Even in busy periods,
there is time to punctuate
the skating equilibrium of time
with a quick blog entry.
Here's a reference to
Wikipedia's entry on Renaissance Music
as a point of departure for understanding the European renaissance
"directly,"
through hearing its music,
which still exists,
lots of it,
and a pleasure to explore.
Scholars will enjoy with ironic laughter
the Wikipedia author's confession
of the difficulty of definition,
especially those from the Center for Information and Communication Sciences,
where they have to struggle
with theoretical definition
of dynamic phenomena
on a regular basis:
Renaissance music is European classical music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 to 1600. Defining the beginning of the era is difficult, given the lack of abrupt shifts in musical thinking during the 15th century. Additionally, the process by which music acquired "Renaissance" characteristics was a gradual one, but 1400 is used here.
Yet having confessed the difficulties of definition,
the Wikipedia author does hypothesize
a general definition as we see above.
Then it gets interesting. Look at this:
GenresPrincipal liturgical forms which endured throughout the entire Renaissance period were masses and motets, with some other developments towards the end, especially as composers of sacred music began to adopt secular forms (such as the madrigal) for their own designs.
Common sacred genres were the mass, the motet, the madrigale spirituale, and the laude.
During the period, secular music had an increasingly wide distribution, with a wide variety of forms, but one must be cautious about assuming an explosion in variety: since printing made music more widely available, much more has survived from this era than from the preceding Medieval era, and probably a rich store of popular music of the late Middle Ages is irretrievably lost. Secular music included songs for one or many voices, forms such as the frottola, chanson and madrigal.
Note this important observation about the power of information technologies
in the time to emphasize particular historical understanding of the world:
one must be cautious about assuming an explosion in variety: since printing made music more widely available, much more has survived from this era than from the preceding Medieval era, and probably a rich store of popular music of the late Middle Ages is irretrievably lost.
We can't assume real life was less rich in bygone days. We just lack the information,
almost any information about it.
That's why our weblogging today is doubly important--first, we provide information about our world,
and second, we are leaving a record, which we hope scholars in the future will recover.
Enjoy the music of the European renaissance.
Now, what is the music from today that will be remembered and emphasized by scholars
about the music of our information renaissance in the future?
How about the recovery and emphasis on the music of Messiaen?