1. The musical era for the renaissance period extended from 1400 to the beginnings of the
1600's. This period featured the rebirth of humanism and the revival of cultural achievements.
The Renaissance labelled a time for rebuilding and reconstructing. This era took place after
the medieval period, a period known to be the longest and most remote period of music
history from 800 to 1400. Early music in this time was different than present music, where
during this time a musical notation consisted of one note to be sung. This didn't change until
later in the middle ages when two or more melodic lines were sung called polyphony. The
musicians and artists of this time produced work based on individualism and freedom. As a
result, this creativity allowed artists to abandon the stricter ways of the Medieval Era. With
the new printing techniques, music and musical ideas were able to be preserved and
distributed to the people
The Renaissance was reflected musically through increased expression and more individual
compositional styles. As a result, Renaissance music sounds sweeter and fuller than medieval
music. Renaissance works usually have at least five independent vocal parts, with expanded
ranges (higher soprano parts, lower bass parts). Renaissance composers began to write in a
new way called simultaneous composition, in which all the voice parts were constructed
together phrase-by-phrase (as opposed to the Medieval manner of successive composition, in
which the chant line was pre-determined, an upper melody was constructed next, and the
inner voices were filled in last).
The distinctive musical sounds of the Renaissance era were comprised of a smooth, imitative,
polyphonic style. While sacred music remained of great importance, secular music was
starting to become increasingly common. Therefore, the polyphonic style was not only used
in sacred music, but also in secular madrigals. Masses and motets were the primary forms for
sacred vocal polyphony. These were accompanied by the lute or a small instrumental
ensemble or consort. Secular vocal forms included motets, madrigals and songs, while
instrumental pieces were usually short polyphonic works or music for dancing. Imitative
polyphony was one of the important characteristics of renaissance and franco Flemish music.
Imitative polyphony can be easily heard from the works of Byrd, Gibbons, and Gabrieli.
Additionally, the masses and motets of composers such as Josquin also displayed the
imitative polyphonic style. Imitative polyphony was so important that it continued into the
Baroque period, especially in sacred music for the church.
The Franco-Flemish school of music was at its height during the 1400s. The Franco-Flemish
composers were more interested in creating new techniques within the popular existing forms,
as opposed to inventing new form types. The Netherlands school is also known as the Franco-
Flemish school, the Burgundian school, and the Flemish school. The leading Renaissance
school of composition, it marked the flowering of vocal and choral polyphony and the
culmination of the development of English and French multivoiced vocal music from the
ninth to the beginning of the 15th century. The school was an outgrowth of the high
professionalism, artistic achievements, and folk traditions of the advanced musical culture of
the Netherlands. The following four composers, belonged to the Flemish school; J.
Ockeghem, J. Obrecht, Josquin des Prez and O. Lassus,

2. The universal principles of polyphonic development, known as continuous imitation and
complex counterpoint, which are based on mathematical calculations of intervals and
geometric transformations of motifs, were worked out by the Netherlands school. The main
“fixed melody” (cantus firmus), which was repeated in various inversions and
transformations, created wholeness to compositions, thus embodying the idea of “unity in
variety,” a philosophical concept of the universe. The Netherlands masters developed vocal
polyphony of the strict style, mastering its complex technique with virtuosity. They wrote
church and secular music, including Masses, motets, madrigals, and polyphonic songs
(chansons, Rondeaux, and ballads, for example). In the 16th century they also created
instrumental pieces. The choral Mass a cappella is the school’s greatest achievement.
The deep concentration and clear, inspiring character of the music was by the dominance of
bright, high registers (choirs of boys, male falsettos), the smooth development and
harmonious combination of different melodic lines, and the beauty of the variants of the
counterpoint. The school’s achievements were the result of the variety of combination of the
traditions of medieval religious and philosophical art, humanism and science, which were the
artistic aspects of the Renaissance. Many of the Netherlands musicians were also
mathematicians and philosophers. Undoubtedly, these interests gave rise to the hidden
symbolism of their mathematically calculated compositions and their puzzle, or “riddle,”
canons, which had obscure inscriptions hinting at their solutions (calculations of the times
and intervals at which the various voices enter). The mathematical quality was combined with
the new expressiveness and with extensive use of popular folk melodies, even in the Masses.
The laws of polyphony and the new expressive means elaborated by the Netherlands school
paved the way for the development of instrumental music. The school brought to a close the
centuries-old domination of European music by vocal and choral church genres and the
religious world view. Many of the artistic principles of the Netherlands school remained
important in the subsequent development of European music—not only polyphonic music,
but also homophonic and, later, dodecaphonic compositions.
Josquin Despres (c. 1440-1521) was acknowledged by his contemporaries as one of the most
accomplished composer of his time. Martin Luther proclaimed that, “Josquin is a master of
notes, which must express what he desires; on the other hand, other choral composers must
do what the notes dictate.” Throughout his life, he was by far the most sought after composer
in all of Europe. He was born in the Duchy of Burgundy, now Belgium, and spent his life
living in various Italian cites. He retired to Conde in Northeast France.
He helped to spread polyphony in throughout Europe especially in Italy. The repertoire of his
music surviving today is rather large and is made up of 100 motets, 18 masses and 70 other
chansons and secular songs, in both French and Italian. He was a master of four-voice and
other large textures, as well as parodies, light songs, and French chansons. Because of his
human quality, quantity, and technical mastery, Josquin is still extremely renowned and
respected as a composer today

3. This version of Josquin Desprez's Ave Maria, perhaps his most famous composition and
certainly his most often sung today, appears at the head of the first volume of motets ever
printed (1502); its composition occurred during the composer's service at one of several
French and North Italian courts. This was written sometime between 1476 and 1497. This
motet expounds with classic elegance the stylistic ideals of the Italian Renaissance and
provides one of the best examples of its style, power, and beauty. This Latin prayer to the
Virgin is set to delicate and serene music. Josquin connected the composition to music
already existing within the church by adapting the melody for the opening phrases from a
Gregorian chant, a technique known as parody. The rest of the motet was not based on a chant
melody.
Twentieth century theorists use the term "syntactic imitation" to describe the characteristic
musical structure of High Renaissance vocal pieces. Each musical phrase corresponds to a
phrase of text, and points of imitation frequently expose these phrases. Moments of structural
articulation arrive at cadences, where two or more voices rest on perfect intervals. Within this
style of composition, Josquin wrote this motet with classic balance. Clear imitation of each
phrasing occurs dramatically from the highest voice to the lowest; the imitated melody
resembles a Gregorian chant version of "Ave Maria." Though the phrases of this section are
completely balanced in length, the counterpoint increases in density, producing a strong
climax where all four voices sing together. This climax quickly gives way to an imperfect,
deceptive cadence.
Josquin treats each strophe of the main body of the poem unified and balanced in length with
the other parts. Details often relate directly to the affect of a portion of text, such as the
sudden expanse of complete homophonic harmony at the text "solemni plena gaudio."
Immediately following this moment comes the text "coelestia, terrestria," and the music
builds in climbing melodic lines and dense syncopation of rhythms, as if literally evoking the
sense of the text's filling of heaven and earth. Whereas at the beginning of the motet the
regularity of imitation articulated the phrases, in the middle verses the articulation largely
comes from contrasts in texture. As the piece comes to an end, there is a complete sense of
unity within the music as all the parts sing in unison and help to lead to the end of the piece
by increasing power, saving the strongest, most perfect cadence (consisting only of fifths and
octaves).
This prayer which Josquin sets to a slow-moving, completely homophonic texture, set apart
from the preceding music by an arresting pause in the end. The physical unity of musical
sound, embodying the spiritual unity of prayer, combined with the reflective comfort of slow-
moving and untroubled consonance, completes the act of worship which has been the true
meaning of the text and the music.