Music in the age of the Renaissance

Music in the Age of the Renaissance presents a richly detailed portrait of the music and surrounding culture in one of history's most creative eras. Leeman Perkins, a leading Renaissance music scholar, brings to life the musical styles and genres that mark this humanistic period of artistic and scientific revolution. Professor Perkins firmly establishes his narrative in political, religious, social, and cultural history, opening a window onto the lavish courts, magnificent churches, and thriving urban centers in which music played such a vital role. The discussion of the music, leading us from early-Renaissance England to all the regions of Western Europe, proceeds chiefly by genre. Thus, for the fifteenth century, we take up the French chanson, the motet, polyphonic settings for the Mass and liturgical offices, Italian secular and sacred music, and the contributions of Germany and Spain. Many of the same topics are elaborated in the study of sixteenth-century music, to which are added the Italian and English madrigal, music of the Protestant Reformation, and instrumental music.