Editing Renaissance music (section)

==Overview==
The main characteristics of Renaissance music are:{{sfn|Fuller|2010}}
* Music based on [[Mode (music)|modes]].
* Rich texture, with four or more independent melodic parts being performed simultaneously. These interweaving melodic lines, a style called [[polyphony]], is one of the defining features of Renaissance music.
* Blending, rather than contrasting, melodic lines in the musical texture.
* Harmony that placed a greater concern on the smooth flow of the music and its [[chord progression|progression of chords]].

The development of polyphony produced the notable changes in musical instruments that mark the Renaissance musically from the Middle Ages. Its use encouraged the development of larger ensembles and demanded sets of instruments that would blend together across the whole vocal range.{{sfn|Montagu|n.d.}}

One of the most pronounced features of early Renaissance European art music was the increasing reliance on the [[interval (music)|interval]] of the third and its inversion, the sixth. (In the [[Middle Ages]], thirds and sixths had been considered dissonances; and consonances were derived only of the perfect intervals: the [[perfect fourth]], the [[perfect fifth]], the [[octave]], and the [[unison]]). [[Polyphony]]—the use of multiple, independent melodic lines played simultaneously—became increasingly elaborate throughout the 14th century, with highly independent voices in both vocal music and instrumental music. The beginning of the 15th century showed simplification, with the composers often striving for smoothness in the melodic parts. This was possible because of a greatly increased vocal range in music. Previously, in the Middle Ages, the narrow vocal range necessitated frequent crossing of parts, thus requiring a greater contrast between them to distinguish the different parts. 

The [[Mode (music)|modal character]] of Renaissance music—later replaced by the [[Tonality|tonal]] approach developing in the subsequent [[Baroque music]] era—began to break down towards the end of the (Renaissance) period with the increased use of [[Root (chord)|root motions]] of fifths or fourths; (see [[Circle of fifths]] for details). An example of a [[chord progression]] in which the chord roots move by the interval of a fourth is the chord progression in the key of C Major: "D minor/G Major/C Major"—these are all triads; three-note chords. The movement from the D minor chord to the G Major chord is an interval of a perfect fourth. The movement from the G Major chord to the C Major chord is also an interval of a perfect fourth. This later developed into one of the defining characteristics of tonality during the Baroque era.{{Citation needed|date=February 2019}}

=== Background ===
As in the other arts, the music of the period was significantly influenced by the developments which define the [[Early Modern]] period: the rise of [[humanism|humanistic]] thought; the recovery of the literary and artistic heritage of [[Ancient Greece]] and [[Ancient Rome]]; increased innovation and discovery; the growth of commercial enterprises; the rise of a [[bourgeois]] class; and the [[Protestant Reformation]]. From this changing society emerged a common, unifying musical language, in particular, the [[polyphony|polyphonic]] style of the [[Franco-Flemish school]].

The invention of the [[printing press]] in 1439 made it cheaper and easier to distribute music and music theory texts on a wider geographic scale and to more people. Prior to the invention of printing, written music and music theory texts had to be hand-copied, a time-consuming and expensive process. Demand for music as entertainment and as a leisure activity for educated amateurs increased with the emergence of a bourgeois class. Dissemination of [[chanson]]s, [[motet]]s, and [[mass (music)|masses]] throughout Europe coincided with the unification of polyphonic practice into the fluid style which culminated in the second half of the sixteenth century in the work of composers such as [[Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina]], [[Orlande de Lassus]], [[Thomas Tallis]], [[William Byrd]] and [[Tomás Luis de Victoria]]. Relative political stability and prosperity in the [[Low Countries]], along with a flourishing system of [[music education]] in the area's many churches and cathedrals allowed the training of large numbers of singers, instrumentalists, and composers. These musicians were highly sought throughout Europe, particularly in Italy, where churches and aristocratic courts hired them as composers, performers, and teachers. Since the printing press made it easier to disseminate printed music, by the end of the 16th century, Italy had absorbed the northern musical influences with [[Venice]], Rome, and other cities becoming centers of musical activity. This reversed the situation from a hundred years earlier. Opera, a dramatic staged genre in which singers are accompanied by instruments, arose at this time in Florence. Opera was developed as a deliberate attempt to resurrect the music of ancient Greece.{{sfn|OED|2005}}

===Genres===
Principal liturgical (church-based) musical forms, which remained in use throughout the Renaissance period, were [[mass (music)|masses]] and [[motet]]s, with some other developments towards the end of the era, especially as composers of [[Religious music|sacred music]] began to adopt [[Secular music|secular]] (non-religious) musical forms (such as the [[madrigal (music)|madrigal]]) for religious use. The 15th and 16th century masses had two kinds of sources that were used: [[Monophony|monophonic]] (a single melody line) and [[Polyphony|polyphonic]] (multiple, independent melodic lines), with two main forms of elaboration, based on ''[[cantus firmus]]'' practice or, beginning some time around 1500, the new style of "pervasive imitation", in which composers would write music in which the different voices or parts would imitate the melodic and/or rhythmic motifs performed by other voices or parts. Several main types of masses were used:
* [[Cyclic mass]] (tenor mass)
* [[Paraphrase mass]]
* [[Parody mass|Imitation mass]]

Masses were normally titled by the source from which they borrowed. ''[[Cantus firmus]]'' mass uses the same monophonic melody, usually drawn from chant and usually in the tenor and most often in longer note values than the other voices.{{sfn|Burkholder|n.d.}} Other sacred genres were the [[madrigale spirituale]] and the [[laude]].

During the period, secular (non-religious) music had an increasing distribution, with a wide variety of forms, but one must be cautious about assuming an explosion in variety: since printing made music more widely available, much more has survived from this era than from the preceding medieval era, and probably a rich store of popular music of the late Middle Ages is lost. Secular music was music that was independent of churches. The main types were the German [[Lied]], Italian [[frottola]], the French [[chanson]], the Italian [[Madrigal (music)|madrigal]], and the Spanish [[villancico]].{{sfn|Fuller|2010}} Other secular vocal genres included the [[caccia (music)|caccia]], [[Rondeau (forme fixe)|rondeau]], [[virelai]], [[bergerette]], [[ballade (forme fixe)|ballade]], [[musique mesurée]], [[canzonetta]], [[villanella]], [[villotta]], and the [[lute song]]. Mixed forms such as the [[motet-chanson]] and the secular motet also appeared.

Purely instrumental music included [[Consort of instruments|consort]] music for [[Recorder (musical instrument)|recorders]] or [[viol]]s and other instruments, and dances for various ensembles. Common instrumental genres were the [[toccata]], [[prelude (music)|prelude]], [[ricercar]], and [[canzona]]. Dances played by instrumental ensembles (or sometimes sung) included the [[basse danse]] (It. ''bassadanza''), [[tourdion]], [[saltarello]], [[pavane]], [[galliard]], [[allemande]], [[courante]], [[bransle]], [[Canarie (dance)|canarie]], [[Piva (dance)|piva]], and [[lavolta]]. Music of many genres could be arranged for a solo instrument such as the lute, vihuela, harp, or keyboard. Such arrangements were called [[intabulation]]s (It. ''intavolatura'', Ger. ''Intabulierung'').

Towards the end of the period, the early dramatic precursors of opera such as [[monody]], the [[madrigal comedy]], and the [[intermedio]] are heard.

===Theory and notation===<!-- This section is linked from [[Medieval music]] -->
[[Image:white mensural notation.gif|thumb|250px|Ockeghem, Kyrie "Au travail suis," excerpt, showing white mensural notation.]]
According to [[Margaret Bent]]: "Renaissance [[music notation|notation]] is under-prescriptive by our [modern] standards; when translated into modern form it acquires a prescriptive weight that overspecifies and distorts its original openness".{{sfn|Bent|2000|p=25}} Renaissance compositions were notated only in individual parts; scores were extremely rare, and [[bar (music)|barlines]] were not used. [[Note value]]s were generally larger than are in use today; the primary unit of [[Beat (music)|beat]] was the [[semibreve]], or [[whole note]]. As had been the case since the [[Ars Nova]] (see [[Medieval music]]), there could be either two or three of these for each [[double whole note|breve]] (a double-whole note), which may be looked on as equivalent to the modern "measure," though it was itself a note value and a measure is not. The situation can be considered this way: it is the same as the rule by which in modern music a quarter-note may equal either two eighth-notes or three, which would be written as a "triplet." By the same reckoning, there could be two or three of the next smallest note, the "minim," (equivalent to the modern "half note") to each semibreve.

These different permutations were called "perfect/imperfect tempus" at the level of the breve–semibreve relationship, "perfect/imperfect prolation" at the level of the semibreve–minim, and existed in all possible combinations with each other. Three-to-one was called "perfect," and two-to-one "imperfect." Rules existed also whereby single notes could be halved or doubled in value ("imperfected" or "altered," respectively) when preceded or followed by other certain notes. Notes with black noteheads (such as [[quarter note]]s) occurred less often. This development of [[white mensural notation]] may be a result of the increased use of paper (rather than [[vellum]]), as the weaker paper was less able to withstand the scratching required to fill in solid noteheads; notation of previous times, written on vellum, had been black. Other colors, and later, filled-in notes, were used routinely as well, mainly to enforce the aforementioned imperfections or alterations and to call for other temporary rhythmical changes.

Accidentals (e.g. added sharps, flats and naturals that change the notes) were not always specified, somewhat as in certain fingering notations for guitar-family instruments ([[tablature]]s) today. However, Renaissance musicians would have been highly trained in [[dyadic counterpoint]] and thus possessed this and other information necessary to read a score correctly, even if the accidentals were not written in. As such, "what modern notation requires [accidentals] would then have been perfectly apparent without notation to a singer versed in counterpoint." (See [[musica ficta]].) A singer would interpret his or her part by figuring cadential formulas with other parts in mind, and when singing together, musicians would avoid parallel octaves and parallel fifths or alter their cadential parts in light of decisions by other musicians.{{sfn|Bent|2000|p=25}} It is through contemporary tablatures for various plucked instruments that we have gained much information about which accidentals were performed by the original practitioners.

For information on specific theorists, see [[Johannes Tinctoris]], [[Franchinus Gaffurius]], [[Heinrich Glarean]], [[Pietro Aron]], [[Nicola Vicentino]], [[Tomás de Santa María]], [[Gioseffo Zarlino]], [[Vicente Lusitano]], [[Vincenzo Galilei]], [[Giovanni Artusi]], [[Johannes Nucius]], and [[Pietro Cerone]].

===Composers&nbsp;– timeline===
{{Timeline_Classical_Composers Renaissance}}