Medieval and Renaissance Music
From Gregorian chant and the birth of polyphony to the flowering of Renaissance vocal art.
Definition
The music of the European Middle Ages and Renaissance, spanning the development of plainchant, the rise of polyphony, and the mature imitative vocal styles of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Scope
Covers Western music from roughly 800 to 1600: plainchant and its notation, the emergence of polyphony (organum, the Notre Dame school, the motet), the secular song of the troubadours and Ars Nova, and the imitative vocal polyphony of the Renaissance from Du Fay through Josquin to Palestrina and the madrigal. Excludes the Baroque turn to monody and tonality, treated separately.
Core questions
- How did plainchant develop and come to be notated?
- How did polyphony emerge from organum to the motet?
- What were the Ars Antiqua and Ars Nova?
- How did Renaissance composers develop imitative vocal polyphony?
- What were the chief sacred and secular genres of each era?
Key concepts
- Gregorian chant
- Organum and the Notre Dame school
- Motet
- Ars Antiqua and Ars Nova
- Imitative polyphony
- Mass and motet (Renaissance)
- Madrigal
- Modal system
History
Plainchant, consolidated under the Carolingians, was first overlaid with polyphony in the organum of the Notre Dame composers; the fourteenth-century Ars Nova expanded rhythmic and secular possibilities, and Renaissance composers from Du Fay to Palestrina perfected a smooth imitative vocal polyphony that became a model for later study.
Key figures
- Léonin
- Pérotin
- Guillaume de Machaut
- Josquin des Prez
- Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Related topics
Seminal works
- burkholder2019
- hoppin1978
- atlas1998
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between medieval and Renaissance music?
- Broadly, medieval music progresses from monophonic chant to early polyphony with often distinct voice parts, while Renaissance music favors smoother, fuller imitative polyphony in which voices share melodic material more equally.
- What is plainchant?
- The unaccompanied, single-line sacred melody of the medieval Western church, of which Gregorian chant is the best-known body, sung to Latin liturgical texts.