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The Renaissance period took place between from 1450 to 1600. Unlike the secular music found in the medieval period, music in the Renaissance could be printed thanks to the invention of the printing press. With this development, music spread faster and the number of musicians increased greatly. These musicians performed in churches, courts, and out on the streets, just like the troubadours and trouveres did in the medieval period. Composers during the Renaissance used musical techniques, known as word painting, to represent poetic images in order to better express the emotions they wanted to convey with their music. Most of the vocal pieces found during this period were sang a capella, without the accompaniment of instruments. The music's vast polyphonic texture allowed the performer's voices to fully develop the melody. .
Sacred renaissance music came in two major forms: the motet, and the mass. Josquin Desprez was famous for his masses, motets, and secular vocal pieces. Josquin used imitation to keep the music flowing continuously. Two or more voices would often be heard at the same time. Some people considered.
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this polyphony too elaborate for church music. Rather than focusing on the spiritual aspect of the music, people were drawn into concentrating their thoughts on the complexity it produced. An Italian composer by the name of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina dedicated his 104 masses and 450 other sacred works to the Catholic Church. .
Secular music in the Renaissance was spread with the help of the printing press. The madrigal was the most popular form for secular music during this period. Like a motet, the madrigal is homophonic and polyphonic in texture. Thomas Weelkes was a well-known composer of madrigals. Weelkes" As Vesta Was Descending fully utilizes the effect of word painting. As Vesta goes up and down the hill, the performers sing upward and downward on the scales, respectively.