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)
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
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