Music M401
History and Literature of Music I:
Antiquity to 1750
Renaissance Instrumental Music
Instrumental music in the Renaissance can be divided into several general
types. Naturally, many of these types overlap or can be further
subdivided. Listed below are several of the most common.
Be sure to visit
Iowa State University's Musica Antiqua site for
descriptions, pictures, and sound examples of Medieval and Renaissance
instruments.
1. Genres based on vocal music
2. Variations
Composers wrote many types of variations for instruments. These can
be subdivided into three basic types.
- Variations based on a repeated bass pattern, called a ground
bass.
These include the passamezzo moderno or antico, romanesca, Ruggiero, Folia,
etc.
- Variations based on a recurring chord progression
- Variations on a popular song or dance tune (important among the
English virginalists)
- NAWM 47: William Byrd: Pavana Lachrymae, keyboard
variations (on Dowland's Flow my tears (early 17th century)
-
Listen to online copy
3. Dance music
The immense popularity of social dancing in the 16th century is reflected
in the vast amount of music for the popular dance forms of the day.
Dances were often paired: one in duple with one in a faster triple meter.
- Basse danse: in 3
- Branle: existed in several forms (in 2 or 3); also one of the
steps in the basse danse
- Pavan: stately processional dance in 2; became a popular form
for stylized, virtuosic settings, often paired with the galliard
- Galliard: brisk dance in 3
- Passamezzo (meaning step and 1/2): similar to the pavan in a
faster duple meter, often paired with the saltarello
- Saltarello: "leaping" dance in 3
- Allemande (or alman): moderate duple meter
- Courante: sprightly dance in 2
- NAWM 46: Pierre Attaingnant (editor and printer), Basse danse and
Branle gay from Danseries a 4 Parties, Second Livre (published
1547)
-
Listen to online copy
4. Introductory, Improvisatory, and Imitative genres
5. Instrumental accompaniment to vocal
music
Instruments of course continued to accompany vocal music. One of the
most interesting examples is the English lute song, popular in the early
1600s.
- *NAWM 45: John Dowland: Flow, my tears, air or lute song
(ca. 1600)
-
Listen to online copy
Last updated: 26 October 1998
URL: http://www.music.indiana.edu/som/courses/m401/RenInstrum.html
This page was created by Patrick Warfield and James
Rodgers
and is maintained by Patrick Warfield and J. Peter Burkholder
Comments: pwarfiel@indiana.edu
or burkhold@indiana.edu
Copyright © 1997 by J. Peter Burkholder and Patrick Warfield