The main musical genres of the Renaissance. Musical culture of the Renaissance

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The lesson is held for students of the 5th grade in the 2nd year of studying musical literature.

The purpose of the lesson: education of the aesthetic culture of students through acquaintance with music the Renaissance.

Lesson objectives:

• To give an idea of ​​the role of music and playing music in the life of people of the Renaissance;
• Acquaintance with musical instruments, genres, composers of the Renaissance;
• Acquaintance with the musical works of the European Renaissance;
• Development of skills in elementary auditory analysis of music;
• Formation of an understanding of the relationship between different types of arts;
• Education of emotional perception of works of art;
• Development of thinking and speech of students;
• Expanding horizons.

Lesson type: lesson learning a new topic.

Lesson equipment: multimedia presentation, computer.

Music material:

• W. Bird, piece for virginal "Volta";
• F. da Milano "Fantasy" No. 6 for lute;
• Scene from the film "Elizabeth": The Queen dances the Volta (video);
• I. Alberti "Pavan and Galliard" (video);
• English folk song "Green Sleeves";
• J.P. Palestrina "Mass of Pope Marcello", part of "Agnus Dei";
• O. Lasso "Echo";
• J. di Venosa madrigal "Moro, lasso, al mio duolo";
• J. Peri Scene from the opera "Eurydice".

During the classes

I. Organizational moment

II. Knowledge update

In the last lesson, we talked about the culture and painting of the Renaissance.

– What is another name for this era (“Renaissance” in French)?
What centuries does the Renaissance cover? What era did it change?

Where does this era name come from? What did you want to "revive"?

In which country did the Renaissance begin earlier than in others?

- Which Italian city is called the "cradle of the Renaissance"? Why?

– What great artists lived in Florence? Consider their work.

– How do their creations differ from medieval art?

III. Exploring a new topic

Today we are going back to the Renaissance. We will find out what the music was like at that time. Let's get acquainted with the musical instruments of the Renaissance, see them and hear their authentic sound. And we will also meet with outstanding composers of the Renaissance and their masterpieces.

IV. Working with a presentation

slide 1. Title page.

Slide 2. The theme of our lesson is “Music of the Renaissance”. Time frame - XIV-XVI centuries.

slide 3. Epigraph of the lesson. How do you understand these words?

... There is no living creature on earth
So tough, cool, hellish evil
So that she could not at least for one hour
In it, the music to make a revolution.
(William Shakespeare)

slide 4. In the Renaissance, the role of art in the cultural life of society increases. Artistic education is recognized as an important aspect of the development of a noble person, a condition for good education.

Church control over society is weakened, musicians get more freedom. The personality of the author, the creative individuality, is more and more clearly manifested in the compositions. During the Renaissance, the very concept of " composer».

It became very important for the development of music invention of music printing at the end of the fifteenth century. In 1501, the Italian publisher Ottaviano Petrucci published the first collection for home music. New writings were published and distributed very quickly. Now any middle-class citizen could buy music for himself. As a result, urban music-making begins to develop rapidly, covering an increasing number of people.

Slide 5. Musical instruments the Renaissance. Brass, strings, keyboards.

Slide 6. Lute- the most beloved instrument of the Renaissance. Refers to stringed plucked instruments. At first, the lute was played with a plectrum, but by the 15th century they began to play with fingers.

Slide 7. Its body looks like a pear cut in half. The lute has a short neck with frets, bent at a right angle.

slide 8. The lute originated from an Arabic instrument called al-ud (Arabic for "tree"). In the 8th century, oud entered Europe from North Africa during the conquest of Spain by the Arabs and took root at the court of many Spanish nobles. Over time, the Europeans added frets (divisions on the fretboard) to the ud and called it “lute”.

slide 9. Both men and women played the lute.

slide 10. The lute was compact, light, you could take it everywhere with you.

Slide 11. Lute music was recorded not with notes, but with the help of tablature. Look: the lute tablature consists of 6 lines representing the strings. The frets are numbered, the durations are on top.

Slide 12. If the lute was played by people of different classes, then only a very rich person could afford an instrument from the viol family. Violas were expensive, they were made from precious woods, decorated with elegant drawings and jewelry. The violas were of different sizes. In this picture, the angels play the most popular varieties of viols - da gamba and da braccia.

Slide 13. Viola in Italian - "violet". The sound of the viola was very pleasant: soft, gentle and not loud.

Slides 14, 15. The name viola da braccia is translated from Italian as “hand, shoulder”. This was the name of the small viols, which were held at the shoulder during the game.

slide 16. Viola da gamba - "foot". It was large in size, it had to be held between the knees or placed on the thigh when playing. These violas were usually played by men.

slide 17. Have you noticed what classical instruments the viols are very similar to? For violins, cellos. Let's compare the viola da gamba with the cello.

We will hear the sound of the viols a little later.

slide 18.Virginal. A keyboard instrument with a rectangular shape, usually without legs. According to the principle of the device, it was one of the forerunners of the pianoforte. But in terms of sound quality, it was closer to the harp and lute. His timbre was distinguished by softness and tenderness.

slide 19. Who knows what the English word means virgin? Virgo, girl. Guess why they called this instrument so - “girlish”? Most often, young girls of noble birth played the virginal. It is known that even the Queen of England, Elizabeth I, was very fond of virginal and played it well.

Slide 20. William Bird- the largest English composer, organist and harpsichordist of the time of Elizabeth. Born in 1543, died in 1623. He served as court organist. He composed many spiritual works, madrigals and pieces for the virginal.

We listen: W. Bird piece for virginal "Volta"

Slide 21-24. Renaissance artists often depicted musical angels on their canvases. Why? What does this mean? Why do angels need music? What about people?

slide 25. Look what a big group of musicians. What are they playing? What do they feel? Are they good together? W. Shakespeare's words fit this picture? What is the key word in these verses? Unity, concord.

Listen how friendly the strings are
They join the ranks and give a voice, -
As if mother, father and young boy
They sing in happy unity.
We are told by the accord of strings in a concert,
That the lonely way is like death.

Slide 26. Instrumental genres Renaissance eras were divided into 3 types: transcriptions of vocal works, virtuoso pieces of an improvisational warehouse (richercar, prelude, fantasy), dance pieces (pavane, galliard, volta, moresca, saltarella).

Slide 27. Francesco da Milano- the famous Italian lute player and composer of the 16th century, whom his contemporaries called "Divine". He owns numerous pieces for the lute, united in three collections.

We listen: F. da Milano "Fantasy" for lute

Slide 28. In the Renaissance, the very attitude towards dance changes. From a sinful, unworthy occupation, dance turns into an obligatory accessory of secular life and becomes one of the most necessary skills of a noble person. Balls are firmly included in the life of the European aristocracy. What dances were in fashion?

Slide 29. Volta– A popular dance of the 16th century of Italian origin. The name volta comes from the Italian word voltare, which means "turn". The tempo of the volta is fast, the size is triple. The main movement of the dance: the gentleman sharply raises and turns the lady dancing with him in the air. Moreover, this movement must be performed clearly and gracefully. And only trained men could cope with this dance.

We look: Fragment of the video film "Elizabeth"

Slide 30- a solemn slow dance of Spanish origin. The name pavana comes from the Latin pavo - peacock. The size of the pavane is two-part, the pace is slow. They danced it to demonstrate to others their greatness and luxurious costume. The people and the bourgeoisie did not perform this dance.

Slide 31.galliard(from Italian - cheerful, cheerful) - a moving dance. In the character of the galliard, the memory of the common folk origin of the dance has been preserved. It is characterized by jumping and sudden movements.

The pavane and the galliard were often performed one after the other, forming a kind of suite.

Now you will see a fragment of the concert of the early music ensemble "Hesperion XXI". Its leader is Jordi Savall- Spanish cellist, gambo player and conductor, one of the most respected musicians today, performing ancient music authentically (as it sounded at the time of its creation).

Slide 32. We look: I. Alberti "Pavan and Galliard".

Performed by the Early Music Ensemble "Hespèrion XXI" J. Saval.

Slide 33. Vocal genres The Renaissance was divided into ecclesiastical and secular. What does "secular" mean? Mass and motet sounded in the church. Outside the church - caccha, ballata, frottola, villanella, chanson, madrigal.

slide 34. Church singing reaches the pinnacle of its development. This is the time of polyphony of "strict writing".

The most outstanding polyphonic composer of the Renaissance was the Italian Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. His nickname - Palestrina - received the name of the city in which he was born. He worked in the Vatican, held high musical positions under the papacy.

Mass- a piece of music consisting of prayers in Latin, sounding during a service in the Catholic Church.

We listen: G. P. da Palestrina "Mass of Pope Marcello", part of "Agnus Dei"

slide 35. secular songs. English ballad "Green sleeves"- very popular today. The words of this song are attributed to the English king Henry VIII. He addressed these poems to his beloved Anne Boleyn, who later became his second wife. Do you know what this song is about?

slide 36. Lyrics of the song "Green Sleeves" translated by S.Ya.Marshak.

We listen: English ballad "Green Sleeves"

Slide 37- one of the most prominent representatives of the Dutch polyphonic school. Born in Belgium, lived in Italy, England and France. For the last 37 years of his life, when his name was already known throughout Europe, he led the court chapel in Munich. He created more than 2,000 vocal works of both cult and secular nature.

slide 38. Chanson "Echo" was written for two four-part choirs. The first choir asks questions, the second choir answers him like an echo.

We listen: O. Lasso Chanson "Echo"

Slide 39(from the Italian word madre - "mother") - a song in the native, maternal language. Madrigal is a polyphonic (for 4 or 5 voices) song of lyrical content in a sublime character. This vocal genre flourished in the 16th century.

slide 40.Gesualdo di Venosa- Italian composer of the 16th century, one of the greatest masters of the secular madrigal. He was a mysterious person. A rich prince, ruler of the city of Venosa. Having caught the beautiful wife of treason, Gesualdo, in a fit of jealousy, took her life. Periodically fell into melancholy and hid from everyone in his castle. He died at the age of 47, in a confused mind ...

During his lifetime, he published 6 collections of five-part madrigals. A feature of the style of G. di Venosa is the saturation of music with chromaticisms, colorful juxtapositions of dissonant chords, unique for his time. So Gesualdo translated into music his terrible mental pain and pangs of conscience.

Contemporaries did not understand his music, they considered it terrible, harsh. Musicians of the 20th century appreciated him, a film was made about G. di Venosa, books are written, and the composer A. Schnittke dedicated the opera Gesualdo to him

Slide 41. Madrigal "Moro, lasso, al mio duolo" is one of the latest creations of G. di Venosa. He owns both music and lyrics:

Oh! I'm dying of grief
The one who promised happiness
He's killing me with his power!
Oh, mourn the evil whirlwind!
The one that promised life
Gave me death.

We listen: G. di Venosa "Moro, lasso, al mio duolo"

Slide 42. At the end of the 16th century in Florence arose Florentine Camerata- a circle of musicians and poets who wanted to revive the ancient Greek tragedy with its inherent special manner of pronouncing the text (something between speech and singing).

Slide 43. The birth of opera. From these experiments, opera was born. On October 6, 1600, the premiere of the first surviving opera Eurydice took place in Florence. Its author is the composer and singer Jacopo Peri.

We listen: J. Peri Scene from the opera "Eurydice"

V. Lesson summary

- What new did you learn today about the Renaissance?

What instrument do you like the sound of? How?

– What modern instruments do the lute, viola, virginal look like?

What did people sing during the Renaissance? Where? How?

– Why did Renaissance artists so often depict musicians?

- What music that sounded today at the lesson did you like, remember?

VI. Homework (optional):

• Sing the song "Green Sleeves" from the notes, those who wish can pick up an accompaniment to it;
• Find musical paintings by Renaissance artists and talk about them.

The era of the High Renaissance.

(From the history of Italian music since 1500)

The Renaissance is a period of change in all areas of art - painting, architecture, sculpture, music. This period marked the transition from the Middle Ages to the present. The period between 1500 and 1600, called the High Renaissance, is the most revolutionary period in the history of European music, the century in which harmony was developed and opera was born.

In the 16th century, music printing first spread, in 1501 the Venetian printer Ottaviano Petrucci published the Harmonice Musices Odhecaton, the first major collection of secular music. It was a revolution in the dissemination of music, and also contributed to the fact that the Franco-Flemish style became the dominant musical language of Europe in the next century, since, being an Italian, Petrucci mainly included the music of Franco-Flemish composers in his collection. Subsequently, he published many works and Italian composers, both secular and spiritual.

Italy becomes the center of the creation of harpsichords and violins. Many violin workshops open. One of the first masters was the famous Andrea Amati from Cremona, who laid the foundation for a dynasty of violin makers. He made significant changes to the design of the existing violins, which improved the sound and brought it closer to the modern look.
Francesco Canova da Milano (1497 - 1543) - an outstanding Italian lute player and composer of the Renaissance, created a reputation for Italy as a country of virtuoso musicians. He is still considered the best lute player of all time. After the decline of the late Middle Ages, music became an important element of culture.
During the Renaissance, the madrigal reached its peak and became the most popular musical genre of the era. Madrigalists sought to create high art, often using the reworked poetry of the great Italian poets of the late Middle Ages: Francesco Petrarca, Giovanni Boccaccio and others. The most characteristic feature of the madrigal was the absence of strict structural canons, the main principle was the free expression of thoughts and feelings.
Composers such as the representative of the Venetian school, Cypriano de Rore, and the representative of the Franco-Flemish school, Roland de Lassu, experimented with increasing chromatism, harmony, rhythm, texture, and other means of musical expression. Their experience will continue and culminate in the Mannerist era of Carlo Gesualdo.
In 1558, Josephfo Zarlino (1517-1590), the greatest theoretician of music from the time of Aristotle to the Baroque era, created the Fundamentals of the Harmonica, in this largest creation of musical science of the 16th century, he revived the ancient concept of a sounding number, substantiated the theoretical and aesthetic justification of a large and small triads. His teaching about music had a significant impact on Western European musical science and formed the basis of numerous later characteristics of major and minor.

The Birth of Opera (Florentine Camerata)

The end of the Renaissance was marked by the most important event in musical history - the birth of opera.
A group of humanists, musicians, and poets gathered in Florence under the auspices of their leader, Count Giovanni De Bardi (1534 - 1612). The group was called "kamerata", its main members were Giulio Caccini, Pietro Strozzi, Vincenzo Galilei (father of the astronomer Galileo Galilei), Giloramo Mei, Emilio de Cavalieri and Ottavio Rinuccini in their younger years.
The first documented meeting of the group took place in 1573, and the most active years of the "Florence Camerata" were 1577 - 1582.
They believed that the music was "corrupted" and sought to return to the form and style of ancient Greece, believing that the art of music could be improved and, accordingly, society would also improve. Camerata criticized the existing music for its excessive use of polyphony at the expense of the intelligibility of the text and the loss of the poetic component of the work, and proposed the creation of a new musical style in which the monodic text was accompanied by instrumental music. Their experiments led to the creation of a new vocal and musical form - the recitative, first used by Emilio de Cavalieri, subsequently directly related to the development of opera.
At the end of the 16th century, composers began to push the boundaries of the Renaissance styles, the Baroque era came to replace it with its own characteristics and new discoveries in music. One of them was Claudio Monteverdi.

Monteverdi. Presso in Fiume Tranquillo.

Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (May 15, 1567 - November 29, 1643) was an Italian composer, musician and singer. The most important composer of the Baroque, his work is often regarded as revolutionary, marking the transition in music from the Renaissance to the Baroque. He lived in an era of great change in music and was himself the man who changed it.

Monteverdi. Venite, Venite.

Monteverdi. From the opera "Orpheus"

The first officially recognized opera that meets modern standards was the opera "Daphne" (Daphne), first presented in 1598. The authors of "Daphne" were Jacopo Peri and Jacopo Corsi, libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini. This opera has not survived. The first surviving opera is "Eurydice" (1600) by the same authors - Jacopo Peri and Ottavio Rinuccini. This creative union still created many works, most of which have been lost.

Jacopo Peri. Tu dormi, e I dolce sonno.

Jacopo Peri. Hor che gli augelli.

Church music of the 16th century.

The 16th century is characterized by a very strong influence of the Catholic Church and its Inquisition on the development of art and science in Europe. In 1545, the Council of Trent met, one of the most important councils in the history of the Catholic Church, whose purpose was to respond to the Reformation movement. In particular, church music was considered at this cathedral.
Some delegates sought to return to monophonic Gregorian chant and exclude counterpoint from chants; there was already a tacit ban on the use of polyphonic style in sacred music, including almost all sequences. The reason for this position was the belief that polyphonic music, due to contrapuntal plexuses, pushes the text into the background, while the musical harmony of the work is also violated.
A special committee was set up to resolve the dispute. This commission commissioned Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1514-1594), one of the greatest composers of church music, to compose trial masses, taking into account all the requirements of the parties. Palestrina created three six-voice masses, including his most famous "Mass of Pope Marcellus", dedicated to Pope Marcellus II, his patron in his youth. These works had a strong influence on the clergy and put an end to the dispute, speeches against the use of counterpoint in church music ceased.
The work of Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina is the pinnacle of the development of contrapuntal sacred music a capella, combining all possible combinations of polyphony and clarity of texts.

Palestrina. Sicut Cervus.

Palestrina. Gloria

In the musical culture of the Renaissance, several defining innovative features can be distinguished.

First, the rapid development of secular art, expressed in the ubiquity of many secular song and dance genres. These are Italianfrottolas (“folk songs, from frottola words - crowd), villanelles ("village songs"),cacchia , canzone (literally - songs) and madrigals, Spanishvillancico (from villa - village), French songs chanson, GermanLied , English ballads and others. All these genres, glorifying the joy of being, interested in the inner world of a person, striving for the truth of life, directly reflected a purely Renaissance worldview. For their expressive means, the wide use of intonations and rhythms of folk music is typical.

The culmination of the secular line in the art of the Renaissance -madrigal . The name of the genre means "song in the mother (that is, Italian) language." It emphasizes the difference between the madrigal and sacred music performed in Latin. The development of the genre went from an unpretentious one-voice shepherd's song to a 5-6-voice vocal-instrumental piece with a refined and refined lyrical text. Among the poets who turned to the madrigal genre are Petrarch, Boccaccio, Tasso. Composers A. Willart, J. Arkadelt, Palestrina, O. Lasso, L. Marenzio, C. Gesualdo, C. Monteverdi were remarkable masters of the madrigal. Originating in Italy, the madrigal quickly spread to other Western European countries.

The French version of the polyphonic song is calledchanson . It is distinguished from the madrigal by its greater proximity to the real, everyday life, that is, genre. Among the creators of chanson -Clement Jeannequin , one of the most famous French composers of the Renaissance.

Secondly, the highest flowering of choral polyphony, which became the leading musical style of the era. Majestic and harmonious, it perfectly matched the solemnity of the church service. At the same time, polyphonic polyphony was the dominant form of expression not only in spiritual genres, but also in secular ones.

The development of choral polyphony was associated primarily with the work of composers of the Dutch (French-Flemish) school: Guillaume Dufay, Johannes Okeghem, Jacob Obrecht, Josquin Despres, Orlando Lasso.

Orlando Lasso (circa 1532-1594) worked in many European countries. His talent, truly phenomenal, conquered and delighted everyone. In the vast work of Orlando Lasso, all musical genres of the Renaissance are represented (with the predominance of secular music over spiritual). Among his most popular works is "Echo", written in the genre of Italian household songs. The composition is built on a colorful juxtaposition of two choirs, creating an echo effect. The text belongs to the composer himself.

Along with Orlando Lasso, the largest representative of the High Renaissance in music was the ItalianPalestrina (full name Giovanni Pierlui gi da Palestrina, circa 1525-1594). Most of Palestrina's life was spent in Rome, where he was constantly associated with work in the church, in particular, he headed the chapel of the Cathedral of St. Peter. The main part of his music is sacred works, primarily masses (there are more than a hundred of them, among which the famous “Mass of Papa Marcello” stands out especially) and motets. However, Palestrina also willingly composed secular music - madrigals, canzonettes. Compositions by Palestrina for chorus a sarrellabecame a classic example of Renaissance polyphony.

The work of polyphonic composers played a leading role in the development of the main genre of Renaissance music -masses . Originating in the Middle Ages, the genre of the Mass inXIV- XVIFor centuries, it has been rapidly transforming, moving from samples represented by separate, disparate parts to compositions of a harmonious cyclic form.

Depending on the church calendar, some parts were omitted in the music of the mass and other parts were inserted. There are five obligatory parts that are constantly present in the church service. ATI and V - « Kyrieeleison» (“Lord, have mercy”) and« AgnusDei» (« Lamb of God") - a prayer for forgiveness and mercy was expressed. InII and IV - « Gloria"("Glory") and " Sanctus» (« Holy") - praise and gratitude. In the central part,Credo» (« I believe”), expounded the main tenets of the Christian faith.

Thirdly, the growing role of instrumental music (with a clear predominance of vocal genres). If the European Middle Ages almost did not know professional instrumentalism, then in the Renaissance a lot of works were created for the lute (the most common musical instrument of that time), organ, viola, vihuela, virginal, longitudinal flutes. They still follow vocal patterns, but the interest in instrumental playing has already been determined.

Fourthly, during the Renaissance there was an active formation of national musical schools (Dutch polyphonists, English virginalists, Spanish vihuelalists and others), whose work was based on the folklore of their country.

Finally, the theory of music has stepped far ahead, putting forward a number of remarkable theorists. It's FrenchPhilip de Vitry , author of the treatise Arsnova» (« New Art”, where the theoretical substantiation of the new polyphonic style is given); ItalianJosephfo Carlino , one of the creators of the science of harmony; SwissGlarean , the founder of the doctrine of melody.

Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation

Moscow State Open Pedagogical University

them. M.A. Sholokhova

Department of Aesthetic Education

ESSAY

"Music of the Renaissance"

Students of the 5th course

Full-time - correspondence department

Polegaeva Lyubov Pavlovna

Teacher:

Zatsepina Maria Borisovna

Moscow 2005

Renaissance - the era of the heyday of the culture of the countries of Western and Central Europe in the period of transition from the Middle Ages to the new time (XV-XVII centuries). The culture of the Renaissance does not have a narrow class character and often reflects the mood of the broad masses of the people; in musical culture it represents several new influential creative schools. The main ideological core of the entire culture of this period was humanism - a new, unprecedented idea of ​​a person as a free and comprehensively developed being, capable of unlimited progress. Man is the main subject of art and literature, the work of the greatest representatives of the Renaissance culture - F. Petrarch and D. Boccaccio, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian. Most of the cultural figures of this era were themselves multi-talented people. So, Leonardo da Vinci was not only an outstanding artist, but also a sculptor, scientist, writer, architect, composer; Michelangelo is known not only as a sculptor, but also as a painter, poet, and musician.

The development of the worldview and the entire culture of this period was influenced by the adherence to ancient models. In music, along with new content, new forms and genres are also developing (songs, madrigals, ballads, operas, cantatas, oratorios).

With all the integrity and completeness of the culture of the Renaissance in the main, it is characterized by features of inconsistency associated with the interweaving of elements of the new culture with the old. Religious themes in the art of this period continue not only to exist, but also to develop. At the same time, it is so transformed that the works created on its basis are perceived as genre scenes from the life of noble and ordinary people.

The Italian culture of the Renaissance went through certain stages of development: having arisen at the end of the 14th century, it reached its peak in the middle of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century. In the second half of the XVI century. there comes a long feudal reaction, due to the economic and political decline of the country. Humanism is in crisis. However, the decline in art is by no means immediately indicated: for decades, Italian artists and poets, sculptors and architects created works of the highest artistic value, the development of ties between various creative schools, the exchange of experience between musicians moving from country to country, working in different chapels, becomes a sign time and allows us to talk about trends common to the entire era.

The Renaissance is one of the most brilliant pages in the history of European musical culture. The constellation of the great names of Josquin, Obrecht, Palestrina, O. Lasso, Gesualdo, who opened new horizons for musical creativity in the means of expression, the richness of polyphony, the scale of forms; flourishing and qualitative renewal of traditional genres - motets, masses; the assertion of new imagery, new intonations in the field of polyphonic song compositions, the rapid development of instrumental music, which came to the fore after almost five centuries of subjugation: other forms of music-making, the growth of professionalism in all areas of musical creativity: a change in views on the role and possibilities of musical art, the formation of new criteria of beauty: humanism as a really emerging trend in all areas of art - all this is connected with our ideas about the Renaissance. The artistic culture of the Renaissance is a personal beginning based on science. The unusually complex skill of the polyphonists of the 15th-16th centuries, their virtuoso technique coexisted with the bright art of everyday dances, the sophistication of secular genres. Lyrical-dramaticism is gaining more and more expression in his works. In addition, they more clearly manifest the personality of the author, the creative individuality of the artist (this is typical not only for musical art), which allows us to speak of humanization as the leading principle of Renaissance art. At the same time, church music, represented by such major genres as mass and motet, to a certain extent continues the “Gothic” line in the art of the Renaissance, aimed primarily at recreating an already existing canon and through this to glorify the Divine.

Works of almost all major genres, both secular and spiritual, are built on the basis of some previously known musical material. It could be a monophonic source in motets and various secular genres, instrumental adaptations; it could be two voices borrowed from a three-voice composition and included in a new work of the same or another genre, and, finally, a complete three- or four-voice (motet, madrigal, playing the role of a kind of preliminary “model” of a work of a larger form (mass).

The primary source is equally popular, widely known tune (choral or secular song) and any author's composition (or voices from it), processed by other composers and, accordingly, endowed with different sound features, a different artistic idea.

In the motet genre, for example, there are almost no works that do not have any original original. Most of the masses of the composers of the 15th-16th centuries also have primary sources: for example, in Palistrina, out of a total of over a hundred masses, we find only six written on a basis free from borrowings. O. Lasso did not write a single mass (out of 58) on the author's material.

At the same time, one can notice that the circle of primary sources on the material of which the authors rely is quite clearly indicated. G. Dufay, I. Okeghem, J. Obrecht, Palestrina, O. Lasso and others seem to compete with each other, again and again referring to the same melodies, drawing from them every time, new artistic impulses for their works, rethinking tunes as initial intonational prototypes for polyphonic forms.

When performing the work, a technique was used - polyphony. Polyphony is polyphony in which all voices are equal. All voices repeat the same melody, but at different times, like an echo. This technique is called imitation polyphony.

By the 15th century, the so-called polyphony of “strict writing” was taking shape, the rules (norms of voice leading, shaping, etc.) of which were fixed in the theoretical treatises of that time and were an immutable law for the creation of church music.

Another connection, when the performers uttered different melodies and different texts at the same time, is called contrast polyphony. In general, the "strict" style necessarily implies polyphony of one of two types: imitation or contrast. It was precisely the imitation and contrasting polyphony that made it possible to compose polyphonic motets and masses for church services.

A motet is a small choral song that was usually composed to some popular melody, most often to one of the old church tunes (“Gregorian chants” and other canonical sources, as well as folk music).

With the beginning of the 15th century, in the musical culture of a number of European countries, the features inherent in the Renaissance era are becoming more and more distinct. Prominent among the early polyphonists of the Netherlandish Renaissance, Guillaume Dufay (Dufay) was born in Flanders around 1400. His works, in fact, are more than half a century of the history of the Dutch school of music, which took shape in the second quarter of the 15th century.

Dufay led several chapels, including the papal chapel in Rome, worked in Florence and Bologna, and spent the last years of his life in his native Cambrai. Dufay's heritage is rich and plentiful: it includes about 80 songs (chamber genres - vireles, ballads, rondo), about 30 motets (both spiritual and secular, "song"), 9 full masses and their separate parts.

An excellent melodist, who achieved lyrical warmth and expression of melos, rare in the era of strict style, he willingly turned to folk melodies, subjecting them to the most skillful processing. Dufay brings a lot of new things to the mass: he expands the composition of the whole more widely, uses the contrasts of the choral sound more freely. One of his best compositions are the masses "Pale Face", "Armed Man", which use borrowed melodies of the same name of song origin. These songs in various versions form a broadly extended intonation-thematic basis that holds together the unity of large choral cycles. In the polyphonic elaboration of the remarkable counterpoint player, they reveal the previously unknown beauty and expressive possibilities hidden in their depths. Dufay's melody harmoniously combines the tart freshness of the Dutch song with its softening Italian melodiousness and French grace. Its imitative polyphony is devoid of artificiality and heaps. Sometimes the sparseness becomes excessive, voids appear. This affects not only the youth of art, which has not yet found the ideal balance of structure, but also the desire characteristic of the Cumbrian master to achieve an artistic and expressive result with the most modest means.

The work of Dufay's younger contemporaries, Johannes Okeghem and Jakob Obrecht, is already attributed to the so-called second Netherlandish school. Both composers are major figures of their time, who determined the development of Dutch polyphony in the second half of the 15th century.

Johannes Okeghem (1425 - 1497) worked most of his life at the chapel of the French kings. In the face of Okeghem, in front of Europe, fascinated by the soft, melodious song lyricism of Dufay, the naive meek and archaically bright euphony of his masses and motets, a completely different artist appeared - a “rationalist with a passionless eye” and a sophisticated and technical pen, sometimes avoiding lyricism and striving to capture as soon as possible in music there are certain extremely general laws of objective existence. He discovered an amazing mastery of the development of melodic lines in polyphonic ensembles. Some Gothic features are inherent in his music: figurativeness, non-individual nature of expressiveness, etc. He created 11 complete masses (and a number of their parts), including the theme "Armed Man", 13 motets and 22 songs. It is the large polyphonic genres that are in the first place for him. Some of Okeghem's songs gained popularity among contemporaries and repeatedly served as the primary basis for polyphonic arrangements in larger forms.

Okeghem's creative example as the greatest master and pure polyphonist was of great importance for his contemporaries and followers: his uncompromising focus on the special problems of polyphony inspired respect, if not admiration, it gave rise to a legend and surrounded his name with a halo.

Among those who connected the 15th century with the next, not only chronologically, but also in terms of the essence of creative development, the first place, no doubt, belongs to Jacob Obrecht. He was born in 1450 in Bergen op Zoom. Obrecht worked in the chapels of Antwerp, Cambrai, Bruges and others, and also served in Italy.

Obrecht's creative heritage includes 25 masses, about 20 motets, 30 polyphonic songs. From his predecessors and older contemporaries, he inherited a highly developed, even virtuoso polyphonic technique, imitation-canonical methods of polyphony. In Obrecht's music, which is entirely polyphonic, we sometimes hear a special strength of at least non-personal emotions, boldness of contrasts in large and small limits, quite “earthly”, almost everyday connections in the nature of sounds and particulars of shaping. His worldview ceases to be gothic. He moves towards Josquin Despres, a true representative of the Renaissance in the art of music.

Obrecht's style is characterized by individual features, including a departure from Gothic detachment, causing opposition, the strength of emotions, and connection with everyday genres.

The first third of the 16th century in Italy is the period of the High Renaissance, a time of creative upsurge and unprecedented perfection, embodied in the great works of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo. A certain social stratum is being formed, by whose forces theatrical performances and musical holidays are arranged. The activities of various academies of arts are developing.

A little later, a period of high prosperity begins in the art of music, not only in Italy, but also in Germany, France and other countries. The invention of musical notation is of great importance for the dissemination of musical works.

The traditions of the polyphonic school remain strong as before (in particular, the reliance on the sample is of the same importance), but the attitude to the choice of topics is changing, the emotional and figurative richness of the works is increasing, the personal, authorial principle is intensifying. All these features are already evident in the work of the Italian composer Josquin Despres, who was born around 1450 in Burgundy and was one of the greatest composers of the Dutch school of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Gifted with a beautiful voice and hearing, from adolescence he served as a chorister in church choirs in his homeland and in other countries. This early and close contact with high choral art, the active and practical assimilation of the great artistic treasures of cult music largely determined the direction in which the individuality of the future master of genius, his style and genre interests developed at that time.

In his younger years, Despres studied the art of composition with I. Okeghem, from whom he also improved in playing various musical instruments.

Later, Josquin Despres tried his hand at all the musical genres that existed at that time, creating psalms, motets, masses, music on the Passion of the Lord, compositions in honor of St. Mary and secular songs.

The first thing that catches the eye in Despres' works is the striking contrapuntal technique, which makes it possible to consider the author as a real counterpoint virtuoso. However, despite the complete possession of the material, Despres wrote very slowly, very critically examining his works. During the trial performance of compositions, he made a lot of changes in them, trying to achieve an impeccable euphony, which he never sacrificed to counterpoint plexuses.

Using only polyphonic forms, the composer in some cases gives the upper voice an unusually beautifully flowing melody, thanks to which his work is distinguished not only by euphony, but also by melody.

Not wanting to go beyond strict counterpoint, Despres, in order to mitigate dissonances, prepares them, as it were, using a dissonant note in the previous consonance in the form of a consonance. Very successfully, Despres also uses dissonances as a means to enhance musical expression.

It should be noted that J. Despres can rightfully be considered not only a talented counterpoint player and a sensitive musician, but also an excellent artist, able to convey in his works the most subtle shades of feelings and various moods.

Josquin was technically and aesthetically superior to the Italian and French polyphonists of the 15th century. That is why, in the purely musical sphere, he influenced them much more than he was influenced by them. Until his death, Despres led the best chapels in Rome, Florence, and Paris. He has always been equally devoted to his work, contributing to the dissemination and recognition of music. He remained a Dutchman, "a master from Condé." And no matter how brilliant were the foreign achievements and honors that were still given to the “master of music” (as his contemporaries called him), he, obeying the irresistible “call of the earth”, already in his declining years returned to the banks of the Scheldt and modestly ended his life as a canon .

In Italy, during the High Renaissance, secular genres flourished. Vocal genres develop in two main directions - one of them is close to everyday song and dance (frotoles, villanelles, etc.), while the other is connected with the polyphonic tradition (madrigal).

Madrigal as a special musical and poetic form provided extraordinary opportunities for the manifestation of the composer's individuality. The main content of his lyrics, genre scenes. Stage music flourished in the Venetian school (an attempt to revive ancient tragedy). Instrumental forms gained independence (pieces for lute, vihuela, organ and other instruments).

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Tikhonova A. I. Renaissance and Baroque: A book for reading - M .: LLC Publishing House ROSMEN - PRESS, 2003.- 109 p.

The Renaissance, or Renaissance, is a period in the history of the culture of Western and Central Europe, covering approximately the 14th-16th centuries. This period got its name in connection with the revival of interest in ancient art, which has become an ideal for cultural figures of modern times. Composers and musical theorists - J. Tinktoris, J. Tsarlino and others - studied ancient Greek musical treatises; in the works of Josquin Despres, who was compared with Michelangelo, according to his contemporaries, "the lost perfection of the music of the ancient Greeks was revived": appeared at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th centuries. the opera was guided by the laws of ancient drama.

Music theory lessons. From a 16th century engraving.

J. P. Palestrina.

The development of the culture of the Renaissance is associated with the rise of all aspects of society. A new worldview was born - humanism (from the Latin humanus - "human"). The emancipation of creative forces led to the rapid development of science, trade, crafts, and new, capitalist relations took shape in the economy. The invention of printing contributed to the spread of education. The great geographical discoveries and the heliocentric system of the world by N. Copernicus changed the ideas about the Earth and the Universe.

The fine arts, architecture, and literature reached an unprecedented flourishing. The new attitude was reflected in the music and transformed its appearance. It gradually departs from the norms of the medieval canon, the style is individualized, the very concept of “composer” appears for the first time. The texture of works changes, the number of voices increases to four, six or more (for example, a 36-voice canon is known, attributed to the largest representative of the Dutch school, J. Okegem). Consonant consonances dominate in harmony, the use of dissonances is strictly limited by special rules (see Consonance and dissonance). The major and minor scales and the clock system of rhythms are formed, which are characteristic of later music.

All these new means were used by composers to convey a special system of feelings of a Renaissance man - sublime, harmonious, calm and majestic. The connection between text and music becomes closer, the music begins to convey the mood, or, as they said then, the affects of the text, often individual words are illustrated by special musical means, such as “life”, “death”, “love”, etc.

Renaissance music developed in two directions - ecclesiastical and secular. The main genres of church music - mass and motet - are polyphonic polyphonic works for the choir, unaccompanied or accompanied by an instrumental ensemble (see Choral music, Polyphony). Of the instruments, preference was given to the organ.

The growth of amateur music-making contributed to the development of secular music. Music sounded everywhere: on the streets, in the houses of citizens, in the palaces of noble nobles. The first concert virtuoso performers appeared on the lute, harpsichord, organ, viol, various types of longitudinal flutes. In polyphonic songs (madrigal - in Italy, chanson - in France), composers talked about love, about everything that occurs in life. Here are the titles of some of the songs: "Deer Hunt", "Echo", "Battle of Marignano".

In the XV-XVI centuries. the importance of the art of dance increases, numerous treatises and practical guides on choreography appear, collections of dance music, which include popular dances of that time - bass dance, branle, pavane, galliard.

During the Renaissance, national music schools were formed. The largest of them is the Dutch (French-Flemish) polyphonic school. Its representatives are G. Dufay, K. Janequin, J. Okegem, J. Obrecht, Josquin Despres, O. Lasso. Among other national schools are Italian (J. P. Palestrina), Spanish (T. L. de Victoria), English (W. Byrd), German (L. Senfl).