Is Renaissance Music Influential?

Mozart was a prolific and most influential composer of the classical era. As a mere toddler he began to observe his sister’s lessons with their father, developing a keen ear, and showing signs of surprising comprehension. His father, Leopold, was himself a successful composer, violinist and assistant concert master of the Salzburg Court. Both Mozart and his sister were tutored by their father, a dedicated and task-oriented pedagogue. Young Mozart progressed anon, excelling even above his father’s pedagogic genius. At the verdant age of six, he performed as a child prodigy at royal courts in London, Paris, and Zurich. Mozart’s youth was spent fully engaged in touring and performance. These tours were financed through donors and patrons. Through the years, and while abroad, Mozart met many accomplished musicians such as Johann

Another comparison that can be made to the modern era and Renaissance Europe is the field of music. Music has always been a part of the history and served as a form of entertainment for a long time. In early Renaissance Europe, wealthy merchants were able to educate their family in the arts and music. Women from rich families were also involved in music. Music in early renaissance was created in a way to sooth the listener's ears. Music with vocals was predominant and composers documented music for certain instruments. Events that led to changes from 1400 to 1600 (Arkenberg, 2002) led to the major shift in the styles making music, ways of distributing music, neo musical genres and the creation of instrument used in making music. The early Renaissance

Although art and music before the Enlightenment era provided an outlet for emotionally intense and dramatic performances which people looked to for entertainment, the Enlightenment period in Europe from the 16th to 18th centuries created a turning point for art and music by adding a level of complexity, a sense of balance, and by incorporating ideas from reality into the art piece which embellished the fine arts genre throughout Europe.

The Renaissance was an influential period in developing humanistic inquiry. The age is characterized by a deep commitment to education and the arts. People began studying science and creating art for its own sake; it was believed that engaging in such endeavors allowed one to lead a life of morality, and Renaissance artwork was devoted to core values concerning early Christian morality and learning. This paper discusses Joaquin des Prez's "Ave Maria"¦virgo Serena," and how demonstrates core values of Excellence, Community, Respect, and Personal Development, Responsible Stewardship, and Integrity. Attention is paid not only to the lyrics themselves but also to the formal technique of the song.

The Medieval period began in 500 A.D. and ended in 1450 A.D. During this time in particular, the Catholic Church had significant influence on how music was used and created. Sacred music, for example, was most prevalent because of this. Due to the religious nature of this period, music in the church had to adhere to very specific regulations, some of which included prayers such as plainchants or Gregorian chants. A single melody without harmony, or one musical part sung together in unison, is called a Monophonic melody, which was sung primarily by monks. Some time later, around 900 A.D., the using of two melodic lines was permitted by the church, this music was called organum. A low, continuous note called a drone, was sung at the same time as the main melody. The two melodies were often moving in contrasting motion to each other. By the Late-Medieval period, 1100 A.D., the music of the church had shifted from monophonic to more polyphonic, often two or more varying parts.

Claudio Monteverdi, who is considered an originator of opera who composed the earliest example of the genre called Orfeo. Based on ancient Greek mythology, which was the initial intention of opera, Orfeo is a drama about the mythical Greek god Orpheus. To rescue his bride Euridice, he goes down to Hades. In the prologue of Orfeo which is “Del mio Permesso amato”, the Greek muse La Música sets the stage for the drama. At first hearing La Música sing, her melodic voice captures my ears and attention, like letting me know to “listen up”. As was Monteverdi’s intention, I can hear how the harmony is the same while the melody changes throughout. The melismatic singing that accentuates certain words emphasize the importance of setting the mood of the opera (Wright, 6-3c).

Baroque and High Renaissance are two very important periods in art history, during that time a lot of different forms of art were created which include architecture, painting, and music. Baroque is just another word for having flashy symmetrical decoration. It’s a style that started around the 1600s in Italy and with its popularity it quickly spread around Europe. High Renaissance artist displaces the importance of draftsmanship, structured, and often-centralized compositions. Many artists quickly rise to stardom during these eras. This paper compares and contrasts these two art periods with the works created by great artists such as Marcantonio Franceschini who lived during the Baroque period and Mariotto Albertinelli who lived during the High Renaissance period.

L’Orfeo is a baroque favola by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643). The opera is a retelling of the Orpheus Legend; in which the son of Apollo, a gifted musician, travels to the underworld to take back his deceased wife only to fail because of his doubt of the God of the Underworld, Hades. The piece is a solo recitative throughout, an example of this speech like singing can be seen at 1:25. In addition L’Orfeo is homophonic because it has one clear melody that is accompanied by strings. The strings melody have the same rhythm as the clear melody at times as well as adding harmony to the piece.

During the Renaissance, a new form of music had emerged. This new form of music, known as the madrigal, had become a very popular type of music in the fourteenth century. It had begun the transition from the monophonic Georgian chants and troubadour music of the middle ages to the famous baroque period. The madrigal was very well-liked by courts all around during the time of the Renaissance.

Like the previous eras, Opera continued to be one of the most important music genre is the 19th century, especially in Italy, German and France. Opera served as a form of entertainment for the people of higher social class. Opera music was also popular among the people of other social classes due to the availability of transcribed opera music for them to enjoy in salons or homes of the middle class. This genre was extensively explored and developed by the Italians and Germans. This paper will discuss how Italian and German opera were developed by comparing each composer’s distinctive compositional traits.

3. Medieval and Renaissance culture varied in many ways, aside from the differing music. In the Medieval age (the time between the 5th and 15th century), the church controlled many things, not only music. The church was in charge of education, the church also dominated politics. People very much feared God. Whereas in the Renaissance (15th and 17th century) the state ruled over the church. People in the Renaissance believed that God wasn’t some fearsome being, instead they believed more in logical and practical thinking.

Rossini is probably the most popular composer of this era. His works are many and are extremely popular. Rossini was born in Pesaro in 1792 and on December15th, 1815 when he was only twenty-three years old, he signed a contract to write an opera for a theater in Rome (Weaver, 11). His childhood friend, Gertrude Righetti Giorgi, premiered as Rosina in Rossin’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, on opening night for the Nobile Teatro di Torre Argentina (Weaver, 19). Il barbiere di Siviglia went on to become one of the more famous operas of Rossini’s. This opera went through many struggles, however, because of the similar story

The Baroque time period was a time of artistic style extravagant motion and clear, simply interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, excitement, and magnificence in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, theater, and music. Opera is an arrangement in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining libretto (text) and musical score, typically in a theatrical setting. Opera came out of the baroque period of people wanting to make music that was more expressive. A group of people in Italy decided that a single line of melody with simple accompaniment would be much more expressive than words. This caused the creation of recitatives, which early operas consisted entirely of. This also caused arias, duets, and

The Renaissance time period took place during the 14th and the 16th centuries it began in Europe. The Renaissance was a time of art, open ideas, and new beginnings. Before this time there was the Middle Ages. Then it was not a good time at all, it was full of sickness, disease, death, and the plague it killed almost half of Europe’s population. After the plague slowly decreased the population in Europe started to grow. Lots of new things started to happen. Like Bankers Merchants, and Tradespeople had a new market for their services. People became wealthier and had more money to spend. People began to build much bigger houses and buy more expensive clothes and people became more interested in the art and liturature.

The beginning of the seventeenth century marked the start of opera in Italy. The earliest opera manuscripts to survive are the two settings of Euridici by Peri and Caccini (Grout 43). Although Euridici is the first known opera, Peri and Caccini were both not considered the founder of opera, that honor was instead given to Monteverdi (Grout 51). The reason for this may be because Euridici is said to contain many imperfections including: “weakness of characterization, the limited range of emotions expressed, the lack of clear, consistent musical organization, and above all the monotony of the solo style” (Grout 49). Grout explains that Monteverdi’s opera Orfeo “represents the first attempt to apply the full resources of the art of music to opera” (53). La morte d’Orfeo was the first secular opera performed in Rome in 1619 (Grout 62). This marked the beginning of serious secular opera. Opera continued to