Music In The 15th Century

Music in the 15th century

 The fifteenth century was a theocentrist era that meant that God was the center of everything. Therefore the Pope and the priests exercised a lot of power over people’s lives. They were considered as the maximum authority being the only ones who could interpret the Bible and grant the salvation that could only be achieved through indulgence sales. These practices had generated controversy and resentment by some members of the Church, but it was not until Martin Luther published the 95 thesis that began to boom the idea of reforming the Church. 

This was a German wet wrote the Protestant or better known reform as the 95 theses that arose in the 16th century, because it was upset by these acts, more specifically for the sales of the indulgences. When talking about indulgence, it refers to the sale of forgiveness. The impact of this reform began in Germany and initially inspired similar movements in surrounding countries such as Sweden until it was spread throughout the continent. The purpose of this reform was to break with the Catholic Church. The cause of the Protestant reform was the abuse of power that was carried out by the Church. Luther considered that one could get to heaven looking for repentance, not for an indulgence. 

He also talked about the abuse of the Church, the corruption and the use that the Church gave to the money they received. This money collected was being done to search for funds for the Basilica of San Pedro in Rome, but they were not being used for this purpose.

This caused the division of the Catholic Church and the emergence of Protestantism. Luther came to form the coral which was the most important genre for the Protestant Church. Additionally, new forms for choral song that exchanged melodic themes: masses, nicknames and other compositions emerged. The coral used to be simple composition, regularly written in four voices, is sung in German and presents a homophonic texture.

The Catholic Church was forced to respond to the Protestant reform of Martin Luther and did so by what was known as the counterreform or the Catholic reform. This response was a renovation to the church that occurred in the 16th and 17th century, Pope Paul III, Pope Julio III and Pío IV were concerned with the progress of Protestantism and were the ones who initiated the reform. With this new reform, more people were sought to attract Catholicism. In this reform the sale of the indulgence was prohibited and new guides set; They granted some of the points of Protestantism, but many of the other rules were reaffirmed. ç

This reform gave the emergence of new companies such as the Jesuits. In the Council of Trent the Church marked the guidelines that the Catholic Church should follow with respect to music. The concession was that what music said about God should be emphasized more, religious value rather than artistic value. It was argued that when the pieces were too complicated, people did not understand the message well, so a simpler way was promoted to be understood. However, the reality is that there were no very specific criteria regarding what constituted more appropriate music, so in some churches they ignored what was said. Music should monitor the clarity of the text and dignity of expression. 

In music the Gregorian song was maintained as the official song. The only instrument that was allowed was the organ. The forms that predominated in the Church were masses and motifs. The most eminent composers at this time were Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Cristóbal Morales and Tomás Luis de Victoria.