Musical Instruments

Many musical instruments of the Renaissance were inherited from the Middle Ages. However, some of these medieval* instruments changed in shape and size in response to changing musical needs and tastes. The growing popularity of polyphonic music, which had several interwoven melody lines, created a demand for new types of instruments. At the same time, some popular medieval instruments, such as the bagpipe, fell out of favor as performance instruments, although they remained common in folk music.

Meanwhile, amateurs took a greater interest in musical performance. They favored instruments that could play chords and several musical lines at once, such as keyboards and the lute*. Musicians used them for solo performances, to accompany singers, and to provide a background for amateur music-making in people's homes. Another factor that changed instruments during the Renaissance was the growth of theatrical productions and spectacles in the 1500s. To fill large performance halls with sound, composers began producing music for large groups of different instruments. The demands of the theater also gave rise to new instruments.

Stringed Instruments. Some Renaissance stringed instruments were played with bows, others by plucking the strings with the fingers. Various bowed instruments had survived from the Middle Ages, but only one of these—the viol—was adapted to meet the new musical demands of the Renaissance. In fact, the viol evolved into an entire family of instruments, each of a different size and capable of playing in a different musical range. The members of the viol family became very popular for amateur performance.

A new type of bowed instrument, the violin, appeared in the late 1400s. A shoulder-held instrument with four strings, it combined features of several earlier medieval instruments. Originally used only to perform dance music, the violin became the instrument of choice for a wide variety of musical styles. Like the viol, the violin was joined by related instruments that could play in different ranges. The violin and its relatives, the viola and cello, have remained essentially unchanged since the Renaissance.

Many plucked instruments of the Middle Ages lost favor during the Renaissance and were used only for folk music after that period. Only the harp and lute evolved to meet the needs of the new musical styles. The Renaissance harp had new strings added to expand its range and to enable it to play all the notes of the scale. These changes made it more suitable for use in the theater. The lute also went through a series of changes that enabled it to play more than one melody line at the same time. During the 1500s new types of lutes emerged with larger numbers of strings. Versatile and portable, the members of the lute family remained in constant demand to accompany solo and group performances. Another type of plucked instrument, the guitar, first appeared during the Renaissance. In England and France, four-string guitars served for both solos and accompaniment. In Spain, a six-string version became very popular in the 1500s.

Wind Instruments. During the Middle Ages, most woodwind instruments, such as flutes and recorders, had played in the alto range. Larger and smaller versions of these instruments emerged during the Renaissance to cover higher and lower ranges. Recorders had traditionally been popular for making music in the home, while flutes had played a role in the military. In the late 1400s, however, both these instruments came into common use for performances—sometimes in groups of the same instrument and sometimes mixed with other instruments or with voices.

Another popular woodwind was the shawm, a double-reed instrument that had often played alongside the bagpipe in the late Middle Ages. In the Renaissance, the shawm commonly appeared with a larger version of itself, known as the bombard because it resembled a small cannon. Ensembles of two or three shawms—often joined by a trombone—became the chief type of instrumental group employed by town governments and royal courts.

Renaissance trumpets and other types of horns all featured a cupshaped mouthpiece. They could be made of a variety of materials—brass, silver, and even wood. Trumpets commonly served as signal instruments and to "announce" people or events. Ceremonial trumpets were usually made of silver and hung with pennants bearing the symbols of a government or a noble family. Renaissance trumpets, unlike modern ones, had no valves and could play only a few notes, such as those used in fanfares. In the early 1400s a slide trumpet appeared, which used a movable slide to alter the length of the instrument and produce all the notes of the scale.

A more complex slide-based instrument, called the sackbut or trombone, emerged in the late 1400s. More versatile than the trumpet, the trombone was used in a variety of ways. Trombones appeared along with trumpets on ceremonial occasions, they formed a part of small groups with shawms, and they played with orchestras of strings and woodwinds in theatrical productions. They were also used for dance music and to support the lower voices in church choirs.

The cornet, which evolved from a medieval folk instrument, became a favorite instrument of the Renaissance. Made of wood and leather, it had a cup mouthpiece and was fingered like a flute. Popular in soprano and alto sizes, cornets performed with a wide variety of chamber and theater groups. They also supported the high voices in church choirs.

Keyboard Instruments. The main keyboard instruments of the Renaissance were organs, harpsichords, and clavichords. Organs used pipes to produce their sound, while harpsichords and clavichords used strings. The small portable organs of the Middle Ages, which could be held on the lap or placed on a table, remained fairly unchanged during the Renaissance. Large, stationary organs, by contrast, grew and developed dramatically during the 1400s and 1500s. Installed in all cathedrals and major churches throughout Europe, these large organs had many rows of pipes, and some had extra keyboards and foot pedals. These changes increased the range, volume, and variety of sounds that the organ could produce.

Harpsichords (with plucked strings) and clavichords (with hammered strings) first appeared in the late 1300s and grew increasingly popular over the next few hundred years. The clavichord, which played softly, appeared only in homes. The harpsichord, however, was far more versatile. By the mid-1500s it had become the most common instrument for solo performance, large and small groups, and accompaniment. Harpsichords varied greatly in size. Some had two or three strings per note and some featured extra keyboards, which enabled them to produce a variety of different tones.