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Composer Profile - Activefolio

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The Renaissance 41<br />

of the dance steps, with the appropriate music to accompany that dance. Several dance<br />

types are listed below, but many more existed.<br />

Renaissance Dance Forms<br />

Allemande Moderato dance in duple meter<br />

Courante Moderato or Allegro dance in triple meter<br />

Sarabande Andante or adagio dance in triple meter<br />

Gigue Allegro dance in duple or compound meter<br />

Bourrée Andante dance in duple meter<br />

Minuet Moderato dance in triple meter<br />

Pavane Andante or adagio dance in duple meter<br />

Galliard Moderato dance in triple meter<br />

Renaissance dances were short pieces with regular repeated phrases and melodies.<br />

The structure of these dances were similar in many respects to popular tunes of today.<br />

Each dance, however, expressed only one tempo or style. By combining dances into<br />

suites, or collections of dances, the composer could write music for a variety of different<br />

moods and styles within the same larger work. Usually, the instrumentation was not<br />

specified; in rare cases, the dances called for specific consorts or instruments. Often,<br />

improvisation was employed, both by embellishing the melodies and augmenting the<br />

accompaniments.<br />

Much has been written about Renaissance philosophy, and the attempts by people<br />

of the time to recapture the glory of the great ancient empires of Greece and Rome. The<br />

culmination of this thinking was a combination of the arts, which will be discussed in<br />

the next chapter. The result of this combination became known as opera.<br />

Key Terms<br />

antiphonal madrigal<br />

canon mass<br />

chanson Ordinary (of the Mass)<br />

chorale polyphonic<br />

consort Proper (of the Mass)<br />

Counter Reformation Protestant Reformation<br />

homophonic suite<br />

hymn<br />

imitation<br />

word painting

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