Music Forms/Styles of the Renaissance. Humanism in Music In Italy during the Renaissance, a new philosophy called "humanism" developed. The emphasis of humanism is on the quality of life on earth, much different from earlier beliefs that life should be viewed as a preparation for death. By this time the influence of the Church on the arts grew weak, composers and their patrons were ready for new artistic ideas. Flemish composers and musicians were summoned to teach and perform in Italian courts and the invention of printing helped spread these new ideas. Imitative Counterpoint Josquin Desprez became one of the most important composers of this period. Madrigals By the 1500s, the simplicity of earlier madrigals were replaced by more elaborate forms, using 4 to 6 voice parts. Religion and Music Religious Reformation occurred in the early half of the 1500s. Other Protestant denominations were established as a result of the Reformation. There were changes within the Catholic Church as well.
Instrumental Music. Music and the Counter Reformation. The Council of Trent To respond to the influence of Protestantism with its emphasis on unmediated, individual devotion, the Roman Catholic curia convened the many sessions which together are known as the Council of Trent. In the context of reforming the liturgy, the church laid down precepts governing how music should be conceived and set. While reflecting the views of St. Augustine who felt that the beautiful sound of music could overwhelm contemplation of the meaning of the text, the reforms were also influenced by the humanist perspective on the power inherent in text.
Bishop Cirillo Franco in a letter of 1549 stated the problems of the old style: I should like, in short, when a Mass is to be sung in church, that its music be framed according to the fundamental subject of the words, in harmonies and rhythms apt to move our affections to religion and piety, and likewise in Psalms, Hymns, and other praises that are offered to God..... Index. 1500-1600 End of the Renaissance and the Reformation. At this point in history there is only one church in the West -- the Catholic Church -- under the leadership of the Pope in Rome. The Church had been for some time a notoriously corrupt institution plagued by internal power struggles (at one point in the late 1300s and 1400s there was a power struggle within the church resulting in not one, but three Popes!)
, and Popes and Cardinals often lived more like Kings or Emperors than spiritual leaders. Popes claimed temporal (or political) power as well as spiritual power, commanded armies, made political alliances and enemies, and waged war. Simony (the selling of church offices) and nepotism (favoritism based on family relationships) were rampant. Clearly, if the Pope was concentrating on these worldly issues, there wasn't much time left for caring for the souls of the faithful! 1. Luther, a very devout man, had experienced a spiritual crisis. 2. 3. 4. At first, the Church ignored Martin Luther, thinking that he would just go away. 1. 2. Education : Juan Luis Vives. Juan Luis Vives Strongly influenced by Erasmus was Juan Luis Vives, who, though of Spanish origin, spent his life in various parts of Europe—Paris, Louvain, Oxford, London, Bruges.
His most significant writings were De institutione foeminae Christianae (1523; “On the Education of a Christian Woman”), De ratione studii puerilis (“On the Right Method of Instruction for Children”), De subventione pauperum (1526; “On Aid for the Poor”), and De tradendis disciplinis (1531; “On the Subjects of Study”). Not only was his vision of the organic unity of pedagogy new, but he was the first of the humanists to emphasize the importance of popular education. He felt that it was the responsibility of the city to provide instruction for the poor and that the craft and merchant guilds had an important contribution to make to education.
THE REFORMATION AND COUNTER-REFO. By James Jackson Background At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Catholic church, modeled upon the bureaucratic structure of the Holy Roman Empire, had become extremely powerful, but internally corrupt. From early in the twelfth century onward there were calls for reform. Between 1215 and 1545 nine church-councils were held with church reforms as their primary intent. The councils all fail to reach significant accord. The clergy was unable to live according to church doctrine, and the abuse of church ceremonies and practices continues. In the first half of the sixteenth century western Europe experienced a wide range of social, artistic, and geo-political changes as the result of a conflict within the Catholic church. In the Roman church a series of powerful popes including Leo X and Paul III responded to reform demands in various ways. The Reformation and Art Protestant reformers rejected the use of visual arts in the church.
Martin Luther Europe Divided Counter-reformation -End- Counter-Reformation. A copy of the Vulgate (the Latin edition of the Catholic Bible) printed in 1590, after many of the Council's reforms had begun to take place in Catholic worship. The Counter-Reformation (also the Catholic Revival[1] or Catholic Reformation) was the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War (1648), and was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort composed of four major elements: Ecclesiastical or structural reconfigurationReligious ordersSpiritual movementsPolitical dimensions Council of Trent[edit] A session of the Council of Trent, from an engraving. Pope Paul III (1534–1549) initiated the Council of Trent (1545–1563), a commission of cardinals tasked with institutional reform, addressing contentious issues such as corrupt bishops and priests, indulgences, and other financial abuses.
Religious orders[edit] Politics: The Netherlands[edit]