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Elizabethan Era Music

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Elizabethan Era Music Music is present in every culture’s past, present, and future. It has been around since 500 B.C. and was especially important in the Elizabethan Era. There were reinventions of music as it was widespread and popular. Without this essential time in history, modern music may have been completely different from what we have today. This era brought new uses for music, styles of compositions, new instruments, and the uprising of popular composers. Many new music styles were created during this revolutionary era that inspired later genres and techniques. Music was more refined and sophisticated compared to music in the Medieval Era. There are many new styles in this era that are very different and revolutionary. Madrigal …show more content…

In the sixteenth century, the Protestant Church of England was using new music and hymns that would still be used today. According to “Elizabethan”, this time was the “high point in the English Liturgical Style”. The Mass Ordinary was created in the fifteenth century. There are five sections that go in a cycle basing each movement on the same musical material. The five sections, according to Raeburn, include Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei (11). For more somber religious events, such as funerals, a requiem mass would be used. This mass was relatively peaceful and the melody would tend to wander. Ongaro tells un in his book “Music of the Renaissance” that choirs in this era had up to sixteen members that would dance, sing, and act (32). Religious music was the work of many composers that would give us hymns and musical works that we use …show more content…

Some well known keyboard players include Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, and Debussy. A popular keyboard that is still used today is the organ. The organ ranges in size from a small closet to an entire church. An organ has from two to eight manuals that can have completely different sounds. Air is pushed through pipes to make the many sounds that can be played on a pipe organ. (Raeburn 11) he most known keyboard, the piano, was improved in this era from the harpsichord. The piano has eighty-eight keys with seven octaves plus a few keys. According to “Musical”, sound is made by hammers that strike the strings to vibrate them (“Musical”). The harpsichord was the precursor to the piano. Instead of hitting the strings, the harpsichord would pluck them to make a more metallic sound. The spinet was a small upright piano that is similar to the harpsichord. Another instrument is the virginal. Like the spinet, it is also similar to the harpsichord (“Elizabethan“). Keyboards were and still are the most known class of instrument. This era gave us variations and new keyboards to use and

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