Concise History of Western Music
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Chapter Index Chapter 1: Music in Ancient Greece and Early Christian Rome Chapter 2: Chant and Secular Song in the Middle Ages, 400Ð1450 Chapter 3: Polyphonic Music from Its Beginnings through the Thirteenth Century Chapter 4: French and Italian Music in the Fourteenth Century Chapter 5: England and Burgundian Lands in the Fifteenth Century: The Beginnings of an International Style Chapter 6: The Age of the Renaissance: Music of the Low Countries Chapter 7: The Age of the Renaissance: New Currents in the Sixteenth Century Chapter 8: Church Music of the Late Renaissance and Reformation Chapter 9: Church Music of the Late Renaissance and Reformation Chapter 10: Opera and Vocal Music in the Late Seventeenth Century Chapter 11: Instrumental Music in the Late Baroque Chapter 12: Music in the Early Eighteenth Century Chapter 13: The Early Classic Period: Opera and Instrumental Music in the Eighteenth Century Chapter 14: The Late Eighteenth Century: Haydn and Mozart Chapter 15: Ludwig van Beethoven Chapter 16: Romanticism and Nineteenth-Century Orchestral Music Chapter 17: Solo, Chamber, and Vocal Music in the Nineteenth Century Chapter 18: Opera, Music Drama, and Church Music in the Nineteenth Century Chapter 19: European Music from the 1870s to World War I Chapter 20: The European Mainstream in the Twentieth Century Chapter 21: Atonality, Serialism, and Recent Developments in Twentieth-Century Europe Chapter 22: The American Twentieth Century
 

Outlines:
  - Generation Post–Josquin 1520–1550
  - Secular Song in Italy
  - Secular Song Outside of Italy
  - The Rise of Instrumental Music
  Quiz
  Listening Guide
Chapter 7: The Age of the Renaissance: New Currents in the Sixteenth Century
Generation Post–Josquin 1520–1550
  1. General Stylistic Features

    1. Church music changed more gradually than secular music.

    2. Chant melodies were freely treated when used as subjects for Masses and motets.

    3. Five- and six-voice texture became more common than four-voice texture.

    4. Treatment of text became more careful.

  2. Adrian Willaert (ca. 1490–1562)

    1. Biographical background
      1. Studied composition in Paris
      2. Worked in Rome, Ferrara, and Milan early in his career
      3. Ended his career at Saint Mark's Cathedral in Venice (1527–62)
      4. Trained many other musicians who became important composers

    2. Style
      1. Believed that text should determine every dimension of the musical form
      2. Insisted that printers put the syllables under the correct notes
      3. Insisted that composers pay attention to the stresses of the text
      4. Never allowed a rest to interrupt a word or thought
      5. Full cadences only at significant textual breaks
        1. Evaded cadences: voices give the impression they are about to cadence (usually with a suspension), but turn instead in a different direction. (CHWM, ex. 7.1a)
        2. Approach to major cadence marked by close imitations, multiple suspensions, and strategically placed dissonances (CHWM, end of ex. 7.1b).

    3. Chant sources treated freely (CHWM, ex. 7.2)

    4. Modality
      1. Willaert attempted to capture the essence of church modes in polyphony.
      2. Example 7.2 shows Willaert's approach to Mode I:
        1. Transposed up a fourth
        2. Uses the characteristic rising fifth motive (G–D)
        3. Has all the main cadences close on G (the transposed final)

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