Browse Items (85 total)

The shawm may remind one of a modern day recorder. The shawm was a popular instrument during the Renaissance era, and was developed in the 12th century.

Elway Bevin was a noted musician in his time, but not very well known today. This piece, Browning, is a round (much like the song Row, Row, Row Your Boat) in three parts. Music in Bevin's day had no measures or bars, and was quite difficult to play.

Josquin Des Pres was a prolific musician of his time and this piece, entitled Allegrez Moy, was a six-part round composed sometime in the 15th century. The piece starts to have a polyrhythmic 3 against 4 feel at the end.

This piece was written in Spain sometime in the 15th century and is a very slow 3-part madrigal, meaning that it was originally written for vocals and contained lyrics.

Ludwig Senfl was the composer to the court of Emperor Maximilian I and as such, was commissioned to write numerous musical pieces for the court. This song, entitled Ich Weiss Nit was composed in the 16th century and features a few ascending and…

Josquin des Pres is considered one of the most important Italian composers before the 17th century. Martin Luther is quoted as saying, "Josquin is master of the notes, which must express what he desires." This particular piece, El Grillo, is noted…

This piece was composed by Giovanni Pierluigi de Palestrina in the 16th century. Palestrini composed this song, entitled Exaudi Domine, as a 4-piece motet, a word that illustrates the highly varied composition of the song.

Michael Praetorious was a versitile composer who worked to write songs based on Protestant hymns, which reflects an effort on his part to improve relationships between Protestants and Catholics. Ballet was written sometime in the 16th century and is…

Diego Ortiz was a composer under the court of Philip II of Spain who published important pieces utilizing both instruments and vocals. This piece, Canzona in C Minor was written sometime in the 16th century and was originally arranged for a brass…

Heinrich Isaac was a contemporary of Josquin des Pres (some of his songs are elsewhere on this website) and composed this religious piece, Benedictus in the 16th century. The listener may notice some 3-part rounds occurring at points in the song.