Renaissance (1400-1600) and Gothic Period Music (1150-1400)

Introduction

Music and literature were closely related in the sacred and secular songs of Renaissance period and Gothic period. Music was an important element in Gothic and Renaissance period for religious festival celebrations, and it was indispensable in fomenting religious ecstasy. The instruments involved often appeared to have western roots; in the Gothic period, many eventually developed into the instruments familiar to Renaissance period audience. This paper explores the ways in which the music of the Renaissance Period (1400-1600) was different from the music of the Gothic period (1150-1400).

Comparison of Gothic Period and Renaissance Period Music

Music held a vital role in medieval Renaissance culture, but in many ways was different from the music of Gothic period. In the Gothic period, much music was transmitted anonymously (Haynes, 168). Most instrumental music was in fact improvised, and little of it made its way to parchment to Renaissance period (Kisby, 94). In the Gothic period, major difference in music from Renaissance time is that most music ordinary people experienced was monophonic, having one melodic line with little or no accompaniment (Haynes, 189). This was true for most instrumental music and of the other main musical repertory, chant or plainsong.

Another important area of Renaissance music is secular song. The troubadours, poet-composers from what is now the south of France, wrote the secular song in the language of Occitan. The focus on monophony that built in early Gothic period (1160 C.E.) has characteristic element in much medieval music of Renaissance Period (Kisby, 121). However, in Renaissance Period polyphony music also developed representing music having more than one melodic line. This addition of a vertical aspect to music led to new developments in Renaissance period music, but monophonic music continued to be important throughout the Middle Ages of Renaissance period (1530 ...