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Musical Changes During the Renaissance

Between the years of 1450 and the 1600s, music was profoundly affected by the great upheaval of the Renaissance. For European musicians, the Renaissance marked the "advent of a new spirit, the reaction of man's sensibility, even sensuality, against theoretical abstraction and useless refinements in technique" (Pincherle 34). The Renaissance also marked a new period when composers began to seek more human forms of musical expression, an idea that later inspired the Romantics.

In the 14th Century, the kings and princes of Europe began employing musicians in staffed "chapels," which were an imitation of the Papel Chapel. Chapels became even more fashionable in the 15th century, when every potentate had his own musicians who would accompany him on travels abroad (Reese 6).

Three notable composers from the first Renaissance school of the 14th century were Dunstable, Dufay and Binchois. Gilles Binchois studied in the choir of the cathedral of Cambrai, which was, by the beginning of the 15th century, one of the chief musical centers in Europe. Other members of the first Renaissance school who studied at the cathedral of Cambrai were Dufay (Reese 48), celebrated theorist Jean Tinctoris (who wrote "Liber de Arte Contrapuncti"), Obrecht, Ockeghem, and Josquin des Prez (Pincherele 37).

During the early 15th century, Josquin des Prez and Jacob Obrecht dominated the musical scene in Europe (Reese 184-207). Josquin des Prez' was well liked for his secular music but was actually best known for the music he composed for the church. His output was immense: 29 masses, 119 motets, 86 secular compositions (including ballads, bergerettes, and songs), nearly all with French words. Thus, des Prez is often associated by music historians with the rise of the French song or "chanson Francoise," while his contemporary, Obrecht, is the only authentic representative of the first Netherlands school. Obrecht sang and taught in choir scho...

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Musical Changes During the Renaissance. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 08:06, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1705902.html