Classical Music: Renaissance
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
The Renaissance started in the early 1400s and continued until the end of the 16th Century. This period saw the development of harmony and the growth of the tradition of great ecclesiastical works.
Thomas Tallis (1505-1585)
Tallis was a prolific composer of sacred music for both the Roman Catholic and the Protestant churches. His career spans three monarchies: Henry VIII (with the dissolution of the monasteries), Mary (who re-established Catholicism) and Elizabeth.
He began his career as organist at the Benedictine Priory at Dover, then moved to Waltham Abbey where he stayed until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1540. He was then appointed organist at Canterbury Cathedral, and in 1543 became a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, which position he retained until his death. Like Byrd (his pupil) he remained loyal to the old religion, yet he managed to retain Royal favour.
Probably his most famous work is a motet in forty parts, Spem In Alium, although one of his minor tunes (the third of a set of nine written in 1567 for Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker's Psalter, and which did not even receive the dignity of a separate name) was used by Ralph Vaughan-Williams as the in his Fantasia On A Theme Of Thomas Tallis. I make no secret of the fact that, in my opinion, this is the most beautiful piece of music ever composed.
Also well worth hearing is his Lamentations of Jeremiah,
William Byrd (1543 - 1623)
Byrd was the greatest English composer of his generation, one of the acknowledged great masters of the late Renaissance - indeed the quality, range and quantity of his work is such that he is arguably the greatest of the Renaissance composers.
England was, at the time, the pre-eminent musical nation within Europe, and Byrd was also fortunate in that his lifetime saw the introduction of printed music, which meant that his oeuvre was widely disseminated and a good deal of it survives today. His style influenced the music of England and Germany, in particular, for well over two centuries.
Byrd is thought to have been born in Lincoln, where he had his first post as organist at an early age. Later he was appointed to the Royal Chapel of Elizabeth I, until his retirement at the age of fifty. Although, like Tallis, he was a Catholic, in a protestant nation, he was loyal to the Crown and was patronised by the great and the good of the day - so much so that Tallis and he were granted exclusive rights to publish sacred music.
One particular contribution was in the then-new form of English anthems - free-standing sacred works for performance during or separate from the liturgy. His major publishing, though, was of latin sacred music, most notably the "Cantiones Sacrae", initially with Tallis. These "sacred songs" represent the most significant English contribution to the motet repertoir.
His work is characterised by a precision and clarity of tone and harmony, and by a precise use of the balance of voices and accompaniment.
Byrd also published numerous songs, sonnets and other works, many of which continue to be performed frequently today. He also wrote a large body of consort work (for up to six instrumental parts).
His largest body of work, though, was for keyboard. Most of this was not published until after his death, due to limitations of the engraving process, but his were amongst the first British keyboard works to be published.
He wrote music for voice, choir and instruments; he wrote sacred music and secular; he wrote anthems, songs and dances. A renaissance man in more ways than one.
Recommended listening is hard with one whose work was so prolific and so uniformly excellent, but any of the "Cantiones Sacraes," the Gradualia and the Great Service are the place to start.
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Claudio Monteverdi began his musical education under Ingegneri as a boy chorister in the cathedral of Cremona. He was employed by Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, in about 1590. At the duke's death in 1613, Monteverdi became Maestro di Cappella at St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice. Monteverdi is remembered today primarily for his contributions to opera (including Orfeo and L'incoronazione di Poppea), and to the development of what later came to be known as the baroque style (his fifth book of madrigals being the first to employ basso continuo. Monteverdi also wrote Masses, motets, Vespers, and Magnificats.
Recommended listening: Orfeo, and the Vespers.
