INSTRUMENTS
We will start by looking at pictures of nine common instruments of this time period.
After each picture slide, there will be a video where you can see and hear, or just hear, the sound of the instrument being played.
RecordersThe plastic recorders you played in elementary music have come from a family of wooden recorders that are made in many different sizes.
Serpent• This is an early brass instrument. It was called a serpent because they had
to curl it up like a snake in order to reach all of it.
Racket
This is a double
reed instrument
with a harsh sound.
The video lets you
hear them play with
other instruments.
HarpsichordThis instrument was invented
in between the virginal and
the piano. It could play louder
than the virginal could.
The video will show you two
different kinds of harpsichords
and how they work.
This next short video shows a performance of a piece on the harpsichord that is played at an extremely fast speed. This was written by an Italian composer named Dominico Scarlatti. His music was very popular in the Renaissance.
Greensleeves – a song we still singOne theory is that this song was originally written by Henry VIII as a love song to a woman in his court who always wore green. She would not have anything to do with him – too many of his wives ended up dead. Henry VIII had 6 wives in his lifetime. "King Henry the Eighth, to six wives he was wedded. One died, one survived, two divorced, two beheaded." His wives names were Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. He kept going through wives because he wanted a son, and was only having daughters, so he blamed the women he married.
We use the melody he wrote
now at Christmas
with different words,
and call it “What Child is This”
Martin Luther• Led the Reformation of the Catholic church. This is
where we got the other churches we have today such as Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist, etc.
• He was the first to put the Bible into the common people’s language – German. Before this it was all in Latin and only the priests understood it.
• Challenged the Catholic church teaching on indulgences – a system of buying your way into heaven. This is no longer done.
• Made it possible for regular people to sing in church service instead of just a choir or priests.
• Wrote hymns including “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”, which you will hear on the next slide.
Christopher Columbus
• Christopher Columbus was an explorer, navigator, and colonizer, born in the Republic of Genoa, in what is today northwestern Italy.
Galileo• Galileo Galilei was an Italian scientist who
supported the idea that Earth orbits the sun. He was tried by the Roman Inquisition, was found "suspect of heresy“, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. (Heresy means supporting ideas that disagree with the church. The church taught that the earth was the center of everything because God created it first.)
Michelangelo
• Painter, sculptor, architect and poet Michelangelo, one of the most famous artists of the Italian Renaissance, was born and named Michelangelo di Lodovico BuonarrotiSimoni on March 6, 1475.
• He lived to be 88.
Sistine Chapel – a church in Rome where he did all of the paintings. This is a view of the ceiling of the church, showing Bible stories
Pieta
One of his
most famous
sculptures, this
Shows Mary
holding Christ’s
body after the
crucifixion.
Leonardo Da Vinci
• Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer.
Inventor
• Da Vinci may well have been the greatest inventor in history, yet he had very little effect on the technology of his time. Da Vinci drew sketches and diagrams of his inventions, which he preserved in his notebooks, but either he lost interest in building them or was never able to convince one of his wealthy patrons to finance construction of his designs. As a result, almost none of da Vinci's inventions were built during his lifetime. And, because he never published his diagrams, nobody else knew about them until his notebooks were discovered long after his death.
Donatello• Donato andi Niccolò
di Betto Bardi,
known as Donatello,
was born in Florence, Italy
around 1386 and died
there in 1466.
The powerful
expressivity of his art
made him the greatest
sculptor of the early
Renaissance.
Developments in art
• Artists started to sign their work
• Themes included more still lifes, portraits, and landscapes as well as religious subjects.
• Patronage system was developing for artists, performing musicians, composers
– You were paid to work for a particular person and compose or paint for their needs/wishes
Josquin Des Prez
• Considered to be the greatest composer of his time.
• Worked for a while for kings and queens
• Composed in polyphonic style – this means many melodies were combined at the same time.
• He wrote sacred (church) and secular (not church) music.
This piece called “The Cricket” was meant to be a joking way to ask to be paid. It sings about a cricket who sings for free. Josquin’s boss hadn’t paid him for a long time.
The style of singing you will hear now is an example of the sound of popular music of that time.
The next piece you will hear is called “Ave Maria” and is a church song Josquin wrote to honor Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
William Byrd
• English composer.
• He wrote in many styles that were popular in England at the time, including various types of sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard and instrumental music
• Next is an example of dance music he wrote for the queen.
Palestrina
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was an Italian composer.
• Palestrina had a major influence on the development of Roman Catholic church music.
Palestrina
• The next slide is a Latin church song called “Sicut Cervus”
• The words mean: As a deer longs for the flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God.
Masses and Motets
• Sacred music – written for church use
• Often a composer would write all of the music for the parts of the “Mass” for an entire service in the Catholic church
Madrigals and Ballads
• Secular music – popular outside of the church
• Told stories of people/heroes of the day
• Many were love songs
• Next is a short example and explanation of some popular music of that time
Renaissance Dance
• There were many kinds of popular dances, just like there are now. Next is an example of a dance done in a play. The kinds of dances you see were typical of dances done at the time.