Essay, Research Paper: Music From The Renaissance Era

Word painting, the early practice of "depicting the meaning of specific words through music" was most commonly used during the Renaissance period. The contents of this paper will explore and discuss the question: was the practice of word painting in classical music, a technique only used during the Renaissance period? The following paper will provide a detailed examination of music from the Middle Ages to the end of the Baroque era; which consequently will prove that word painting was in fact a common practice used during the beginning of the 5th century till the end of the 18th century. This paper will dissect (take into account, consider) three different pieces, one from each era: The Middle Ages (400-1400's), the Renaissance (1400-1600) and finally the Baroque era (1600-1750): "A Chantar" by Beatriz de Dia, "Morte te Chiamo" by Maddalena Casulana and "Spring" by Antonio Vivaldi respectively. In the Middle Ages the Christian church employed most(ly) (essentially) professional musicians. Since the church was opposed to the paganism associated with ancient Greece and Rome, it did not encourage performances of Greek and Roman music. Rather, the most surviving music was designed for use in the Christian (Roman Catholic) liturgy. "By at least (needed?) as early as the 9th century many musicians began to feel the need for a more elaborate music (word needed or take away a ??) as opposed to simply unaccompanied melody. They began to add an extra voice part to be sung simultaneously with sections of the chant. The musical style that resulted is called organum." By the end of the 12th century, organum was being written in three and four voice parts, forming long works that could fill the vast spaces of Gothic cathedrals with sound. Another influential factor of music in the Middle ages, were the Troubadours. The Troubadours were "poet-musicians who composed songs for performance in the many small aristocratic courts of Southern France." They wrote mainly about unrequited love or about the admiration of an idealized woman (courtly love). Beatriz De Dia wrote "A Chantar," during the late 12th century. Also known as the Comtessa de Dia, Beatriz de Dia was the wife of the Count of Poitiers and the lover of a troubadour. The piece " A Chantar" is an excellent example of using word painting to depict the meaning of poetry. This song originated from a poem about Dia's lover who "has scorned her, and she expresses the pain of her broken heart (not sure but it did sound repetitive scorn and mistreatment) this song is strophic- the same music is repeated for all the stanzas of the poem. The poem has five stanzas and a brief two-line ending known as a tornado." The composer is able to illustrate the pain and agony, which she endures through the words of the music. For example, in the first stanza of the poem Dia writes " Ni ma beltatz, ni mos pretz, ni mos snes...C'atressi -m ui engarada'e trahia," the music in the background increases to a higher level of volume. This is to done to distinguish that line from the others in the stanza, which helps to illustrate the meaning of the lines, " I am despised and betrayed, as though I were worthless." The increased volume helps the listener to visualize the agony in which the Comtessa is enduring. In the following stanza, Dia introduces a line "And I am proud that I can excel you in love and yet you are arrogant toward me in words and deeds " in these lines of poetry there contains an element of spite and anger. When compared to the music throughout the rest of stanza, these final lines of poetry are accompanied by a gradually rising and then sharp decline in voice pitch, which helps to create an atmosphere that exemplifies the poet s torment. Furthermore, the entire piece is song monophonically with an Arabic influence and accompanied by a vielle. The choice of instrument and the Arabic influence (performance practice) help set the mood for this piece. The vielle playing in the background acts as a mirror to her emotions, where every line she expresses her pain, the vielle rises in conjunction with the performer's voice to depict the true depths of her pain. In addition, the repetitive (delete? U say play over and over later) drums in the background plays the same rhythm in between lines of poetry where the performer sings, but where she pauses the drum plays the same beat over and over. The drums represent her heartbeat, which stops while she sings her lines of despair. Thus, illustrating to the listener that her heart is broken, and stops beating while she is describing the anguish her lover has caused her. Finally, the physical set up of the stanzas, each uses ly the exact same arrangement and provides for the reader (listener??) a " rounded feeling to the melody as a whole and a sense of increased intensity before the close." Therefore, word painting was employed by the musicians of that time and was an intricate component of the music during the Middle Ages. Similar to the Middle Ages, the theme of love was also explored during the Renaissance. The madrigal is a distinctive type of secular song that originated in Italy. "Topics were love, descriptions of nature, and sometimes war or battles. The music for madrigals mingles chordal and imitative textures and sensitively reflects the meaning of the text.(get rid of extra and?) " It was during the 1400-1500's that the use of word painting became most evident, the madrigal is the musical genre which best portrays this fact. Renaissance composers relied heavily on imitation, the successive, closely spaced restatement in one or more voice parts of the same melodic idea. "The technique of imitation had been in use since the late 14th century, but during the Renaissance it became a principal structural element in music. If one voice part imitated another consistently for a relatively long span of time, the two voices formed a canon." Maddalena Casulana exhibits these characteristics of the Renaissance period in "Morte, te Chiamo". This is a poem set as a dialogue between a poet and Death, where the poet asks Death to take him and end his misery. Casulana goes to great lengths to match her music with the text setting in order for listeners to grasp the true depths of the poet's anguish. "Casulana uses changes of texture in this piece not only to provide contrast and interest in the music, but also to set off the two different voices in the dialogue." This is evident in Casulana's unique voice pairing, one voice which represents death who sings "non fa" and the poet "si fa." Moreover, she uses structural and expressive musical techniques to communicate the meaning of the text. "The Poet's perturbed state of mind is reflected in the shifting harmonies and chromaticism the shifting harmonies and chromaticism (repetitive) reflect the meaning of the words, while the textural changes and repetition create both variety and unity and provide closure at the end." Also noteworthy, is the shifting from an agitated polyphony at the start of the text, as seen in the " Prendi m'e fa che Machi il mio dolore" section of the poem; to a calmer homophony at the end "Fatte'l restituire." Therefore, through an examination of Maddalena Casulana's work, it is evident that the Renaissance era was a period in time that can be recognized by its characteristic use of word painting.
Finally, the era of Baroque music was an age of spectacular progress of knowledge. It was the age of scientific breakthroughs of Galileo and Newton, the mathematical advances of Descartes, Newton and Leibnitz. There was a new and vibrant intellectual, artistic and social atmosphere, which in many ways signaled the birth of modern Europe. The Baroque composer thought of himself as a craftsman rather than as an artist. A great deal of Baroque music was written on demand for specific occasions, and "musical scores were often treated with the care that one would accord to yesterday's newspaper." Despite this disregard for posterity by many Baroque musicians, music listeners still believe this era of music to be a magnificent body of work. In the baroque era, the greatest number of musicians and artists flourished under the patronage of the church, the state or the aristocracy. Examples of Baroque expression can be seen in the luxuriant music of Antonio Vivaldi. The piece "The Four seasons" by Vivaldi does not actually contain any text. Hence, when listening to the piece you will not hear a performer singing lyrics. (u already mentioned no text) Rather, Vivaldi wrote lines from the poem directly into the musical score. This enabled the performers to understand the meaning behind the notes and to contribute their interpretation of the poem into the music they performed. In this era, the setting of text to music helped depict the meaning of the text. The piece starts off with a welcoming and cheerful presence. This melody is reflected in the line, "spring has arrived, and full of joy." This is followed by a sudden shift to three violins solo, which play a set of trills that enables the listener to visual the "birds greet it with their happy songs." In true ritornello form, the section is followed by a segment of tutti. The tutti section contains the climax of the poem "Covering the sky with a black cloak, a thunder and lightning come to announce the season." Vivaldi is masterful here with his word painting technique; he uses the ripieao in the back ground to build up a sense of dread and climatic turmoil. Immediately following the ripieao, the soloist (a group of violins, who play fast repeated notes in flashing and darting passages) re-enter to heighten the sensation that something dreadful is approaching. The music returns to a calmer state when the lightning and thunder pass, which is depicted in the music of a softer violin solo (Vivaldi no longer uses flashing and darting runs), and a more pleasant melody. By examining the first movement of "the Four Seasons," "Spring," it is evident that Vivaldi was masterful in his use of word painting. Although he did not include lyrics in this piece, Vivaldi's unique version of word painting- putting lines of poetry into the musical score was equally effective in portraying to the listener the true joy of Spring. Therefore, it is clearly identifiable that the use of word painting, "depicting the meaning of specific words through music" was a common practice used from the early Middle Ages to late Baroque. As seen in "A Chantar," the depths of anguish and heartbreak can be depicted by music from the Middle Ages. Furthermore, during the Renaissance period, Casulana brilliantly used word painting to illustrate the desperation of a poet pleading for Death to take him away. And finally, Vivaldi practices word painting in the 1700's to represent a picture of "Spring." Ultimately, word painting was a masterful technique used not only during the Renaissance period, but also in the Middle Ages and the Baroque Era. This technique allowed composers to provide clarity and meaning to the text, which enabled listeners to appreciate music on another (a deeper) level.
BIBLIOGRAPHYThompson,Oscar. International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians, Harcourt Brace,1985.Thornburgh, Elaine 1999. Renaissance Music, http://trumpet.sdsu.edu/Thornburgh, Elaine 1999. Baroque Music, http://trumpet.sdsu.edu/Yudkin, Jeremy. Understanding Music . New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1996.