Chapter 6: The Age of the Renaissance: Music of the Low Countries
The Renaissance
I. Historical Background: Humanism
A. Renewal of interest in ancient Greek and Roman culture affected thinking about music.
B. Humanists encouraged musicians to express emotions in music, that is, to revive the Doctrine
of Ethos (see Cirillo in
CHWM).
C. Scholars translated ancient Greek treatises on music from Greek to Latin, making many available
to Europeans for the first time.
II. Application of Ancient Greek Theory to Polyphony (ca. 14501600)
A. Franchino Gaffurio (14511522) incorporated many concepts of Greek theory into his
influential music treatises.
B. Composers and theorists believed the ancient Greek modes were the same as the church
modes, and accepted stories of the powers of each
(Doctrine of Ethos).
C. Theorists devised rules for counterpoint based on consonance and dissonance.
1. Johannes Tinctoris (ca. 1435ca. 1511),
Liber de arte contrapuncti (1477)
2. Gioseffo Zarlino (15171590), Le istitutioni harmoniche (1558)
D. Composers and singers paid more attention to the relationship between words and music.
III. The Renaissance Period in Italy
A. Rulers of city-states sought to glorify themselves through art.
B. Citizenry accumulated wealth through commerce and wanted prosperity for their families.
C. Wealthy families brought the best musicians from France, Flanders, and the Netherlands to Italy.
D. First collection of polyphony using movable type 1501, published by Petrucci (Harmonice musices
odhecaton ) in Venice (see window in CHWM)
1. Ensemble music printed in oblong partbooks, one volume for each voice part
2. Printed music made it possible for composers' works to be more widely known.
IV. Johannes Ockeghem (ca. 14201497)
A. Background
1. The first of the great northern composers
2. Sang in the Antwerp cathedral choir in 1443
3. Served Charles I, duke of Bourbon, for a short time
4. Sang in the royal chapel of the kings of France from the 1450s to his retirement
(see illustration, p. 114, in CHWM)
5. Never lived in Italy but his works were known there
B. Masses
1. Thirteen Masses
2. Bass voice lower than in earlier music
3. Full, homogeneous sonority. Example:
NAWM 30, De plus en plus: Tenor Mass based on a
chanson by Binchois (CHWM, ex. 6.1)
4. Other Masses have a variety of features.
a. Missa mi-mi is based on a motto using "mi" in two hexachords.
b. Missa cuiusvis toni can be sung in any mode depending on clef combinations.
c. Missa prolationum uses mensuration canon, in which all voices move at different rates of speed
(notated by having each voice sing the same melody but with different clefs and mensuration symbols)
(CHWM, ex. 6.2).
V. The Chanson
A. Chansons by Ockeghem and his followers were very popular.
1. Copied in many manuscripts
2. Arranged or transcribed for instruments
3. The tenor or superius voice could be used as the basis for a Mass.
B. Ockeghem's followers
1. Josquin des Prez (ca. 1450s1521), Jacob Obrecht (ca. 1457/81505), Heinrich Isaac (ca. 14501517)
2. All received their training in the Low Countries and spent part of their careers in Italy.
3. Often arranged popular songs by others
4. Used canon and imitation.
5. Four-part texture replaces the three-part texture of Ockeghem's generation
C. Chansons in the Odhecaton (1501)
1. The Odhecaton was the first printed anthology of chansons using movable type (see facsimile and window in
CHWM).
2. It was published by Ottavio Pettruci of Venice.
3. Its contents include older, Burgundian works for three voices as well as four-voice works by Josquin and
his contemporaries.
D. Josquin's chansons
1. Josquin abandoned the formes
fixes.
2. He used simple poems and set them strophically.
3. Imitative texture prevails, with all four voices equal in importance.
4. His Faulte d'argent (edited in
HAM, no. 91) is in strict canon for five voices.
VI. Josquin des Prez
A. Career
1. Born in France, ca. 1450
2. Sang at the duke's chapel in Milan and for other members of the nobility in Italy and France.
B. Works include seventy secular vocal works.
C. Motets
1. Motets comprised a large percentage of his output, which was unusual for his time.
2. Motets allow for more experimentation than the Mass.
3. Since any sacred Latin text could be a motet text, there were more possibilities for experimenting
with the relationship between words and music.
4. Secular music inspirted his motet style.
5. Example: NAWM 33, De profundis clamavi a te
a. Expresses the meaning of the text
b. Sensitive to the accentuation of the words
c. Scored for low voices
("de profundis": out of the depths) in imitation
d. Melody goes down a perfect fifth for
"profundis"
e. Melody goes up a minor sixth for "clamavi" (I cried out)
6. Example: Ave Maria . . . virgo serena (CHWM, ex. 6.4)
a. One of his most widely copied compositions
b. Uses fugal imitation at the octave, fifth, and fourth
c. Each phrase of text assigned a musical subject that is then taken up in turn by each of the voices
d. After finishing the subject each voice either drops out or continues in free counterpoint.
e. Josquin avoids cadences while keeping the words clear.
D. Masses
1. Cantus firmus Masses using secular tunes (e.g.,
Missa L'homme armι)
2. Missa Hercules dux Ferrariae uses vowels of the hexachord syllables to depict the theme (CHWM, p. 120).
3. Imitation Masses (beginning around 1520) used a polyphonic work as a model (e.g.,
Missa Malheur me bat)
4. NAWM 32, Missa Pange
lingua, one of his last Masses
a. Paraphrases a plainsong hymn
b. All voices share the cantus firmus.
© 2002 W. W. Norton & Company