The Renaissance

1450 - 1600

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.

Sackbut

• Today we call this instrument a trombone. It hasn’t changed very much.

Shawm

This is an

early version

of the oboe.

CrumhornThese instruments have double reeds under a mouthpiece “cap”. They come in different sizes.

Racket

This is a double

reed instrument

with a harsh sound.

The video lets you

hear them play with

other instruments.

Virginal

This is an early

kind of piano.

The video will

demonstrate

how it works

and sounds.

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.

Pipe OrganThis video is from “How it’s made” and shows you how this instrument is built

Next is an organ piece that is an example of a popular organ style 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”

Important

People in the

Renaissance

Martin Luther

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• 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.)

Artists

Of the

Renaissance

Michelangelo

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

A view of the Sistine Chapel from a balcony.

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.

Da Vinci

Mona Lisa – painted by Da Vinci

The Last Supper – painted by Da Vinci

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.

Sculpture, and painting done on a church ceiling by Donatello

Raphael

• Painter and Architect

• Italian

Raphael’s St. George and the Dragon

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

Composers

Of the Renaissance

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

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

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.

Kinds of music that

Were often heard

In the Renaissance

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.

• Next is a style of dancing done only by men, called “Morris Dancing”.

• The last video is an example of a Maypole dance. The 6th grade does a Maypole dance when they have their special history day each spring.