A Study Of The Creative Techniques Of Flanders Music School In The Renaissance

After over a thousand years of feudal rule,Medieval Europe enters into a new era,the Renaissance,from the beginning of the 14 th century.In this period,the school of thought of humanism advanced the development of culture,science,music and art of its time.With the influence of humanism in the cultural sphere,such a process enables a display of individualism ideology.The book ‘Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien: ein Versuch' by the Swiss historian Jacob Christoph Burckhardt in the nineteenth century can be considered the most important work on the cultural reform movement of this period.Engels evaluates this book highly,he considers that "this [publication] is the greatest and progressive change that mankind history has experienced".Since then,the Renaissance has drawn attention from the worldwide.In Chinese academia,in customary,that the Renaissance era of humanism and religious music are often considered as antithesis,to the extent that the so-called humanism is against the Christian faith,it is to release the human nature of the ideological and cultural movement from the religious "shackles".This simplistic idea,arbitrarily sees the Renaissance as a human nature against divinity of God.But the essence of the European Renaissance is not so simple.The humanism concept advocates having "people" as the basis,the humanism is to promote human rights and human nature,but not simply oppose religious beliefs.This author puts forward her own argument by analysing the writing skills,the harmony concept,the artistic style and the cultural background of the Renaissance religious music works of the religious chorus works produced by several composers in the Flanders school of musicians.Flanders is also known as the late Nederlander School.The Nederlander School is composed mainly of musicians from the Nordic region.On the basis of the Burgundy School,the Flanders School of musicians promoted the multi-part music expression to a new height,by combining four vocal parts into a theme of writing using imitative counterpoint technique,as such,the unity and structural layout of the whole music at the time enjoys outstanding excellence and extraordinary influence globally.In this period,amongst many,the most representative composers are Prey,O'Brihett,Oklahoma,Lasso and so on.On the issues of creative techniques and creative style,the focal point that writers in this period mainly concentrate on is a four-part polyphony,adopting imitative counterpoint technique and,enhancing the lower register,so that while the music is fuller the other vocal parts also enjoys equal significance.By placing emphasis on triad and sixth cord,this enables a vertical structure of the formation of multiple triads.This gives music not only a well-proportioned balance but also a rich contrasting feature.The technique of imitative counterpoint were applied extensively,it became one of the major element in polyphony.Authentic cadence and plagal cadence was once upon replaced by third and fourth interrupted cadence.These important technique directly affect the composers' creation of body of music during Renaissance European countries.This thesis consists of introduction,five chapters and conclusion.The first chapter gives contextual description,by introducing the historical background of the early Renaissance,this chapter aims to discuss the humanistic spirit and connotation contained in the music.The historical background including the following: the religious environment in which the Flanders School of music are situated;introduction on important composers' and their respective creative styles.From the second to the fourth chapter,I discuss the creative style and techniques of the works by analysing the works of the five Flanders' s main composers.The fifth chapter,through the essence of the works to appreciate the aesthetic concept of humanism.The conclusion summarise the musical spirit embodied in the Flanders school of music during Renaissance.