Question

How did music in the Renaissance differ from medieval music? What were the effects of the printing press on music and composers? If the Renaissance is thought to represent a rebirth or new birth, how is this reflected in the music of the Renaissance? What was the role of music during the Renaissance? How was it used in society? Many of the songs from ancient times through the Renaissance built on the melodies of previous songs. What were the advantages for composers of using a melody that had already been created?

Answer 1

Medieval music was more religious than Renaissance music because the music became more complex. Medieval was mainly monophonic and Renaissance music was mainly polyphonic.

Answer 2

During the Renaissance, the music had less theological themes than Medieval music, and the Renaissance was more polyphonic than the Medieval Era, which was mostly monophonic.

The printing press allowed chorales to be published, increasing their popularity. It also allowed for written music to be easier to read/access and more easily distributed.

Music in the Renaissance became more complex and less religious, which would be mirrored by the Enlightenment more than a century later.

Music was an essential part of civic, religious, and courtly life in the Renaissance. While the music was becoming less religious, the most important music of the early Renaissance was composed for use by the church, with polyphonic masses and motets in Latin for important churches and court chapels.

Composers, similar to remixes today, were able to use previously heard melodies, scales, and ostonados in order to create certain emotions in the listener by association. Reusing riffs made composing easier, as one didn't have to spend countless hours trying out different patterns, and could instead copy a melody completely, or shift it into a different key.