Renaissance Musical Instrument

A detailed Summary of Renaissance Musical Instrument

Renaissance means rebirth. This period saw a rebirth in knowledge. The Renaissance was turning from God to man. Science was becoming more important during this time. Columbus discovered America during the Renaissance in 1492 and Michelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel. Music was also changing. Melodies became richer. Harmony, known as homophony, began to appear (This means there is a clear difference between the melody and accompaniment). This was the golden age of the a cappella style. That means that choirs sang without instruments. Perhaps the greatest development for the expansion of ordinary music was the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in 1454. Now music could be reproduced quickly, before this it had had to be copied by hand. But this was also a growth in instrumental music. The Renaissance saw many new instruments as well as old ones remaining popular. The most popular instrument during the renaissance was the lute.

The lute is the ancestor of the modern day guitar. It held the highest respect of all instruments during the Renaissance, both as an accompaniment and as a solo instrument. Although the greatest repertoire (compositions) for the lute is from Englan

Adding to the instruments that have already been mentioned there of course were several others. There were percussion, string and keyboard instruments. For the most part these instruments have remained unchanged. Of course, there will always be some kind of modification. All of the instruments that have been mentioned were used as solo instruments, but they were also used in the orchestras. During the renaissance a composer would score for every instrument if he chose to do so. Today composers score things for a specific type of band (for example some bands exclude string instruments). As time went on the instruments became more advanced. There was more modern orchestras and music. These instruments evolved into today's modern ones. You can still find renaissance instruments and there are even renaissance fairs and classes you can take to learn how to play them.

(alto, tenor, bass, and great bass). The tenor sackbut is the most useful size and has evolved into our modern day tenor trombone. The sackbut lacked a water key, slide lock, and tuning slide. This instrument was probably the best instrument during the renaissance next to the lute for several reasons. First of all the sackbut was one of two wind instruments that could willingly play loud or soft. Because of its slide it could play in tune at any time. This was a lot harder to achieve with the finger holes of most other wind instruments. The only major problem that the sackbut had was that the slide did not move very fast and the mouthpiece never fit perfectly causing it to wobble around.

The horn was used at all per

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Category: Arts