The Musical Sounds and Styles of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Periods

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The Musical Sounds and Styles of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Periods

            Music began long ago with our ancestors and it is divided into periods drawn from musical development. One of these periods is the medieval era of music, which is considered musical and was done between the period c.1150-c.1400. The music in this era and age was mainly secular music of the church, which focused on the behavioral and character change. This change was subjective to foreign traditions and laid the interest in new age music.

. Leonin’s “Alleluia” with Marriage of the Virgin is a song written in the medieval period of musical revolution. This liturgical composition is repetitive and it is sung in praise of the Virgin Mary. The growth of Christianity was what led to the introduction of secular music as well. This type of music is at first sung in unison. Played on one key, the notes are usually of the same length and this is the main challenge. The song is smooth and polyphonic, a perfect epitome of the principles of medieval period. In the song not much of the composer’s emotions are expressed but the major concern is the religious aspect of response to the gradual call of praise. The use of voices is dominant here and the acapella style is the main sound of the song.

Josquin “Ave Maria” with Annunciation is a song written in the musical revolutionary period of 1400-1600. This period is called renaissance musical period and it is traced back to the 1400-1600s when the major changes were experienced in the musical scene. This was a notable shift from the ancient styles of composing music. Renaissance means rebirth or reconstruction of an old idea to a new one just as Josquin did in Ave Maria. Josquin “Ave Maria;” with Annunciation, in the spirit of the works of arts that was done was depictive of independence and much autonomy. This creativity helped Josquin artists to give up the rather strict ways of the previous period, the Medieval. This new generation’s influence was influenced by the Greek ideologies. This type was turning its attention from God to man as science and arts took more precedence in humanity. It is at this time when the non-religious music was gaining grounds and was becoming more popular. The song is a polyphonic work consisting of five voices singing one text.

In this late baroque, music has to be preferably owing to the new technology of printing techniques and that has made it easier to have it distributed to the people. Based on the smooth polyphonic style, sacred music remained of great importance and secular music was becoming very wide spread. The primary forms of sacred vocal polyphony were masses and motets, which were accompanied by the small instruments. This form was very harmonious as compared to previous forms and most preferred by many. It involved many imitations where themes from one song imitated the previous one, an attribute that became unique to this form of revolutionary music. Josquin stopped using the modal system of harmony that was mostly used in the previous generation. This was dropped to include the use of major and minor scales that brought a great feeling on the music.

This defined the second musical era although the change was gradual over a period. The change of culture was driven by the classical styles that originated from Italy during the 14^th century and quickly spread all over. This change was placing much emphasis on rhythmic and word arrangement. Instruments were used in this era without the vocal sound but later on the instruments were considered less important and more emphasis was put on the vocals. Instruments were used to accompany the voices, and for dancing as well as accompanying the vocal music. Instruments involved included the brass, the strings family, percussion, woodwinds.

Baroque, a Portuguese name for something strange was used to mean applying more art than music. This period of musical revolution is the birth of the modern orchestra, alongside the concerto, sonata, and the modern cantata. Orfeo Tu se’ morta with Orpheus in the Underworld, is an example of music done during the Baroque period of revolution. A better version of the viol of the renaissance was replaced by the invention of violin, viola, the harpsichord and the cello. In this song, the principle of affection is applied allowing Orfeo Tu se’ morta with Orpheus in the Underworld to express their emotions and thoughts in their pieces of work. Dissimilarity in the level of volume, touch, and tempo, are the most important aspects of this piece of music. As opposed to the previous periods, this song emphasizes on the use of vocal and instrumental effect

Opera and the orchestra are the products of the late baroque era that were introduced around 1600. Scarlatti Sonata in C Sharp Minor had an idea to focus on turning the listener’s attention to the songs’ rhythmical tune of the song. As the orchestra grew, the concerto became one of the mainly admired forms of music in Europe and was seen as the late baroque. In this song, the lead solo instrumentalist plays the opposite of the orchestra thus creating a great feel that creates the uniqueness of the Baroque.

Similar to the renaissance era, the use of polyphonic and counterpoint is evidently used by both Scarlatti Sonata and Vivaldi in Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra. The difference is on the use of the techniques. Compared to Leonin’s “Alleluia”, Vivaldi is harder to perform because of its engaging of musical instrument and vocals used. In the Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra, Vivaldi’s song maintains the use of instruments as the acappella styles were withdrawn and became less common in music

Compared with the Dance of the villagers and the Landscape with a Rainbow, the dance of the villagers works best in showing the spectacular culture of artistic events. Dances are important compliments of music as they bring in the mood of the song and influence its touch.