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Culture and Music:The Renaissance
and The Reformation
Background:
Nearly 500 years ago, during the Renaissance period in Europe,
one of the most important cultural developments that took place
was a religious protest movement known as The Protestant Reformation
(or more commonly, just “The Reformation”).This movement began in what is now Germany
and spread throughout most of Europe.
The Reformation affected many aspects of life and culture
in Europe, includingthe development of
certain new styles of music.
The Reformation began in 1517, when a German Catholic monk
named Martin Luther wrote a series of 95 complaints criticizing the teachings and doctrines of the
Catholic Church and nailed them to the door of the Castle Church in the small
town of Wittenberg, Germany.
Similar protests by religious groups followed in France, Switzerland,
England and Scotland. The development of the printing and the
printing press in Europe in the mid-1400s was
very influential in the spread of The Reformation.
Instead of “reforming” the Catholic Church as Martin Luther had intended,
these protests led to a series of divisions within the Church that resulted
in the formation of new religious denominations
that broke away from the Catholic Church.
These new religious denominations, such as the Lutherans in Germany,
the Huguenots in France and the Anglicans (Church of England)
each developed their own new styles of music that were written to be
sung in their church services. Important composers associated with this
these new styles of music included English composer Thomas Tallis (1505–1585).
Musical Examples
Giovanni Palestrina (1525-1594): “Sicut Cervus”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yd5EE0hAB8
The example above demonstrates the fully-polyphonic style of scared choral music of the Roman Catholic Church
in the Late Renaissance.
Thomas Tallis (1505–1585): “If Ye Love Me”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqt005j1dB0
The example above demonstrates the partly-homophonic and partly-polyphonic style of scared choral music of the
Anglican (English Protestant) Church in the Late Renaissance.
Most important among the new musical styles inspired by the Reformation
was a German style of hymn singing called the Chorale.
The Chorale style typically features a four-part homophonic vocal texture
consisting of soprano, alto, tenor and bass voice-parts, with a melody
in the highest part (soprano). The other parts share the same basic rhythm as the melody and provide a
harmonic accompaniment to the melody.
While this type of music did exist before the development of the German chorale style, it was because of the new style of
hymn singing in German Protestant churches that the Chorale Style became
an important musical phenomenon during the Renaissance.
German Chorale-Style: Example 1 Melody, in the Soprano (highest) Part
German Chorale-Style: Example 2 2-part Chorale harmonization
Soprano & Bass
German Chorale-Style: Example 3 3-part Chorale harmonization
(Soprano, Alto, Bass)
German Chorale-Style: Example 4 4-part Chorale harmonization
(Soprano, Alto, Tenor Bass)
Examples of German Choral-Style Harmonization
Simple Version:
Complex Version:
The German Chorale style of music was also used for other kinds of music
besides Protestant hymns.
One notable example is a famous German part-song called “Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen”
(“Innsbruck, I must leave you”) by the German Renaissance composer
Heinrich Isaac (1450–1517). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI712ZGflAQ
Over the next 350 years, the melody of this part-song
was adapted by other composers including Johann Sebastian Bach and
Johannes Brahms in several very notable works for chorus and for organ, including
the famous Bach Chorale, “O Welt, ich muss dich lassen.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zPiwHBGnh4 (voices)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eze8K_-g5M (trombones)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbKF1Zl3QWQ (marimba)
Even more importantly, though, the development of the German Chorale style
is important because there is a direct line of influence in musical history
from the original development of the German Chorale Style (beginning with
hymns composed by Martin Luther himself) through to the Chorales composed by Johann Sebastian Bach and included in his 200+ Cantatas, 150 years later.
Bach’s harmonizations of these Chorales has had a profound impact on the
development of harmony throughout all subsequent musical history.
More than fifty years after Bach’s death, Beethoven called Bach
“Der Urvater des Harmonie” (“the original father of harmony”).
The reason why the development of the German Choral Style, culminating with the Chorales of Bach, is so important is that it
can be shown that a very significant number of classical composers who lived after Bach learned advanced harmony by playing and studying Bach’s Chorales.
This is true up until the current day, because music students in most college
and university music schools are required to sing, play and/or analyze
the Bach Chorales.
After Bach’s time, in the Classical Period, and especially later, in the Romantic period,
composers incorporated the German Chorale Style into their music as
a basic musical texture – a sort of “musical cornerstone.”
While music in the Classical Period became more predominantly
homophonic in texture, many composers still occasionally employed counterpoint
in some of their more complex works.
The influence of the German Chorale Style can be traced in the 19th century to the musical and stylistic development of
traditional Christmas Carols, as demonstrated clearly by the example below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drb4zqh-YF0
The influence of the German Chorale Style can also be traced to the
20th and 21st centuries, in which 4-part homophonic texture can be seen as
the predominant musical texture of most forms of contemporary
Popular Music, Jazz, Rock and Roll and Rock,
among many other musical genres.
The influence of the German Chorale Style can also be traced to the
20th and 21st centuries, in which 4-part homophonic texture can be seen as
the predominant musical texture of most forms of contemporary
Popular Music, Jazz, Rock and Roll and Rock,
among many other musical genres.