music, Western

The establishment of Western musical traditions > The Renaissance period > The Franco-Flemish school

A watershed in the history of music occurred about the middle of the 15th century. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the end of the Hundred Years' War at about the same time increased commerce from the East and affluence in the West. Most significant musically was the pervasive influence of musicians from the Low Countries, whose domination of the musical scene during the last half of the 15th century is reflected in the period designations the Netherlands school and the Franco-Flemish school. These musicians travelled and resided throughout Europe in response to their great demand at princely courts, including those of the Medici family in Florence and the Sforzas in Milan. Further dissemination of knowledge resulted from the invention and development of printing.

The leading composers, whose patrons were now members of the civil aristocracy as well as princes of the church, were Jean d'Okeghem, Jakob Obrecht, and, especially, Josquin des Prez. D'Okeghem, born and trained in Flanders, spent most of his life in the service of the kings of France and was recognized by his contemporaries as the “Prince of Music.” Obrecht remained near his birthplace in the Netherlands, going occasionally to Italy in the retinue of Duca Ercole I (Duke Hercules I) of Ferrara. More typical of the peripatetic Netherlanders was the career of Josquin, the most influential composer of the period. After training at St. Quentin, he served the Sforza family in Milan, the papal choir in Rome, Ercole I, and King Louis XII of France before returning to his native Flanders in 1516. These three composers and several contemporaries hastened the development of the musical techniques that became the basis of 16th-century practice and influenced succeeding developments.

Rather than the three parts typical of most Burgundian music, four parts became standard for vocal polyphony in the late 15th century. The fourth part was added below the tenor, increasing the total range and resulting in greater breadth of sound. The presence of the four parts also allowed for contrasts of texture such as the “duet style” so characteristic of Josquin, when the two upper parts might sing a passage alone and be echoed by the two lower parts alone. The emergence of the technique of imitation (one voice repeating recognizably a figure heard first in another voice) as the chief form-generating principle brought about more equality of parts. At the same time “familiar style,” in which all parts move together in chords, provided a means of textural contrast. The great variety of rhythmic techniques that evolved during the 14th and early 15th centuries made possible a wide range of expression—from quiet tranquillity for sacred music to lively and spirited secular music. Knowledge of the musical practices comes not only from the thousands of surviving compositions but from informative treatises such as the 12 by the composer Johannes Tinctoris (1436–1511), one of which, Terminorum musicae diffinitorium (c. 1475), is the earliest printed dictionary of musical terms.

The chief forms of vocal music continued to be the mass, the motet, and the chanson, to which must be added other national types that developed during the 15th century—the villancico (secular poetry set for voice and lute or for three or four voices) in Spain and the frottola (a simple, chordal setting in three or four parts of an Italian text) in Italy. The emergence of the frottola in northern Italy led to the development of the Renaissance madrigal, which impelled that country to musical supremacy in Europe.