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Musical Instruments of the Middle Ages and Renaissance

A trumpet consort.

Although instruments have been used to make music for thousands of years, they came into their own during the Renaissance. New instruments were invented, old instruments were improved, and composers used them in new ways.

During the Middle Ages, instruments were valued less than voices. From the church's point of view, God created the human voice and it was better suited to sing his praises.

Instrumental music during the Middle Ages frequently served to accompany other activities. Instruments could accompany a dance or a vocalist or they could be used in a ceremonial way. Later, music was specifically written for instruments, and an audience that enjoyed this new kind of music developed.

During the Middle Ages, vocal plainchant was mostly monophonic. Instrumental music imitated this style as well. Even when instruments played as a group, they played the same musical lines. Later, as vocalists began singing polyphonic lines, instrumentalists began to play more independent lines, as well.

Medieval instruments were classified by how loudly they played. During the high Renaissance, however, instrumental music flourished. A more precise system of classification was required. Instruments were classified by timbretimbre:

Pronounced "tam-bur." The unique sound or tone color produced by a particular instrument.
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A group, or family, of timbrally similar instruments was called a whole consortwhole consort:

An ensemble comprised of instruments from the same family.
. A group of dissimilar instruments was called a broken consortbroken consort:

An ensemble comprised of instruments from different families.
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