Renaissance Songwriting Introduction

During the Renaissance, singing began to be seen as an art form, rather than just a common activity in which anybody could partake.

The art song of the Renaissance had a vocal line that favored the alto or tenor ranges.  Songs had between one and three accompanying parts, usually two.

Renaissance songs were known for their flexibility.

Sometimes a composer might take a song that was written by someone else and add a part to it or remove a part from it.

These songs rarely specified the type of instruments that were to be played - this was left to the musicians, and allowed them to contribute to the process of creating music. A recorder might play the upper part, a lute might play the middle part and a harp or viol might play the lower part.

Eventually, the lute came to be viewed as the ideal instrument for accompaniment.

Songs that had been written for large ensembles of musical instruments were adapted to be performed by only voice and lute.

Publishers began publishing songs in which the voice part was written in staff notation and the accompanying parts were written in tablature. There would be fewer accompanying parts than in the original version of the song - usually only two. A lute player could play two parts and sing the melody.