Essay On Renaissance Music

Music played an essential role in Italy during the Renaissance period, just as it does in current times. Major changes were made in composing, disseminating music, new musical genres, and the development of instruments. Church music was the most important music for those in the Renaissance. Polyphony, the use of different vocal melodies, became popular and was used in church choirs. The notation of writing music, neumes, was constantly changed. Neumes originally only stated the direction of the melody, but musicians began to add note heads and flags, stating how long to hold the note. A motet, a type of vocal music, was being developed around the end of the Middle Ages. Motets became greatly important during the Renaissance. It was built around the tenor melody. The second and third vocal part, duplum and triplum, were usually faster and higher parts. The tenor part was usually in Latin, while the duplum and triplum could switch languages. This
Polyphonic music had each instrument as its own part. The polyphonic form was much like a round. The difference is that a round keeps the same melody throughout. In polyphonic music, the beginning of the melody may be introduced, and the rest of the song may be different than the others’ music. Occasionally, all the parts might come together to play the same rhythms, but then disperse again. Musicians also simply played the vocal part on their instruments to create dance music. Dance music was one of the most popular types of music in Renaissance Italy. When going to plays, music would be played by instrumentalists to entertain the viewers before the show starts. The music they would were usually dance tunes in consorts of instruments or they would sing madrigals. They would also sing love songs with a lute accompaniment. A lute is a stringed instrument with a round back. It was one of the most respected instruments in Italy during that