The Renaissance is a time when new art, inventions, and types of music were being created and changed. Today I will be talking about the music, instruments and musical artists of this time period. The renaissance started in the 14th century and spanned to the 17th century and included many new things such as: the "helicopter", new forms of sculpting and sculptures, the printing press, and amazing art and buildings.
After the printing press was invented distributing music sheets was a lot easier and quicker. Some of the composers who were known at this time are Palestrina, William Byrd, and Lassus and some of the composers who came before them were John Durstable, Heirrich Isaac, and Philippe Verdelot. A very unique and polychoral style of music developed in Venice which was called one of the grandest and most sonorous music composed during that time.
After the printing press was invented distributing music sheets was a lot easier and quicker. Some of the composers who were known at this time are Palestrina, William Byrd, and Lassus and some of the composers who came before them were John Durstable, Heirrich Isaac, and Philippe Verdelot. A very unique and polychoral style of music developed in Venice which was called one of the grandest and most sonorous music composed during that time.
This is a harpsichord from the Renaissance and is a string instrument. It is a lot like the piano we have today, except that the white keys were black and the black keys were white. It was later replaced by the fortepiano in the 18th century, but made a come-back in the 20th century.Though they come in all sizes and shapes they all have the basic mechanisms.
The instrument to the left is called the slide trumpet and is much like the announcement trumpet that are commonly used in the times of kings and queens, but have a slide attached to the side. It is much like the trombone that we have in todays time of life.
The guitar looking instrument that is in the picture is a twelve string guitar in the renaissance period. It is very similar to today's guitars, but is much smaller and has a much quieter sound. While another guitar-ish instrument called the lute was becoming very popular in parts of Europe. The vihuela was very popular in Spain and the strings were made of gut and were tuned by ear as many people do today. It was a large instrument, hard to handle, and very few have survived to this day and age.
The instrument beside this is called the hurdy-gurdy which is also called the wheel fiddle. It is played by turning a crank on the bottom and then the rosined wheel rubs against the strings and creates a drone-like sound like a violin bow continuously being bowed on the violin but changing notes every once in awhile.
The instruments to the left are called cornetts, cornettos, or zinks. They look lie a recorder that we use now-a-days, but are actually played like the cornets or trumpets by vibrating your lips on the cup-shaped mouthpiece. Some of the cornetts were anywhere from two feet long and straight to three or four feet and curved in an different shapes.
While many of the instruments from the Renaissance are very similar to presents day instrument they had a very different style and type of music that they played.