The Renaissance period comes from the word ‘rebirth’. During this era there was an interest in writings, philosophies, and art of ancient Greece and Rome. People started to value empirical evidence and reasoning compared to speculative which is without data. Music started to be characterized by textures of intertwining melodies and the Church and nobility became important patrons of music. One point that excites me about this period is how music sung by voices survived since instrumental music often gets improvised. Since I play the violin it is relieving to hear how original pieces of music still exist even if it is not for instruments.
A historical event that I knew about this period from high school is the Protestant Reformation. It was a sixteenth century European movement aimed at reforming the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. The textbook describes music from that period “fresh” since Martin Luther created a new genre. His genre was named ‘the chorale’ which was a tune with German text sung by the congregation. Martin Luther believed that music sung in the vernacular was essential to worship, hence the reason why German music started to thrive during this era.
One composer I picked to listen to under the Renaissance time period was Thomas Morley. The piece I listened to is called ‘Sing We and Chant It’. This music does satisfy my textbook expectations because it is an up beat song and during the Renaissance one would think of optimistic music since it is during an era of rebirth. There were advancements during society and this song is a representation of that. Also in my high school orchestra class we would listen to songs from this era, and they all had a similar beat and rhythm.
While I was reading your blog post I found it interesting that you are a violinist and you said that it was relieving to hear original pieces of music even if it is not for instruments because as a piano player I can agree. You historical fact was also fascinating because I was not aware of Martin Luther being named “the chorale”.