Elizabethan Music Presentation 4j5b1f

Elizabethan Music

Introduction Music was considered to be one of the most important forms of entertainment for those living during this time. Music was not just for musicians. Music could be performed by Elizabethan musicians but simple songs and ballads were also sung in the villages and fields by the Lower Classes to ease the monotonous tasks they were given. All people were required to attend church on Sundays which led to the popularity of hymns and secular songs.

The different types of Elizabethan music were:

Church Music Court Music Street Music Theatre Music Town Music

Court Music Queen Elizabeth employed a minimum of 70 musicians and singers. The range of Elizabethan music played at court varied from traditional, English ballads to sophisticated madrigals and from church music to dance music. The court musicians played their music from what was called the Minstrels Gallery. Music to be played in the court was very popular. Composers would often write a piece in the name of a nobleman, and then give it to them as a gift. Others would try to catch the eye of the Queen, who was always on the hunt for new music.

Church Music Church music and court music were often composed by the same musicians. Elizabethan music began as simply singing poetry. Church music included canzonets, madrigals and sacred songs. Elizabethan composers for the voice used two distinct styles which were called the Madrigal and the Ayre. The Madrigal was considered a sophisticated style to the Elizabethans. Madrigals were often unaccompanied and the number of voices varied from two to eight. Thomas Tallis and William Byrd were the main Elizabethan composers of Elizabethan Church music.

Madrigal Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=RuoQTrdZET0

Instruments Nobles often had at least one instrument in their house due to the requirement of Queen Elizabeth which was that all upperclass people had to learn how to play instruments or to sing well. There were recorders, flutes, flageolets, rebecs, tabors, drums, and sackbuts. The most popular instruments were the lute, virginals and the viols.

The Lute The lute was the most popular of the three, being used among all classes. It could be played as a solo instrument or used to accompany a solo voice. Lutes were found in various shapes and sizes. The most common was the treble lute, being shaped like a large mandolin, with six strings, the five lower attached in pairs, making eleven strings in total.

Viols Viols were used for both solo and accompaniment. A band of them consisted of two treble, two tenor, and two bass viols. When played together, it was called a "consort". Viols had six strings and were played with a bow.

Virginal A virginal was considered to be one of the earliest keyboard instruments. It was rectangular in shape and had a keyboard of about four octaves. Queen Elizabeth herself was known to be one of the best Virginal players.

Street Music The Medieval era of travelling minstrels quickly came to a halt with the coming of the bubonic plague. While Elizabethan street music for the lower and middle class was played at weekly markets and the occasional fairs. Elizabethan Feasts, Fairs and Festivals were all common occurrences and were celebrated during specific times of the year dictated by the church. The instruments played by Elizabethan Street musicians had to be light and easily carried. They included fiddles, the lute, recorders and small percussion instruments. The songs and ballads sang by the street musicians were the traditional favourites and often played by the middle or lower-class.

Theatre Music Elizabethans combined traditional music with accompanying verses with the excitement and facade of Elizabethan theatre. The importance of music to the Elizabethans was reflected in the plays of William Shakespeare who makes more than five hundred references to music in his plays and poems. The works of William Shakespeare were divided into three categories - Comedies, Tragedies and Histories. Each genre required different emotions to be reflected in the music thus requiring different genres of music and instruments being played. The Shakespeare plays As You Like It and Twelfth Night contain six songs each. Elizabethan Theatre musicians often played in a section of the 'Lords Rooms'. The 'Lords Rooms' were in a gallery immediately above the upstage wall and facing the backs of the actors. In some circumstances theatre musicians were also placed strategically on the stage and under the stage in order to give the impression of distance or providing an eerie atmosphere in plays like Macbeth. The hautboy, an instrument that could be considered an early version of the oboe, provided a high pitched, supernatural effect which accompanied the witches in Macbeth. The main purpose of the Elizabethan music played in the theatre was to communicate different moods in order to reflect the plots of the plays and heighten the drama.

Elizabethan Music and Dance In the Elizabethan era music and dance were extremely popular. Music and dance often went hand in hand and the new types of music that were created accompanied the new styles of dance. Music and Dance were influenced hugely by Queen Elizabeth because she enjoyed it herself. The purpose of dancing was for entertainment as well as exercise. Dancing in the Elizabethan era was considered “a wholesome recreation of the mind and also an exercise of the body”. Elizabethan Music complemented the different forms of Elizabethan Dance. The emergence of different styles of music and new musical instruments combined with various experiments combining different instruments led to new dances being created. Both music and dance were often classified by the social classes.

Videos Elizabethan Dance Example: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=s_6nVRITxbY&list=FLU17VHyS9vu4sWAlRgUVUg&index=1 Greensleeves (Most popular song): https:// www.youtube.com/watch? v=ldSvr_nDjKU&index=2&list=FLU17VHyS9vu4sWAlRgUVUg Elizabethan Virginal Music: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=h8Z5gBFi6ZY More Music Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist? list=PLY0HG7j1maOjUyzGjnfL250Pg-GE0DcA0

Reason for choosing topic -

Music is a huge part of everyday life To get a greater appreciation for the history of music

Most interesting aspect -

The evolution of musical instruments Music and dance were classified by classes Where the musicians were placed when playing

Sources "Elizabethan Dance." Elizabethan Dance. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. . Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. . "Music and Dance - Class." ElizabethanTimesWiki -. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. . "Elizabethan Music." ELIZABETHAN MUSIC. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. . Cooke, Greville. “Queen Elizabeth and Her Court Musicians”. The Musical Times 79.1144 (1938): 419–421.