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:
  - The Music of the Reformation in Germany
  - Catholic Music at the End of the Sixteenth Century
  Quiz
  Listening Guide
Chapter 8: Church Music of the Late Renaissance and Reformation
Catholic Music at the End of the Sixteenth Century
  1. The Counter-Reformation

    1. The Council of Trent was a special council that met from 1545 to 1563 to address problems in the church, including complaints about its music.
      1. Secular cantus firmi used as the basis for sacred works.
      2. Complex polyphony made it impossible to understand the words.
      3. Inappropriate behavior of church musicians
      4. Inappropriate use of instruments
      5. See vignette in CHWM for the Council's (vague) recommendations.

  2. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525 or 1526–1594)

    1. A legend from the 1590s credits him with saving polyphony by composing a polyphonic Mass that incorporated Council of Trent Reforms, the Missa Papae Marcelli, published in 1567 (NAWM 47).

    2. Biography
      1. Educated and was a choirboy in Rome
      2. Was choirmaster at the Cappella Giula at St. Peter's 1551–54
      3. Sang in the pope's official chapel briefly but could not continue because he was married
      4. Spent last forty years as choirmaster and teacher at influential churches in Rome
      5. Supervised the revision of the official chantbooks to bring them in line with the Council of Trent's orders
        1. The council ordered that chants be purged of "barbarisms, obscurities, contrarities, and superfluities."
        2. The resulting chantbook (the Medicean edition of the Gradual) was completed by others after his death, published in 1614, and used as the church's official chantbook until 1908.
      6. Palestrina's output was mostly sacred, including 104 Masses, about 250 motets, and other liturgical works. He also composed about 100 secular madrigals, but "blushed and grieved" to have composed music for love poems.

    3. Palestrina's style
      1. His style is representative of the Counter-Reformation's conservative attitude (The "Palestrina Style" is still synonymous with polyphonic church music)
      2. Palestrina studied Franco-Flemish composers' works and sometimes used their polyphonic works as the basis for his imitation Masses
      3. Palestrina composed Masses using all the techniques available to him: cantus firmus, paraphrasing of a chant in all voice parts, canon, and imitation
      4. His melodies often move stepwise in an arched line (see CHWM, example 8.3, from NAWM 47b).
      5. His style preserves the modes and uses very little chromaticism.
      6. Counterpoint follows Zarlino's rules (Le istitutioni harmoniche) closely.
        1. Dissonances introduced in weak beats and resolved on strong beats
        2. Resulting harmonic style is alternation of consonance and dissonance.
      7. Text is comprehensible (e.g., NAWM 47a, Credo).

  3. Spain

    1. Spanish and Roman composers had close ties throughout the sixteenth century.

    2. Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548–1611)
      1. Studied in Rome, possibly with Palestrina
      2. In 1587, returned to Spain to work in the chapel of the Empress Maria
      3. His style combines Roman and Spanish qualities:
        1. Palestrina's polyphonic style
        2. Notes outside the modal system for expressivity
      4. Example: NAWM 48b and CHWM ex. 8.5, Missa O magnum mysterium: Kyrie
        1. Imitation Mass, which preserves the opening characteristics of his own motet (NAWM 48a)
        2. Similar to Palestrina's style, but with more drama

  4. Orlando di Lasso (1532–1594)

    1. Lasso's style combined several styles: Franco-Flemish counterpoint, Italian harmony, Venetian opulence, French vivacity, German severity.

    2. Composed secular and scared music

    3. Known for the high quality of his motets (e.g., NAWM 49, Tristis est anima mea)
      1. Pictorial representations of the text, similar to madrigalist word-painting:
        1. Descending semitone representing sadness ("tristis")
        2. "vos fugam capietis" (you will take flight) represented with fugal subject that is repeated eleven times to represent the eleven disciples who ran away while Jesus was being beaten

    4. At the end of his life Lasso composed spiritual madrigals.

  5. William Byrd (1543–1623)

    1. Byrd was the last of the great Catholic Church composers of the sixteenth century.

    2. He possibly studied with Thomas Tallis as a boy.

    3. 1575–1585, Byrd and Tallis had a monopoly on music printing in England (through royal grant), which made them very influential.

    4. He remained a Catholic all his life but worked for the royal family during both Catholic and Protestant periods.

    5. He composed a few very fine Masses and many motets.

    6. His Gradualia, two books of motets (1605, 1607), were published for liturgical use.

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