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• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Renaissance

(Zhos-kan’ da Pra) c. 1440–1521 Franco-Flemish composer In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, there were at least five musicians by the name of Josquin belonging to musical establishments around Europe. Most were singers, with perhaps a small-time composer among them. As a result much ambiguity surrounds the Josquin who was undoubtedly the greatest composer of his generation. ...

• Classical
• Medieval Era

‘Medieval’ as a concept is very hard to define, and the period itself is just as difficult to delineate. It was a term invented by Renaissance writers who wished to make a distinction between their modernity and what had gone before. Although the onset of the Renaissance is often taken to be around the beginning of the fourteenth century, ...

• Inside the Music
• Classical
• Medieval Era

Du Fay’s Mass L’homme armé was one of the first of several dozen Masses of that name composed between the years 1450 and 1700. ‘L’homme armé’ (‘The Armed Man’) was a popular, probably satirical, tune which may have been aimed at the less-valiant members of the French army during the last stages of the Hundred Years’ War. Attracted by ...

• Inside the Music
• Classical
• Renaissance

Cantus firmus technique, in which a pre-existent melody forms the basis of a new composition, lends itself well to musical homage, and it is likely that the selection of cantus firmi was often influenced by the dedicatee or patron. This might mean the choice of a favourite song, or a section of plainchant whose text held some ...

• Classical
• Renaissance

Classical ideals began to emerge and take shape in musical treatises in the late fifteenth century. One of the most famous exponents of this was Johannes Tinctoris (1430–after 1511), who, in his writings, claimed that music had been reborn in the works of John Dunstaple (c. 1390–1453) and his followers around 1440. Also central to Renaissance thinking about music ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Renaissance

(Klo-dan’ da Sâr-me-se’) c. 1490–1562 French composer Sermisy spent most of his adult life in Paris and was the leading exponent of the genre known as the ‘Parisian chanson’. Mostly for four voices, his songs are similar in style to the early madrigal, which was developing at the same time. They are relatively easy to sing, with lively rhythms ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Renaissance

(Kla-man’ Zhan-kan’) c. 1485–1558 French composer Janequin’s failure to procure a stable and lucrative job may have been due to the fact that he spent most of his career outside Paris, the centre of French culture. Nevertheless, he became the principal exponent of the narrative chanson, a form popular in the mid-sixteenth century. These songs are often relatively long ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Renaissance

(Ya’-kob Ob’-rekht) c. 1450–1505 Franco-Flemish composer Obrecht, who has long lived in the shadow of his more famous contemporary Josquin, may begin to receive the attention he deserves now that changes in Josquin’s biography show that many of the musical developments once attributed to him first appeared in Obrecht’s music. Innovator or not, Obrecht was a composer of considerable ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Renaissance

c. 1490–c. 1546 Scottish composer Carver’s first composition may have been for the coronation of James V (1513); the Dum sacrum mysterium Mass is composed in 10 parts. Four of his other Masses remain extant and demonstrate the influence of Franco-Flemish style of composition characteristic of Josquin and others of the age. Recommended Recording: Missa Dum sacrum mysterium, Motets, ...

• Styles & Forms
• Classical
• Renaissance

The main opportunities for professional music-making in the Renaissance continued to be provided by the church and by royal and ducal courts, particularly those in Italy. They sponsored musical entertainment both on a large scale, such as the lavish Florentine intermedi, and on a more intimate level, in the form of the madrigal. The influence of humanism ...

• Styles & Forms
• Classical
• Renaissance

As a period in art history, the Renaissance dates from the beginning of the fifteenth century to the first part of the sixteenth. Under the influence of perspective and the rediscovery of Ancient Greek statuary, painting and sculpture in Western Europe, and particularly Italy, were transformed by a worldview we now know as ‘humanism’. This phenomenon led ...

• Women in Music
• Classical
• Renaissance

During the Renaissance, European noblewomen were taught to sing and play particular instruments deemed suitable for them, such as the harp, lute and keyboard. Improvising songs with accompaniment was an important aspect of such music-making but, as in other improvising traditions, few women of this class ever wrote down the music they created, so it ...