Renaissance Music Definition, Types, Period, Benefits & Examples

What is Renaissance music?

Traditional definitions of Renaissance music place it later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other fields, in the 15th and 16th century in Europe. The Trecento music was viewed by musicology as a coda to Mediaeval music rather than beginning with the early 14th-century ars nova, and the new period was dated from the emergence of triadic harmony and the expansion of the contenance angloise style from Britain to the Burgundian School. A convenient watershed for its end is the adoption of basso continuo at the beginning of the Baroque period Adoption of basso continuo at the start of the Baroque era serves as a handy watershed for its conclusion.

Renaissance music origin

The bulk of composers in the early Renaissance came from Northern France or the Low Countries, where the support of the ruling class was particularly strong. Later, when the Italian city-state system reached its zenith, attention shifted away from the Alps, and a large number of northern musicians travelled south in search of riches.

Renaissance music history

Around 1400 to 1600 is considered the classical music Renaissance era. The Mediaeval period came before it, and the Baroque period came after it. Although the Renaissance music era was much later than the Renaissance art era, which is thought to have peaked in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it turned out to be just as strong.

Types of renaissance music

The predominant genres included the German Lied, Italian frottola, French chanson, Italian madrigal, and Spanish villancico. Additional secular vocal subgenres included caccia, rondeau, virelai, bergerette, ballade, music mesurée, canzonetta, villanella, villotta, and lute song.

Renaissance music period 

Church music and secular art music both flourished throughout the Renaissance period as a result of the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation in the sixteenth century, which liberalised various forms of art. Although it would continue to change during the Baroque and Classical eras, the printing press’s introduction in 1439 contributed to the unification of music notation across Europe. There are three stages to the Renaissance period itself:

• Early Renaissance: In northern France and the Low Countries, a group of composers known as the Burgundian School, under the direction of Guillaume Dufay, was the focal point of the early Renaissance’s musical output. Early Renaissance music closely resembled late Mediaeval music in style, but with less syncopation and a stronger emphasis on harmonic cadences. During the transition from the early to the middle Renaissance, In their complex masses, church composers Johannes Ockeghem and Jacob Obrecht advanced polyphony.
• Middle Renaissance: The Middle Renaissance started at the time that the Council of Trent of the Catholic church issued decrees against the overuse of polyphony in vocal church music. Obrecht and Ockeghem’s methods were abandoned as a result, but a new group of Renaissance composers who preferred more straightforward types of harmony emerged. The Italian composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina of the Roman School and the Franco-Flemish composer Josquin des Prez are the most lasting composers of the middle Renaissance. Josquin was a master of religious music, while Palestrina invented what is now known as counterpoint—independent melodic lines that weave together.
• Late Renaissance: The late Renaissance gave place to the mannerist movement, in which ornamentation, suspension, and even chromaticism were used to adorn music. This would provide the groundwork for the brash, vivacious, ornate music of the Baroque era.

Renaissance music characteristics

The music of the Renaissance was far more sophisticated than that of the Middle Ages. Renaissance music’s distinguishing features are as follows:

1. Polyphony: While homophonic singing, such as that found in Gregorian chants, is frequently associated with Mediaeval music, Renaissance music by composers like Josquin, Palestrina, and Thomas Tallis placed an emphasis on many voices singing in a polyphonic form. The same applied to instrumental music with several parts.
2. Tonal music: The majority of music during the Middle Ages was modal, which means that it adhered to musical modes rather than the major scale or minor scale. During the Renaissance, this started to alter. Some music, especially vocal music, continued to be modal in character, but emergent genres like the English madrigal and the Italian madrigal embraced the tonal music that is still in demand today. To help the listener’s ear get fixed in a certain key, tonal music focuses a lot of emphasis on cadences at the conclusion of movements or whole compositions.
3. Taking more risks: Early Renaissance music, such as that of Guillaume Dufay, continued to follow the late Middle Ages’ harmonic conventions. But when new musical genres developed throughout the course of the sixteenth century, Renaissance music started to push the envelope and use dissonant elements. Musica reservata, an Italian and German a cappella genre, is characterised by prominent ornamentation and chromaticism. Early Baroque performers like the Venetian composer Claudio Monteverdi would be greatly influenced by musically daring passages by composers like Palestrina.

Advantages of listening to renaissance music

• Reducing stress and anxiety: Because classical music is frequently linked to calmness and relaxation, it may have a calming impact on the body as well as the mind. It has been demonstrated that listening to classical music lowers cortisol levels and increases emotions of serenity and relaxation.
• Improving cognitive function: Studies have shown that listening to classical music can increase attention and concentration as well as memory and cognitive performance. Even listening to classical music has been linked in certain studies to enhanced spatial cognition and problem-solving abilities.
• Encouraging better sleep: The calming effects of classical music on the body and mind can help people fall asleep and remain asleep. It has been demonstrated that listening to classical music before night enhances sleep.
• Improving physical health: Classical music has a favourable impact on one’s physical well-being. For instance, it has been demonstrated that listening to classical music reduces chronic pain and lowers blood pressure and pulse rate. According to certain research, listening to classical music may also assist strengthen the immune system and aid in the healing process.

Renaissance music examples 

The motet, the madrigale spirituale, the mass, and the laude are all examples of musical genres that emerged during the Renaissance and are all examples of liturgical music. The Renaissance era saw the emergence of secular music, which took the shape of ballades, lute songs, villancicos, frottolas, rondos, secular motets, motet-chansons, secular madrigals, and secular canzonettas.