Week 2: The 15th century music of England and Burgundy

1. Stuff done this week

- Read chapter 8 from "A History of Western Music" (Burkholder et al., 2014).

- Made an attempt at exercise 1 from the OCA Music Foundations course. It involved listening to a Mass, a Madrigal and an Ayre from the Renaissance era by different composers. Further on in this blog, I wrote a few reflective paragraphson each piece.

2. Listening done this week

I listened to an Ayre, Mass, and a Madrigal from the Renaissance era by different composers.

• The ayre I selected is a composition by John Dowland (1563–1626), named "In Darkness Let Me Dwell". It is performed by German countertenor Andreas Scholl and accompanied by a lute.
• "Kyrie" is a short four voice mass by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525/1526-1594), performed by Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars.
• The madrigal "Sfogava Con Le Stelle" is by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) and published in his "Il Quarto Libro de' Madrigali a cinque voci" ("The Fourth Book of Madrigals for Five Voices") published in 1603.

The madrigal and ayre are about tragic, worldly themes like, respectively, unanswered love ("Sfogava Con Le Stelle") or loss of a loved one ("In Darkness Let Me Dwell"). The mass ("Kyrie") is, of course, from church liturgy.

"Sfogava Con Le Stelle" and "Kyrie" are both polyphonic pieces, but "Sfogava" also has homophonic passages, which means that all voices move together in essentially the same rhythm (Burkholder et al., 2014: A9). "In darkness let me dwell" is the only composition of the three that is accompanied by a musical instrument. It is an example of a monody. Until the 9th century this term referred to lyric poetry sung by a single performer (Greek: "solo singing"). From around 1600, the term surfaces again, this time referring to plain solo singing with an instrumental chordal accompaniment, in this case: a lute. The lute became one of the most popular instruments of the Renaissance.

They are different musical forms, but they have a distinct "sameness". The polyphonic "Sfogava Con Le Stelle" and "Kyrie" feature repeating patterns in melody, which is known as imitation. Striking is the use of five or even six voices; in medieval music we could only really discern three to four voices. The harmony between the voices is also more pronounced; we know that the Medieval composers were largely using a linear polyphony. The medieval harmony of the middle ages was based mostly on fourth, fifth and octave intervals. Now we hear very sonorous thirds and sixths, giving the music a rather "modern" quality.

In medieval music the church rhythmic and tonal modes are rather distinct.  In all three Renaissance pieces mentioned, we start to hear major and minor scales and the compass often goes beyond an octave. Rhythms are regular and I can link them more to "conventional" time signatures. In medieval music, the rhythm strikes me as slightly "unpredictable". We can hear many variations of the main theme.

The structure of the three compositions mentioned above, is very clear and balanced. Especially in the mass "Kyrie", there is a pronounced thematic unity. In the Renaissance compositions, the melody is strongly linked to the meaning and rhythm of the text (especially, with Monteverdi), than in Medieval compositions.

Next, I shall reflect on each individual Renaissance composition.

John Dowland: In Darkness Let Me Dwell, Ayre

By the end of the 16th century, lute airs emerged in the court of Elizabeth I of England. They were a very popular genre until the 1620s. Their popularity began with the publication of John Dowland's (1563–1626) "First Booke of Songs or Ayres" (1597) and the melancholy "In darkness let me dwell" is considered to be one of his more famous compositions. Even in this age it is still arranged and performed; for instance, the singer Sting recorded a haunting rendition on his album "Songs from the Labyrinth" (2006).

John Dowland was a composer and luthist born in either England or Ireland in 1563 and he died February 20, 1626. He served the ambassador to the French court in Paris and was converted to Roman Catholicism. This probably excluded him from being considered for a post at the Protestant court of Elizabeth I of England, and led him to work at the court of Christian IV of Denmark. Returning to England in 1606 and again in 1612, he secured one of the positions of lutenist with James I of England. Curiously, there are no compositions from him since that date until his death in London in 1626.

The air is based on the first stanza of the poem "In darkness let me dwell" is an anonymous poem included in the 1606 song collection "Funeral Teares" by John Cooper, also known by his Italian name as Giovanni Coprario.

The text is very mournful and melancholy, expressing grief perhaps over the loss of a loved one:

"In darkness let me dwell; the ground shall sorrow be,

The roof despair, to bar all cheerful light from me;

The walls of marble black, that moist'ned still shall weep;

My music, hellish jarring sounds, to banish friendly sleep.

Thus, wedded to my woes, and bedded in my tomb,

O let me living die, till death doth come, till death doth come."

The English style of Renaissance music is marked by a sparsity and sobriety: less is more. In this piece, this countenance Angloise is also clearly present. Typically, in the monodic style the singing is clear and the words can easily be discerned, as is the case in this composition. According to Steffelaar (2007: p230), the monodic style was, in fact, a response to the intricate and complex polyphony of the Renaissance, in which the close vocal harmonies made it difficult to discern the words of the song.

This ayre shows many of the typical style elements of the Renaissance. The tonal range of the song is clearly larger than the church mode ranges of the Medieval era: the range extends to an octave or more. The melody is sober and the melodic phrases are symmetrical. The rhythm is sedate and even, I believe I can discern a 2/4 time signature. In the composition clear attention to harmony is given. The song is of a greater clarity than the Medieval music and much more thematic unity: the accompaniment is predominantly in minor, accentuating the inherent sadness of the text. There is a close relationship between the text and music, which also present in the work of composer Palestrina. We can hear how the music has become aesthetically more "free", splicing away from the dogma of Gregorian chant melodies.

Palestrina: Kyrie from the Missa brevis, mass

It is a prime example of Renaissance polyphony. The Kyrie consists of three parts: Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison and, once more, Kyrie eleison. In this performance you can hear the four voices singing the text "Kyrie eleison" and "Christe eleison" in imitation. The countertenor commences and is consecutively imitated by the bass, soprano and tenor. Sometimes the theme is continued dimunitively (in smaller note values).

One can discern a much more harmonic polyphony than the more linear polyphony we hear in Medieval era music. The melodic phrases flow into one another are symmetrical.  The rhythm is even and regular, much different from the rhythmic modes used in medieval music. The note range also extends to an octave or more, which we admittedly have also heard in Ars Nova music, but the melodies are even and simple. The harmonies are rich and make clear triads. This gives the composition great unity in its structure and makes the text understandable and clear. Even though the aesthetic quality of the composition is evident, it still also had a liturgical function: a congregation would need to be able to understand what was sung.

Claudio Monteverdi: Sfogava Con Le Stelle, madrigal

I discovered this composition when reading Steffelaar (2007), and it was an eye-opener for me - or rather: an ear-opener - as to how to analyse a music piece.

It is a composition for 5 voices: cantus, quintus, altus, tenor and bass. 

The text is as follows:

Sfogava con le stelle 

un'infermo d'Amore 

sotto notturno ciel il suo dolore, 

e dicea fisso in loro: 

O imagini belle de l'idol mio ch'adoro 

se com'a me mostrate, 

mentre cosi splendete, 

la sua rara beltate 

cosi mostrast'a lei 

i vivi ardori miei 

la fareste col vostr'aureo sembiante 

pietosa si come me fat'amante.

Crying to the stars

a love-sick man

beneath the night sky spoke of his grief,

and said, whilst gazing at them:

“Oh, lovely images of the idol I adore,

if only, as you show me,

when you shine,

her rare beauty,

you could show to her

my ardent flames,

You would make her, with your golden look

compassionate, just as you make me affectionate

In his analysis of the piece, Steffelaar (2007, page 56) demonstrates how the music supports the text symbolically.

The first line is recited in one pitch, but on the word "stelle" ("stars"), the piece features an an ascending figure. This symbolises the action of looking up to the stars by the protagonist (Steffelaar, 2007). The second line "un inferno d'amore" has more melodic and rhythmic movement. The five voices perform the composition in a perfect homophony (music texture in which all voices move together in essentially the same rhythm, Burkholder et al., 2014: A9). At the end of the third line ("sotto notturno ciel il suo dolore") the recitative style is continued, while the second half of this line ("il suo dolore") receives a more polyphonic setting. Steffelaar (2007) points out that there is a clear symbolism in this: when the stars in the night sky are described, the delivery of the declamation is "motionless", and when the perspective shifts to the pining lover, a more melodic and rhythmic elements are featured.

Furthermore, the word "fisso" ("gazing") is depicted by a long note in all of the voices. The motif that was used in the first line is repeated by the three top voices to a higher pitch. This is an example of imitation, which became a more pronounced technique during the Renaissance. In the line "mentre cosi splendete", the voices alternate symbolising "shining" of light. Also Steffelaar (2007) points out how patterns constructed from quavers are used for the line "i vivi ardori miei" to depict the "ardent flames" of the protagonist's passionate feelings.

I think this madrigal is indicative of how text and music become so much more unified, and how musical techniques are employed for dramatic effect in Renaissance music.

3. What I learned

Increasingly, an international music style developed in the 15th century. Good and innovative compositions came from France and Italy, but a number of English composers made major contributions to this style. 

3.1 English Music

In the first half of the 15th century English music had a large impact on continental musicians. This was mainly because throughout the later Middle Ages, the kings of England held territories in northern and southwestern France as Dukes of Normandy and of Aquitaine until their expulsion in 1453 after losing the Hundred Year's War.

During their sojourn in France, the English nobility brought musicians with them, significantly increasing the numbers of English performers and composers on the Continent and of English pieces copied into Continental manuscripts. Moreover the English sought alliances and trade with Burgundy and other lands (Belgium, the Low Countries). 

The English music had a noticeable "English quality" or contenance angloise that much impessed the Continental musicians. The style was marked by:

• being less modal and more "major" in character
• preference for harmonic 3rds and 6ths (mostly parallel)
• preference for simple melodies
• regular phrasing, primarily syllabic text-setting
• homo-rhythmic textures (a "sameness of rhythm" in all parts of the composition)

The largest surviving repertory of English music from this period consists of sacred music on Latin texts, composed for religious services.

It featured a practice of improvised polyphony known as faburden, in which a plainchant in the middle was joined by an upper voice a perfect 4th above it and a lower voice singing mostly singing in parallel 3rds below it, beginning each phrase and ending phrases and most words on a fifth below. The consonances of faburden were also used in music forms such as Cantilena, the carol (a distinct English genre), motet and settings of Mass Ordinary.

John Dunstable (ca. 1390-1453), who stayed in France for a long time, is one of the important composers in the first half of the 15th century. Among Dunstable's sixty compositions are examples of all the principal types of polyphony that existed in a lifetime: isorhythmic motets, Mass Ordinary sections, settings of chant, free settings of liturgical texts, and secular songs. Some of Dunstable's historically important works are three-voice settings of liturgical or biblical texts, feature a technique called paraphrase. This is an elaborated version of the chant by the top voice.

The term motet, no longer referred to music pieces that added text to the upper part of a discant clausula. It broadend in meaning to encompass any polyphonic work with texted upper voices above a cantus firmus, whether sacred or secular.

Here an example of a motet by John Dunstable, sung by The Hilliard Ensemble:

John Dunstable - "Quam pulchra es", motet

The use of a major scale instead of a mode can be identified, as well as the use of 3rds and 6th intervals, a dominant upper voice, three voices often moving in the same rhythm and a harmony of triads. The tranquil parallel movement of voices coming together in triads was unusual. It makes the presentation of the text very clear. The motet is a new composition and not based on an existing (Gregorian) melody (Steffelaar, 2007).

The english sound steered composers on the Continent toward homorhythmic textures, helped gain acceptance of conspicuous 3rds and 6ths in harmony and led to a new way of writing for three parts: The upper voice (principal melody) was coupled with the tenor, as if in duet. The two parts, and eventually the contratenor as well, are more equal in importance. The English pioneered the most prestigious musical genre of the Renaissance: the polyphonic mass.

3.2 Music in the Burgundian Lands

The Duke of Burgundy was a feudal vassal of the king of France, yet for a time virtually equaled the king in power. The duchy and county of Burgundy included the north east of France and the low countraies (the Netherlands, Belgium). Dijon was the capital, but the Dukes moved their court regularly to cities in, namely, the low countries (Brussels, Ghent, Bruges).

As a consequence, many Flemish musicians found employment at the court chapel. During the second half of the 14th century and most of the 15th century, the arts flourished in the Burgundy realm, especially under the rule of Philip the Good (r. 1419 - 1467) and Charles the Bold (r. 1467 - 1477).

As working conditions and financial compensation was handsome, composers from the low countries, England and Italy were eager to obtain a position at the prestigious Burgundy Court. They were contracted to write music for entertainment and religious music. One of them was Gilles Binchois (ca. 1400 - 1460), who served the court for 30 years.

Also associated with the Burgundy court was Guillaume Du Fay (ca. 1397 - 1474), who was trained at the Cathedral of Cambrai in northern France. He often travelled south to Italy and Savoy to serve as a chapel musician. His many travels exposed him to a wide variety of music, from his French and Italian predecessors to his  English and Burgundian contemporaries. He absorbed the stylistic traits into his own music, making it representative of a cosmopolitan style of the mid-fifteenth century.

In the Burgundian style the use of 3rds and 6th became very common. As a result the music became melodically and harmonically triad based. The three-voice polyphonic way of composing was maintained, but the upper voice carried the most important part. This concept became commonplace in later music history; nowadays we deem it normal that the highest voice sings the melody. The triple meter still dominates, but in longer pieces it is switched by a duple meter to provide variation and contrast in the rhythm.

Two typical Burgundian techniques are the application of faux-bourdon and the 7-6-1 cadence. Faux-bourdon, which means "false bass", was inspired by English faburden although the procedure was different. Only the cantus and tenor were written out, moving mostly in parallel sixths and ending ech phrase on an octave. A third voice, unwritten, sang in exact parallel a fourth below the cantus, producing a stream of 6:3 sonorities ending on an open fifth and octave, as in faburden.

In the example below, the top and bottom lines are freely composed; the middle line, designated "fauxbourdon" in the original, follows the contours of the top line while always remaining exactly a perfect fourth below. The bottom line is often, but not always, a sixth below the top line; it is embellished, and reaches cadences on the octave.

Guillaume Dufay - "Ave Maris Stella"

The second style element, the 7-6-1-cadence, involves the lead note (7th note of the scale) not immediately resolving in the tonica (1) or octave (8), but delaying by descending to the 6th note (6) before sounding the tonica or octave.

Vocal compositions at the Burgundian court were no longer polytextual (more than one language and more than one text, like the medieval motets), but had one text in one language. Although older composition techniques and genres remained (isorhythm and conductus), there was a definite trend to integrate text and music and to create new sounds.

An important genre was the chanson, which encompassed any polyphonic setting of a French secular poem. The text usually were about love. Most chansons were written for three voices and were performed either by three voices or one solo voice accompanied by two instruments.

The Burgundian composers also wrote motets in which the upper voice (as with chansons) was the dominant voice. Vocal parts were often doubled with instruments, such as trombones, horns, violin, or portative organs.

3.3 The Polyphonic Mass

Burgundian composers still wrote their masses with a Gregorian melody as cantus firmus in the tenor. But contrary to earlier composers, they were inclined to use the same melody in all parts of the Ordinary of Mass. Such a cyclical mass was names cantus-firmus mass The tenor did not sing the lowest voice, because a bass line was set under the tenor. A four-voice texture developed, which became common in the Renaissance. The tone diapason of the compositions on the whole became larger than before. The imitation technique was regularly used.

3.4 Enduring Musical Language

In summary, the Burgundian composers developed a style that sounds familiar to us because of the setting (four voices with the melody in the highest voice and with melodic and rhythmic congruence between the various polyphonic voices) and a harmony based on triads. The harmonies with the succession of 3rds and 6ths are mostly consonant; dissonants were modestly applied. This new harmonic orientation marks an important style element of the Renaissance: one no longer thought in horizontal melodic lines, but applied much attention to the vertical harmonies. The linear polyphony is replaced by the harmonic polyphony.


The music written under the influence of the Burgundian court, provides a beautiful transition of style from the late Middle ages to the more mature Renaissance.

4. Sources

Andrea Scalia, 2016. Monteverdi | Sfogava con le stelle [á 5; La Venexiana]. [video online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etwCfytWqr4> [Accessed 1st of March 2017].

BURKHOLDER, J, GROUT, D. and PALISCA, C. (2014) A history of western music, 9th edition, New York: W.W. Norton. Pages: 165-187, A9.

Ewa Chamiec. Czarmuzyki, 2012. John Dowland, "In Darkness Let Me Dwell" — Andreas Scholl.  [video online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA0LFvQ4Ykw> [Accessed 21st of January 2017].

Olla-vogala, 2015. Guillaume Dufay - Ave Maris Stella. [video online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mcxEtyEUw4> [Accessed 23rd of January 2017].

PrincepsMusicae, 2012. Palestrina - Missa brevis – Kyrie [video online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/Ot6Cv8T3pAs> [Accessed 1st of March 2017]. 

STEFFELAAR, W. (2007) Muzikale Stijlgeschiedenis, 2nd edition, Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Nieuwezijds. Pages: 37-63.

Zauber620, 2014. Dunstable: Quam Pulchra Es . [video online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gicvbxFESWg> [Accessed 21 january 2017].