The character of Palestrina’s style was formation on the sixteenth century. It is a type of polyphonic vocal music. During that time, many great composers appeared. Today, I will introduce some of them. Composer Tomas Luis de Victoria is a great Spanish composer of the Renaissance. He is one of the most important composers of the Counter-Reformation. He was involved in sacred music. Born in 1548, he studied composition with Palestrina, but his music was totally different from Palestrina's. In Palestrina's sacred music, he did not use any instruments to accompany the voice, a style similar to "cappella". Also, he had moderated emotion and expression. However, Victoria's sacred music used some instruments to accompany. After he studied in Romas, Victoria became a priest and a choirmaster. During 1572, Victoria published his motets book. This collection contained some of his great motets and helped build his reputation. His early motets were reprinted several times in his lifetime. In 1587, Victoria returned to Spain, and he died in Madrid in 1611. Now let’s listen to his music: Kyrie, from Missa O magnum mysterium and Kyrie, from Missa O magnum mysterium.
The next great composer is Orlande de Lassus. He was a Franco-Flemish composer of the 16th century. Orlande is Belgian and was born in 1532. When he was a child, music always influenced him. He loved singing and was an excellent singer in the local church choir. In order to better his education, Orlande went to Italy, Austria, Germany and France to take up advanced studies. Almost all of his pieces are vocal music and he advocated emotional and pictorial text expression. In 1555, he published his first book of sacred and secular music. In 1556, he was invited to visit Munich. Afterwards, he became a director of the court chapel during the 1560s Lassus became quite famous and a lot of composers went to Munich to study with him. In 1570 Emperor Maximilian II conferred nobility upon him. He composed a large number of religious and secular music. His musical style is lively, sophisticated and diversified. He started the transition of Polyphony to homophony. He passed away when he was 62 in the year of 1594 in Munich. His works total more than 2000 pieces. Lets listen to his music ...
We continue by talking about another important English composer of the Renaissance who is William Byrd (1540-1623). He studied with Thomas Tallis and his music includes Latin Mass, motets, English anthems, services, and madrigals. In 1575 Byrd and Tallis published a collection of Latin motets—<<Cantiones Sacrae>>. This book was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. It was also the first collection of Latin motets printed in English. It was influenced by many famous composers, including Italian composer Giovanni Palestrina and Spanish composer Tomas Victoria. In other areas, Byrd composed lots of instrumental music, including string music and keyboard music. He also composed for Lute. Cittern and bandora were also instruments he wrote for. But he had lots of pieces that weren’t published. However, a book published in 1551—<<my Ladye Nevells Book>> collected his most excellent instrumental music. Late in his life, his work became more experienced. It influenced many English instrumental music composers. During the 17 century, Palestrina’s style still reformed music and even influenced early Baroque composers.
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