TOP TEN MONDAYS!!! PLUS: Dave's Weekend in Review

As the moon begins to ascend over the campus of Illinois Wesleyan, I am camped on the 3rd floor of the Ames Library preparing to do battle with an old enemy: music history. However, to help (a) prepare for the test, and (b) ease my boredom, let's take a quick break to check out this week's edition of.....


We interrupt this program to bring this special news bulletin form Dave's National Beard Service: Dave's Facial Warning Status has been raised to Code Magenta......"disturbingly visible." Thank you for regarding this announcement.



TOP TEN MONDAYS!!!! Today's Topic: Dave's Top 10 Ways to Know You're Listening to Music from the Renaissance Period. Now some of probably read the title and said, "Boy, that sounds about as exciting as painting grass and watching the paint dry as the grass grows." If you thought that, think again! If you have failed to realize that the Middle Ages ended nearly 600 years ago, then this week's Top 10 list is for you. We have not only left the Renaissance, but we've also passed through the musical eras of Boroque*, Classical, Romantic**, and 20th Century. So, this week's issue of Top 10 Mondays is for you, you who think we're still in the Middle Ages. (This week's issue of Top 10 Mondays is also designed to help Dave study for his test.) For once, the fine folks at WDWG have provided the American public with something educational. For this going above and beyond the call of duty, there will be French Vanilla creamer at the coffee table in the break room this week. So, without further adeuxioouhw, let's get on with...

• #10- Innovations in Instruments. The Renaissance era saw the rise and evolution of several important instrument families. The brass instruments got their beginning during this time period with the invention of the sackbut, the ancestor of the trombone. Keyboard instruments were no longer limited to just the organ. The harpsichord and clavichord became increasingly popular during this time, especially in England. As for stringed instruments, the lute was the most commonly played, although the violin family was just beginning to its musical foot in the performing door. Bach would increase the violin's popularity in the next 100 years or so. The rise in all of these instruments leads us very nicely into.....
• #9- Rise in Instrumental Music. In the Middle Ages, the role of instruments was used solely in accompanying dancing and dining, and rarely was it played concert style. All this changed in the Renaissance. With the increase of music printing (which we'll get to in #8), musicians began to have more and more music printed solely for them. This led to an increase in instrument-specific genres of performance. At first, musicians mainly played tunes that were commonly sung, but around the late 1500s, composers began to write new, original music specifically for instruments. Interestingly, the composer would write out the melody and harmony parts, but he would not designate which instrument should play which. It was up the the performers to decide what needed to be done and which instruments should cover which parts.
• #8- Music is being printed and circulated. As mentioned already, music printing played a huge part in the musical change brought about by the Renaissance. The first major music printing was done in Venice by a guy named Petrucci. He was the first man to successfully print a musical collection of polyphony***. Several minutes later he got bored, and thus graffiti was born!
• #7- Reformation. This was a huge one. Up until the 1500s, the Catholic Church had a monopoly on the sacred music market. However, after the Midnight Ride of Martin Luther in 1517, all this changed. Luther's challenging of the Catholic authority resulted not only in his excommunication from the Church in 1520, but it also resulted in music being diversified in three major ways. As a result of this refromating act, three distinct branches of Christianity arose, and each had their own musical style. One was Luther's own Lutheran branch. The Lutherans can be credited with mainstreaming the chorale. Luther wrote dozens of chorales along with his contemporary Johann Walter. One of their most famous chorales, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" is still widely sung today. Another major branch that resulted from the Reformation was the Calvinist branch. Led by Jean Calvin, the Calvinists put up a 14-4 record before falling to the Lutherans in the Sweet 16 (sorry, just seeing if you're still reading.) The Calvins main musical contribution was the metric psalm. Calvin firmly believed that only Scripture should be sung in church, and all their music took its text directly from, and it seems only logical from the title, Psalms. The last major branch was the English church, led by King Henry Seven. The main musical style of the English Church was the anthem. Anthems were big, grandiose, polyphonic works that borrowed words form the Bible or devotional books.
• #6- Composers have funny names. During the Renaissance, and aided by the rise of music printing, the composer's began to take more and more credit for their musical ideas. As a result, the "rock star" was born. Composers such s Jean De Ockeghem, Josquin Des Prez, Palestrina, Guiellma Du Fay, John Dunstable, and Gesualdo all popped up during this time, and their music was on the top of the charts. Probably the most famous of all these was Josquin Des Prez. He was so famous that publishers would slap his name on the cover of "mediocre" compositions just so they would sell (and they did).
• #5- Music serves the words. This is a big one. In the Middle Ages, emphasis was more focused on the rhythm and form of the piece as opposed to the text. It got to the point where you would have 6 or more voices singing two different texts in possibly two different languages all at the same time! Folks of the Renaissance wanted to actually hear what was being sung, and as a result, a major trait of renaissance style music is text painting. This technique involves the composer briniging out the meaning and feeling of the text through sound. If the lyrics mention running, the composer will speed up the tempo. If the lyrics mention "uphill," the composer will write an ascending scale. If the lyrics mention crying (and many Renaissance songs do), the composer will slowly descend in half steps. You get the picture? The music of this era was highly expressive and really allowed performers to feel drawn into the music they were singing.
• #4- Distinct National Styles. This is another staple of the Renaissance. At the beginning of this time period, an international style had developed. Due to the fall of Constantinople, ancient Greek writing and music were dispersed throughout Europe. Folks latched onto these themes and implemented them into their music and culture (the fall of Constantiople could be argued as the "beginning" of the Renaissance era in this regard). However, as time progressed, music began to be printed in the vernacular, the common language of the people. Now that people didn't have to rely on knowing Latin, French, or what-have-you to read music, musical freedom was born. The three main countries that developed their own styles were Italy, France, and England, but this was probably going on all over the place at this time.
• #3- Increased Vocal Range. Jean de Ockeghem can be credited with this contribution. "Ocky," as I like to call him, composed during the late 15th century. He was one of the first composers to really stretch the range of the parts, especially the bass. Before Ocky, the bass would rarely sing lower than the C below middle C. However, Ocky began writing notes down to as far as 2 E's below middle C, where the modern bass range normally dwells.
• #2- Equal Voice Polyphony. This is a crucial concept that developed during the Renaissance. Each voice finally had its own character and Independence. In the Middle Ages, the only voices that really mattered were the tenor (aka "cantus") and the soprano (then called the "superius"). However, with the arrival of the concept of clear word depiction, all the voices now had to work together to convey the lyrical message. Homophony was also much more common during this time (in fact, it was hardly ever seen in the Middle Ages). If you're still reading this, you deserve a Medal of Honor. However, we're almost done. It's now time for....
• #1- The Madrigal! The Madrigal is definitely the Renaissance's best gift to the world. This Italian born genre of music originated form another Italian musical style called "frottola." The madrigal placed lots of emphasis on text painting, and melodies can be playful, rich, sad, endearing, and fun all at the same time. Madrigals are still sung to this day, and most high school choral groups still have "madrigal dinners" where they reenact the Renaissance times by singing madrigals in their original style while decked out in medieval garb.

So there you have it. You are now a smarter person, and hopefully so am I....we'll find out on Wednesday morning whether that last statement will be proved true.

Real quickly, I'll give you a weekend recap. On Saturday, the Morton Cross Country team ran at Maxwell Park in Normal, so I hopped over there to watch them race. Both guys and girls qualified for Sectionals, and I'm already hatching plans to get to East Peoria to watch that race. If either squad finishes in the Top 5, they'll be going to State! After the race, I played in a wedding at the chapel here on IWU's campus. It was really nice. I was even able to sneak some pita bread and hummus at the reception. That evening, I attended my first ever Marching Band competition as part of my Percussion Techniques class requirement. Luckily, Morton's band was competing, so I sat with some friends from Morton and watched Morton take 8th overall (which, I'm told, is pretty amazing). That's about it. I need to get back to studying.

* Why did George Frederic Handel never have any money? Cause he was a Boroque composer (HA HA HA HA HA!!! Get it? Ah, I guess you got to be a music major.)

** many historians argue that the eras of Classical and Romantic were both one era. If so, I think that era needs a new name, like: Neosporadic

*** a fancy word for music with more than one part (for example; a duet)