Renaissance Music Era (1400-1600)

The Music of the Renaissance Era

The Renaissance era was a time when science, art, and music flourished. In music, many important changes happened. Intervals of thirds and sixths were treated as consonances (nice sounding harmonies). During the middle ages they had been seen as dissonant (harsh sounding harmonies) and the perfect intervals were consonant. This gave Medieval music a “hallow” sound and Renaissance music a more “lush” sound.

Polyphony in Renaissance Music

Polyphony is when two or more melodies are played at the same time. During the Renaissance era, this started to get more complicated and rules began to solidify for composing certain harmonies. 

Invention of the Printing Press

Music had to be hand-copied until the printing press was invented in 1439. The printing press made it cheaper and easier to make many copies of music and get them to musicians to play. Now, rich musicians could play music at their house for fun.

Renaissance Music Era Forms

Masses and motets were popular religious music forms during the Renaissance era. 

 German lied is vocal music accompanied by an instrument. This became a popular form of music along with the madrigal, frottola, and the chanson.

At the end of the 16th century, the opera was born. “Dafne” by Jacopo Peri and Jacopo Corsi with a libretto (lyrics) by Ottavio Rinuccini is considered the first opera. It was written in 1589 and had acting, singing, and music all together. The composers were trying to imitate Greek music, but ended up making something new. Many of the first opera subjects were about Greek mythological characters because they liked Greek culture so much.

Critical Thinking Questions