instrumental music shows up

prelude

• rise of instrumental music in the renaissance governed by

  • exploitation of compositional styles and genres idiomatic to the instruments and independent of vocal music

  • reliance on preexisting vocal genres

• categories of emerging instrumental music

  • dance music

  • arrangements of vocal music

  • settings of existing melodies

  • variations

  • abstract instrumental works

dance music

• social dancing was popular in the renaissance especially for well-bred people - they were expected to be good dancers

• it was basically the only place you could go to find love

• suuuuper high expectations

• dance music was improvised but started to be published after the invention of the printing press

• music served two very different purposes in the renaissance

  • dances for ensemble were functional and suitable for accompanying dancers

    • typically plain uppermost principal melody

    • homophonic

  • dance pieces for solo lute are stylized and intended for the enjoyment of the listener

    • earliest form to gain independence from vocal music

• each dance follows a particular meter, tempo, rhythmic pattern

• distinguished by the particularity of rhythm and form

• feature distinct sections, usually repeated, with two, three, or more sections depending on the dance

• danserye - specific parts for specific instruments aren't named in the scores until the 17th century

  • most instruments were built in families covering the range from soprano to bass so that any instrument could take any part

  • mixed ensembles using instruments from different families became more popular

  • toward the end of the sixteenth century contrasting sounds became the rule in instrumental music, moving towards combination of strings and winds

• dances were grouped in pairs or threes - slow dance in duple meter followed by fast one in triple meter on the same tune

  • pavane - stately dance in three repeated strains (AABBCC)

  • galliard - followed the same form with a variant of the same melody

arrangements of vocal music

• instruments doubled or replaced voices in polyphonic compositions, reading from the vocal parts and adding embellishments

• lutenists and keyboard players made arrangements of vocal pieces, either improvised or written down as tablature (intabulations)

• examples of renaissance tendency to rework existing music

settings of existing melodies

• many instrumental settings of chansons

• could be played as background music or for their own pleasure

• catholic services could alternate between choir chant and organ cantus firmus

• lutheran hymns could alternate between unison congregation and polyphonic setting for choir or organ

variations

• combined change with repetition, taking a given element and presenting an uninterrupted series of variants on it

• achieves length and coherence in pieces without words

• variations on dance tunes written for lute

• solo lute repertory was developed independently of mainstream vocal music and became the first to harbor a style idiomatic to the instrument

• lute variations on standard poetry

• became popular with english keyboardists (virginalists)

• interest in varying melodies rather than bass patterns and bare melodic outlines

abstract instrumental works

• cultivated several types of music that were truly independent of dance rhythms or borrowed tunes

• improvising figuration on polyphonic instruments or drawing on imitative textures from vocal music

• ranked among the earliest examples of solo instrumental music and became mainstays of the repertory for solo player

• canzona - leading genre of contrapuntal instrumental music, embellished and later thoroughly reworked chansons

  • long-short-short opening figure

  • features a series of themes that differ from each other in melodic outline and rhythm

  • giovanni gabrieli

  • divided choirs