What is Renaissance music?
Renaissance music is [[Europe]]an [[music]] written from about the year [[1400]] to [[1600]]. This section of time is called the [[Renaissance]], a word which means “rebirth”. The Renaissance comes between the [[Middle Ages]] and the [[Baroque]] times. Putting music into time sections does not mean that there were quick changes of type. Music changed slowly, and early Renaissance music was similar to [[Medieval music]]. Slowly music-writers started to try new ideas. A lot of medieval church music had become very hard with lots of rules about rhythms and clashes of notes to make [[dissonance]]s. A lot of Renaissance composers wrote music which was smoother and more gentle. The music was still [[polyphonic]] with each voice having a share of melody. Music was starting to become less [[mode (music)|modal]] and more [[tonal]]. By the time the Baroque period started composers were using a system of major and minor keys like we do today. == Vocal music == Composers wrote many [[masses (music)|masses]] and [[motet]]s. The 16th century also saw the birth of the [[madrigal]]: secular (not religious) songs which were often about love. The madrigal started in Italy and became very popular for a short while in England from the [[1580s]]. There were lots of other secular songs such as the [[chanson]], [[canzonetta]] and [[villanelle]]. Songs were often [[accompaniment (music)|accompanied]] by a [[lute]]. Music was an essential part of civic, religious, and courtly life in the Renaissance. The rich interchange of ideas in Europe, as well as political, economic, and religious events in the period 1400–1600 led to major changes in styles of composing, methods of disseminating music, new musical genres, and the development of musical instruments. The most important music of the early Renaissance was compose for use by the church—polyphonic (made up of several simultaneous melodies) masses and motets in Latin for important churches and court chapels. By the end of the sixteenth century, however, patronage was split among many a