Music Appreciation 1:

Aesthetic & Style

Unit 4: Renaissance Music & Aesthetic
Ages of Western Music: Review

• Western music can be divided into 7 ages/periods:

Unit 4 will
focus on the
Renaissance
Renaissance: • Comparing Medieval & Renaissance

Introduction &
Fashion:
• Which is which?

Overview • What’s the difference(s)?

Renaissance: Introduction & Overview
• Comparing Medieval & Renaissance Art:
• Which is which?
• What’s the difference(s)?
Renaissance: Introduction & Overview
• Comparing Medieval & Renaissance Architecture:
• Which is which?
• What’s the difference(s)?
Renaissance: Introduction & Overview
• Comparing Medieval & Renaissance Music:
• Which is which?
• What’s the difference(s)?

Music Sample 1 Music sample 2

Renaissance: Introduction & Overview

The Renaissance
from the 14th to in which a new developed after
refers to the era
the 16th century style in the Gothic.
in Europe

painting sculpture architecture

Renaissance: Introduction & Overview
Although a religious view of the world
continued to play an important role in the lives of Europeans,

Renaissance period was characterized by

growing awareness of
collective humanity’s worldly
natural world individual
existence.
Renaissance: Introduction & Overview

The ‘what’ & ‘when’ of ‘Renaissance’?

both meaning the term

Derived from ‘rebirth’, “renaissance” is
hence, used to refer to

the general
French word Italian word
revival of
‘renaissance’ & ‘rinascità’
something.
Renaissance: Introduction & Overview
The ‘what’ & ‘when’ of ‘Renaissance’?

The term “Renaissance” was used in the 16th century

• to refer to the general revival of classical culture that dominated Europe

• from late 13th century to late 16th century.

It has since been used specifically for the period between 1400 and 1600

• when the ideas and culture of ancient Greece and Rome

• were reintegrated into contemporary European culture.
Renaissance: Introduction & Overview
The Renaissance period ≠ the Middle Ages in 3 keyways:

1) Development of humanism:

Humanism = a significant new development in 14th & 15th centuries

• study of surviving ancient Greek & Roman texts about
• philosophy, politics, culture, and language.

Humanist education consisted of studying

• 7 liberal arts —
grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, music, geometry, & astronomy — plus
• several other topics central to Renaissance thought, such as
literature, history, and moral philosophy.

Humanities → an essential component of a well-rounded education.

Renaissance: Introduction & Overview
The Renaissance period ≠ the Middle Ages in 3 keyways:

2) Reign of the Renaissance man:

The term “Renaissance man” is used today to refer to

• someone with a wide range of interests and talents,

• a reference to the importance of humanist education during the Renaissance era.

Artists and scholars of the time were expected to display

proficiency in multiple disciplines.
Renaissance: Introduction & Overview
The Renaissance period ≠ the Middle Ages in 3 keyways:

3) Influence of classical art:

Renaissance art was mainly concerned with

• imitating and
• improving upon classical models.

This fascination with ancient Greek and Roman art

• began with the Italian Renaissance during the late 14th century
&
• soon spread throughout Europe.
Renaissance: Introduction & Overview
The 3 Phases of Renaissance Art Developments:

1) Proto-Renaissance (late 13th–early 14th century):

Late Gothic or Proto-Renaissance period:

with artists like Their works showed

Cimabue, more human groups of figures from different points of

Giotto, Duccio.
and emotions. view:

three-
from the
profile, quarter
back.
view, and
 Cimabue, Giotto and Duccio- A comparison of 3 Madonnas
Virgin Enthroned with Angels, The Ognissanti Madonna, Giotto, Maestà (Virgin in Magesty),
Cimabue, c-1290-95, Louvre 1306-10, Uffizi Duccio, 1308
Renaissance: Introduction & Overview
The 3 Phases of Renaissance Art Developments:

Due to plague and civil war during the 14th century,

there was a break between

• (1) the Proto-Renaissance and
• (2) the Early Renaissance.
Renaissance: Introduction & Overview
2) Early Renaissance (1401–1490):

Merchant families, like Artists of the Early Renaissance period, such as

the Medicis of Florence,
• Masaccio, Sandro Botticelli,
• Domenico Ghirlandaio, Donatello,
• Fra Angelico, and Fra Filippo Lippi
amassed significant
wealth through situated religious figures like the Madonna in
earthly settings,
• banking and
• international trade. creating the illusion of depth by incorporating
landscape into the backgrounds of their paintings.

displayed their power to all

via art patronage. Their figures appeared naturalistically 3-dimensional.
 Samples of Early Renaissance Arts
Expulsion from the Garden of Flagellation of Christ, by Piero Primavera, Sandro Botticelli
Eden. Masaccio (1426-27) della Francesca (c.1455) (1481-82)
Renaissance: Introduction & Overview
The 3 Phases of Renaissance Art Developments:

3) High Renaissance (1490s–1527):

Represented by artists like Their influence led to the development of Mannerism,

Michelangelo and
a style that

Leonardo da Vinci,
• incorporated Renaissance techniques but
• who possessed an expert • rejected naturalism in favour of exaggeration.
understanding of
• the proportions & the musculature
of human anatomy. By 1600, Mannerist painting gave way to Baroque art.
 Samples of High Renaissance Arts
Virgin of the Rocks, David, School of Athens,
Leonardo da Vinci (c. 1483-85) Michelangelo (1501-04) Raphael (1509-11)
 Samples of Mannerism Arts
Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, The Flight into Egypt, Hercules Fighting the Centaur
Parmigianino (c. 1524) Jacopo Bassano (c. 1544-45) Nessus,
Giambologna, 1595–1600
Renaissance: Introduction & Overview

6 Techniques of Renaissance Visual Artists:

1. Chiaroscuro: a painting technique In depicting the fall of light and shadow,

developed during the Renaissance figures look as if they have a mass and
that contrasts light & dark. volume.

2. Study of anatomy: this study and drawing the human figure using
live models became an important part of artistic training during the
Renaissance.
Renaissance: Introduction & Overview

6 Techniques of Renaissance Artists:

3. Linear perspective: in order to create the - foreshortening

appearance of deep space on a 2-dimensional surface, - orthogonal lines,
Renaissance artists used the geometric tools of linear and
perspective, such as - vanishing points.

4. Diminishing scale: the idea that the farther we are from an object, the
smaller it looks was first incorporated into painting during the Renaissance.
Renaissance: Introduction & Overview

6 Techniques of Renaissance Artists:

5. Atmospheric perspective:
by painting far-away objects
Renaissance artists created in lighter, less intense colors.
depth

involves blurring the edges of subjects or

6. Sfumato: popularized by objects
Leonardo da Vinci and his to mimic the natural blurring of the eyes
that humans experience when staring for
followers, long periods.
Renaissance’s Aesthetic Ideal:
The Renaissance period witnessed an increasing emphasis on
experience artistic expression individual achievement and skill

This development shifted aesthetics

toward beauty as a felt, sensual first step
away from beauty as a divine harmony
toward a higher consciousness.

The aesthetic payoff of art was something that

an individual could feel rather than an intellectual union of individual minds with the divine mind.
 Renaissance’s Aesthetic Ideal:
Changes in the philosophy of beauty → →→ →paralleled a changing status and function of art

Medieval artists, no matter how skilled, were Most of the elements remained the same, but
largely anonymous conduits for a divine
inspiration.

Renaissance artists produced individual works

Artists,
• as first Aristotleianism and • about individual objects
• then a revised neo-Platonism took hold, • for individual consumers.

appeared as individuals whose skill exhibited Aesthetics in its modern sense became possible –

• their own perceptions as well as • a science of feeling.

• those communicated to them.
Renaissance’s Aesthetic Ideal:
This new concreteness and individuality exploded, in the painting and sculpture of the
15th and 16th centuries, into a fascination with

• perspective,
• colour, and
• individuality for their own sakes.

Art and aesthetics were redirected toward

• the individual,
• feeling and emotion, and
• personal expression
Renaissance Architecture:
Renaissance architects

• rejected the intricacy and verticality of the Gothic style

• reverted to the simplicity and balanced proportions of classicism.

Rounded arches, domes, and the classical orders were revived.

Renaissance architecture tends to feature planar classicism ("flat

classicism").

The walls of a Renaissance building (both exterior and interior) are

• embellished with classical motifs (e.g. columns, pilasters, pediments,

blind arches) of minor physical depth, such that they
• intrude minimally on the two-dimensional appearance of the walls.
Renaissance Architecture: High Renaissance
The High Renaissance witnessed the pinnacle

• of classical simplicity and harmony

• in Renaissance art and architecture.

The central plan layout (found in many Roman temples, most

notably the Pantheon) was popular during this period.

• “Central plan" denotes rotational symmetry – if the plan is rotated around its
central point, it looks the same at multiple points of rotation.

Common shapes for central plan buildings are

• the circle,
• square, and
• octagon.
Renaissance Architecture: Late Renaissance
The Late Renaissance featured a general relaxation
of

• the severe simplicity and

• order of the High Renaissance.

The most radical strain of Late Renaissance art was

mannerism:

• the deliberate pursuit of novelty and complexity, often to the point of

bizarreness.

In mannerist architecture,

• classical forms are skewed, exaggerated, and misplaced, and

• classical balance and harmony are sometimes distorted
 • During the Renaissance, painters embraced
 classicism (simplicity, balance, clarity) and
 physical realism.
Renaissance Paintings: • The Early Renaissance (led by Florence) was
Early Renaissance  the formative period of this approach,
 when its artists developed and refined
techniques of classicism and physical realism.
 • Once this foundation had been
Renaissance Paintings: established,
the pinnacle of classicism
High Renaissance was achieved in the High Renaissance
led by Rome.
 • During the Late Renaissance (both Florence
Renaissance Paintings: and Rome remained primary forces),
the severe balance and simplicity of the High
Late Renaissance Renaissance was relaxed,
presaging the Baroque era.
 • Renaissance art is distinguished from
medieval art primarily by
physical realism and
classical composition.
Renaissance Sculpture: • The Early Renaissance was the formative
Early Renaissance period of Renaissance art,
when its artists pioneered and developed
physical realism and classical composition.
 • These efforts culminated in the High
Renaissance, during which
Renaissance Sculpture: • the apex was attained of classical
High Renaissance balance,
harmony, and
restraint.
 Renaissance
Sculpture:
Late Renaissance
• By the Late Renaissance,
this severe classicism was
relaxed,
allowing for a measure of
complexity and
dynamism, thus
presaging the rise of
Baroque art.
Renaissance Music:
While the term "Renaissance" denotes the revival of classical culture, i.e.

• Greco-Roman culture.

This revival may be quite direct in some cases; for instance,

• sculptors reawakened the classical statue by studying ancient originals.

However, with no surviving ancient music to emulate, composers took part in the
Renaissance by embracing the general classical principles of

• simplicity
• balance
• order, and
• clarity
Renaissance Music:
Since the later medieval period, composers elevated polyphonic music to staggering
heights of complexity.

Renaissance composers reigned in this tendency, preferring

• melodies and harmonies

• of greater simplicity and clarity.

Renaissance music is also notable for its ample use of imitation,

• which has remained a key element of Western music ever since.

Imitation expands and amplifies the effect of a melody, and

• serves as a unifying force throughout a musical work

Renaissance Music: Samples of Imitation
Example 1: Three Blind Mice

Example 2: Imitation at the opening of Carlo Gesualdo's "Or, che in gioia credea" (1596)
Renaissance Music:
The Renaissance also witnessed

• the embrace of sweet ‘true harmony’ - has 3 parts: a root note, its
3rd, and its 5th
• in place of dry ‘shell harmony’ - has 2 parts: a root note and its 5th.
Renaissance Music:
Vocal works (sacred and secular) were the predominant form of
music throughout
• Medieval and
• Renaissance periods.

Instrumental music served chiefly as accompaniment for

• singers or
• dancers.

Nonetheless, the Renaissance did witness

• the rise of independent instrumental music.

Instrumental works of the Renaissance period were mainly

composed for
• lute,
• keyboard (organ, harpsichord, or clavichord), or
• small ensembles (strings, woodwinds, and/or brass).
Renaissance Music:
Refer to the following YouTube links:
• The Renaissance Music History:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5I6qi9qwRg
• Renaissance Music – A Quick Guide:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4eBxrCawWM
• Renaissance Music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_w-x92mRL8