15th c.

Early Renaissance

Court chapels and churches connected musicians across England, Burgundy, France, and Italy, encouraging an international exchange of styles. Composers such as Dufay and Binchois combined inherited medieval techniques with a growing preference for smoother melodic writing and the consonant sound of thirds and sixths associated with English music. Political patronage and the movement of singers helped spread these approaches.

Musical terms

Hover over a term to read its definition, or select it.

Hover over or select a term above to see its definition here.

Key musical characteristics

Smoother consonant sonorities
Interconnected mass movements
Franco-Flemish contrapuntal craft
Growing circulation of international styles

Music theory concepts

Contrapuntal cadence: Stepwise two-voice motion into an octave or unison, often embellished by a leading tone.
Cantus-firmus technique: A pre-existing melody placed in long values as the structural basis of polyphony.
Fauxbourdon: Parallel first-inversion sonorities generated around notated outer voices.
Imitation: Successive entrances of related melodic material in different voices.

Famous composers

Writers and poets

Christine de Pizan
François Villon
Thomas Malory

Visual artists

Jan van Eyck
Sandro Botticelli
Donatello

Key historical event

The fall of Constantinople in 1453 accelerated the movement of scholars and classical texts into western Europe.

Notable invention

Movable-type printing, developed in Europe by Johannes Gutenberg, transformed the circulation of texts and later printed music.