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Giovanni Gabrieli Research Paper

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Giovanni Gabrieli was a legendary composer of the 16th century. As the fundamental structure and ideas of the Catholic Church were being challenged by the Protestant Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, Gabrieli’s compositions were given the opportunity to be successful and influential to music in the coming centuries. His works helped to transform not only church music of the Catholic Church, but also secular music as well. Giovanni Gabrieli wrote significant works that ultimately shaped the rise of the symphony, including the development of purely instrumental works, the art of orchestration, and the concerto style. Without his innovations in composition, it is arguable that instrumental music would not have developed as quickly, or developed …show more content…

This led to several rebellions, which were silenced for a short time until they could not be repressed anymore. Finally, in 16th century, Martin Luther and other reformers challenged Roman Catholic authority and their corruption of the church, which is now known as the Protestant Reformation. The revolts happened in many different countries the western world, however, they all had fundamental ideas in common. Two changes they called for were the end of the church’s hierarchy, and the emphasis of everyone being able to access and individually learn the original Biblical scriptures in their vernacular language (Taruskin, pg. 207-208). Even though the focus of this revolution was not about music, the ideals ended up influencing church music. Many composers, including Martin Luther, endeavored to make music more accessible by translating it into the common, everyday language, shifting the singing in church services to the congregation rather than just having the choir sing, and making music simpler for everyone to grasp. Luther wrote music in the form of chorales and strophic union hymns that were taken from Gregorian chant (Taruskin, pg. 206-210). In response to the Protestant Reformation, the Counter-Reformation emerged out of the Catholic Church. Music took on a more inspirational quality, and its primary goal was to “affect” the listener. Polychoral music was very popular, in addition to the concerted style (Taruskin, pg.

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