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MovementDeveloped article

Renaissance music

Illustration — Gerard van Honthorst, The Concert (1623), National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other disciplines. Rather than starting from the early 14th-century ars nova, the Trecento music was treated by musicology as a coda to medieval music and the new era dated from the rise of triadic harmony and the spread of the contenance angloise style from the British Isles to the Burgundian School. A convenient watershed for its end is the adoption of basso continuo at the beginning of the Baroque period.

Also recorded as Renaissance Era

Renaissance music

Renaissance music, The Concert A22894

Gerard van Honthorst · National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C., online collection · Public domain

Field
classical music · music of Europe · Renaissance art
Period
1400

VALÉORINE Encyclopedia

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Documentary summary

Illustration — Gerard van Honthorst, The Concert (1623), National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other disciplines. Rather than starting from the early 14th-century ars nova, the Trecento music was treated by musicology as a coda to medieval music and the new era dated from the rise of triadic harmony and the spread of the contenance angloise style from the British Isles to the Burgundian School. A convenient watershed for its end is the adoption of basso continuo at the beginning of the Baroque period.

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Documentary evidence

Evidence Panel

technical hold · checked 25 September 2026

Identity
resolved
Independent source families
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Admitted assertions
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Authority files

gnd · 1092485724 · wikidata · Q201405 · wikipedia · Renaissance music

In this article

  1. 01Origins and development
  2. 02Definition and method
  3. 03Archives and collections
  4. 04Notes, references and evidence

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