Renaissance music Facts for Kids

Renaissance music is a type of European music that was created between about 1400 and 1600. This time period is known as the Renaissance, which means "rebirth." The Renaissance happened after the Middle Ages and before the Baroque period.

Music styles did not change quickly. Early Renaissance music was quite similar to Medieval music. But over time, composers began to try new ideas. Medieval church music often had very strict rules about rhythms and notes that clashed (called dissonances). Many Renaissance composers wrote music that sounded smoother and gentler. This music was still polyphonic, meaning it had several independent melody lines playing at the same time. Music also started to become less modal (based on older scales) and more tonal (using major and minor keys). By the Baroque period, composers were using the major and minor key system we know today.

What Kind of Music Did They Write?
Famous Renaissance Composers
The End of the Renaissance Music Period
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What Kind of Music Did They Write?

Vocal Music

Composers wrote many masses and motets for church services. The 16th century also saw the rise of the madrigal. These were secular (non-religious) songs, often about love. Madrigals began in Italy and became very popular in England around the 1580s. Other popular secular songs included the chanson, canzonetta, and villanelle. Songs were often accompanied by a lute, which is a stringed instrument.

Music was a very important part of daily life during the Renaissance. It was used in cities, churches, and royal courts. New ideas spread across Europe, and big changes in politics, money, and religion from 1400 to 1600 affected music greatly. This led to new ways of composing, sharing music, and developing musical instruments.

At first, the most important music was written for the church. This included polyphonic masses and motets in Latin. By the end of the 1500s, composers could earn money from many sources. These included the Catholic Church, Protestant churches, royal courts, wealthy people who loved music, and even music printing.

Music Notation and How It Changed

An important step forward during the Renaissance was the development of music notation. Many musicians wrote books about music theory. These books help us understand how music sounded back then and what people thought about it. Music started to be written on a music staff with five lines, just like today.

Early Renaissance music did not yet have barlines (the vertical lines that divide music into measures). Notes were written with white note heads. For example, the minim (half note) was once the shortest note that could be written. Later, crochets (quarter notes) and quavers (eighth notes) were introduced. This does not mean the music was slow; it was just how it was written down.

Key signatures had not been invented yet. Sharps and flats were sometimes shown by accidentals (symbols written in front of the notes). However, performers often had to know or even decide for themselves where to add sharps and flats. This was called musica ficta.

The Rise of Music Printing

Another very important invention during this time was music printing. This began in Italy in the mid-16th century. Music printing made it much easier to share music with more people.

Famous Renaissance Composers

Early Composers: The Burgundian School

In the early 15th century, a group of composers known as the Burgundian School emerged from Burgundy. Guillaume Dufay was the most famous among them. Their music still had some similarities to medieval music.

Developing Polyphony

Towards the end of the 15th century, a new style of polyphonic sacred music developed. You can hear this in the masses written by Johannes Ockeghem and Jacob Obrecht. Ockeghem even wrote one piece where all the parts grew from a single musical idea, like a canon.

The 16th Century Masters

In the 16th century, composers began to write music with a clear beat and a regular pulse. Important composers from this time include Josquin des Prez and others from the Franco-Flemish School. There was also a Roman school, which included the famous Italian composer Giovanni da Palestrina. His way of writing polyphony has been a model for centuries. Music students still study "Palestrina technique" to learn how to compose in his style. While church music at this time was mostly polyphonic, it also had homophonic parts where all voices sang the same words together. This helped make important words very clear.

The Venetian School

In Venice, from about 1534 until around 1600, a special style called polychoral music developed. This meant that choirs were separated and sang from different parts of the church, often from balconies. This grand music sounded amazing in large churches like the Basilica San Marco di Venezia. These composers are often called the "Venetian School." Andrea Gabrieli and later his nephew Giovanni Gabrieli wrote this kind of music. Later, Claudio Monteverdi also wrote in this style, bridging the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

The End of the Renaissance Music Period

The change to the Baroque musical style happened around 1600. This was when opera was invented, which required a new way of composing. The composer Monteverdi continued to write in the Renaissance style until about 1600-1650, when he fully switched to the Baroque style.

Images for kids

A group of Renaissance musicians in The Concert (1623) by Gerard van Honthorst
Ockeghem, Kyrie "Au travail suis," excerpt, showing white mensural notation.
Portion of Du Fay's setting of Ave maris stella, in fauxbourdon.
1611 woodcut of Josquin des Prez.
San Marco in the evening. Its large, echoing interior inspired the music of the Venetian School.
A modern French hurdy-gurdy, an instrument used in the Renaissance.
Renaissance recorders.