The Renaissance :: essays research papers

The conversionThe literal heart and soul of the word Renaissance is rebirth. This idea of rebirth definitely applies to the symphony of this diaphragm. The Renaissance followed the Middle Ages and spanned from 1400 to 1600. A central characteristic was the rebirth of humanism, which is a stylus of looking at our world, emphasizing the importance of human beings, their nature, and their place in the universe. One main purpose of the humanistic view was to educate pupils to be the ideal gentleman or universal man that was reminiscent of the Hellenic ideal.During the Renaissance vocal music was more important than instrumental music, and composers during that period wrote music to enhance the meaning and emotion of the text. (Source www.thinkquest.org) Renaissance composers often use word painting, a musical representation of specific human emotions. overbolds program painting was used in the madrigal, which is a piece that matches the word of the poetry with a musical setting . For example if the text had words like rising, flying, or soaring then the music would be fast upward scales. (Source Jeremy Yudkin discernment Music) The roughly famous composer that wrote such madrigals was Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.Palestrina, according to most Renaissance scholars, was a master composer. He started out in 1554 do Masses and sang in the Cappella Sistina. (Source w3.rz-berlin.mpg) He was so famous that he was actually asked to rewrite the churchs main plainchant books, just now had to follow the Council of Trents guidelines. His most famous Mass, Missa Papae Marcelli, was in fact in line with the Counter reclamation, which he always was. His conservative attitude towards making the Catholic polyphonic music helped composers down the line to create new music for the church. Even though the polyphonic texts invaded the church, most of the Ordinary of the Mass, which is the Kyrie eleison, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Andus Dei stayed in the main in plain chant for at least some parts.The Protestant Reformation actually helped the Catholic Church come to let the Mass fetch more active with polyphonic hymns. The musical boundaries were expanded because the invention of opinion which led to a larger circulation of text. Even though the church grew towards easier hymns music still gradually move to a secular way of creating music. The altogether Protestant Reformation started because the king of England and Martin Luther, the king wanted to divorce his showtime wife and the pope would not recognize this break of the marriage vow.