What was the difference between Renaissance music and medieval music?

Answer 1

AnswerMedieval music refers to music written during the Middle Ages, around the time of 500AD - 1400. Little written music of this period survives, as making scores of music proved expensive, but most music of this time was monothonic or homorhythmic plainchant. Music from this period was generally modal and the begginings of counterpoint were seen in the form of organum.

Renaissance music refers to the period from around 1400-1600, although there is some discrepancy in defining the begining of this period. Counterpoint became much more elaborate and it was over the duration of this period that composers began to leave the old modal music system in favour of tonality. Notable composers of this period are Orlando Gibbons, John Bull, Thomas Tallis and William Byrd.

AnswerAt the beginning of the Middle Ages, music seems to have been sung and played pretty much in unison. Organum developed, in which people sang at fixed intervals, for example a melody might be sung with the same melody sung pitched higher by a third or fifth. This developed by changing the second voice to sing a different melody with the first, and this is called counterpoint. Counterpoint allowed such music as rounds and other types of canons. Instruments were strictly of a single pitch, and tuning was done rationally, meaning that notes related to each other according to rational development of the overtone series, with related notes. In this system, for example, the organ pipe for a G was exactly two thirds (a ratio) of the length of pipe of the next lower pitched C. Unfortunately, rational tuning created combinations of notes that sounded out of tune with each other, called wolf tones, and this meant, for example, that certain triads could not be played. Nevertheless, by the time of the Renaissance, medieval counterpoint had developed to the point that composers could explore the possibilities.

In the Renaissance, counterpoint was developed further, to create such things as fugues. A new tuning system called well tempering was also developed. According to this system the tuning was not rational, but based on irrational division of the scale. Ultimately it meant that the length of a pipe producing a tone was related to the length of the pipe a semitone up as the twelfth root of 2 is to 1. While this sounds boring, it meant that for the first time in history, musicians could transpose from any key to any other key. It also eliminated the wolf tones, so any triad could be played. This meant that by the end of the Renaissance, modern harmony was possible for the first time, a fact later celebrated by J. S. Bach with the Well Tempered Clavier.

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Answer 2

In the Medieval times the motet was a secular polyphonic vocal genre. Later on in the Renaissance time it became a sacred or devotional polyphonic vocal genre.