Chapter Summary

The musical Renaissance began in Flanders, or the Netherlands. Josquin des Prez spent much of his life in Italy, where composers absorbed the Netherlanders' style of imitative polyphony. The greatest composer of the late Renaissance was Palestrina, who assimilated Josquin's techniques in his restrained, conservative compositions. Martin Luther led the Protestant Reformation and introduced a new form of congregational singing, the chorale. Calvinists restricted their church music to the singing of psalm tunes.