midicnMusic History 中文

Printed Music

Movable type turned music into a commodity and let repertory travel faster than scribes.

RenaissanceMassMotetLute

In 1501 the Venetian printer Ottaviano Petrucci set ninety-six French chansons as a four-voice songbook. Music could now be copied, priced, carried and collected like a book.

Time and place

Venice, 1501. Petrucci published the Harmonice musices odhecaton, the first large collection of polyphonic music printed with movable type. In the 1520s Pierre Attaingnant in Paris moved to single-impression printing and cut the cost.

What happened

Petrucci printed staff lines, notes and text in three passes, a slow process with a clear result. The collection included chansons by Josquin, Ockeghem and others, and it sold to courts, churches and amateur musicians. Single-impression printing pressed lines, notes and text in one operation, so editions could enter the market in quantity. Printers began to pick best-selling composers, and Josquin's name became a selling point.

What changed

Music moved from manuscript into the world of goods. Composers could write for readers far away, printing privileges and a publishing market appeared, and players could buy the same score, giving amateur ensembles a common repertory. Notation also became more uniform, because a printed page had to be readable by strangers. Without print, the international style of the Renaissance would not have travelled so quickly.

Listen for the turn

Begin with Josquin's Mille regretz, a chanson reprinted again and again; then hear the joke of El grillo, and finally the polyphonic frame of the Missa l'homme armé. The library versions are synthesized; listen to how four voices align on one page, not to the printing itself.

This turn belongs to Renaissance and connects Mass, Motet and Lute.

Listen in the library

Mille regretzC11:47《Mille regretz》是十六世纪最畅销的尚松之一，印刷把它变成可携带的商品DetailsEl grilloC11:15《El grillo》这样的谐谑尚松，靠印本传遍欧洲的宫廷与城市DetailsMissa la homme armeeC11:00若斯坎的《武装的人弥撒》，印刷让大型套曲脱离教堂手抄本Details

All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).

Sources

  • The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "Printing and publishing of music" — dates checked, not quoted
  • Richard Taruskin, The Oxford History of Western Music (Oxford University Press) — narrative checked, not quoted

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.