The Blog

JOHN FARMER, INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC and MORE…

JOHN FARMER (1570- 1601)

MYSICLA STYLE:
• Composed 4 voices madrigals
• Combined chordal homophonic textures with imitative polyphony
• Favoured light-hearted, pastoral texts
• Modal harmonies, largely diatonic
• Employed vivid word painting
GENRES AND TITLE
• Madrigal: 1 collection, containing 16 madrigals , Fair Phyllis and A Pretty Little Bonny Lass

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE RENAISSANCE ERA
New instruments has evolved more came into being and repertoire emerged.

FITZWILLIAM VIRGINAL BOOK
• Close to 300 works in the collection
• Includes styles: dances, fantasias, preludes, arrangements of songs and madrigals and variations
• English keyboard composers of the time are represented , William Byrd, John Bull, Thomas Morley, and Giles Farnaby
• Idiomatic approach to keyboard writing
• Style of writing is often virtuosic: rapid scale passages, ornamentations and many novel figurations
• Fanciful titles “Carman’s Whistle”(William Byrd), “The King’s Hunt”(John Bull), “The Ghost”( William Byrd)

DANCE MUSIC
BACKGROUND:
• Social dancing was a very popular form of entertainment
• Earliest notated dances were from 13th
• By 16th more and more dances were notated b/c of developments in music publishing
• Improvisation continued to play an important role in hoe the music was created
• Dance music was performed on keyboard, lute and by instrumental ensemble
CHARACTERISTICS:
• Dances were generally polyphonic
• Often in 4 parts textures, reflecting vocal models
• Instrumentation was generally not specified
• Melodies often adapted from pre-existing vocal works- madrigal and chansons
• Popular 16th dances: branle, pavane, galliard, saltarello, allemande
• Dances were often paired to emphasize contrast as (pavane – slow and stately and galliard- lively and energetic) combination.

March 26, 2014 0 Comments

CARLO GESUALDO

CARLO GESUALDO (CA 1561-1613)

MYSICAL STYLE:
• Italian composer and lutenist
• Intensely emotional style
• Extravagant word painting
• Exaggerated chromaticism with high level of dissonance
• Abrupt chord changes
• Frequent use of repetition
• Wrote his own texts, often reflecting his guilt and remorse.
GENRE AND TITLE:
• Madrigal:6 books
• Sacred music , Tenebrae Responssoria
• Instrumental music

ENGLISH MADRIGAL
BACKGROUND:
• The Italian madrigal spread from Italy yo England in the 1580
• The publication of Musica transalpine in 1588 launched the popularity of the madrigal in England
• As English composer s cultivated the genre, it took on a slightly different character
• Prominent English composers as Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Morley , Tomas Weelkes, John Wilbye composed madrigals

CHARACTERSTICS
• Resembles the Italian madrigal of the mid 16th
• Polyphonic and homophonic textures alternate
• Utilized word painting
• Pastoral texts
• Included nonsense syllables as “fa la la “ and “nonny nonny no”

March 26, 2014 0 Comments