinguished in the free fantasias forconsort, particularly the later pieces in five and six parts, works of exceptionally luxurious texture.Byrd's last songs were published in 1614, and he lived out his life comfortably at Stondon Massey,

    where he died in 1623.

    Giovanni Gabrieli is an important transitional figurebetween the Renaissance and Baroque eras and theirassociated musical styles. The distinctive sound of his

    music derived in part from his association with St. Mark'sCathedral in Venice, long one of the most importantchurches in Europe, and for which he wrote both vocaland instrumental works. Through his compositions andhis work with several significant pupils, Gabrielisubstantially influenced the development of music in theseventeenth century.

    Very little is known about his early years; he probably

    studied with his famous uncle Andrea Gabrieli, who was also a composer, and organist at St. Mark's.Like his uncle, Gabrieli lived in Germany for several years, and was employed at the court of DukeAlbrecht V in Munich from around 1575 until the Duke's death in 1579. Soon after that Gabrielireturned to Italy, and in 1585 became the organist for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, a religiousconfraternity; he would hold that post for the rest of his life. That same year (1585), Gabrieli becameorganist at St. Mark's and, on his uncle's death in 1586, assumed his position as its principalcomposer (Gabrieli also edited a number of his uncle's compositions for posthumous publication).

    At that time, Venice was a very cosmopolitan city and something of a musical crossroads. Much ofthe city's musical activity centered around St. Mark's Cathedral, which had long attracted manygreat musicians. The Cathedral's unusual layout, with its two choir lofts facing each other (each withits own organ), led to the development of what has been called the Venetian style of composition acolorful and dramatic style often involving multiple choirs and instrumental ensembles; many ofGabrieli's motets and other religious choral works are written for two or four choirs, divided into adozen or more separate parts. Gabrieli also became one of the first composers to write choral works

    GIOVANNI GABRIELI(Italian, 1557-1612)

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    including parts for instrumental ensembles; the motet In ecclesiis, as an example, calls for two choirs,soloists, organ, brass, and strings. Gabrieli wrote a number of secular vocal works (most or all of thembefore 1600), and a number of pieces for organ in a quasi-improvisational style.

    Gabrieli composed many purely instrumental works in forms such as the canzoni and ricercari, whichhad become increasingly popular in the sixteenth century. Several of these were published with someof his choral music in the collection Sacrae symphoniae (1597). This publication was very popular allover Europe and attracted for Gabrieli a number of prominent pupils, the best known of which wereHeinrich Schtz (who studied with him between 1609 and 1612) and Michael Praetorius. More ofGabrieli's instrumental pieces were published posthumously in Canzoni e sonate (1615). Some ofthese works were particularly innovative: the Sonata pian e forte was one of the first documentedcompositions to employ dynamic markings, and the Sonata per tre violini was one of the first to use abasso continuo, anticipating the later trio sonata. His instrumental works are now seen as the

    culmination of the development of instrumental music in the sixteenth century.

    From around 1606, Gabrieli suffered from a kidney stone that reduced his activities, and eventuallyled to his death.