13 - Vocal performance in the Renaissance

Summary

Developments in compositional styles and forms in the Renaissance brought about significant changes in vocal performance practices in both sacred and secular music, notably in vocal production, the combination of voices and instruments and the number of voices per part. In the late Renaissance there were two distinct vocal practices: loud for church and modulated for chamber. In the late sixteenth century, all vocal performance practices were seriously influenced by the developing monodic style, a new dramatic style of singing that developed in Italy. Throughout the period, solo singing was the most traditional of all forms of musical presentation. The instrument most often associated with the tradition was the lira da braccio, a favourite of the Italian humanists, an instrument that was thought of as the Classical lyre of Orpheus. Over the period of the Renaissance the repertoire of polyphonic secular music evolved in terms of types, numbers of voice parts, formal design and relationship between text and vocal line.