Music in the Renaissance

by Richard Freedman, Walter Frisch

Overview

Renaissance music in its cultural, social, and intellectual contexts.

Richard Freedman's Music in the Renaissance shows how music and other forms of expression were adapted to changing tastes and ideals in Renaissance courts and churches. Giving due weight to sacred, secular, and instrumental genres, Freedman invites readers to consider who made music, who sponsored and listened to it, who preserved and owned it, and what social and aesthetic purposes it served. While focusing on broad themes such as music and the literary imagination and the art of improvisation, he also describes Europeans' musical encounters with other cultures and places.

Western Music in Context: A Norton History comprises six volumes of moderate length, each written in an engaging style by a recognized expert. Authoritative and current, the series examines music in the broadest sense—as sounds notated, performed, and heard—focusing not only on composers and works, but also on broader social and intellectual currents.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393929164
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	10/23/2012
Series:	Western Music in Context: A Norton History
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Richard Freedman is John C. Whitehead Professor of Humanities at Haverford College. His writings include a book, The Chansons of Orlando di Lasso and Their Protestant Listeners: Music, Piety, and Print in Sixteenth-Century France, and articles in numerous publications, including The Musical Quarterly, Music and Letters, and The New Grove Dictionary of Music. He is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Mellon Foundation.

Walter Frisch is H. Harold Gumm/Harry and Albert von Tilzer Professor of Music at Columbia University. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including Brahms: The Four Symphonies, The Early Works of Arnold Schoenberg 1903–1908, and German Modernism: Music and the Arts. He is the recipient of two ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.

Table of Contents

Anthology Repertoire xiii

Series Editor's Preface xv

Author's Preface xvii

Part I Beginnings

Chapter 1 Music and the Cultures of the Renaissance 4

The Craft of Composition: Two Views 4

Changing Styles and Contexts 8

Music and the Renaissance: Some Problems 10

Humanism in Thought, Word, and Belief 12

Music and the Spirit of Religious Reform 13

Music and the Cultures of Print 13

Music and the Renaissance Gentleman 14

A Dialogue with the Past 14

For Further Reading 15

Chapter 2 Learning to Be a Musician 17

A Plain and Easy Introduction 18

The Duet as Testing Ground 23

Learning about the Modes 25

The Lost Art of Unwritten Counterpoint 28

Teaching Methods 30

Sixteenth-Century Trends 32

For Further Reading 34

Part II Before 1500

Chapter 3 Music at Court and a Songbook for Beatrice 38

The Chapelle, Chambre, and Ecurie 39

A Wedding at Savoy 40

Musical Patronage as Aristotle's "Magnificence" 43

Tinctoris's "New Art" 45

Music in Motion 47

A Songbook for a Princess 47

Performing Chansons at Court 54

For Further Reading 57

Chapter 4 Piety, Devotion, and Ceremony 58

Music in Church 59

Du Fay and a New Marian Service for Cambrai 62

Polyphony at the Margins of the Liturgy 64

A Memorial Mass by Obrecht 66

Dunstable, the Song of Songs, and Musical Devotion 67

The Sound of Sacred Processions 68

Music for Corpus Christi Processions 71

A Ceremonial Carol 72

Music for Ceremonies of State 73

Du Fay's Motet for Pope and Emperor 74

For Further Reading 77

Chapter 5 Structures arid Symbols in Cantus Firmus and Canon 78

Cantus Firmus and the Ceremonial Motet 79

The Caput Masses 80

The L'homme armé Tradition 82

Ockeghem's Musical Puzzles 88

Old Structures, New Listeners 89

For Further Reading 90

Part III Around 1500

Chapter 6 Number, Medicine, and Magic 96

Music, Number, Proportion 96

Theory versus Practice 99

Music and Medicine 101

Dowland, Du Fay, and the Sounds of Melancholia 104

Music and Neoplatonic Magic 106

Ficino and the Cosmic Dimension 108

For Further Reading 112

Chapter 7 Music and the Ideal Courtier 113

Castiglione's Book of the Courtier 113

Federico da Montefeltro: The Ideal Prince 115

The Courtier and the Theater of Appearances 116

Songs Fit for a Courtier 118

Seranno Aquilano, Singer and Poet 119

Marchetto Cara and the Frottola 120

A Frottola in Detail: Tromboncino's Ostinato vo' seguire 122

Music, the Court Lady, and the Courtesan 124

Fortunes of the Courtier Aesthetic 127

For Further Reading 129

Chapter 8 Josquin des Prez and the "Perfect Art" 131

Perfection in Practice: Josquin's Ave Maria… virgo serena 132

Renaissance Images of Josquin des Prez 133

Isaac's Competing Claim 134

The Josquin "Brand" 136

Josquin, Petrucci, and Music Printing 137

By Josquin or Not? 139

Mille regrets and the Problem of Authorship 142

Josquin des Prez or Not? 143

Josquin's Pupils, Real or Imagined? 145

Reconsidering Josquin's Genius 146

For Further Reading 148

Chapter 9 Scribes, Printers, and Owners 150

Handmade Books 151

Music in Print 158

Owners and Collectors: Princes, Priests, and Bankers 163

Composers, Printers, and Publics: Who Owned Music? 167

For Further Reading 169

Part IV After 1500

Chapter 10 Music and the Literary Imagination 174

Pierre Attaingnant's Songbooks 174

Madrigals and the Art of Pleasing Variety 179

In a Lighter Vein 183

Madrigal Parodies 185

Luca Marenzio and the Madrigal of the Late Sixteenth Century 189

Marenzio and the Avant-Garde Poets 190

For Further Reading 192

Chapter 11 Music and the Crisis of Belief 193

Sacred Sounds for a Nation of Divided Faiths 194

From the Cantiones to Byrd's Gradualia 195

The Reevaluation of Catholic Music 197

Palestrina's Missa nigra sum 200

Lasso and Counter-Reformation Munich 201

Crossing Confessional Boundaries 202

Protestant versus Catholic in Music 205

Congregational Hymns among the Protestants 208

Luther and the "Wondrous Work of Music" 209

Vautrollier and the Spiritual Correction of Secular Songs 213

For Further Reading 215

Chapter 12 The Arts of Improvisation, Embellishment, and Variation 216

The Singing Ladies of Ferrara 217

Courtly Improvisers, Courtly Audiences 219

Marenzio's Overdi selve: A Madrigal for the Concerto delle Donne 220

Learning the Arts of Embellishment from a Papal Singer 222

Embellishment for Everyone 223

Borrowed Melodies, "Italian Tenors," and the Art of Instrumental Variation 225

Fantasia: Playing from Imagination 228

Fabrizio Dentice's Solo Lute Fantasias 229

For Further Reading 231

Chapter 13 Empire, Exploration, and Encounter 232

Venice and the World 233

Greeks and Moors 233

Jews and Music, from Italy to England 237

The Bassano Family 238

French and English Protestants Abroad 240

The Catholic Mission in New Spain 241

Sacred Music in the Americas 243

Matteo Ricci's Musical Encounters in China 245

A Musical Parliament of Nations? 247

For Further Reading 249

Chapter 14 Tradition and Innovation around 1600 250

A Madrigal by Claudio Monteverdi 250

A Motet by Carlo Gesualdo 253

Claude le Jeune's Dodecacorde: The Modes of Social Harmony 254

Last Words 256

For Further Reading 258

Glossary A1

Endnotes A7

Credits A15

Index A17