# Renaissance music!



## Byrotte (Nov 4, 2013)

Hello.
I am addicted to renaissance music and tunes. But I feel like I am exploring renaissance music unorganised. Clicking through "Youtube". Which composers should I check out? Which pieces and tunes? What should I know?
Is there a website where I can read about renaissance music and improve? 
Like what's the difference beetween "Motet", "Madrigal", "Mass" and "Consort music" and so on.
And what is "Shakespearian songs"? Is it sonnets that Shakespeare wrote for his plays and composers composed a instrumental to the text?
I am most found of the English composers. William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons. Love the keyboard music! But knowing the music of two composers isn't really enough.

Thanks!


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Wiki is a good place to start. Grove is good if you have access.

OK some wiki links.

Madrigal really a "part song".

If you like English then Dowland, Morley, Weelkes and Wilbye are people to look out for.

Renaissance Music has a number of links to follow.

That should get you started.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

See this page for some renaissance favorites, ordered by century. Each has a YouTube link.

https://sites.google.com/site/kenocstuff/ama/best-works-by-decade


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I've been something of a long-time buff of Medieval and Renaissance music. Just look to the Wiki site for most of the names in Renaissance music which will then link to sites on the individual composers... which will certainly have links to the major musical forms:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Renaissance_composers

Personally, a I would count the following among the most important composers of the Renaissance:

Palestrina
Lassus
Josquin des Prez
Thomas Tallis
Guillaume Dufay
Johannes Ockeghem
Jacob Obrecht
John Taverner
William Byrd
Tomás Luis de Victoria
Carlo Gesualdo
John Dowland
Thomas Campion
John Cooper
Michael Praetorius
Orlando Gibbons
Heinrich Schütz
Johann Schein
Samuel Scheidt 
Sigismondo d'India
Claudio Monteverdi

and I would also look into the collection of English Renaissance music known as the Eton Choirbook:


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## hreichgott (Dec 31, 2012)

If you are prepared to buy a book then go for Burkholder's History of Western Music. It has several excellent chapters on medieval and Renaissance music.

Here are some very quick answers to your questions:

A Mass is a Roman Catholic service of worship that includes the sacrament of holy communion (=Eucharist).
It has a set text that has often been set to music.
The unchanging parts of the Mass are called the Ordinary. Of these, the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei are regularly set to music by composers of many periods. There are also Propers that vary from one day to the next, and special music for particular times in the Mass such as Graduals and Alleluias. Music for the Mass began as plainchant and developed into more complex forms including:

Organum - two or more voices moving at the same time not at the same pitch - one voice has the plain chant and the other is composed to go with it
Discant and florid organum - early polyphony. one voice has the plain chant, one or more additional voices move at the same time as the plain chant, one upper voice has a faster-moving more decorative part. Over time the upper voice became multiple upper voices with multiple fast-moving parts.

In the late Middle Ages someone had the idea to take one of these newly composed faster-moving upper parts from polyphonic chant, give it new words that may or may not be religious, and write other parts to accompany it. That is a motet.

Madrigals are songs in several parts that are usually not religious in nature. They tend to have refrains at the ends of the verses. If it goes fa la la la la a lot it's probably a madrigal 

A consort is an instrumental ensemble.

I agree with the recommendations above. I only know about 75% of those composers but I recommend those 75% heartily!


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Byrotte said:


> Hello.
> I am most found of the English composers. William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons. Love the keyboard music! But knowing the music of two composers isn't really enough.
> 
> Thanks!


If you like English Renaissance music, Tallis is a must, and for secular work, try out John Dowland.


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

Dowland is my absolute favourite of the period, especially his songs and solo lute music. As an introduction to these genres, I recommend "Fine Knacks For Ladies" and "The Frog Galliard" respectively.

If you enjoy the instrumental dance music of this period, a few good examples were recently mentioned here: http://www.talkclassical.com/28274-renaissance-dance-music.html


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Try some of our excellent composer guestbooks:

John Browne
William Byrd
John Dowland
Orlando Gibbons
Thomas Tallis
John Taverner
Thomas Weelkes

And http://www.talkclassical.com/20177-medieval-renaissance-music.html

You will find a range of discussion and examples on all of these - once more - enjoy your journey.


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## Guest (Nov 5, 2013)

Start with Thomas Tallis' amazing 40-part motet "Spem in alium" (listen with headphones, or with a very good surround sound system, as it is meant to be performed in the round), and branch out from there. There are several groups out there that specialize in Medieval and Renaissance music, and their recordings are quite good:

The Tallis Scholars
The Sixteen
Stile Antico
Anonymous 4

There are many others. Personally, if you just work on the Tallis Scholars recordings (on their own Gimmell label), you will get a very good overview of Renaissance music, particularly of the religious works.

Try Paul O'Dette for his Dowland lute recordings. Davitt Moroney did a wonderful complete recording of Byrd's keyboard works, using a broad array of instruments that would have been used in Byrd's time.

If you go to www.classicalcdguide.com, they have a section on their top 10 Renaissance works. It is not exhaustive, and may not even be definitive, but it gives a great starting point, as well as some recommended recordings, many of which are very good.

The music of the Renaissance is sublime. I love the unaccompanied polyphony of the masses - just the pure, clean beauty of well-trained voices singing. Many times I prefer it to the masses of the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras with their orchestral accompaniments. You can sit back and let the words wash over you.


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