Unit 2.3 Instrumental music.

In the Renaissance, the musical instruments were improved. The reason for this is the birth of a great interest in instrumental music. As a result, COMPOSITIONS OF PURELY INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC began to appear. Instruments were also used to accompany voices in many pieces, like in the Middle Ages.

For the first time, there are manuals and treatises that teach how to play an instrument.

Religious music did not allow the use of instruments, so instrumental music was developed only in the field of secular music.

Instrumental forms

Most of the instrumental forms of the Renaissance respond to three basic types of composition:

• Pieces adapted from vocal works. Keeping the structure and texture, but adapting it for instruments.
• Pieces based on improvisation. It can be based on a given melody, or freely made up from nothing.
• Pieces based on variation. A simple theme is played and then repeated with different modifications.

Instruments

There were not stable formations such as an orchestra, so instruments were not specified in the score. However, for the first time, instruments are classified in two big families, depending on their timbre and sound power:

• HAUT: loud music performed by instruments of great sound power. Intended for outdoor performances or public events.
• BAS: quiet music performed by instruments of soft sound intensity, intended for indoor performances.

Some of the most relevant and used instruments were:

• Wind instruments: flute, shawm, serpent, crumhorn, sackbut, organ.

• String instruments: lute, vihuela, viola da gamba, spinet.

• Percussion instruments: drums (snare drum, side drum, frame drum...)

Some of the most relevant composers of instrumental music were John Dowland (1563-1626) and Antonio de Cabezón (1510-1566). Below you can listen to the "Diferencias sobre el canto del caballero", by Antonio de Cabezón (source: Wikipedia).