The Renaissance Period (1400 - 1600 C.E.)

The Renaissance Period
(1400 - 1600 C.E.)

     The Renaissance era encompasses Western music history from 1400 to the begining of the 1600’s. This period in time marked the rebirth of humanism, and the revival of cultural achievements for their own sake in all forms of art, including music. The word "Renaissance" in itself is defined as a "rebirth"or a "reconstruction".

     During this time, artists and musicians produced works that displayed more artistic freedom and individualism. This creativity allowed artists to abandon the stricter ways of the Medieval Era. Their art forms rediscovered the ancient Greek ideals. The great masters of the Renaissance were revered in their own lifetimes (rather than after their deaths), which was different from most of their Medieval predecessors. With the new printing techniques, music and musical ideas were able to be preserved and distributed to the people.

     The distinctive musical sounds of the Renaissance era were comprised of a smooth, imitative, polyphonicsacred music <i><b><a href="glossary.htm#sacredmusic">sacred music</a></b></i> remained of great importance, secular music <i><b><a href="glossary.htm#secularmusic">secular music</a></b></i> was starting to become increasingly common. Therefore, the polyphonic style was not only used in sacred music, but also in secular madrigals <i><b><a href="glossary.htm#madrigal">madrigals</a></b></i>. <i><b><a href="glossary.thm#polyphony">polyphonic</a></b></i> style, as seen in the music of Byrd, Palestrina, and Lassus. While

     The repertoire of instrumental music also began to grow considerably. New instruments were invented, including two keyboard instruments called the clavichord and virginal. In addition, many existing instruments were enhanced. The lute became the favored instrument of the time period, and it was established as the standard instrument for family music making during the 16th century.

     Masses <i><b><a href="glossary.htm#masses">Masses</a></b></i> and motets <i><b><a href="glossary.htm#motets">motets</a></b></i> were the primary forms for sacred vocal polyphony. These were accompanied by the lute or a small instrumental ensemble or consort. Secular vocal forms included motets, madrigals and songs, while instrumental pieces were usually short polyphonic works or music for dancing.

     Renaissance polyphony was harmonious when compared with the Medieval style. Imitation was a method that composers used to make elaborate music more coherent and to give the listener a sense of arrangement. Imitation, where one melodic line shares, or "imitates," the same musical theme as a previous melodic line became an important polyphonic technique. Imitative polyphony can be easily heard in the music of Byrd, Gibbons, and Gabrieli. Additionally, the masses and motets of composers such as Josquin also displayed the imitative polyphonic style. Imitative polyphony was so important that it continued into the Baroque period, especially in sacred music for the church. 

http://library.thinkquest.org/15413/history/history-ren.htm

History quotes

Don't forget your history nor your destiny  Bob Marley quotes    History makes people wise.  Francis Bacon, Sr. quotes    History is written by the victors.  Winston Churchill quotes    The history of the world is full of men who rose to leadership, by sheer force of self-confidence, bravery and tenacity.  Mahatma Gandhi quotes    Ideas shape the course of history.  John Maynard Keynes quotes    I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.  Thomas Jefferson quotes    There is a history in all men's lives.  William Shakespeare quotes    History is fables agreed upon.  Voltaire quotes    A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.  Robert Heinlein quotes    If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.  George Bernard Shaw quotes http://www.thinkexist.com/English/Topic/x/Topic_357_1.htm

The Promise Of Sociology C. Wright Mills

The Promise Of Sociology

C. Wright Mills

·        Men now days often feel that their lives are a series of traps. They feel in their worlds they can’t overcome their troubles. According to Mills this is correct.

·        You cannot understand the life of an individual or the history of society without understanding both.

·        People do not see how the changes in history affect them. The do not see how the ups  and downs they experience in their lives are affected by their society.

·        People do not see the connection that exists between the patterns in their lives and the course of history.

·        People need a quality of mind to use information to develop reason to make connections between what is going on in the world and what is happening to themselves. He calls this the Sociological Imagination.

·        Sociological Imagination allows us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society. That is both its task and its promise. This is the purpose of classical social analysts.

Three sorts of questions have been asked by sorts of questions asked by classical social analysts:

1.      What is the structure of this particular society as a whole? What are its essential components, and how are they related to one another? How does it differ from other varieties of social order? Within it, what is the meaning of any particular feature for its continuance and for its change?

2.      Where does this society stand in human history? What are the mechanics by which it is changing? What is its place within and its meaning for the development of humanity as a whole? How does any particular feature we are examining affect, and how is it affected by the historical period in which it moves? And this period-what are its essential features? How does it differ from other periods? What are its characteristic ways of history-making?

3.      What varieties of men and women now prevail in this society and in this period? And what varieties are coming to prevail? In what ways are they selected and formed, liberated and repressed, made sensitive and blunted? What kinds of "human nature" are revealed in the con-duct and character we observe in this society in this period? And what is the meaning for "human nature" of each and every feature of the society we are examining?                            

·        The most important distinction is between the issues and the troubles.

·        Issues- have to do with the matters that transcend these local environments of the individual and the range of his inner life.

·        Troubles- occur within the character of the individual and within his range of his immediate relations with others. It has to do with his self and with those areas of social life in which he is directly and personally aware.

·        The sociological imagination is supposed to help man to understand that what is happening to themselves is a result of intersections of history and biography within their society.
reference: http://www.soc.iastate.edu/sapp/mills.html