Musical culture and education in the Renaissance. Abstract musical culture of the revival
Music in the period of the XV-XVII centuries.
In the Middle Ages, music was the prerogative of the church, so most musical works were sacred, they were based on church hymns (Gregorian chant), which were part of the religion from the very beginning of Christianity. At the beginning of the 6th century, cult melodies, with the direct participation of Pope Gregory I, were finally canonized. Gregorian chant was performed by professional singers. After church music mastered polyphony, Gregorian chant remained the thematic basis of polyphonic cult works (masses, motets, etc.).
The Middle Ages was followed by the Renaissance, which was for musicians an era of discoveries, innovations and research, the Renaissance of all layers of cultural and scientific manifestations of life from music and painting to astronomy and mathematics.
Although, in the main, music remained religious, but the weakening of church control over society opened up greater freedom for composers and performers in the manifestation of their talents.
With the invention of the printing press, it became possible to print and distribute sheet music, and from that moment begins what we call classical music.
During this period, new musical instruments appeared. The most popular were the instruments on which music lovers could play easily and simply, without requiring special skills.
It was at this time that the viola, the predecessor of the violin, appeared. The frets (wood strips across the fretboard) made it easy to play, and the sound was quiet, gentle, and played well in small venues.
Also popular were wind instruments- recorder, flute and horn. The most complex music was written for the newly created harpsichord, virginal (English harpsichord, characterized by small size) and organ. At the same time, the musicians did not forget to compose simpler music, which did not require high performing skills. At the same time, there were changes in musical writing: heavy wooden printing blocks were replaced by mobile metal letters invented by the Italian Ottaviano Petrucci. Published musical works quickly sold out, more and more people began to join the music.
Must see: Major Events in the History of Classical Music in Italy.
rebirth(French Renaissance) - an era in the cultural and historical life of Western Europe in the XV-XVI centuries. (in Italy - XIV-XVI centuries). This is the period of the emergence and development of capitalist relations, the formation of nations, languages, and national cultures. Renaissance is the time of great geographical discoveries, the invention of printing, the development of science.
The era was named after revival interest in antique art, which became an ideal for cultural figures of that time. Composers and musical theorists - J. Tinktoris, J. Tsarlino and others - studied ancient Greek musical treatises; in the musical works of Josquin Despres, who is compared with Michelangelo, "the lost perfection of the ancient Greeks has increased"; appeared in the late 16th - early 17th century. the opera is oriented to the patterns of ancient drama.
Renaissance art was based on humanism(from Latin "humanus" - humane, philanthropic) - a view that proclaims a person the highest value, defends the right of a person to his own assessment of the phenomena of reality, puts forward the requirement of scientific knowledge and adequate reflection in art of the phenomena of reality. The ideologists of the Renaissance opposed the theology of the Middle Ages with a new ideal of a man imbued with earthly feelings and interests. At the same time, the features of the previous era were retained in the art of the Renaissance (being essentially secular, it used images of medieval art).
The Renaissance was also a time of broad anti-feudal and anti-Catholic religious movements (Hussitism in the Czech Republic, Lutheranism in Germany, Calvinism in France). All these religious movements are united by the common concept " Protestantism" (or " reformation»).
During the Renaissance, art (including music) enjoyed great public prestige and became extremely widespread. The fine arts (L. da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Jan van Eyck, P. Bruegel and others), architecture (F. Brunelleschi, A. Palladio), literature (Dante, F. Petrarch, F. Rabelais, M. Cervantes, W. Shakespeare), music.
Characteristic features of the musical culture of the Renaissance:
rapid development secular music (wide spread of secular genres: madrigals, frottols, villanelles, French "chansons", English and German polyphonic songs), its onslaught on the old church musical culture that existed in parallel with the secular one;
realistic trends in music: new plots, images corresponding to humanistic views and, as a result, new means musical expressiveness;
folk melodic as the leading beginning of a piece of music. Folk songs are used as cantus firmus (the main, unchanging tenor melody in polyphonic works) and in polyphonic music (including church music). The melody becomes smoother, more flexible, melodious, because is a direct expression of human experiences;
powerful development polyphonic music, incl. And " strict style" (otherwise - " classical vocal polyphony”, because focused on vocal and choral performance). Strict style implies obligatory adherence to established rules (strict style norms were formulated by the Italian J. Carlino). Masters of strict style mastered the technique of counterpoint, imitation and canon. Strict writing was based on a system of diatonic church modes. Consonances dominate in harmony, the use of dissonances was strictly limited by special rules. The major and minor modes and the clock system are added. The thematic basis was Gregorian chant, but secular melodies were also used. The concept of a strict style does not cover all the polyphonic music of the Renaissance. It focuses mainly on the polyphony of Palestrina and O. Lasso;
the formation of a new type of musician - professional, who received a comprehensive special musical education. The concept of "composer" appears for the first time;
the formation of national music schools (English, Dutch, Italian, German, etc.);
appearance of the first performers lute, viol, violin, harpsichord, organ; flourishing of amateur music-making;
the emergence of typography.
Main musical genres of the Renaissance
Major musical theorists of the Renaissance:
Johannes Tinctoris (1446 - 1511),
Glarean (1488 - 1563),
Josephfo Carlino (1517 - 1590).
The era of the High Renaissance.
(From the history of Italian music since 1500)
The Renaissance is a period of change in all areas of art - painting, architecture, sculpture, music. This period marked the transition from the Middle Ages to the present. The period between 1500 and 1600, called the High Renaissance, is the most revolutionary period in the history of European music, the century in which harmony was developed and opera was born.
In the 16th century, music printing first spread, in 1501 the Venetian printer Ottaviano Petrucci published the Harmonice Musices Odhecaton, the first major collection of secular music. It was a revolution in the dissemination of music, and also contributed to the fact that the Franco-Flemish style became the dominant musical language of Europe in the next century, since, as an Italian, Petrucci mainly included the music of Franco-Flemish composers in his collection. Subsequently, he published many works and Italian composers, both secular and spiritual.
Italy becomes the center of the creation of harpsichords and violins. Many violin workshops open. One of the first masters was the famous Andrea Amati from Cremona, who laid the foundation for a dynasty of violin makers. He made significant changes to the design of the existing violins, which improved the sound and brought it closer to the modern look.
Francesco Canova da Milano (1497 - 1543) - an outstanding Italian lute player and composer of the Renaissance, created a reputation for Italy as a country of virtuoso musicians. He is still considered the best lute player of all time. After the decline of the late Middle Ages, music became an important element of culture.
During the Renaissance, the madrigal reached its peak and became the most popular musical genre of the era. Madrigalists sought to create high art, often using the reworked poetry of the great Italian poets of the late Middle Ages: Francesco Petrarca, Giovanni Boccaccio and others. The most characteristic feature of the madrigal was the absence of strict structural canons, the main principle was the free expression of thoughts and feelings.
Composers such as the representative of the Venetian school, Cypriano de Rore, and the representative of the Franco-Flemish school, Roland de Lassu, experimented with increasing chromatism, harmony, rhythm, texture, and other means of musical expression. Their experience will continue and culminate in the Mannerist era of Carlo Gesualdo.
In 1558, Josephfo Zarlino (1517-1590), the greatest theoretician of music from the time of Aristotle to the Baroque era, created the Fundamentals of the Harmonica, in this largest creation of musical science of the 16th century, he revived the ancient concept of a sounding number, substantiated the theoretical and aesthetic justification of a large and small triads. His teaching about music had a significant impact on Western European musical science and formed the basis of numerous later characteristics of major and minor.
The Birth of Opera (Florentine Camerata)
The end of the Renaissance was marked by the most important event in musical history- the birth of opera.
A group of humanists, musicians, and poets gathered in Florence under the auspices of their leader, Count Giovanni De Bardi (1534 - 1612). The group was called "kamerata", its main members were Giulio Caccini, Pietro Strozzi, Vincenzo Galilei (father of the astronomer Galileo Galilei), Giloramo Mei, Emilio de Cavalieri and Ottavio Rinuccini in their younger years.
The first documented meeting of the group took place in 1573, and the most active years of the "Florence Camerata" were 1577 - 1582.
They believed that the music was "corrupted" and sought to return to the form and style of ancient Greece, believing that the art of music could be improved and, accordingly, society would also improve. Camerata criticized the existing music for its excessive use of polyphony at the expense of the intelligibility of the text and the loss of the poetic component of the work, and proposed the creation of a new musical style in which the text in monodic style was accompanied by instrumental music. Their experiments led to the creation of a new vocal and musical form - the recitative, first used by Emilio de Cavalieri, subsequently directly related to the development of opera.
At the end of the 16th century, composers began to push the boundaries of the Renaissance styles, the Baroque era came to replace it with its own characteristics and new discoveries in music. One of them was Claudio Monteverdi.
Monteverdi. Presso in Fiume Tranquillo.
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (05/15/1567 - 11/29/1643) - italian composer, musician, singer. The most important composer of the Baroque, his works are often regarded as revolutionary, marking the transition in music from the Renaissance to the Baroque. He lived in an era of great change in music and was himself the man who changed it.
Monteverdi. Venite, Venite.
Monteverdi. From the opera "Orpheus"
The first officially recognized opera that meets modern standards was the opera "Daphne" (Daphne), first presented in 1598. The authors of "Daphne" were Jacopo Peri and Jacopo Corsi, libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini. This opera has not survived. The first surviving opera is "Eurydice" (1600) by the same authors - Jacopo Peri and Ottavio Rinuccini. This creative union still created many works, most of which have been lost.
Jacopo Peri. Tu dormi, e I dolce sonno.
Jacopo Peri. Hor che gli augelli.
Church music of the 16th century.
The 16th century is characterized by a very strong influence of the Catholic Church and its Inquisition on the development of art and science in Europe. In 1545, the Council of Trent met, one of the most important councils in the history of the Catholic Church, the purpose of which was to respond to the Reformation movement. In particular, church music was considered at this cathedral.
Some delegates sought to return to monophonic Gregorian chant and exclude counterpoint from chants, there was already a tacit ban on the use of polyphonic style in sacred music, including almost all sequences. The reason for this position was the belief that polyphonic music, due to contrapuntal plexuses, pushes the text into the background, while the musical harmony of the work is also violated.
A special committee was set up to resolve the dispute. This commission commissioned Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1514-1594), one of the greatest composers of church music, to compose trial masses, taking into account all the requirements of the parties. Palestrina created three six-voice masses, including his most famous "Mass of Pope Marcellus", dedicated to Pope Marcellus II, his patron in his youth. These works had a strong influence on the clergy and put an end to the dispute, speeches against the use of counterpoint in church music ceased.
The work of Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina is the pinnacle of the development of contrapuntal sacred music a capella, combining all possible combinations of polyphony and clarity of texts.
Palestrina. Sicut Cervus.
Palestrina. Gloria
Abstract: Music of the Renaissance
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"Music of the Renaissance"
Yoshkar-Ola 2010
The era of the Renaissance (Renaissance) is the time of the heyday of all types of arts and the appeal of their figures to ancient traditions and forms.
The Renaissance has uneven historical and chronological boundaries in different countries of Europe. In Italy, it begins in the 14th century, in the Netherlands it begins in the 15th century, and in France, Germany and England, its signs are most clearly manifested in the 16th century. At the same time, the development of ties between different creative schools, the exchange of experience between musicians who moved from country to country, worked in different chapels, is becoming a sign of the times and allows us to talk about trends common to the entire era.
The artistic culture of the Renaissance is a personal beginning based on science. The unusually complex skill of the polyphonists of the 15th-16th centuries, their virtuoso technique coexisted with the bright art of everyday dances, the sophistication of secular genres. Lyrical-dramaticism is gaining more and more expression in his works.
So, as we can see, the Renaissance period is a difficult period in the history of the development of musical art, therefore it seems reasonable to consider it in more detail, while paying due attention to individual personalities.
Music is the only world language, it does not need to be translated, soul speaks to soul in it.
Averbakh Berthold.
Renaissance music, or Renaissance music, refers to the period in the development of European music between about 1400 and 1600. Start in Italy new era came for musical art in the XIV century. The Dutch school took shape and reached its first heights in the 15th century, after which its development expanded, and the influence in one way or another captured the masters of other national schools. Signs of the Renaissance were clearly manifested in France in the 16th century, although its creative achievements were great and indisputable even in previous centuries.
TO XVI century refers to the rise of art in Germany, England and some other countries included in the orbit of the Renaissance. And yet, over time, the new creative movement became decisive for Western Europe as a whole and responded in its own way in the countries of Eastern Europe.
The music of the Renaissance turned out to be completely alien to rough and harsh sounds. The laws of harmony constituted its main essence.
The leading position was still occupied spiritual music, sounding during the church service. In the Renaissance, she preserved the main themes of medieval music: praise to the Lord and the Creator of the world, holiness and purity of religious feeling. The main goal of such music, as one of its theorists said, is "to please God."
Masses, motets, hymns and psalms formed the basis of musical culture.
Mass - musical composition, which is a collection of parts of the Catholic liturgy of the Latin rite, the texts of which are set to music for monophonic or polyphonic singing, accompanied by musical instruments or without, for musical accompaniment of solemn worship in the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant churches of high direction, for example, in the Church of Sweden.
Masses of musical value are also performed outside of worship at concerts; moreover, many masses of later times were specially composed either for performance in a concert hall or on the occasion of some kind of celebration.
The church mass, going back to the traditional melodies of the Gregorian chant, most clearly expressed the essence of musical culture. As in the Middle Ages, the mass consisted of five parts, but now it has become more majestic and large-scale. The world no longer seemed so small and observable to man. Usual life with its earthly joys has already ceased to be considered sinful.
Motet (fr. motet from mot- word) - a vocal polyphonic work of a polyphonic warehouse, one of the central genres in the music of the Western European Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Anthem (ancient Greek ὕμνος) is a solemn song praising and glorifying someone or something (originally a deity).
Psalm (Greek ψαλμός " hymn”), r.p. psalm, pl. psalms (Greek ψαλμοί) are hymns of Jewish (Hebrew תהילים) and Christian religious poetry and prayer (from the Old Testament).
They make up the Psalter, the 19th book of the Old Testament. The authorship of the psalms is traditionally attributed to King David (c. 1000 BC) and several other authors, including Abraham, Moses, and other legendary figures.
In total, the Psalter includes 150 psalms, divided into prayers, praises, songs and teachings.
The Psalms have had a huge impact on folklore and have been the source of many proverbs. In Judaism, psalms were sung in the form of hymns with accompaniment. With each psalm, as a rule, the method of performance and the “model” (called intonation in the Gregorian chant), that is, the corresponding tune, were indicated. The Psalter has taken an important place in Christianity. Psalms were sung during divine services, home prayers, before battle and when moving in formation. Initially, they were sung by the whole community in the church. The psalms were sung a cappella, only at home the use of instruments was allowed. The type of performance was recitative-psalmodic. In addition to whole psalms, individual, most expressive verses from them were also used. On this basis, independent chants arose - antiphon, gradual, path and hallelujah.
Gradually, secular trends began to penetrate into the works of church composers. Themes are boldly introduced into the polyphonic fabric of church hymns folk songs not religious at all. But now it did not contradict the general spirit and moods of the era. On the contrary, in music miraculously united the divine and the human.
Sacred music reached its peak in the 15th century. in the Netherlands. Here music was revered more than other forms of art. Dutch and Flemish composers pioneered the new rules polyphonic(polyphonic) performance - classic " strict style". The most important compositional technique of the Dutch masters was imitation- repetition of the same melody different voices. The leading voice was the tenor, who was entrusted with the main repetitive melody - cantus firmus ("unchanging melody"). Bass sounded below the tenor, and alto sounded above. The highest, that is, towering above all, the voice was called soprano.
With the help of mathematical calculations, the Dutch and Flemish composers managed to calculate the combination formula musical intervals. The main goal of writing is the creation of a harmonious, symmetrical and grandiose, internally complete sound construction. One of the brightest representatives of this school, Johannes Okeghem (c. 1425-1497), based on mathematical calculations, composed a motet for 36 voices!
All the genres characteristic of the Dutch school are represented in Okeghem's work: mass, motet and chanson. The most important genre for him is the mass, he proved himself to be an outstanding polyphonist. Okeghem's music is very dynamic, the melodic line moves in a wide range, has a wide amplitude. At the same time, Okeghem is characterized by smooth intonation, the purest diatonic, and ancient modal thinking. Therefore, Okeghem's music is often characterized as "aimed at infinity", "floating" in a somewhat detached figurative environment. It is less related to the text, rich in chants, improvisational, expressive.
Very few of Okeghem's writings survive:
about 14 masses (11 completely):
· Requiem Missa pro Defunctis (the first polyphonic requiem in the history of world musical literature);
9-13 (according to various sources) motets:
over 20 chanson
There are many works whose ownership of Okegem is questioned, among them the famous motet "Deo gratias" for 36 voices. Some anonymous chansons are attributed to Okegem on the basis of similarity in style.
The thirteen masses of Okeghem are preserved in a 15th-century manuscript known as the Chigi codex.
Among the masses, four-part masses predominate, there are two five-part masses and one eight-part masses. Ockeghem uses folk ("L'homme armé"), his own ("Ma maistresse") melodies or melodies of other authors as the themes of masses (for example, Benchois in "De plus en plus"). There are masses without borrowed themes ("Quinti toni", "Sine nomine", "Cujusvis toni").
Motets and chanson
Okeghem's motets and chanson are directly adjacent to his masses and differ from them mainly in their scale. Among the motets there are magnificent, festive works, as well as more strict spiritual choral compositions.
The most famous is the festive thanksgiving motet "Deo gratias", written for four nine-voice compositions and therefore considered to be 36-voice. In fact, it consists of four nine-part canons (on four different topics), which follow one after another with slight overlaps of the beginning of the next on the conclusion of the previous one. There are 18 voices in the overdubs, there is no real 36 voices in the motet.
Of no less interest is the work of the Dutch composer Orlando Lasso (c. 1532-1594), who created more than two thousand works of a cult and secular nature.
Lasso is the most prolific composer of his time; due to the huge amount of heritage, the artistic significance of his works (many of which were commissioned) has not yet been fully appreciated.
He worked exclusively in vocal genres, including more than 60 masses, a requiem, 4 cycles of passions (according to all evangelists), Holy Week officios (responsorships of Matins of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Great Saturday), more than 100 magnificats, hymns, faubourdons, about 150 French. chanson (his chanson "Susanne un jour", a paraphrase of the biblical story about Susanna, was one of the most popular plays in the 16th century), Italian (villanelles, moresques, canzones) and German songs (more than 140 Lieder), about 250 madrigals.
Lasso is distinguished by the most detailed development of texts on different languages, both liturgical (including texts of the Holy Scriptures), and freely composed. The seriousness and drama of the concept, the lengthy volumes distinguish the composition “Tears of St. Peter” (a cycle of 7-voice spiritual madrigals to poems by Luigi Tranzillo, published in 1595) and “Penitential Psalms of David” (manuscript of 1571 in folio format decorated with illustrations by G. Milich, who provide valuable iconographic material about life, incl. musical entertainment, Bavarian court).
However, in secular music, Lasso was no stranger to humor. For example, in the chanson “Drinking in three persons is distributed at feasts” (Fertur in conviviis vinus, vina, vinum), an old anecdote from the life of the Vagantes is retold; in the famous song "Matona mia cara" a German soldier sings a love serenade, mangling Italian words; in the anthem "Ut queant laxis" unlucky solfegging is imitated. A number of bright short plays by Lasso are written on very frivolous verses, for example, the chanson “The lady looked with interest in the castle / Nature looked at the marble statue” (En un chasteau ma dame ...), and some songs (especially mores) contain obscene vocabulary.
secular music The Renaissance was represented by various genres: madrigals, songs, canzones. Music, having ceased to be a "servant of the church", now began to sound not in Latin, but in the native language. The most popular genre of secular music was madrigals (Italian Madrigal - a song in the native language) - many-voiced choral compositions written on the text of a lyric poem of love content. Most often, poems by famous masters were used for this purpose: Dante, Francesco Petrarch and Torquato Tasso. Madrigals were performed not by professional singers, but by a whole ensemble of amateurs, where each part was led by one singer. The main mood of the madrigal is sadness, melancholy and melancholy, but there were also joyful, lively compositions.
Modern researcher of musical culture D.K. Kirnarskaya notes:
Madrigal turned the whole music system of the Renaissance: the even and harmonious melodic plasticity of the mass collapsed... the unchanging cantus firmus, the foundation of the musical whole, also disappeared... the usual methods of developing "strict writing"... gave way to emotional and melodic contrasts of episodes, each of which tried to convey the poetic thought contained in the text as expressively as possible. Madrigal finally undermined the weakening forces of the "strict style".
No less popular genre of secular music was the song accompanied by musical instruments. Unlike the music played in the church, the songs were quite simple to perform. Their rhymed text was clearly divided into 4-6 line stanzas. In songs, as in madrigals, the text acquired great importance. When performed, poetic lines should not be lost in polyphonic singing. Songs were famous French composer Clement Janequin (c.1485-1558). Clement Janequin wrote about 250 chansons, mostly for 4 voices, to poems by Pierre Ronsard, Clement Marot, M. de Saint-Gele, anonymous poets. With regard to 40 more chansons, modern science disputes the authorship of Janequin (which, however, does not reduce the quality of this contested music itself). The main distinguishing feature of his secular polyphonic music is programmatic and pictorial. Before the mind's eye of the listener are pictures of the battle ("Battle of Marignano", "Battle of Renty", "Battle of Metz"), hunting scenes ("Birdsong", "Nightingale Singing", "Lark"), everyday scenes ("Women's chatting"). Janequin vividly conveys the atmosphere of everyday life in Paris in the chanson "Cries of Paris", where the cries of street vendors are heard ("Milk!" - "Pies!" - "Artichokes!" - "Fish!" - "Matches!" - "Doves!" - "Old shoes!" - "Wine!"). With all the ingenuity in texture and rhythm, Janequin's music in the field of harmony and counterpoint remains very traditional.
The Renaissance marked the beginning professional composer creativity. A striking representative of this new trend is undoubtedly Palestrina (1525-1594). His legacy includes many works of sacred and secular music: 93 masses, 326 hymns and motets. He is the author of two volumes of secular madrigals to the words of Petrarch. For a long time he worked as a choir director at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The church music he created is distinguished by purity and loftiness of feelings. The secular music of the composer is imbued with extraordinary spirituality and harmony.
We owe the Renaissance to the formation instrumental music as an independent art form. At this time, a number of instrumental pieces, variations, preludes, fantasies, rondos, toccata appear. Among musical instruments, the organ, harpsichord, viola, various types of flutes are especially popular, and at the end of the 16th century. - violin.
The Renaissance ends with the emergence of new musical genres: solo song, oratorio and opera. If earlier the temple was the center of musical culture, then since that time music has sounded in the opera house. And it happened like this.
In the Italian city of Florence at the end of the XVI century. began to gather talented poets, actors, scientists and musicians. None of them then thought about any discovery. And yet it was they who were destined to make a real revolution in theatrical and musical art. Resuming the productions of the works of ancient Greek playwrights, they began to compose their own music, corresponding, in their opinion, to the nature of ancient drama.
Members cameras(as this society was called) carefully thought out the musical accompaniment of monologues and dialogues of mythological characters. Actors were required to perform spoken parts recitative(recitation, singsong speech). And although the word continued to play a leading role in relation to music, the first step was taken towards their convergence and harmonic fusion. Such a performance made it possible to convey to a greater extent the richness of the inner world of a person, his personal experiences and feelings. On the basis of such vocal parts arose arias- completed episodes in a musical performance, including an opera.
The opera house quickly won love and became popular not only in Italy, but also in other European countries.
List of used literature
1) Encyclopedic Dictionary of a Young Musician / Comp. V.V. Medushevsky, O.O. Ochakovskaya. - M .: Pedagogy, 1985.
2) World art culture. From the origins to the XVII century: textbook. for 10 cells. general education humanitarian institutions / G.I. Danilova. - 2nd ed., stereotype. – M.: Bustard, 2005.
3) Materials from the archive of Renaissance music: http://manfredina.ru/
Chapter 1 Features of musical culture and art of the Renaissance
1.1 Philosophical and aesthetic features of the culture of the Renaissance
The Renaissance, or the Renaissance (fr. renaissance), - a turning point in the history of European peoples, the time of great discoveries. The Renaissance marks the beginning of a new stage in the history of world culture. This stage, as noted by F. Engels, was the greatest progressive upheaval of all experienced by mankind up to that time. And, indeed, the Renaissance brought with it significant changes in various areas of the economy, science, culture, opened a new way of understanding the world and determined the place of man in it.
In Italy, new trends appeared already at the turn of the XIII-XIV centuries, in other European countries - in XV-XVI centuries. This time is characterized by: the transition from feudalism to capitalism, geographical discoveries, trade, personal enterprise, the liberation of man from class restrictions. And also in the Renaissance, modern science, especially natural science, is born. Suffice it to recall the brilliant scientific conjectures of Leonardo da Vinci, the foundation of Francis Bacon, the astronomical theories of Copernicus, the geographical discoveries of Columbus and Magellan.
Undoubtedly, all this could not but affect the nature of the worldview. The Renaissance is a revolution, first of all, in the system of values, in the assessment of everything that exists and in relation to it. There is a conviction that a person is the highest value, the philosophy of humanism is born. Humanism puts forward a completely new interpretation of aesthetic categories, which has grown on the basis of a new understanding of the world.
One of the central categories was the concept of "harmony". The aesthetics of the Renaissance develops a different idea of harmony, based on a new understanding of nature, being and man. If the Middle Ages saw in harmony a simple imprint of the ideal, creativity, divine beauty, then in the aesthetic consciousness of the Renaissance, harmony appears, first of all, as the development of the creative potentials of nature itself, as a dialectical unity of the bodily and spiritual, ideal and material.
Humanists searched for the ideal of a harmonious person in antiquity, and ancient Greek and roman art served as a model for their artistic creativity. However, speaking about the aesthetics of the Renaissance, it is necessary to note the fact that, despite its ancient support, it still differed from it. Renaissance aesthetics preaches the imitation of nature no worse than the ancient one, but peering into these revivalist theories of imitation, one can also notice that in the foreground it is not so much nature as the artist, his personality, his feelings. First, the artist, on the basis of his own aesthetic taste, selects certain processes of nature, and only then subjects them to artistic processing. The theoreticians of the Renaissance can trace the following comparison: the artist must create as God created the world, and even more perfect than that.
Thus, the Renaissance, using the lessons of antiquity, introduced innovations. He did not bring back to life all ancient genres, but only those that were in tune with the aspirations of his time and culture. The Renaissance combined a new reading of antiquity with a new reading of Christianity. The Renaissance brought these two fundamental principles closer together. European culture.
God has not determined man's place in the hierarchy, says Pico in his famous Oration on the Dignity of Man: you had by own will according to your will and your decision. The image of other creations is determined within the limits of the laws we have established. But you, not constrained by any limits, will determine your image according to your decision, in the power of which I leave you. Here, the Italian thinker puts a person at the center of the world, this is a person who does not have his own special nature, he must form it himself, like everything that surrounds it.
So, the main thing in the Renaissance is the promotion and approval of the human personality in culture and society, which results in various forms of revivalist anthropocentrism. Anthropocentrism brought to the fore not just a person, but a person as an active, active principle. As a result of all this assertion of a creative, active material principle, gradually began to emerge new look man, his new type - "homo faber" - "man-creator", "man-creator". It is in it that the formation of the foundations of the new European sense of personality takes place - an autonomous individualistic personality, conscious of its own value, active and in need of freedom. From now on human personality, and not the world, not the whole, for the first time becomes the starting point for the formation of a system of perception of the world.
With particular brightness, the signs of a new worldview emerged and then became firmly established in artistic creativity, in the progressive movement of various arts, for which the “revolution of minds” that the Renaissance produced turned out to be extremely important.
In the Renaissance, art played an exceptional role in culture and to a large extent determined the face of the era. There is no doubt that humanism in its "revivalist" understanding poured tremendous fresh energy into the art of its time, inspired artists to search for new themes, and largely determined the nature of the images and the content of their works. Medieval culture was replaced by a new, secular, humanistic culture free from church dogma and scholasticism.
The art of the Renaissance is characterized by the assertion of the principles of realism and humanism in the literature, theater, and fine arts. The art of the Renaissance is, first of all, a secular art that arose on the basis of humanism, which displaces religious ideas and arouses interest in real life, reveals the individual identity of the individual and reveals the socially typical and characteristic qualities of a person.
All major art forms - painting, graphics, sculpture, architecture, music - are changing tremendously. An analysis of the cultural monuments of the Renaissance testifies to the departure from many of the most important principles of the feudal worldview. In the creator of a work of art, who is gradually freeing himself from church ideology, the most valued is a sharp artistic view of things, professional independence, special skills, and his creations acquire a self-sufficient, and not a sacred character.
A characteristic feature of the art of the Renaissance was an unprecedented flourishing of realistic painting. The realistic portrait of the Renaissance is associated with the works of such famous artists as Jan van Eyck, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Dürer, Titian. The portraits are permeated with the pathos of the affirmation of the individual, the consciousness that the diversity and brightness of individuals is a necessary feature of a normal developing society. It was in the Renaissance that painting for the first time reveals the possibilities inherent in it for a wide coverage of life, the depiction of human activity and the surrounding living environment. Medieval asceticism and contempt for everything earthly are now being replaced by an avid interest in the real world, in man, in the consciousness of the beauty and grandeur of nature.
It should be noted that the development of science was of great importance for painting, as well as for art in general. In art, the paths of scientific and artistic comprehension of the world and man begin to intertwine. The true image of the world and man had to be based on their knowledge, therefore, the cognitive principle played a particularly important role in the art of this time. Passion for science contributed to the mastery of human anatomy, the development of a realistic perspective, the spectacular transmission of the air environment, the skill of building angles, all that was necessary for painters to truly depict a person and the reality surrounding him. Produced new system artistic vision of the world, based on trust in human sensory perceptions, primarily visual ones. To portray as we see, in unity with the environment - this is the initial principle of the Renaissance artists.
In the period of the late Renaissance, this was supplemented by the development of a system of techniques that give direct emotional expressiveness to a brushstroke, mastery of the transmission of the effects of consecration, comprehension of the principles of light-air perspective. The creators of the theory of perspective are such famous artists as Masaccio, Alberti, Leonardo da Vinci. The discovery of perspective was of no small importance; it helped to expand the range of depicted phenomena, to include space, landscape, and architecture in painting.
The progressive humanistic content of the culture of the Renaissance was also vividly expressed in theatrical art, which was significantly influenced by ancient drama. He is characterized by an interest in the inner world of a person endowed with features of a powerful individuality. Distinctive features Theatrical art of the Renaissance was the development of the traditions of folk art, life-affirming pathos, a bold combination of tragic and comic, poetic and buffoon-areal elements. Such is the theater of Italy, Spain, England.
In architecture, the ideals of life-affirming humanism, the desire for a harmoniously clear beauty of forms, affected with no less force than in other forms of art and caused a decisive turn in the development of architecture. The appeal to the classical tradition played a particularly important role. It manifested itself not only in the rejection of Gothic forms and the revival of the ancient order system, but also in the classical proportionality of proportions, in the development of a centric type of buildings in temple architecture with an easily visible interior space.
Secular buildings were widely developed, these are various city buildings - town halls, houses of merchant guilds, universities, market fountains. At the same time, along with the architecture that serves the social needs of the city, a completely new type of architecture is emerging compared to the Middle Ages, the dwelling of a wealthy burgher - the palazzo, which with extraordinary ease reflects the spirit of the festive atmosphere reigning in the palaces of the aristocrats of that time. Thus, art in the Renaissance entered a new stage of development in which it sought to cognize and display real world, its beauty, richness, diversity through new methods and techniques.
1.2 The place of music in the Renaissance art system
The general laws of the development of art, a new philosophical and aesthetic understanding of the essence and nature of harmony, characteristic of the Renaissance, were also manifested in music. Like other forms of art of that time, music is also characterized by an active upsurge of creative forces, humanistic tendencies.
It should be noted that music during this period occupies a special place in the system of arts, yielding the dominant place only to painting. According to Leonardo da Vinci, music was just "the younger sister of painting" and even served her. “Painting surpasses music and dominates it”, “Music is the servant of painting”.
One cannot but agree with the definition of a great artist, music really occupied far from the first place in the system of arts, but, nevertheless, it played a huge role in the culture of the Renaissance, left an imprint on subsequent development, both in the field of musical culture and art in general . The musical culture of the Renaissance is a kind of transition from the Middle Ages to the New Age, to an era in which this art sounds and is perceived in a new way.
Music possessed, perhaps, especially broad possibilities of social influence; more than other arts, it was all-pervading: an invariable part of the life of ordinary people, the property of many groups, which significantly distinguishes it from the music of the Middle Ages. Departure from medieval tradition most tangible in Ramis da Pareja's treatise "Practical Music". Ramis says: “Let no one be afraid of the grandeur of philosophy, or the complexity of arithmetic, or the intricacy of proportions. a knowledgeable musician. We set ourselves the task of teaching not only philosophers or mathematicians; anyone familiar with the foundations of grammar will understand this work of ours. Here both a mouse and an elephant can swim in the same way; and fly over and Daedalus and Icarus." In this treatise, Ramis sharply criticizes medieval music, suggests that theorists wrote their compositions only for musicians - professionals and scientists, while music, in his opinion, should cover a wider segment of the population. Undoubtedly, the work of Ramis had a significant impact on his contemporaries, the traditions of the Middle Ages were greatly undermined, the transition from the Middle Ages to the New Age, to the Renaissance, is underway.
The Renaissance, with its humanistic worldview, had a huge impact on musical culture. For musical art, humanism meant, first of all, deepening into the feelings of a person, recognizing a new aesthetic value behind them. This contributed to the identification and implementation of the strongest properties of musical specificity. The most distinct features of the early Renaissance were found in the art of the Italian Ars nova of the XIV century, the main representative of which was Francesco Landino. In his work, emphasis is placed on secular professional art, which broke with the circle of images and aesthetics of cult music and relied, first of all, on folk songwriting, written no longer in Latin, but in national language.
In the future, a wave of transformations in the field of musical art swept other European countries. In French music, a polyphonic song appeared - chanson, representatives: K. Zhaneken, K. de Sermisi, G. Kotelet and others; this genre was imbued with folk-everyday genre, gravitating towards realistic program depiction, which testified to a sharp departure from church music. In the music of Spain, song genres of folk origin, such as villancico and romance, are marked with Renaissance features. German professional music is characterized by a polyphonic song with a main melody in tenor, which gravitates towards a harmonious choral warehouse.
In the Renaissance, the intensive development of instrumental music begins, while maintaining a connection with vocal genres. The influence of folk art on spiritual music is growing, especially in countries covered by the anti-Catholic Reformation movement, which brought to life Hussite hymns in the Czech Republic, Protestant chant in Germany, Huguenot psalms in France. However, the church continued to play the role of a powerful organizational center, being the conductor of the official ideology, it brought up the bulk of professional composers.
But, even despite this, the advanced secular vocal and vocal-instrumental genres increasingly loudly declared their right to more significant place in musical culture, they sought to supplant masses, motets and genres of church music close to them. This was due to the fact that these genres, intended either for the church (in the masterful performance of a well-organized choir chapel), or (motet) for the court of a particular king, prince, duke (in artistic transmission by means of a court chapel) were not very conducive to expression of his own personality. Only over time, when a different aesthetic atmosphere developed in humanistic circles, did lyricism and drama get a wider and freer embodiment, first in the Italian madrigal, and then in the early examples of a new genre - “drama on music”, that is, Italian opera.
The Italian, German and English madrigal and song genres clearly reflected the attention to the inner world of the individual, characteristic of the humanistic art of the Renaissance. A significant manifestation of advanced realistic trends in music was not only the creation of new plots, new musical and poetic images, but also far-reaching changes in the means of musical expression. Folk melody appears in many genres of composer music. Folk songs are used as a cantus firmus (the basis of a repeatedly repeated melody that went in the second voice from the bottom of polyphonic works) and in polyphonic music. Further development polyphony in Western Europe led to the development and consolidation of the patterns of the so-called "strict style" - one of the peaks of the then polyphonic music. Strict style to this day is an essential stage in the history of polyphony.
The main, main achievement of advanced music was the new character of the whole intonation-melodic development, smoothness, flexibility, melodiousness; a more significant degree of generalization of the melody of the "big breath" compared to the past - the most vivid expression of human experiences.
A great achievement of the musical culture of the Renaissance was the development of instrumental music based on new varieties of melodic stringed instruments that allowed "singing" on instruments (viola, bowed lyre, gamba, violin), and on the other hand, a significant expansion of the expressive possibilities of keyboard instruments ( organ, clavichord, harpsichord) in relation to chord-harmonic progressions. The lute is also rapidly improving - one of the most common instruments for everyday and concert music-making.
In addition, during the Renaissance, there was a development of professional skills associated with the emergence of metris - singing boarding schools - a kind of choir chapels, where learning to sing, play the organ, musical theory and general education subjects were produced from early childhood and ensured systematic improvement musical ability students.
This is how a new type of musician is being formed - not an amateur from aristocrats, not a juggler and a stud man, but a professional who has received a special musical education.
The consolidation of musical professionalism led to the creation of national musical schools of excellence, which took shape in the largest centers of urban musical culture, which had great educational opportunities. One of the earliest forms in Western Europe was the polyphony of England, which rapidly developed and flourished in the works of Dönstepl in the first half of the 15th century. The most influential was the Dutch or Franco-Flemish school, in which such famous composers G. Dufay, J. Okegema, J. Obrecht, O. Lasso. Working in various countries, they combined the features of a number of national musical cultures: Dutch, German, French, Italian, English, created a highly developed polyphonic style, mainly choral, in which Renaissance features were clearly expressed.
By the middle of the 16th century, the direct successors of the Dutch polyphonists and the leading European composer schools become the Roman school, headed by Palestrina, in whose work Renaissance features are combined with features that reflect the impact of the Counter-Reformation, and Venetian school led by D. Gabrieli, who already has baroque features. The national schools were characterized by the use of new musical means, which brought coherence and unity into the composition. The main musical means that introduced coherence and unity into the compositions was imitation, that is, the repetition of a melody by the incoming voice, immediately before being performed by another voice. In schools, there were peculiar types of imitations: canonical, imitation in circulation, increase, decrease, which subsequently led to the highest contrapuntal form - fugue.
The style of the presented national schools was reflected in the works of outstanding polyphonists from other countries - K. Morales and T. Victoria (Spain), W. Byrd and T. Tallis (England), M. Zalensky from Poland, and many others.
Thus, music occupied a somewhat special place among the arts of the Renaissance, both due to its specificity and depending on the conditions of its existence in society. Nevertheless, she was the art of her time, expressed it, experienced the difficulties and contradictions characteristic of it, developed her own style in accordance with it, won previously unthinkable victories and won new creative successes.
Chapter 2 Dance Culture in the Renaissance
2.1 Music and dance: aspects of interaction
So, musical culture occupied a special place in the art and culture of the Renaissance. Considering music, it is impossible not to refer to its various spheres. One of these areas is the art of dance.
Dance - a kind of art in which artistic images are created by means of plastic movements and a rhythmically clear and continuous change in the expressive positions of the human body. It should be noted that music and dance have been actively interacting for many centuries. Dance is inextricably linked with music, emotional and figurative content, which is embodied in its choreographic composition, movements , figures.
Ever since antiquity, we find a kind of synthesis of music, poetry, dance, for the Greeks they were not different arts, but one, unified whole. To designate this unified art, the word "chorea" was used, which came from the word "chorus" that entered the Russian language, which only meant not so much collective singing as collective dance. In the future, the word "chorea" is transformed into choreography, which began to denote the art of dance itself, or, more precisely, the art of composing a dance.
In the era of the Middle Ages, features of the relationship between music and dance are also revealed, which embraces more complex techniques and forms, dance music becomes predominantly instrumental. The main influence on its structure and other features begins to be exerted by choreography, which is characterized by an ever-increasing uniformity and periodicity of the movements of the dancers. Dance rhythms readily penetrate the genres of instrumental music intended exclusively for listening. For such dances, a significant complication of the musical language is characteristic: the role of through development increases, there is a violation of dance periodic structures by sequences, polyphonic techniques. As a result, the further connection between musical culture and dance becomes more complex and specific.
A huge transformation of music and dance took place during the Renaissance. Dance, dance music are the most important layers of the Renaissance culture. The development of musical art during the Renaissance was closely connected with the development of dance, since almost all major composers focused on dance in their compositions. Dance rhythms penetrate the genres of instrumental music intended exclusively for listening. Pavane, galliard, gigue, chimes, volta and other types of folk dances became the material for virtuoso compositions: the flexibility of melodies, the clarity of periods, and the continuous connection of motives were developed. Musicians borrow melodies and rhythms from folk songs and dances for genres of instrumental music, this can be seen especially clearly in such a work of musical culture as a suite.
On initial stage of its development, the music of the suite had an applied character - they danced to it. It was a kind of combination of lute, and later clavier and orchestral dance pieces. In the 15th-16th centuries, the prototype of the suite was a series of three or more dances (for various instruments) that accompanied court processions and ceremonies, as well as paired combinations of contrasting dances (pavane - galliard, passamezzo - saltarello, etc.). The most typical basis for the dance suite was the set of dances that developed in the suites of I.Ya. Froberger: allemande - courant - sarabande - gigue. But for the development of the dramaturgy of the suite cycle, a certain removal from everyday dances was required. This turning point occurs in the Renaissance, and only then is most clearly reflected in music XVII century. Since the middle of the 17th century, the dance suite, having lost its applied purpose, exists mainly under the names partita (German), lessons(English), balletto, sonata da camera, ordre(French), and sometimes as a "collection of clavier pieces." Thus, through transformation and interaction with music, it becomes part of the musical art, influences the formation of the sonata form. Artistic heights in this genre were reached by J. S. Bach (French and English suites, partitas for clavier, for violin and cello solo) and G. F. Handel (17 clavier suites).
Concerning other aspects, first of all, it is worth noting the impact that dance music had on the formation of a homophonic-harmonic warehouse. It is with her that professional art, in the midst of polyphonic church polyphony, comes homophonic-harmonic thinking, clearly divided, thematically bright melody, periodic rhythm; there is a formation of tonal organization (for example, the major mode, new for that time, was the first to establish itself in the dances of the Renaissance.
In dance music are the origins of many major instrumental forms on which all classical art is based (period, simple three-part form, variational, cyclic). The emancipation of instrumental music is largely connected with dance literature (new genres appear), the formation of independent clavier (later - piano), lute, and orchestral styles. The wealth of dance images captured in classical music, huge. And this is not surprising: after all, the figurative implementation of dance rhythms and intonations, along with song folklore, plays an important role in strengthening the realistic foundations of musical art. Composers invariably embody facial expressions, gesture, plasticity in the movement of dance or march in their works, turning to dance music when creating instrumental (chamber, symphonic) and vocal, including opera compositions.
Thus, it should be noted the important role of dance in the musical culture of Western Europe, starting from the Renaissance. Dance rhythms attracted major composers, and music based on such rhythms, in turn, influenced the practice and theory of dance. The music required the dance to follow its discoveries, absorb something new and interact with other art forms. Evidence of such a shift is given to us by the dances of the Renaissance, as a symbol of the formation of dance art on a new path of development.
2.2 Choreography on the outskirts of self-determination
Among other types of art in the Renaissance, dancing begins to stand out. The dance becomes especially popular and achieves unprecedented success in its development. If in previous eras dance was just a part of a cult or general entertainment, then in the Renaissance, choreographic art has new functions, a new attitude to dance. The sinfulness, unworthiness of this occupation, characteristic of the Middle Ages, in the Renaissance, it turns into an obligatory accessory of secular life and becomes one of the most necessary skills for a well-mannered and educated person (along with such skills as skillful possession of a sword, the ability to ride horses, pleasant and speak politely, oratorize subtly). Dance flows into the general course of transformations: under the influence of music, it turns into a professional art.
Choreography is embarking on the path to self-determination: art is being streamlined, establishing certain rules and norms, honing techniques and structural forms, there is a separation of types of dance: folk (peasant) and court (noble-feudal) dance, which began in the Middle Ages, continues. This process proceeded gradually and was associated with the growing stratification of society and the resulting differences between the way of life of ordinary people and the nobility. “Spontaneity has passed,” writes Kurt Sachs. – The court and folk dances were separated once and for all. They will constantly influence one another, but their goals have become fundamentally different.
If folk dances retain their relaxed, rough character, then the style of court dances becomes more and more solemn, measured, and somewhat prim. This was due to several factors. Firstly, the lush and heavy clothing style of the feudal lords ruled out energetic, strenuous movements and sudden jumps. Secondly, the strict regulation of manners, rules of conduct and all dance etiquette leads to the exclusion of pantomime and improvisational elements from the dance.
There is a significant change in the technique of dance: a balance between movements and rhythms of the dance, periods of oscillation from rest to movement and from rest to tension, rhythm alternation in one dance are ordered. In addition, the technique of performance changes: Dances with a round dance and linear-rank composition are replaced by paired (duet) dances, which are built on complex movements and figures that have the character of a more or less frank love game. The basis of the choreographic pattern is the rapid change of episodes, different in the nature of the movements and in the number of participants.
The need to regulate dance etiquette contributes to the formation of a cadre of professional dance masters. Dance masters create the canonical forms of dance, which are diligently and punctually studied by a privileged society. This is largely facilitated by textbooks, where movements are systematized, an attempt is made to fix dance compositions. Arguing the importance of this moment in the history of dance, Kurt Sachs especially notes Northern Italy, in which, first of all, professional dance training arose. And, indeed, the most magnificent dance art flourishes in Italy. Balls in Florence of the 15th-16th centuries are an example of splendor, brilliance, ingenuity. Italian dance teachers are invited to various countries. “Professional dancers used to be wandering mimes and despicable jugglers,” writes Sacks, a northern Italian dance teacher who held an honorable position. He was a companion of princes, sometimes a confidante; at Venetian weddings, where it was customary to introduce the bride in a silent dance, he could perform instead of the father. The teachers were especially interested in creating schools for teaching dance. And, already in the 15th century, special schools appeared in Italy, the profession of a dance teacher was firmly established. Thus it is probable that in the 16th century Italy was the queen of the dance, just as it seems to have been in the 15th century.
Domenico from Piacenza is considered the first Italian theorist of dance art. Domenico da Piacenza at the turn of the XIV - XV century composed a treatise "On the Art of Dance and Dance". The book consists of two parts. The first part is devoted to the dance as a whole and defines its five elements: measure, demeanor, division of the platform, memory and elevation. Measure is the main principle of connection between fast and slow movements in music; the division of the site is essential for the composition of a group dance; memory is needed to actually create the dance; the manner of holding frees the dance from motionless and outdated forms; elevation is designed for the development of dance technique. The other part of the treatise establishes the categories of basic movements. Here he divides movements into two types: artificial and natural. Natural movements - simple and double step, noble posture, turn and half turn, bow and jump. Artificial movements include kicking, mincing step and jumping with a variable leg.
In addition, it is worth noting another theorist and teacher of dance - Guglielmo Embreo, who composed the Treatise on the Art of Dance. In his treatise, he also advises to coordinate movements with the measure set by music. He introduces the term contro tempo - against the pace, which must be obeyed in order to succeed in a learned dance. In addition, he puts forward the concept of an aria, which implies the ability to move between tempos and move from one dance to another. It is impossible to overestimate the work of Guglielmo, he expressed the humanistic worldview of the Renaissance when he declared dance to be a "free-thinking science" as sublime and significant as others, and more than those addressed to human nature.
Among the Italian works on choreography of the 16th century, Fabrizio Caroso's book The Dancer, published in 1581, deserves attention. This book is a kind of manual intended for ballroom dancing, however, it can be said that these rules were also used in stage dance, although more representative steps prevailed in them. In the book, he tries to systematize not only the dances, but also the movements that make them up. For example, he divides curtsies into "important" ("grave"), "small" ("minima"), "medium" ("semiminima"). The "medium" curtsy included a jump. Consistent with the variation of the dance with the variety of musical rhythms, Coroso already used positions close to the first, third and fourth positions of classical dance, as well as pirouettes and various types of jumps, including skids (entrecha). The dance technique included acrobatic moves, such as the saut de noeud (knot jump), but this technique later disappeared. The new technique allowed Coroso to compose ballets in five, six and even ten parts, according to the music. Caroso demanded that the evolution of the dancers should correspond to the size of the ancient versification, and he mentioned the dactyl, the sapphic stanza, the spodei. He wrote about the dance - a free ensemble, "performed with mathematical precision, in accordance with the verses of Ovid."
Caroso undoubtedly laid the foundation for the development of ballet, its technique and performance. Naturally, the first ballet performances appeared in Italy. So, for example, in 1489, the Lombard Bergonzo di Bota, in honor of the marriage of the Duke of Milan, Galazo Visconti, created a magnificent theatrical celebration in which dance alternated with singing, music and recitation. Italian choreography had a great influence on the first French ballets. By the end of the 16th century, ballet performances appeared with a complete plot, which is revealed through dance, singing, poetic recitative, complex and magnificent decoration. The experience of the young Italian ballet, its pedagogical methods and works on choreography were accepted by many European countries. Thus, in the Renaissance, one can already speak of the beginnings of ballet.
Another famous author on the "art of dance" - Tuano Arbo - French writer, priest. His contribution to the development of dance is no less significant than that of the Italian dance masters. "Orchezography" by Tuano Arbaud is the most popular treatise containing information on French bass dances of the 16th century. Arbo is trying to restore medieval dance, to redesign it in a new way, and from here his fame as the first specialist in the reconstruction of dance is born.
Summing up, we can say that the dance art is on a par with other types of art and is not inferior to them in any way. The dance is stylized, brought into the system. The vast possibilities of the human body are opening up. The dance moves from telling reality to expressing an abstract thought. Further - from court performance to theatrical dance.
During the Renaissance, dance becomes a way of social entertainment and communication. At the end of the 16th century, everyone believed that dance was necessary for society as a means of playful flirting to demonstrate the grace and charm of ladies and the strength and prowess of gentlemen. Balls were arranged on the occasion of all significant events, general and private. The beauty and sophistication of each participant was important for creating a festive ballroom atmosphere, confirming the high socio-political status of the owner and facilitating marriages, which at that time was extremely important for maintaining the structure of society. The ability to dance was honed by the nobles and the middle class who imitated them by daily practice under the guidance of many teachers. At the royal courts there were choreographers - dance teachers, their duties included teaching dances to persons of both sexes, as well as staging a spectacle in general.
So professional dance began to enter into all sorts of spectacles. The dance, which in the Middle Ages was intended for a "sacred act", retreated in the 15th century before the festivities of a secular nature. Most of all at that time they were fond of masquerades - masks were of particular importance in this era. Dance was also involved in street processions, in which whole performances of a dance character were played out. More often, such street processions interpreted pagan stories, the content of myths, which was typical for the Renaissance, as for an era turned to antiquity.
Carnivals also made a great contribution to dance as a public entertainment. The most magnificent of these were the triumphs (trionfi), performances on mythological subjects with skillfully executed scenery. Somewhat more modest were curries (carri, from Italian carro - “wagon”) - masquerades of artisans and merchants in Italian cities: here crowds of masked people marched behind the decorative symbols of their professions. Spectacles, where music, singing, recitation, pantomime and dance were mixed, were accompanied by solemn meals, various court feasts.
But still, the dance of the Renaissance is much wider than simple entertainment. At this time, ancient ideas about the deepest impact of dance on the spiritual and physical state of a person are being revived. On the pages of numerous dance treatises, the idea is often expressed that dance is by no means pure plasticity, but a way of reflecting spiritual movements. “As for the highest perfection of dances, it consists in improving the spirit and body and bringing them to the best possible location,” wrote the French music theorist, philosopher, physicist and mathematician M. Mersenne in one of his works. Often the dance, as in ancient times, is given a cosmological
meaning. It is no coincidence that the interest and awareness in matters of dance art are revealed by the persons of the clergy - the abbot de Pure, canon Arbaud, the priest Menetrier.
2.3 Genre palette of dance art
The new attitude towards dance during the Renaissance gave rise to numerous dance genres. Judging by the titles of the pieces placed in various musical collections, practical guides and treatises, the picture is unusually variegated: some dances quickly go out of fashion; others, having appeared in one century, retain their significance in another (for example, saltarello, bass dance, branle), some of them change the nature and style of choreography over time.
Each province has its own dances and its own style of performance. Noverre wrote that the minuet came to us from Angouleme, that the birthplace of the burre dance is Auvergne. In Lyon they will find the first rudiments of the gavotte, in Provence, the tambourine.
So, All everyday dances of this time were divided into two main groups: Bassa danza (French basses danses) - that is, “low” dances in which there were no jumps, and the legs almost did not rise above the floor (pavane, allemande, chimes , sarabande, etc.); Alta danza (French haute danses) - that is, “high” dances of round dance, in which the dancers twirled and bounced (moreska, galliard, volta, saltarello, various types of branles, etc.)
In the era of the early Renaissance, the opposition of dances of slow and more lively movement (bassa danza and alta danza) is characteristic. It is found both at balls and in the emerging professional music already in the late Middle Ages. In the musical sources of the 14th - early 15th centuries, groupings of dances in 2 are common: the 1st dance of each pair is sustained in an even time signature and a slow tempo, the 2nd - in a 3-beat time signature and a fast tempo. More than others, pairs of pavan - galliard passamezzo - saltarello were common. They interacted with each other, but, nevertheless, retained their individual traits.
Regarding the genres of the dance art of the era, there were a fairly large number of them, but the most popular were: bass dance, pavane, chimes, branle, moresca, galliard, saltarello and volta. In order to understand what the specificity of each of the dances was, it is necessary to refer to their description and interpretation.
bass dance(French basse danse - "low dance") - the collective name of court dances at a moderate or moderately slow pace and, as a rule, in a 4-beat size, common in France, Italy, the Netherlands between the 2nd half of the XIV and the middle XVI century. The origin of the name is not entirely clear. Perhaps it is associated with the practice of performing the music of these dances on low register instruments, and perhaps with the absence of high jumps of dancers in bass dances. Due to the lack of fast pas and jumping movements characteristic of "high dances" (French - haute danse, Italian - alta danza), bass dances were often called "promenade". The compositional drawing could be built in the form of a round dance, a procession. The bass dances were, as it were, a small choreographic composition in which the dancers showed themselves to the assembled society and demonstrated their wealth, splendor of outfits and nobility of manners. In the 15th century, according to K. Sachs, bass dance “… did not follow any established order of steps. Motley, like colors in a kaleidoscope, he combined new movements every time. Bass dance music, often chorale in nature, was usually improvised on the basis of the cantus firmus. Free choreography also corresponded to an open (open) musical structure with an arbitrary number of sections. Various instrumental compositions were used to perform bass dance: lute, harp and drum; trombone, flute with snare drum, etc. As one of the parts, bass dance was included in the early instrumental suites. Varieties of bass dance: Bassadans- a more refined Italian version of bass dance, popular in the 15th century. Differs in a more mobile pace; beer - Italian dance of the 15th century, the pace is even faster than that of the Bassadans, until the 16th century the name "beer" was protected by a fast 3-beat dance, before which the pavane and saltarello were often performed.
pavana- solemn slow dance. The origin of this dance is quite ambiguous: according to one version, the pavane is a native Italian dance, its name is associated with the place of origin, the city of Padua, according to another version, the pavane is a dance of Spanish origin. There is reason to believe that the term "padovana" was also used as a word denoting a generic concept - a certain type of dance that combines the pavana and its variety - the passamezzo.
Already at the beginning of the 16th century, the pavane became one of the most popular court dances: it was danced in a cloak and with a sword during solemn ceremonies: when the bride left for church, when the clergy performed religious processions, when the princes, members of the city government left. Pavane music is characterized by: clearness of structure, often squareness of the metro-rhythmic structure, predominantly chord presentation, sometimes colored with passages.
There is evidence that the performance of the pavane was accompanied by tambourine, flute, oboes and trombones, supported by a drum that emphasized the rhythm of the dance. In each country, the nature of the movements and the manner of performing pavanes had their own characteristics: in France, the steps were smooth, slow, graceful, sliding; in Italy, they were more lively, restless, alternating with small jumps. In the 2nd half of the 16th century, the pavane practically fell into disuse in Europe, remaining, however, until the mid-1620s. one of the most popular dances in England. The instrumental pavane reached its dawn in the work of the English virginalists. Related pavanes were: pavanilla- instrumental dance, popular in Italy in the 1st half of the 17th century, was more lively in character and pace; paduana - it became widespread at the end of the Renaissance, and was characteristic of the 17th century - at least two different dances were called that: a two-part pavane and a 3-part dance performed after the passamezzo; passamezzo- Italian dance, differs from pavanes in a more mobile pace. Literally translated as “dance in 1.5 steps”, which indicates the faster nature of his movement than in the pavan. There were two most common varieties "old" (antico) and "modern" (moderno), stemming from the characteristics of the harmonic accompaniment plan.
Courant- court dance, of Italian origin, from the Italian word corrente, which means the flow of water, smooth, uniform. The compositional pattern of the dance usually went along an oval, but it could also be an elongated square or an octagon, which made it possible to make zigzag movements characteristic of the Italian piva dance that existed in the 15th century. The chime was simple and complex. The first consisted of simple, gliding steps, performed predominantly forward. The complex chime had a pantomimic character: three gentlemen invited three ladies to participate in the dance, they took the ladies to the opposite corner of the hall and asked them to dance, the ladies refused, the gentlemen, having been refused, left, but then returned again and kneeled in front of the ladies. Only after the pantomime scene did the dance begin. In a complex chime, movements were performed forward, backward and to the side. In the middle of the 16th century, the pantomime part of the dance disappeared. The Courante has changed its time signature many times. At first it was 2/4, later it was triple.
branle- originally a folk round dance, later also a ballroom, court dance of the 15th - 17th centuries. The very word branle, meaning in French - rocking, round dance, also characterizes one of the main movements - rocking the body. Its numerous varieties are known, differing from each other in the size of the tempo, choreography (simple ballet, double ball, ballet dancer, shoe ballet, ballet with a torch, ballet with kisses, etc.) and local variants (B. from Poitou, B. from Champagne). The pace of the dance is moderately fast, lively. The size is usually 2-beat, sometimes 3-beat (in the "jolly branle", which included jumps and swings) and 4-beat (in Champagne). Folk branle - energetic, impetuous, chased, ballroom - more smooth and calm, with a lot of curtsy. Sometimes accompanied by singing (verses with a chorus) and playing the folk instruments(pipe, flute, tambourine, bagpipes). In the 15th century, it was performed as the end of the bass dance, from which, perhaps, it comes. In terms of choreography, it was still quite primitive, especially since its musical accompaniment consisted of rather monotonous tambourine beats, flute sounds and the monotonous singing of the dancers. But, at the same time, it should be noted that the branle was the primary source of all salon dances that appeared later, playing a big role in the development of ballroom choreography.
Moreska -(moresca(Italian) - literally "Moorish", morisdance - from English morris dance) - musical - dance scene. The scene symbolically reproduced the struggle between Christians and Moors. In Italy, the dance was called "Morisca", the same name was given to the Moors who were baptized and converted to Christianity. Originating in Spain, the moresca was originally a folk dance and was danced by two groups. During the Renaissance, the moresca was one of the most popular dances, becoming part of various urban theatrical spectacles and performances of the emerging musical theater. There, she loses her original features of the folk game (while retaining, however, the mask of the Moor), and gradually turns into a figured dance of a solemn, often warlike character. Later, in the 17th century, the term moresca denoted a ballet or pantomime dance in an opera: for example, Monteverdi introduced the moresca into the finale of the opera "Orpheus" -1607.
galliard(gagliarda, ital. cheerful, bold, cheerful) - an old dance of Romanesque origin of the late XV - XVII centuries. Apparently, it comes from Northern Italy, in various regions and cities it bore the imprint of local customs and mores. This is a cheerful and lively dance, originating in folk choreography, although it was most widespread among the privileged classes, retaining the features of peasant dances - jumps and abrupt movements, often having joking names (“crane step”, “cow kick”). Like the chimes, it had the character of a kind of dialogue. Accompanied by a small orchestral ensemble or playing the lute and guitar. The galliards of the 16th century are characterized by a 3-meter, moderately fast pace, chord warehouse, diatonic. It was usually performed after a slow 4-beat pavane, varying its melodic and
metric pattern. A similar sequence of a slow 4-beat pavane and a fast 3-beat galliard was the prototype of the Baroque instrumental suite.
Saltarella- folk italian dance. Its name comes from the Italian word saltare - to jump, jump. He is known in Romagna, Lazo, San Marino, In Abruzzio. Each region performs it differently. Saltarella is a very simple dance, it does not have fixed figures. The main movement is balance. But the performers must have dexterity and strength, as the pace in the dance increases all the time, reaching a very stormy one. Saltarella - pair dance, the number of couples participating in the dance can be very large. Like many other folk dances, the saltarella sometimes begins with a playful pantomime scene. In some areas of Italy, for example in Giogaria, the saltarella exists as a low jumping dance.
There are also its round dance varieties. In the round dance saltarella, the dancers stand closely pressed against each other, their bodies are tilted forward, their heads almost collide in the center of the circle; hands are placed on each other's shoulders. Bare feet glide gently on the ground. The performers sway to the rhythm of the movement of the legs. The performance of the saltarella in Romagna is peculiar. Here it is accompanied by a song sung by one of the participants, and is, as it were, a demonstration of dexterity. Women put a glass on their heads, filled to the brim with water or wine. During complex and fast movements, not a single drop should be spilled.
Volta- pair dance of Italian origin. Its name comes from the Italian word voltare, which means "to turn". Usually the dance is performed by one couple (man and woman), but the number of couples can be increased. Like many other folk dances, the volta, soon after its appearance, began to be performed at court festivities. In the 16th century, she was known in all European countries, but she had the greatest success at the French court. However, already under Louis XIII, the French court of the Volta does not dance. This dance lasted the longest in Italy.
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