Elizabethan Music

The Elizabethan era is also known as the Golden Age in English history. There were many notable factors in the Elizabethan era; it saw high quality literature and fashion also underwent many changes. During the Elizabethan era, music also played a significant role in the lives of people. This was a major form of entertainment for people in the Elizabethan era. Here’s a look at all the details associated with Elizabethan music.

Elizabethan Music:
The popularity of music grew to phenomenal proportions in the Elizabethan era. Unlike the scenario today, in the ancient days, a man who could not sing to win the hearts of others with his perfect voice was not considered to be a gentleman. This itself reflects the importance of Elizabethan music.

Queen Elizabeth herself was quite well versed with musical instruments. It was her love for music that saw talented composers and musicians receive encouragement for showing their skills. It was known that Queen Elizabeth hired around 70 musicians and composers for her court. These musicians and composers played various genres of music such as English ballads, church music and even lively dance music. The popularity of Elizabethan music grew and it was considered to be a norm to be able to sing or perform by people who belonged to all classes. Queen Elizabeth could herself play musical instruments such as the lute or virginal.

Elizabethan music thus entered the homes and lives of all people. Native folk music was seen being played at the dinner tables when families came together for a meal. People who belonged to the higher strata of society in the Elizabethan era were know to hire a musician to be able to enjoy music. In case of people who could not really hire such musicians, they always had at least one musical instrument and one servant who could play such an instrument.

Street music also gained ground in the Elizabethan era. This was the time when traveling minstrels roamed around town and had their tryst with Elizabethan music. Street musicians carried musical instruments that were light such as fiddles and other light percussion instruments to play various styles of music. Of course, the kind of songs sung by such musicians were more traditional in their appeal as compared to the sophisticated ballads played in the famed courts of Queen Elizabeth. Street musicians did not really last long on the music scenario and this style soon diminished to give way to tavern and theatre musicians.

There are some distinctive factors about Elizabethan music. This style of music was recognizable for its rhythm. There were ways in which a particular theme was played in many ways. Some of the songs that belonged to such music in the Elizabethan era were on similar lines as the baroque music.

Elizabethan music can be broadly classified into the following categories- church music, court music, street music, theatre music and town music. The church was considered to be of great significance in this era as far as music was concerned. Due to the church, a style of music evolved which was known as the choral polyphony. Music was also used as an enhancement for theatre. This was seen in the plays of William Shakespeare. These plays saw the emotions being expressed through poems accompanied by music. These forms of music were used to express various emotions. Therefore theatre music reached new heights of success in the Elizabethan era.

Musical Instruments used for Elizabethan Music:
With the soaring popularity and need for music in the Elizabethan era, the need for a variety of musical instruments also increased with time. This also saw the use of various instruments being used together to create different symphonies.

There were basically 4 types of musical instruments used in the Elizabethan era (The string, keyboard, wind and percussion). The virginal was widely used and can be describes as a tiny piano. Stringed musical instruments were those kind of instruments that were played with a bow or could even be plucked. The wind instruments were those kinds where one would need to blow them as trumpets or bagpipes. Drums formed a part of percussion musical instruments where as the spinet and the virginal formed a part of keyboard musical instruments.

The different musical instruments were also used to denote the status of a person as well. For example, wind instruments such as the trumpets were used to mark the arrival of royalty. The lute, viol, trumpets, sackbuts, hautboy, harp etc were some of the musical instruments used to compose music in the Elizabethan era. Flutes were also used and the largest one was around 4 feet long.