Music History

Renaissance in music (XIV - XVI AD)

The Renaissance was a humanist movement initiated in Florence - Italy, which consisted in restoring Greco-Roman culture to society. The music composed in this period, or at least the one that up to now is conserved, was generally sacred and vocal; It was used to attract Christian believers and celebrate the important dates of the liturgy.
Although there was a drastic change in the way of making music between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with the emergence of the Ars Nova and the "sweet English sound"; The rescue of the Greco-Roman culture is not reflected in music until the beginning of the 15th century, with the theoretical treatises of Glareanus, Zarlino and Vicentino; in which the tetracordios and the Greek ways were rescued from the Greek tradition.

Josquin des Préz (1450 - 1521)
Outstanding composer of sacred Catholic music, born in the reign of the Duke of Burgundy; He was considered by the composers and theoreticians of his time as one of the masters of the polyphonic style, and is currently recognized as one of the most prodigious figures of the Franco Flamenca School. He was one of the first composers to create, a close and evident relationship between music and emotion; thus putting music to the service of the text. From Josquin the composers and theoreticians of the time begin to speak of "ethos, pathos and logos" applied to music; or more specifically to each Greek mode.

Greek modes: Alterations that occurred on the diatonic scale that occurred when starting with a different one than Do, without having previously modified its structure.
Greek Tetracordos: They are three different dispositions of the 12 notes raised in ancient Greece, enharmonic, diatonic and chromatic.
Miserere mei deus (1503 - 1504)
Inspired by a meditation on Psalm 50 - referring to the death of Christ - made by the Italian friar Savonarola, while waiting in his cell to be executed, after being condemned for heresy and sedition. In it, Savonarola asks God for mercy, so that he forgives those acts for which he was condemned and so as not to suffer when paying his sentence. It is this mixture of emotions and drama that is the perfect tool for Josquin's motet, where every time the word "Miserere" appears, the most beautiful and expressive sections of his music are dedicated to recreate in the listener the desperation, regret and fear of Savonarola before its execution.
Josquin humanized music, attributing a fundamental role to the text about music, that is, music is molded, adapted and even silenced, if words require it. For this, Miserere mei deus is considered a founding work; because it was the first sacred work to show a close relationship between musical resources to be used and human emotion. This practice initiated by Josquin will be adopted by his contemporaries, and even became extremely common from the sixteenth century. This work is one of the main antecedents to the theory of the affections and to the rhetoric of the baroque.

Carlo Gesualdo di Venosa (1563 - 1612)
Prince de Venosa and a very controversial figure in the history of music, known for the murder of his wife, his cousin Maria de Avalos and the Count of Ruvo; as well as his masochistic tendencies that he justified as a punishment to expel the demons that inhabited him. He has been honored by composers such as Igor Stravinsky and Carlo Domeniconi and valued as one of the greatest revolutionaries of transitional music between the Renaissance and the Baroque.

Moro Lasso, my mio duolo
Madrigal belonging to "Sesto libro di madrigali" made on the lyrics "Moro Lasso". This work is a clear example of the high Renaissance in music, in which we can already clearly see a close relationship between music and text, as well as with the emotion expressed in it, the use of Greek musical customs, such as modes and the 3 tetracordios; In the particular case of this work, the use of the chromatic tetrachord - coming from Greece - is notorious for purely expressive purposes, specifically to harmonize the most dismal parts of the poem, and to create a conspicuous contrast between suffering and love; which Gesualdo achieves, creating a continuous contrast between different aspects both musical and human: "Diatonic" against "Chromatic", "Life" against "Death", Pulse against "Without a pulse", "Sharp Voices" against "Grave Voices".
Gesualdo's music is highly contrasted with the rest of the music of his time, by the constant use of prepared dissonances, which clashes a bit with the musical schemes that his contemporaries tried to impose; for this reason he is qualified as ahead of his time.
POEMA - Moro Lasso
I die unfortunately in my suffering
And she who can give me life
Oh, it kills me and it will not help me!
Oh painful luck
She who could give me life, gives me death.

Martin Luther (1483 - 1546) and music.

"After theology, music is the only art capable of soothing and brightening the soul of man"
"After the word of God, music is what deserves the greatest praise"

One of the data that is often overlooked in the life of Martin Luther is his love and dedication to music. He devoted part of his writings to music and to raise awareness about its importance in the worship of God; As he was also able to put it into practice, Luther could harmonize polyphonic works with 4 voices, to play the lute, the flute and he loved to sing.
But, from the point of view of art, the admiration of this figure for music can not be ignored, since this was fundamental for the Lutheran religion to subsequently develop its own culture, free of the guidelines imposed by Christians.
After the translation of the bible, Luther decided to create the mass in German that was accessible to most of the believers in Germany, unlike the original in Latin, and that was free of the feeling of repentance that predominated in the Christian liturgy. This redirection of the Mass towards the Lutheran interests is fundamental for the musical work of the future, which is basically the predominant one in Austria, Germany and some northern European countries.
Within the Lutheran culture, the most important genres of Baroque instrumental music are developed, such as: tocata, la fuga, ricercare, prelude, fantasy and suite; as well as in a prolific way, vocal genres such as the cantata, the masses, the requiems and the oratorio arise.

Lutheran works:
Passions according to Saint Matthew - Johan Sebastian Bach

Choral Prelude - Dietrich Buxtehude

Last sessions of the Council of Trent and its consequence in sacred polyphonic music. (1562)
Polyphony was a common practice in sacred music of the fifteenth century, which consisted in contrasting different sung texts, creating a direction and horizontal development in music, in the same work. This tradition was retaken and applied to Christian music by those composers belonging to what is now known as the Franco Flamenca School; a group of artists from France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
In the last sessions of the Council of Trent, held in 1562, the polyphonic tradition was put to the test, claiming that it was incapable of intelligibly transmitting the sacred texts and adding profane elements to Christian music; this, according to the opinion of the delegates of the religious institution, did not bring anything positive to the difficult situation that the Roman Church was going through, losing more and more power and support, both from the State and from its believers.
Faced with this accusation, Flemish, Italian and English composers appear before the Council as defenders of polyphony; among them were Jacob de Kerle, Palestrina, di Lasso among others ... who were responsible, simplifying as much as possible their contrapuntal technique, to show the representatives of the Church a set of works that aimed to demonstrate, through practice, the ability of the contrapuntal style to transmit and embellish the sacred texts.
Finally, it was the works of Jacob di Kerle that managed to convince the authorities of the Council of Trent, to which the redemption of polyphony is attributed; but, in any case, the musical practice of the countries against reformists was affected and simplified, by the constant supervision of the Church.
Although polyphony was half saved, other musical traditions belonging to religion did not have the same fate. The Masses, which were extremely complex and long compositions, in an effort to attract more believers was simplified, which results in the creation of aspects such as the Mass Brevis and the Cyclic Mass; both were genders derived from what is known as the Ordinary of the Mass. Even the decision was made to adapt popular genres of secular music, such as Madrigal or Lauda, ​​and use them for the needs of the Church.

Misa Brevis: some sections of the Ordinary are excluded, which were usually 5 or 6, reducing them to 4 or 3 sections.
Cyclic Mass: all sections of the Ordinary are composed on the same theme.
Madrigal: polyphonic composition, of dramatic character in which they used to represent Greek, pastoral or romantic themes.

Jacob de Kerle
Misa Pacem - Credo

Other works and outstanding composers.

Guillame de Machaut - Mass of Notre Dame. First mass, complete, made by one man; composed under the guidelines of metrics and musical notation developed in the French Ars Nova.

John Dunstable - Quam Pulcra Es. Antecedent of the triad tonal, creator of what was called in Europe as the sweet English sound, produced by the use of 3rd and 6th intervals in his compositions.

Giovanni Pierlugi di Palestrina - Mass for Pope Marcelo. one of the works to which is attributed the salvation of polyphony before the "Council of Trent" who questioned the ability of polyphonic music to clearly convey the message of the scriptures.

Orlando di Lasso - The Tears of San Pedro

Glareanus - Dodecachordon, collection of 12 choral works, each in a different Greek way.

Jacobus de Kerle - Mass for Pope Marcelo. Work presented before the Council of Trent, together with those of Orlando di Lassus and Palestrina, who was responsible for the salvation of polyphony. The mass of Jacobus de Kerle was, among all the works presented to the institution against the reformer, which demonstrated the ability of polyphonic musical writing to clearly convey the message of the scriptures.

Leonel Power - Alma Redemptoris Mater
Collection of pieces Old Hall, manuscript that contained the most important sacred works of the time, at least 65% of the manuscript was composed by Power.

Baroque in music (XVI-XVIII)
Cultural and artistic movement, which was established in music with the arrival of the opera in 1598 with the premiere of Dafne by Jacobo Peri and with the popularity that this genre takes after 1608 with the presentation of "L'Orfeo, favola in música "By Claudio Monteverdi; Logically, the arrival of the opera does not happen overnight, before it existed the pastoral dramas, the madrigals, the arias and the concertato style, which were handled by the same principle that governed the opera; that is, instrumental music as a support for the sung or recited drama staged. Another highlight of the baroque is the emergence of instrumental music, solo concerts, dances, suites, quartets, among other styles ... They are implemented to give prominence so deserved and so common in our days of musical performers.
Unlike Renaissance, the baroque divides his work into different sets of musical styles, such as: religious choral music, instrumental music, chamber music, instrumental chamber music and opera. These divisions are generated by the new possibilities aroused by the concertato style, known at the time as the new practice, which consisted in the use of musical instruments to accompany and harmonize the compositions of the moment.
The emergence of instrumental music brings with it the establishment of tonality, thanks to the works of Jean Philipe Rameau, in which the schemes and rules under which music will be governed for the next 300 years are officially considered; these schemes were based on the typical musical customs of his time, and sought to favor those "musical phenomena", so to speak, which were pleasing according to the human ear, and of course the total rejection of what he said was not .

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Born in Cremona, he was a composer, gambista and Italian singer. His life is a clear example of the transitional era between the Renaissance and the Baroque; proof of this are the observable changes that occurred throughout his 8 books of madrigals, in which the musical tendencies used in 5 of them belong to the Renaissance and in the other 3 to the Baroque. He was the creator of "L'Orfeo, favola en música", a work in which the definitive structures and techniques under which Italian opera will be ruled for the next 200 years are exhibited.

Opera
The opera originated in Italy was a combination of different musical styles as: tocatas, ritornelos, ballets, madrigals, arias and recitatives; the use of each of these genres obeyed a dramatic or rhetorical function. It was initially conceived as a recreation of Greek theater; so that aspects such as: yes the dialogues were to be sung or recited, the subjects that were to be represented and the musical instruments they would use. The themes of the first Italian operas used to be fantastic stories of Greek or Roman culture. This genus will evolve as it spreads across Europe and survives the passage of time; such is the case of France where Jean Batipste Lully creates the French opera; or in romanticism when Richard Wagner uses the opera as an old sketch to create his musical dramas.

L'Orfeo, Favola in Music
Released between 1607 and 1608, it differs from the rest of the previously composed operas because this work consolidates, for the first time, the structure that will be followed for the composition of the upcoming Italian operas and the impact that this work had on society Italian and throughout Europe because it was represented for 30 years without stopping and is still known to this day. For the reasons previously exposed, the premiere of this work is taken by most musicologists as the beginning of the baroque in music.
The play begins with a play and an exhibition of the ritornelo that appears between acts, then tells the story of Orpheus and his wife Eurydice, who was bitten by a snake and inevitably dies before reaching the village where her future husband was, receive the news, Orpheus decides to go to Hades using his musical gifts to rescue his beloved. And he is allowed to pass on the sole condition that he never look away.

Vocal camera music
In the baroque vocal chamber music, were works made for few singers and instrumentalists. They were generally used to entertain important events and meetings in small spaces; and it was even quite common to find this format in the opera. This music was characterized by the use of concertato style or new practice; that is, one or more voices, as soloists, accompanied by the instruments of the continuum - instruments generally capable of reproducing a serious register such as: the harpsichord, the viola da gamba, the lute, the thiorba and the baroque guitar - which consolidated a harmonic base on which the rest of the music was woven; between the compositions with these characteristics they used to enter the genres of arias, cantatas, madrigals among others ...

Claudio Monteverdi
For you I look - The coronation of Poppea

The lament of the Ninfa - Eighth book of Madrigales

Georg Haendel
Birthday Ode for Queen Anne - Eternal source of light divine

Henry Purcell
When I am laid in earth - Dido and Aeneas

Jean Baptiste Lully (1632 - 1687)

Composer, dancer and violinist originally from Italy, later nationalized French. He was the personal musician and composer of King Louis XIV and was therefore the most powerful authority regarding music in France. He directed, organized and composed music for almost all the important events of the kingdom; because other musicians were hardly entrusted with this task. He organized the famous "24 Violins of the King" a small string orchestra that accompanied Louis XIV everywhere. Creator of the French overture - a genre used to fan the king's entrances and indicate the beginning of the events of the royalty, and which subsequently formed part of almost any composition - and the French opera. He was a devoted promoter of ballet and instrumental music; it is even theorized that the term orchestra -place to dance- originates in the Palace of Versailles thanks to the continuous representations of ballets accompanied by the musicians who resided there. Lully was not only a brilliant composer, but also a sample of the king's power and interest in art.
Instrumental music
France was thanks to Jean Baptiste Lully the cradle of instrumental music, which is increasingly accepted and admired by Baroque society; this contributed enormously to its rapid diffusion. While this format was more widespread and more diversified, a large number of genres and variants arose; that ranged from a soloist, who could be accompanied by an instrumental ensemble, to great orchestras that played tocatas, escapes, fantasies, suites, sonatas, chaconas, passacaglias, among other genres ... that were happening one of the others, it was extremely ornamented and virtuous and in addition they were accompanied with sections of improvisation. The most common for this format, especially in Spain, France and England, was the composition of stylized instrumental dances.
Jean Baptiste Lully
Chaconne - The Gentle bourgeois man

Gaspar Sanz
Canaries - Spanish Suite (Modern Recreation)

Reinhard Keizer
Sinfonia from 'Der lächerliche Printz Jodelet'

Arcangelo Corelli
Sonata for violin n 2

Otros compositores importantes:

Antonio Vivaldi (1678 -1741)
Nacido en Venecia fue un compositor, violinista, sacerdote y profesor, que dedicó su vida y obra a trabajar en el orfanato para niñas della Pieta, donde la música se utilizaba como medio para mantener ocupadas a las jóvenes huérfanas y como herramienta para una sofisticada crianza. Fue el responsable de reforzar los cimientos de una de las formas barrocas más importantes y conocidas, el concierto.

Johan Sebastián Bach (1686 – 1750)
Proveniente de una antigua ascendencia de reconocidos músicos, dedicó su vida entera a componer para la ciudad de Leipzig, donde fue maestro de capilla. Es considerado actualmente el padre del contrapunto. Compuso más de mil obras, e incluso se sabe que muchas de ellas se han perdido, entre ellas hay música vocal e instrumental -teclado, órgano, cuerdas-.

Doménico Scarlatti (1685 – 1757)
Nacido en el Reinado de Nápoles, se asentó en España donde realizó la mayoría de su obra. Instauró las formas y el estilo del preclásico junto con los hijos de J. Sebastián Bach.

Jean Phillippe Rameau (1683 – 1764)
Uno de los teóricos más importantes de la música, que reunió las tendencias más populares de la música, basándose en la aceptación de la comunidad de compositores, para crear sus Tratados de Armonía, sobre los que se infunda la “Tonalidad”

François Couperin (1668 – 1733)
Compositor y organista francés, responsable de crear una estrecha relación entre la poesía y la música, mediante el uso de títulos y distintos humores en sus obras.

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Bibliography
This work was thought about the chairs of Dr. Eduardo Plaza (2015-2016) and Dr. Eduardo Lecuna (2016-2017) on History of music, harmony and musical analysis.

Consulted books
Atlas, Allan (1998) Renaissance Music: Music in Western Europe, 1400-1600

Flawkes, R (S.f) History of classical music.

Grout, D (1984) History of Western Music, fifth edition (1991)

Plaza, Juan Bautista (1991) Thesis on the history of music, 2nd Edition of the Plaza