What was the music like in 1550?

Answer 1

Well, it's hard to describe music unless you can make it heard. But mostly, music was of two kinds: secular and sacred.

Secular music could be instrumental, which consisted in popular tunes and dances that were played with lutes, flutes, old viols, pipes, and the like, sometimes with drums. Vocal secular music was usually songs about love, nature or drinking, sung with several voices and often accompanied with instruments.

Sacred music was much more complex, and was vocal. It was a kind of music for the church, that was sung by many voices and is called "polyphony" because the voices sing different melodies which complement in a very complex harmony called "counterpoint".

To know how music was, is better that you hear it. For composers around 1550, hear music by Morales, Gombert, Tallis, Guerrero, Susato, Cabezón, Rore or Clemens non Papa, as well as anonymous dances and songs from the times of Henry VIII or Emperor Charles V.