Changing the Renaissance in Music Theory

 

"The Concert", Created by Gerrit van Honthorst & Published in 1623

With the form of music and how it has become very beneficial to our society, “could secular art forms secure a stable place for themselves with the community” (Hertzman, 1940)? This statement from the author allowed me to look further into the history of music theory in the demands of the renaissance. Towards the end of the fifteenth century during the renaissance, there had become a huge increase in demands of qualifications in which certain areas like Europe were pushing for new ways of establishing their demands by law. This can be simplified by the matter in which the printing press had become a success for the entire north and western areas of Europe, but by the time the rise of the sixteenth century came into our world, there became a new form of showing the civic and religious life of what personal expression would bring to the members of the renaissance and that was the new ways in which music was being portrayed. In this presentation, we will present a new form of music theory that became a major factor in the performance of the renaissance and explain how it has impacted the rest of the renaissance in regards to how it was the solo form of the courtly life.

"Renaissance Music" - Created by Spark Music - Published by 11 March, 2019

From the early renaissance, the phase of music was still in early stages of sacred tones, which focused more on religious purposes, but all of that changed when a new phase came into play was the use of the chanson, which helped develop a new style of music that this is in regards to secular music. In an article written by Enrich Hertzman, he mentions the use of Chanson and its form of polyphonic helped create a new era of how music can become more than just of religious purposes. In his article, “Trends in the Development of the "Chanson" in the Early Sixteenth Century”, he mentions that chanson is “written in a more declamatory style, with tone repetitions and few melisma’s” (Hertzman, 1940). This was important to make out because as it grew, the development for sacred music began to dwindle and more publishers were wanting to expand the usage of chanson, not only just in Europe, but in other regions of the renaissance. With the help, more people began to see more ideas and creations can be transitioned into music which ultimately expanded more criteria of music development such as motets and masses, became more increasingly developed with the help of chanson.

"Renaissance Music Sacred vs Secular" - Created by Bookish (YouTube) - Published 30 November 2015

Chanson plays more than just the lyrics developed by the use of polyphonic singing, it composed a more ideal purpose to help translate the old purposes of which sacred music was portrayed and present in a way common way where more people can be acknowledged and expand more than just one outline of creating music. One of the greatest composers in Hertzman’s article Josquin des Prez had become so influenced by the use of Chanson that he believed it would be beneficial to be used in the teachings of his public school so that the next generation can fully grasp the nature of music in the concept of what was portraying in the renaissance. In regards to how Josquin expanded the use of chanson it showed a positive outlook on the rest of the renaissance because when brings about the usage of wars in criteria’s of creating poems, he concluded that “French poets and scholars had come in closer contact with Italian humanists and had yielded to their influence” (Hertzman, 1940). With this concept, it became clear to understand that chanson was becoming more than just an outline, but more of an influence for new renaissance members to seek and explore new forms of music theories that would eventually lead to new influences that music can be expanded not just on printing presses but on the concept of expansion in producing new religious and catholic forms of performing arts. Chanson ultimately showed that music like sacred does not have to be minimized to only religious criteria’s, but that secular music can be developed in the form of humanism, because ultimately it begins to show that people have more interest in the achievements of how human cultures have developed and expanded throughout the world and also express how their fulfillment through these forms of music theory have made an impact on how we view the world today.

(For more information in regards to understanding the true meaning of what Chanson is, one of the best links that helped me into fully grasping the idea of what it brings to the renaissance).

https://doi.org/10.1093/em/cau108

Work Cited:

Hertzmann, Erich. “Trends in the Development of the ‘Chanson’ in the Early Sixteenth Century.” Papers of the American Musicological Society, [University of California Press, American Musicological Society], 1940, pp. 5–10, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43873083.

Early Music, Volume 42, Issue 4, November 2014, Pages 567–578, https://doi.org/10.1093/em/cau108, Published: 08 November 2014

"The Concert" - 1623, created by Gerrit van Honthorst National Gallery of Art, Washington Patrons’ Permanent Fund and Florian Carr Fund, 2013. (Courtesy National Gallery of Art)

Treacherous Tasks of Repatriation & the Tamil Refugees

Humanities can play a major role in a person or a culture’s lifestyle, whether it’s the foundation or the major crisis of something becoming the end of a cultural lifestyle is all dependent on what some actions can lead or mislead too, and that mostly involves around a certain event which is called repatriation. Throughout the course of this particular outcome there have been a number of cultures that have suffered with an outbreak of either a war closing in on them or the separation of their party coming to the end of life, and one of those that became the major topic of humanism was in an article that was written and published by an economist named Abhijit Dasgupta and his work “Repatriation of Sri Lankan Refugees” explains a major event that occurred back in the early 1980s and continued into the 1990s about a certain repatriation that took place in India. As the article mentions the repatriation, the author represents more than just a event it provides a comparison of two different time lines that involve India’s enhancement. The first being was that of the IPKF where they were signed to direct certain refugees off of India because a number of war related events were occurring in some of India’s cities. As this was occurring, the signing of the repatriation included a memorandum of both the MoU and the Sri Lankan Government. With these governments, they could send up to 65,000 refugees that had been taken from India and place them in certain refugee camps including Batticaloa and Vavuniya. Throughout the article, the author mentions also the conditions that these refugees were forced to endure which evaluates the essential topic of what the author was trying to present. During the returning of these refugees, Dasgupta mentions places where refuges were placed in by the governments and “refugees were kept inside marriage halls at Tambaram near Madras the place looked like a prison with policemen and officials on guard day and night” (Dasgupta, 2003). This was one of the more important quotes of the article because the author was presenting the major crisis of the difficult terranes that these refugees had to endure when facing the Lankan Government and the repatriation of their homeland. As the movement continued, Dasgupta made arguments in regards to how these governments were trying to salvage certain areas of India by reopening economies, public schools for children and local housing developments so the foundation of India’s return could potentially return to normal.

In earlier points of chapter thirteen, one of the main topics that features the true meaning of repatriation is of course the returning of humans to their original homelands or state where they traditionally belonged, but long the way, the chapter cannot include the backside or behind the scenes events that would naturally occur during in a repatriation. In Dasgupta’s article, “Repatriation of Sri Lankan Refugees”, he argues that a majority of the refugees had suffered a tremendous aspect that would affect them for the rest of their lives. One of those being was the act of the Lankan Government getting ready to send back a number of refugees back into India when the IPKF was still in war with the LTEE, and some of the refugees were facing situations that the author claimed were not in character in regards to the actions of Repatriation. One of those included refugees being asked to sign documentation regarding their return, but some documents refugees could not read because they did not know English language and all documents were written in English. For example, in the article provided Dasgupta included “Refugees were asked to sign a consent form in which they declared, ‘I confirm that I wish to go back to Sri Lankan with my family members on my own accord’. Since the contents of the form were in English, many refugees had no idea what they were asked to sign” (Dasgupta, 2003). With this example, this became a standpoint for the number of the refugees regarding the repatriation in which they wanted to decide when would be the right time to back to India and not go when there was an outbreak of both the LTEE and IPKF governments going into war with each other. These became the seriousness of what the author was wanting to explain that repatriation had became a physical but more serious of re-establishing a homeland’s refugees that would allow a safe place for India’s hometowns people to go and return too with the help of the Sri Lankan government to help rebuild the foundations of India. 

Tamal Refugees were put into play when the Repatriation was sent out to Southern India and pick up and move refugees to camps operated by the Sri Lankan in 1985.

Repatriation can occur in a number of different outcomes but the outcome that Dasgupta presents in his article is so unimaginative that it stands out from the rest of other similar events. As the reading went into play with this article, it became clear to me that these refugees were being treated some poorly in the early stages of this repatriation that included some being separated and going into different camps for a long period of time, and also the way in which governments were handling these refugees and this was due to a number of mixed groups when refugees were deciding which camps to go into that would best suit them before returning to India. Another important link was a matter in which the Sri Lankan provided two different camps in which some can be under surveillance all the time, but that the same time, this wasn’t important to the refugees because they were focused on the circumstances of providing the care for themselves and whatever camp they decided to go into, they knew with these rights of destination, they can evaluate their rehabilitation for when it would be time for them to go back to their homeland. Even if “These women gave up their rights to live in camps as refugees, obtained clearance to leave the country” (Dasgupta, 2003), they can still determine when it would be the right time to leave for their home country. This was one of the things that caught my eye and saw a different transformation of how the earlier repatriations had taken place verses how some refugees in the later stages would establish themselves with the governments in which tried to problem-solve their rights by returning them at heavy burdens. Ultimately, for my understanding, this reading showed me the overall importance at repatriation is an essential and important aspect to achieve in regards to the overall importance of humanists because it’s the foundation that these refugees lived upon and were trying to regain custody of when the wars took place and how other governments were handing their rights and deciding when they should return, because ultimately, every culture deserves the right to have the decision and desire if they want to go to a place whether its home that needs complete rebuild or somewhere outside India, the outside world will know that India refugees have a saying and a peace for how they should live out their life and that is exactly what Abhijit Dasgupta provided.

One of the last homes of the refugees that still sits abandoned from the time zone of the repatriation  where several events related to the civil war demolished homes like this particular one which was later determined to be impossible to rebuild for the refugees but sits as a reminder of the events related to the repatriation of the Indian Refugees.

Work Cited:

Dasgupta, Abhijit. “Repatriation of Sri Lankan Refugees: Unfinished Tasks.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 38, no. 24, Economic and Political Weekly, 2003, pp. 2365–67, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4413676.

Chapter 13 - The High Renaissance