Skip to main content

Lute song

Late Renaissance was quite generous for music discovery. I don’t remember when else the art was on such rise like in that period. Lute song became popular in 16th century. This genre was loved in France, Italy, England etc. There were three types of the lute song:

  • Drinking song (air a boire)
  • Dancing song (air a danse)
  • Spiritual song (air spirituel)
A common feature of all these songs was the homophonic-harmonic type of the texture and the leading role of the upper voice.

In fact, lute song is literaturelly a song which was sang with the lute accompaniment. Most of the composers who worked in this genre, they performed themselves playing two roles at the same time: role of the singer and accompanist role. Nowadays the situation is a bit changed, now lute song needs two people - the lute player and the singer.

Melody and lyrics are two main things of a lute song. For a singer performing such music implies to be fully in the text and strictly follow the rhythm; in so doing you shouldn't give a lot of your voice.

For music notation lute players used tablature (tablature indicates fingering on lines corresponding to the strings of the lute)

In 16th century music was an integral part of everyday life. Rich and notable houses had music ensembles which were consisted on the official service and they were getting paid for this. However, to have your own ensemble was quite an expensive pleasure thus less rich families called their attention to the lute. Like this two birds were killed with one stone, it gave the opportunity to:

  • Have a personal musician;
  • Reduce the expenses for the music entertainment.

Like all eras, Renaissance has three periods: Early Renaissance (1400 - 1467), Middle Renaissance (1467 - 1534) and Late Renaissance (1534 - 1600). Each of this period played an important role in Western music history, composers and theorists of this era had discovered new genres which prepared the fertile atmosphere for the birth of the Opera.

Author: Alisia Holainen

Follow the Music with Musique de Cour


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Jean-Baptiste Lully and Louis 14th

Our story begins in Grande siecle, the era of France's heyday, era of absolute monarchy. It all started in 1653, when 21 years old Jean-Baptiste Lully met Louis 14th. Together, the future Great King of France and the Great Composer, danced in Ballet Royal de la nuit, which was staged in honor of the King's victory over the Fronde. In this ballet Louis 14th played the role of the Sun and Jean-Baptiste had three roles: the beggar, soldier and one of Three Graces. This meeting was a beginning of the long and close partnership, which continued 30 years. Louis 14th greatly appreciated Lully and the composer was devoted to His Majesty; Lully loved the King and next 30 years he would do his best for serving to the greatness of the King. Two months later after Ballet Royal de la nuit, Louis 14th appointed Jean-Baptiste to the post of chamber music composer and in spite of the modesty of this position, it was a great start for Lully’s career. Following the memories of Lul...

Lully. Opera arias for soprano

1. Acis & Galatée - Qu'une injuste fierté (Chaconne) (act 2, scene 5) 2. Amadis - Toi, qui dans ce tombeau, aria of Arcabonne (act 3, scene 3) 3. Amadis - Que vois-je ! Ô spectacle effroyable? - Oriane's aria (act 4, scene 4) 4. Armide - Enfin, il es en ma puissance. Armida's aria (act 2, scene 5) 5. Atys - Espoir si cher et si doux (act 3, scene 8) 6. Cadmus et Hermione. Hermione's aria from act 2, scene 5 Author: Alisia Holainen

Anne Boleyn's last song

Anne Boleyn’s lament O death, rock me asleep. Our story begins in Tower of London (year 1536), where, according to the legend, on the execution eve, Anne Boleyn wrote a poem - O death, rock me asleep. Anne was a central figures of English reformation and her short but lush reign flurried the imagination of poets and people from the different estates of the kingdom. Even nowadays Anne Boleyn looks to be very interesting for people: they are making movies about her, they’re writing books. Moreover, Italian composer Donizetti wrote a big tragic opera about this queen (premiered on December 26, 1830 in Milan). O death, rock me asleep, indeed, is a lute song. In that time, to write something like this you needed to have a special knowledge and skills in poetry and music, because both of these followed the certain rules and structure, which were studied by musicians and poets of that era. Did Anne Boleyn have such a knowledge? Contentious issue, because there are no evidences, but als...