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Renaissance Secular Music

Renaissance Secular Music. Vocal Music. During the Renaissance, secular vocal music became increasingly popular Music was set to poems in various languages, including: Italian, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, and English The development of music printing helped spread secular music.

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Renaissance Secular Music

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  1. Renaissance Secular Music

  2. Vocal Music • During the Renaissance, secular vocal music became increasingly popular • Music was set to poems in various languages, including: Italian, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, and English • The development of music printing helped spread secular music

  3. Vocal Music • Music was an important leisure activity, every educated person was expected to be able to play an instrument and read notation • Renaissance secular music was written for groups of solo voices and for solo voice with accompaniment • Word painting was common

  4. Vocal Music • An important kind of secular vocal music during the Renaissance was the madrigal • A madrigal is a piece for several solo voices set to a short poem, usually about love • A madrigal combines homophonic and polyphonic textures

  5. Vocal Music • The Renaissance madrigal originated in Italy around 1520 • Madrigals were published by the thousands in 16th century Italy, where they were sung by cultivated aristocrats • In 1588 a volume of translated Italian madrigals was published in London • This triggered a spurt of madrigal writing by English composers

  6. Vocal Music • For about 30 years there was a constant flow of English madrigals and other secular vocal music. • The time of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) and William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was as much a golden age in English music as it was in English literature.

  7. Vocal Music • Among the finest English madrigalists was Thomas Weelkes (about 1575-1623) • He was an organist and church composer • Weelkes was baptized in the little village church of Elsted in Sussex on 25 October 1576

  8. Vocal Music • In 1597 his first volume of madrigals was published • At the end of 1598, at the probable age of 22, Weelkes was appointed organist at Winchester College • During his Winchester period, Weelkes composed a further two volumes of madrigals (1598, 1600) • Weelkes' fourth and final volume of madrigals, published in 1608, carries a title page where he refers to himself as a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal

  9. Vocal Music • A simpler type of secular vocal music than the madrigal was the ballett(or fa-la) • It is a dancelike song for several solo voices • In contrast to most Renaissance music, the ballett was mostly homophonic in texture, with the melody in the highest voice

  10. Vocal Music • The same music is repeated for each stanza of the poem, and the syllables fa-la are used as refrain • Like the madrigal, the Renaissance ballett originated in Italy • The ballett was cultivated in England from around 1595 to the 1620s

  11. Vocal Music • Among the most widely performed of all balletts is one by Thomas Morely • He lived from 1557-1603 • He was an English composer best know for his madrigals • Morley lived for a time in the same parish as Shakespeare, and a connection between the two has been long speculated, but never proven

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