Music and Musicians in the Renaissance Essay examples -- Exploratory E

medical specialty and Musicians in the spiritual rebirthIf practice of medicine be the food of love, play on Orsino, Twelfth darknessIn the Elizabethan Era (1558-1603) and the Jacobean Era (1603-1625), there was a fondness for spectacle and pageantry. At court, trumpets and drums resounded to announce mealtimes in town, these instruments were used by theatre troupes to herald upcoming performances ( spiritual rebirth & Baroque ships company of Pittsburgh, 2003, and Folkerth, 2002). Music, then, is applied boldly and lavishly in everyday life and in drama, an imitation of life. melodic Instruments The major classes of musical instruments used in the High and Late Renaissance include plucked strings, bowed strings, brass, double reeds, other winds, keyboards, and percussions (McGee, 1985). Lutes, drums, and trumpets were much used, but the instruments that were especially popular during the Renaissance include the bass viol, triplex viol, viola, violin, tenor sack but, cornetto, bass sackbut, curtal, tenor shawm, bass recorder, and harpsichord (McGee, 1985).Instrumental Music From the Early Renaissance to the High Renaissance, there was a movement from straight-from-the-shoulder music to a combination of vocal and slavish music (Brown, 1976). there are seven categories of instrumental music 1) vocal music play by instruments, 2) settings of pre-existing melodies, 3) variation sets, 4) ricercars, fantasias, and canzonas, 5) preludes, preambles, and toccatas for solo instruments, 6) dance music, and 7) songs composed specifically for lute and solo voice (Brown, 1976). Italy dominated the stage for instrumental music at this time, and it was not until the last decades of the sixteenth century that English instrumental music became popular (Brow... ...cobean periods.Works Cited Brown, Howard M. Music in the Renaissance. Englewood Cliffs, New jersey Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1976.Folkerth, Wes. The Sound of Shakespeare. London Routledg e, 2002.McGee, Timothy J. Medieval and Renaissance Music A Performers Guide. Toronto University of Toronto Press, 1985.Novak, Elaine Adams. Staging Shakespearean Theatre. Cincinnati, Ohio Betterway Books, 2000.Renaissance & Baroque Society of Pittsburgh. Shakespeares Top 40. Available http//www.rbsp.org/current_season/shakespeare.php, March 2003.Shirley, Frances Ann. Shakespeares using up of Off-Stage Sounds. Lincoln University of Nebraska Press, 1963.University of Victoria. Elizabethan Court Musicians. Available http//web.uvic.ca/shakespeare/Library/SLTnoframes/ literary productions/courtmusicians.html, date unavailable. Accessed March 4, 2003.