Renaissance music - it's not just for renfair groupies

A couple of mornings ago, I was out running very early and my local NPR station (WNYC) was still doing their overnight classical programing. I like listening then because the hosts have a lot of freedom to play non-mainstream stuff, since the audience is so small.

The theme that morning was renaissance era music, written approximately between 1400 and 1600, and I was struck by the way the simplicity of the music allowed its' beauty to shine through so clearly.

The music and art of the middle ages in the western world was mostly religious or liturgical, and so was limited in many ways. The renaissance generally was a time when people's views of themselves, the earth and the cosmos were changing. The feudal system gave way to modern states. There was renewed interest in classical learning (e.g. the work of Greek scholars and writers). It was a time of great intellectual forment.

The music of the renaissance reflected all of this by it's expansion from a limited number of medieval forms, the introduction of new instruments and above all a willingness to experiment and try new things, like composing songs that captured some aspect of the human experience, rather than being purely spiritual or religious.

Like all aspects of culture, classical music evolves over time, with new musical forms and conventions taking shape, building on what was done before. The next period, the baroque, is characterized by music that tends to be more ornate and sophisticated, but perhaps less heartfelt and grounded than renaissance music.

Composers were limited by the musical conventions of their times. The reason that you'll never hear a symphony by J.S. Bach is that they didn't exist until long after his death. While it's a shame that we'll never have a Bach symphony, his work expanded on what came before and laid part of the foundation for what came later. So to really appreciate any particular piece, you have to think of it as part of a historical continuum.

So go here, and stream a terrific compilation of renaissance music from the folks at magnatune

http://magnatune.com/genres/m3u/renaissance.m3u

And just let it play in background while you do other things. There is some truly lovely, moving music here.

Next week, I'm going to write on something very modern - a work that was composed to commemorate the attack on the World Trade Center, and the aftermath in NYC.