Part 4/7:
A Dramatic Shift in Musical Composition
As the Renaissance period dawned, significant changes began to emerge in musical practice and composition. The establishment of modality allowed composers to delve deeper into harmonic subtleties, resulting in an enriched musical vocabulary. The emergence of new secular forms of music complemented sacred compositions that had previously dominated the Medieval soundscape. One notable form was the Madrigal, an unaccompanied vocal composition typically featuring three or four parts, which gained immense popularity during the Renaissance.