0.5 Chapter 4: european art music: middle ages to romantic  (Page 4/12)

The Catholic Church remained an important institution during the Renaissance, but diminished in influence in consequence of the wealth and power of families such as the Medici of Florence and the Estes of Ferrara, whose courts became centers of culture, learning, and military might. The Reformation, which began with Martin Luther’s criticisms of Church abuses, had its greatest impact in Germany. Other breakaway movements followed in France and Switzerland, as well as in England, where Henry VIII defied the authority of the pope and declared himself head of a new Anglican church. Wars between Catholics and Protestants are part of the history of many of the countries that broke with Rome.

In music and the other arts, patronage by royalty, who competed in maintaining splendid courts as well as chapels, spurred the development of secular forms of artistic expression.

Whether secular or sacred, Renaissance art, sculpture, and architecture embody the ideals of balance, clarity, and emotional restraint that characterized the classicism of the Greeks. In music, where no ancient models survived, that aesthetic found expression in a style that evolved from concepts of consonance and dissonance developed in the Middle Ages but with new emphasis on harmonious sonorities. The predominant texture consisted of soprano, alto, tenor, and bass voice parts creating a highly contrapuntal web in which the lines diverge, converge, cross, echo, and imitate each other, sometimes with great rhythmic independence, sometimes moving together in the manner of a hymn. In setting religious texts, composers strove for an atmosphere of serenity and spirituality, in the setting of secular texts, for vivid representation of words and images. Instrumental music continued to be of secondary importance to composers, whose approach to writing for instruments was usually the same as that for voices. For example, published collections of dances required unspecified instruments of soprano, alto, tenor, and bass range—in essence vocal pieces without words. Some composers, however, began to explore shaping musical material in ways that exploited the unique features of the instruments on which it would be performed.

Historic context

• End of Hundred Year’s War between England and France, ca. 1450.
• Capture of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern church, by Turks, 1453.
• Johannes Gutenberg (ca. 1396-1468) inventor of printing in Europe, prints Bible from movable type, ca, 1454.
• Building of Palazzo Pitti, Florence, 1460.
• Start of the Spanish Inquisition, 1481.
• Tudor dynasty in England, 1485-1603.
• Christopher Columbus first voyage to the New World 1492; last voyage 1501-1504.
• Beginning of printing of the Aldines, series of Greek classics of Aristotle, Aristophanes, et al., 1495.
• Beginning of postal service, between Vienna and Brussels, 1500.
• Coronation of Henry VIII as King of England, 1509.
• Pineapples imported into Europe, 1514.
• Martin Luther’s ninety-five theses nailed to church door at Wittenberg, 1517; beginning of the Reformation.
• Coffee introduced to Europe 1517.
• License granted to import African slaves to Spanish colonies in New World, 1518.
• Cortes brings horses from Spain to North America, 1518.
• Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) sets off to circumnavigate the globe, 1519.
• Founding of Royal Library of France at Fontainebleau, 1520.
• Chocolate brought from Mexico to Spain, 1520.
• Martin Luther begins translation of Bible from Latin to German, 1521, completed 1534.
• Manufacture of silk introduced to France, 1521.
• Discovery of New York harbor and Hudson River by Giovanni da Verrazano, 1524.
• Outbreaks of plague in England, 1528.
• Henry VIII breaks with Rome and establishes Anglican Church, 1534.
• Building of St. Basil’s, Moscow, 1534-1561.
• Collected works of Cicero published in Venice, 1537.
• Hernando de Soto discovers Mississippi River, 1541.
• Council of Trent (1545-1563): meeting of church leaders called by Pope Paul III to address abuses in Catholic Church.
• Beginning of building of the Louvre, Paris, 1546.
• Tobacco brought from America to Spain, 1555.
• Coronation of Elizabeth I as Queen of England, 1559.
• Tulips introduced to Europe from Near East, 1561.
• Outbreak of plague in Europe, over 20,000 die in London, 1563.
• Two million Indians die in South America from typhoid fever introduced by Europeans, 1567.
• St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of 2,000 Huguenots (French Protestants) in Paris, 1572.
• Outbreak of plague in Italy, 1575.
• Defeat of the Spanish Armada by the English, 1588.
• Outbreak of plague in London kills 15,000, 1592.
• Publication of Mercator’s atlas, 1595.
• Tomatoes introduced in England, 1596.
• Dutch opticians invent the telescope, 1600.