Renaissance Instruments: The Sounds of the Era

The instruments of the Renaissance were the voices of an extraordinarily rich musical culture. From the intimate sound of a solo lute in a Florentine study to the dazzling spectacle of polychoral brass in St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Renaissance instruments produced a wide range of musical sounds and supported a wide range of musical activities. The instruments were made by skilled craftsmen, taught in well-established workshops, and used by professional musicians and amateurs alike. The development of these instruments was closely connected to the broader flowering of Renaissance music, including the polyphonic vocal tradition and the secular madrigal. Most of the literature on Renaissance instruments is best appreciated with headphones: the actual sounds, the actual performance practice, are central. The actual sounds of the era and to understand the material culture that produced the music of the time is the part of it that stays with you.

String Instruments

The string instruments of the Renaissance can be divided into three main groups: plucked strings, bowed strings, and keyboard strings.

The Lute

The lute was the most popular and most characteristic instrument of the Renaissance. The instrument, with its rounded back (made by gluing together thin strips of wood) and its bent neck (with frets tied around it), was derived from the Arabic oud, which had been introduced to Europe during the Middle Ages.

The Renaissance lute had six or more courses of strings (a course being either a single string or a pair of strings tuned in unison). The most common configuration was the six-course lute, developed in the 15th century, and the seven-course and eight-course lutes, developed in the 16th century. The bass courses were tuned in octaves, giving the lute a bright, ringing sound in the bass register.

The lute was the instrument of the educated amateur. It was relatively easy to learn the basics, and it was ideally suited to the accompaniment of singing and to the performance of solo music. The lute repertoire was vast, including dance tunes, arrangements of vocal music, fantasies, and virtuoso display pieces. The most important lute composers of the Renaissance included:

Francesco da Milano (1497–1543), the most famous lute composer of the early Renaissance, whose fantasies and ricercars were widely admired and imitated.
John Dowland (1563–1626), the great English lutenist and composer, whose Lachrimae (1604) and Second Booke of Songs or Ayres (1600) are among the masterpieces of the lute repertoire.
Alfonso Ferrabosco (1543–1588), the Italian-English lutenist who served at the court of Elizabeth I and composed some of the most refined lute music of the era.
Picforth or Pierre Francisque, Albert de Rippe, and many others who composed for the lute at the various European courts.

The Viol Family

The viol (also called the viola da gamba, “viol of the leg,” because it was held between the legs) was a family of bowed string instruments that became popular in the 16th century. The viol had a flat back (in contrast to the rounded back of the violin family), six or seven strings, and frets tied around the neck.

The viol family included:

The treble viol, the smallest and highest-pitched member.
The alto viol or viola da gamba, the middle-sized member.
The bass viol or viola da gamba (in the modern sense), the most popular member, used both for solo and ensemble music.
The violone, the largest and lowest-pitched member.

The viol was especially popular in England, where the so-called consort of viols (a group of six viols of different sizes) was a standard ensemble. The viols produced a softer, more veiled sound than the violin family, and they were well suited to the performance of polyphonic music. The most important composer for the viols was William Byrd, whose Consort Songs and Consort Music are among the great treasures of the English Renaissance.

Other Plucked Strings

In addition to the lute, the Renaissance supported a wide range of other plucked string instruments:

The cittern (or cithren), a metal-fretted instrument with a bright, penetrating sound.
The bandore and orpharion, English wire-strung instruments related to the cittern.
The theorbo and chitarrone, large lutes with extended bass strings, used especially for continuo accompaniment in the early Baroque.
The guitar, which had four or five courses of strings and was popular for the accompaniment of song.
The harp, used both in solo and ensemble music.
The psaltery, a plucked or bowed instrument with strings stretched across a flat soundboard.

Keyboard Instruments

The Renaissance had three main keyboard instruments, each of which played a major role in the era’s sacred music and secular music:

The organ, the largest and most powerful. The Renaissance organ, especially in Italy and Germany, was a magnificent instrument with a wide range of stops and a powerful, brilliant sound. The organ was used both for sacred music and for instrumental compositions.
The harpsichord, in which the strings are plucked by a keyboard mechanism. The harpsichord produced a clear, bright sound, but it had no dynamic range — the player could not vary the volume of a note. The harpsichord was widely used for the accompaniment of vocal music and for solo compositions.
The virginals and clavichord, smaller keyboard instruments. The virginals, in which the strings are plucked by a mechanism similar to the harpsichord, was popular in England and the Netherlands. The clavichord, in which the strings are struck by small metal tangents, had a soft, intimate sound that was well suited to private music-making.

The most important composers for keyboard instruments in the Renaissance included:

William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons in England, who composed some of the great early keyboard music.
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck in the Netherlands, whose keyboard works were highly influential.
Girolamo Frescobaldi in Italy, whose toccatas and other keyboard works were the foundation of the Italian keyboard tradition.
Samuel Scheidt and Heinrich Scheidemann in Germany, who composed for the organ.

Wind Instruments

The wind instruments of the Renaissance can be divided into woodwinds and brass.

Woodwinds

The most important woodwind instruments of the Renaissance were:

The recorder, a family of instruments of different sizes, from the small sopranino to the large bass. The recorder produced a soft, clear sound and was widely used for domestic music-making. The recorder was especially popular in England, where the consort of recorders (a group of recorders of different sizes) was a standard ensemble.
The flute, which in the Renaissance was a side-blown (transverse) instrument made of wood. The Renaissance flute produced a softer sound than its modern descendant.
The shawm and bombard, loud, double-reed instruments used for ceremonial and outdoor music. The shawm was a forerunner of the oboe, and the bombard was a forerunner of the bassoon.
The crumhorn and curtal, capped-reed instruments with a cylindrical bore. The crumhorn, which produced a soft, buzzing sound, was popular in the 16th century.
The racket and rankett, double-reed instruments with a cylindrical bore, used especially in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The dulzian (a forerunner of the bassoon), a double-reed instrument with a folded conical bore.

Brass Instruments

The most important brass instruments of the Renaissance were:

The trumpet and clarino, high-pitched brass instruments used for ceremonial and military music. The trumpet was a long, straight instrument, while the clarino was a smaller, more agile instrument used for the higher, more virtuosic parts.
The sackbut (a forerunner of the trombone), a brass instrument with a telescoping slide that allowed the player to vary the pitch. The sackbut was widely used in church music and in polyphonic instrumental ensembles.
The cornett, a wooden, fingered instrument with a brass mouthpiece. The cornet produced a brilliant, penetrating sound and was widely used in the 16th and 17th centuries, especially in polychoral music.
The natural horn and natural trumpet, valveless brass instruments that could produce only the notes of the harmonic series. The natural horn was used for hunting and ceremonial music.

Percussion Instruments

The percussion instruments of the Renaissance included:

The timpani (kettledrums), used especially in ceremonial and military music.
The snare drum and side drum, used for military music and dance music.
The tambourine, used for dance music and for some sacred music.
Various other small percussion instruments, including the triangle, the cymbals, the bells, and the rattle.

The Maker and the Player

The instruments of the Renaissance were made by skilled craftsmen, often organized in family workshops. The most famous instrument-making centers included:

Bologna, where the great lute maker Wendelio Venere and his descendants worked.
Venice, which was famous for its keyboard instruments, especially the harpsichords of the Ridolfi family and the spinets of the Celestini family.
Brussels, Antwerp, and other Flemish cities, which were famous for the making of harpsichords and virginals.
Nuremberg, which was a major center of lute and viol making.

The players of the Renaissance were of two main types: professionals and amateurs. The professionals, who worked in courts, churches, and towns, were highly trained. The amateurs, who included many nobles, merchants, and members of the educated class, were often skilled performers, and the music written for them was a major part of the Renaissance repertoire.

The Legacy of Renaissance Instruments

The instruments of the Renaissance have had a lasting influence on Western music. The violin, the cello, the oboe, the bassoon, the harpsichord, the organ — all of these instruments, in their modern forms, were developed from Renaissance prototypes. The techniques of playing these instruments, the music written for them, and the cultural associations of instrumental performance are all rooted in the Renaissance.

The revival of interest in early music in the 20th and 21st centuries has brought the instruments of the Renaissance back into use. Modern builders, working from historical models, produce accurate reproductions of Renaissance lutes, viols, recorders, harpsichords, and other instruments. Modern performers, using these instruments and playing from historical sources, have brought the music of the Renaissance back to life in concert halls, churches, and recording studios.

What follows is a short list of books that have held up well. None of them is perfect, and the best of them are the ones that admit it.

An honest gap. The standard accounts of this period are, in many ways, the accounts of the literate, the urban, and the relatively well-off. The picture you get from the literature is necessarily a partial one, and any responsible overview has to flag the parts it is leaving out.

Sources & further reading

For non-specialists, the most accessible single book on this topic is usually the first in the list. The other two are denser but more thorough.

Howard Mayer Brown and Stanley Sadie, eds., Performance Practice: Music before 1600 (1989)
David Munrow, Instruments of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (1976)
The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (1984; many revised online entries)

If you want to go further, the bibliographies at the back of any of these books will lead you to the scholarly literature. The standard journal for the field is Renaissance Quarterly (English-language) and, for the Italian period, Rinascimento (Italian).