The Spread of New Musical Ideas and Practices to 1600

The Franco-Netherlands group(or just Netherlands or Franco-Flemish)

• After the Burgundians, many prominent musicians grew up and trained in present-day northern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands

• Traveled widely — especially to Italy

Johannes Ockeghem (ca. 1410–1497)

• Singer, composer, director• Student of Du Fay, possibly also of

Binchois• 1443 — choir of Notre Dame• 1445 — Burgundian chapel• Paris — court of the kings of France– Charles VII through Louis XI

Ockeghem’s works• Twelve Masses — expanded on Du Fay’s style

– cantus firmus type– complex styles — intricacies reflect lingering

medievalism• Ten motets in new style

– monotextual– equality of parts, no c.f.– panconsonance with imperfect consonances– through-composed

• Twenty chansons — older cantilena type and newer style like motet

Ockeghem’s style

• Scoring– more homogeneous than preceding style– dark sound — dense – low pitch (composer sang bass), added bass

part in clearly lower range than tenor• Rhythm — fluid• Melody — long phrases, little direction• Modal — mystical effect• Canon — “rule” for realizing several parts

out of one — takes place of isorhythm for showing composer’s skill

Josquin des Prez (ca. 1450–1521)

• Regarded in the sixteenth century as culminator of period style, most skillful

• "Josquin is master of the notes, which must express what he desires; other choral composers must do what the notes dictate." Martin Luther

Josquin’s career• Netherlands native and died there, wide-

ranging career– born in northern France– studied with Ockeghem

• Travel to Italy — characteristic for Netherlands composers– Milan• cathedral 1459• patronage of Sforza dukes 1474–1484

– Rome — Papal chapel 1486–1494• Return to France — royal court 1501–1503• Return to Italy — Ferrara, court of Duke

Ercole 1503• Netherlands — collegiate church of Condé

Josquin’s works• Twenty Masses — conservative — often derivative material

– cantus firmus– fuga based on paraphrase of preexisting melody– parody– soggetto cavato

• Ninety-five motets — offered more freedom, textual inspiration than Mass Ordinary– more progressive than Masses– texts from liturgy, Bible, prayer– techniques — c.f., paraphrase, free

• Ca. seventy secular pieces — most progressive– Netherlands style of chanson — like motet

• generally more familiar style, rhythmic, syllabic• some in fixed forms, others free• four parts in fuga or familiar style, rather than older

three-part texture– Italian — frottola — lighter

• Some instrumental (untexted) pieces

Secular music in the fifteenth and sixteenth

centuries

Amateur music-makingRegional traditions

Printing and the spread of literacy

• Johannes Gutenberg (late fourteenth century to 1468)– invention of

printing from movable type

– Bible completed by 1455

Music printing• Ottaviano Petrucci (1466–1539)– music printing from movable type– Harmonice musices odhecaton A (Venice, 1501)

Music for social use

• Rise of educated, literate class• Musical self-entertainment in the home• Musical participation as mark of social

status and culture

Netherlands chanson• Conservative — motet style– polyphonic — fuga– rhythmically fluid

• Important publisher — Tilman Susato (ca. 1500–1560), Antwerp

French chanson

• Familiar style, rhythmic• Composers– Claudin de Sermisy (ca. 1490–1562) — court

of Francis I, traveled to Italy with court– Clément Janequin (ca. 1485 to ca. 1560) —

church musician, but known mostly for secular pieces• onomatopoeic pictorialisms — La Guerre, Le Chant

des oiseaux• Publisher — Pierre Attaingnant (1494–

1552), Paris — from 1528

German Lied• Monophonic tradition of noble Minnesinger

continued by trade-guild Meistersinger• Polyphonic pieces tend to older style– often canonic imitation– tenor-oriented– frequently incorporated existing monophonic

song tunes• Composers– Heinrich Isaac (ca. 1450–1517) – Ludwig Senfl (ca. 1490–1543)

Spanish villancico• Popular song or modeled on style of

popular music• Rhythm — strongly marked, generally

duple, but rather irregular• Texture — homorhythmic; three to four

voices, early with text in highest part only, later more parts sung

• Form — similar to earlier fixed forms– estribillo (refrain) — text abba or abab, music

A = abcd– coplas (stanzas), separated by return of

estribillo• mudanza — text cddc or cdcd, music BB =

efef• vuelta — text abba or dbab, music A = abcd

• Composer Juan del Encina (1468 to ca. 1530)

Italy — the frottola

• Vernacular poetry on amorous or satirical topics

• Syllabic• Familiar style (top-voice orientation)• Strong, patterned rhythms• Simple, diatonic harmony• Strophic form• Representative composer, Marco

(Marchetto) Cara (ca. 1465–1525)

Italy — the madrigal• Sources– Netherlands-style polyphonic chanson– frottola– excellent poetry• Petrarch sonnets — from fourteenth century• Italian humanist poets of sixteenth century

• Stages of development– Netherlands composers — simple, restrained

style• ex., Jacques Arcadelt (1504–1567)

– growing expressive devices, complexity• ex., Cipriano de Rore (1516–1565)

Questions for discussion

• Did national taste, the predilections of particular patrons, and the personalities of composers affect music more in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries than in earlier periods?

• How did the printing of music affect musical style starting in the sixteenth century? Might it have had any negative effects on music?

• In what ways did the relationship of music to words increase the vitality of music in the sixteenth century? What might music have lost in exchange?