Early Renaissance: Music, Architecture, Paint! The Early Renaissance followed the middle ages and was from 1400 to 1600 time period. The Early Renaissances were mainly located in Italy, but they are also located in most of Europe. In this area Music, architecture, and painting became very huge ideas. The literal meaning of the word Renaissance is “rebirth.” The idea of rebirth applies to the music of this period. A main characteristic was the rebirth of humanism, which is a way of looking at our world, emphasizing the importance of human beings, their nature, and their place in the world. During the Early Renaissance vocal music was more important than instrumental music, and composers during that period wrote music to enhance the meaning and emotion of the work. Renaissance composers often used word painting, a musical representation of specific human emotions. Word painting was used in madrigals, which is a piece that matches the word of the song with a musical setting. (Early Renaissance 2) For example if the text had words like
“Rising,” “flying or soaring” then the music would be fast upward scales. (Stockstad, Marilyn and Michael W. Cothren) The Protestant Reformation actually helped the Catholic Church begin to let the Mass become more active with polyphonic hymns. The musical boundaries were expanded because the invention of printing led to a larger distribution of the text. Even though the church grew towards easier hymns music still gradually move to a secular way of creating music. . Music is an ever-evolving genre and the Renaissance showed that in a matter of 200 years one could create new volumes of the Mass and still come to understanding that secular songs can be a part of worshiping. From plainchant to polyphony then to homophony are very big steps in the way of just rhythm and flow. The Renaissance had many artists that provided visual motivation for many composers to write great pieces of art. One of the