Composers

Maddalena Casulana
http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Maddalena_Casulana
Maddalena Casulana was the first woman known to have published her own music. This site offers a brief biography of her.

John Dowland
http://www.hoasm.org/IVM/Dowland.html
A biography of one of England’s greatest composers for the lute, with a handful of links to other Dowland-related information.

http://www.classical-composers.org/cgi-bin/ccd.cgi?comp=dowland
Another, and more in-depth, biography of Dowland.

Giovanni Gabrieli
http://www.goldbergweb.com/en/history/composers/10946.php
Giovanni Gabrieli’s life and career straddled the intersection between the Renaissance and the Baroque era. This site provides a basic biography and image of the composer, as well as a discography (though the list also contains recordings that do not contain his music) and a list of articles that make mention of the composer.

http://www.hoasm.org/IVN/GabrieliGiovanni.html
Another biography and discussion of the composer, with links to a partial discography of his music and to a discussion of the Venetian polychoral style of composition.

Hildegard von Bingen
http://www.isi.edu/~lerman/music/Hildegard.html
Hildegard von Bingen was a 12th-century nun, composer and mystic. This site provides an excellent discussion of her life, including the likely medical condition behind her visions, as well as a bibliography, discography and glossary.

Josquin des Prez
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/josquin.html
Josquin des Prez was certainly one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance. This website offers a good basic biography and a general discussion of his compositions.

http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/composer/josquin.html
Another basic biography and description of the music of Josquin, but this site also offers audio files of excerpts of performances some of his compositions.

http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/composers/josquin.html
A more in-depth biography and discography of the composer.

Orlandus Lassus
http://www.hoasm.org/IVK/Lassus.html
Orlandus Lassus was one of the major composers during the Renaissance. This webpage offers a biography and a discussion of his music.

Guillaume de Machaut
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/machaut.html
Guillaume de Machaut was one of the more important composers of the Medieval era, and is remembered in particular for his setting of the Ordinary of the Catholic Mass. This site offers a biography and image of the composer.

http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/composers/machaut.html
Another, more in-depth biography of the composer, this site also includes an extensive discography of his works, as well as the complete texts (not translated into English, unfortunately) of all his vocal compositions.

http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/machaut.html
Yet another biography of Machaut, with links to other articles on the composer.

Thomas Morley
http://www.hoasm.org/IVM/Morley.html
A biography and discussion of this English composer of the Renaissance.

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/htdocs/Blair/Courses/MUSL242/f98/leitera.htm
The English Renaissance composer Thomas Morley was known particularly for his madrigals. This webpage offers a biography, as well as a discussion of English madrigals in general.

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/palestrina.html
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina is another of the great composers of the Renaissance, and this website offers a brief biography of his life, including how his music was chosen to become the model what Catholic Counter-Reformation music should be.

http://www.goldbergweb.com/en/history/composers/11723.php
Another site offering a biography and image of Palestrina, as well as a discography and Palestrina-related articles.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11421b.htm
A more in-depth biography of the composer from the Catholic Encyclopedia.

Thomas Tallis
http://www.classical-composers.org/cgi-bin/ccd.cgi?comp=tallis
A biography of one of England’s most important composers of the Renaissance.

Tomás Luis de Victoria
http://www.hoasm.org/IVL/Victoria.html
Tomás Luis de Victoria was arguably Spain’s greatest Renaissance composer. This webpage offers a biography and discussion of his music, as well as a partial discography.

Performers

The King’s Singers
http://www.kingssingers.com/
The official website for this world-renown vocal ensemble, visitors will find a history of the group as well as individual members’ biographies, a list of current performances, audio samples, a discography, photographs, and much more.

Jakob Lindberg
http://www.musicamano.com/
Jakob Lindberg is a Swedish lutenist who performs worldwide, as well as teaches at the Royal College of Music in London. This is his official website, offering a biography, a discography with audio examples, photographs and descriptions of his instruments, photographs of Lindberg, and more.

Tallis Scholars
http://www.thetallisscholars.co.uk/
The Tallis Scholars are renowned for their recordings of music from the Renaissance. This, their official website, offers current tour dates, a biography of the ensemble and its director, Peter Phillips, photographs, and more.

Miscellaneous

Gregorian Chant
http://www.solesmes.com/anglais/gregorian/greg_home.html#forme
The choir of the Abbey of Solesmes is one of the premiere groups to record Gregorian chant, having produced some 16 albums, beginning in 1952. This is the Abbey’s website, which provides a wide variety of information about the Abbey. To learn more about Gregorian chant, hover your mouse over the photograph labeled “Gregorian.” A pop-up menu then allows you to learn more about either the history or the forms of Gregorian chant. Contained in the latter page is a description of how the chant is used in the worship liturgies of the Catholic Church. Audio files are included, though they are in the relatively uncommon .ogg format, which is not recognized by many of the most popular audio-playback programs. There are a number of programs that do play this format, though; one such player that is available for Windows, Mac OS X and other platforms is VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/).

A Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Instruments
http://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/instrumt.html
This site offers photographs, descriptions, and audio examples of a wide variety of musical instruments from the Medieval and Renaissance eras.

Introduction to Medieval Music
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/~cyrus/ORB/orbmusic.htm
This website offers an excellent introduction to music of the Medieval era

Lutheran Music in the 16th Century
http://www.thrivent.com/heritage/music/16/worship.html
A concise description of how music was used in Martin Luther’s new protestant denomination.

Madrigal
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/g_madrigal.html
This site offers a brief history of madrigals.

Martin Luther: Music and God?
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/htdocs/Blair/Courses/MUSL242/s02/luther.htm
A succinct discussion of Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformation, and Luther’s ideas on the role of music in worship.

Medieval Music: Birth of Polyphony
http://www.stanford.edu/~jrdx/medieval.html
An excellent non-technical introduction to sacred Christian music from its birth to the rise of polyphony during the Medieval era.

Motet
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/g_motet.html
This webpage provides a further discussion and history of the motet, though the language used is rather technical. However, there are hyperlinks to definitions and discussions of many of the important terms and composers contained in this page.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10600c.htm
From the Catholic Encyclopedia, this article offers a somewhat more in-depth discussion of the motet, though without as much technical language. Hyperlinks are provided to some of the important composers of this musical form.

The Musical Reforms of Martin Luther
http://www.carolinaclassical.com/articles/luther.html
An in-depth discussion of Martin Luther and his efforts to reform worship music.

Plainchant
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/g_plainchant.html
Provides a short history of chant and a discussion about the differences between the various forms, including Gregorian chant.