Texturas musicales / Contrapunto libre / Homofonía / Contrapunto imitativo

Juan de la Encina, villancico

The Renaissance is considered the most brilliant period of Spanish music. Even though religius music was the most important music at this time, secular music also developed greatly. The main composer of secular music in this period was Juan de la Encina who wrote this villancico.

Josquin des Prés, chanson

Josquin des Prés (1450-1521) was one of the most important composer from the Franco-Flemish school. Here whe can hear a chanson. It is polyphonic music written for four voices a capella. This type of polyphony is called imitative counterpoint. There is an equilibrium between all of the voices, none stand up over the others.

Tomás Luis de Victoria, Ave María

This is an example of the motete from the Spanish School. Tomás Luis de Victoria was one of the most well-known composers of religious music. He studied in Italy where he met Palestrina, whose influence can be heard in his works.

Toccata by Johann Staden (1581-1634)

In the Renaissance music, one type of musical form composition was the improvisation; fantasias and toccatas were the most important forms of improvisation. Here we can hear a Toccata by Johann Staden (1581-1634).

Pavane and gallard dances

Typical dances were the pavane and galliard. Here we can hear and see a pavane and gallard by Antony Holborne (1545-1602).

Martin Luther, chorale

Coral: es la música religiosa más característica de los protestantes; música vocal religiosa, basada en canciones con el texto en alemán. En este caso se trata de un "coral" de Martin Luther (1483-1546), el impulsor de la "Reforma Protestante".

Orlando di Lasso, Motete

Motete: es una composición religiosa vocal, polifónica sin acompañamiento instrumental. A diferencia del "motete" de la Edad Media, en el que se superponían diferentes textos, en el "motete" del Renacimiento, no se superponen diferentes textos, sino que se utiliza un único texto religioso. El siguiente ejemplo pertenece al compositor italiano Orlando di Lasso.

Carlo Gesualdo, Bella angioletta

One of the most important composers of madrigals was Carlo Gesualdo. "Bella angioletta" is a madrigal. It is a polyphonic song with instrumental accompaniment; the voices sing the same text in Italian language; there are both masculine and femenine voices.

Palestrina, Kyrie de la Missa Papae Marcelli

La "misa", como forma musical, se basa en la unión de textos sagrados de la liturgia eucarística. En este ejemplo, se trata del Kyrie de la misa Papae Marcelli del compositor italiano Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

Antonio de Cabezón, "Guárdame las vacas"

Diferencias o variaciones: sobre una canción popular del siglo XV y XVI.