Between the Barlines

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I am your host, Dr. Maeve Berry! Today, we are going to talk about Henry Purcell , an influential composer of opera and other dramatic works in the 17th century! Music played/mentioned in this episode: Purcell "Dido's Lament" from Dido and Aeneas : https://youtu.be/uGQq3HcOB0Y?si=2F48AHPmQP_W4cOG Purcell Thou Knowest Lord The Secrets Of Our Hearts : https://ww...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I’m your host, Dr. Maeve Berry! Today, we are going to branch outside of France, Germany, and Italy and talk about trends occuring in the early 17th century in other countries! These countries include England, Spain, and Russia.

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! In today’s episode, I thought it would be a good idea to talk more in depth about an extremely important composer for the keyboard: François Couprin . Music played and mentioned in today's podcast: Couprin Les Baricades Mïstérieuses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzoFKG7ITRg

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I am your host, Dr. Maeve Berry. I hope you are enjoying season 3 thus far! If this is your first dip into the Between the Barlines podcast, I suggest you go back to the very beginning so that you can continue to expand your historical music learning! Today, we are going to learn about the sacred music that was happening in the early 17th century. We are going...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I’m your host, Dr. Maeve Berry, and today we’re opening the doors to the intimate world of 17th-century chamber music — a time when music was migrating from grand cathedrals and courts into salons and private homes. We haven’t had a chance to explore this type of music yet, so I’m very excited to dive into this with you! In today's episode we will talk about t...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! Today, we are going back over 400 years to explore the birth of opera—how it came to be, what it meant in its early days, and how it evolved from a humanist experiment in Florence to one of the most enduring and powerful forms of storytelling in the Western world. If you aren’t familiar with the genre, you might be asking, what exactly is opera?

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I am your host, Dr. Maeve Berry, and for the second episode of season 3, we are going to talk about stile antico and stile moderno —the “old style” and the “modern style”—and the dramatic shift between them during one of the most transformative periods in music history. Music in this Episode: Monteverdi Cruda Amarilli : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKTQQ28s...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I am your host, Dr. Maeve Berry, and I am thrilled that you are joining me for the first episode of season 3! If you haven’t listened to either seasons 1 or 2, please go back and give those a listen! The goal of this podcast is to provide learners and music-curious people with aural resources to study, learn, and review topics chronologically from music histor...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I’m your host, Dr. Maeve Berry, and today is our final episode of season 2! The 17th century was a time of dramatic change and innovation in music. It was a bridge between the Renaissance and the Baroque, a century of experimentation, emotion, and new forms that would shape the sound of Western music for centuries to come.

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I am your host, Dr. Maeve Berry! Today, we are going to tie up some loose ends that we still have in the Renaissance! We are going to address composers like Thomas Tallis and Tomás Luis de Victoria , as well as the instrument called the virginal . Pieces mentioned/played in episode: Tallis Spem in alium a 40 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3LnkG2P2wM Tallis...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I’m your host, Dr. Maeve Berry, and today we’re diving into an often overlooked but deeply fascinating era in Western music history: the 16th century — a time when instrumental music began to step into its own spotlight. While vocal music still dominated, and composers like Palestrina and Josquin des Prez were household names in their time, the 16th century wa...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I am your host, Dr. Maeve Berry, and I am thrilled that you are joining me for another episode in season 2! Today we are going to talk all about Palestrina, an extremely influential composer of choral music in the mid to late 16th century. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was born around 1525, in a small hill town just outside of Rome. Snippet of Music played...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I’m your host, Dr. Maeve Berry! Today, we’re talking about one of the most consequential religious gatherings in world history: The Council of Trent . It’s a response to the firestorm of the Protestant Reformation and a defining moment for the Catholic Church that still echoes through its walls today. A lot of today’s episode will focus on the changes that wer...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! Today we are going to continue our talk about the Italian Madrigal, and I wanted to share a few composers and their music that are considered “later madrigalists” by historians. We learned a few episodes ago that the madrigal began in Italy in the early 16th century as a secular vocal form — a poetic, polyphonic setting of Italian verse, usually about love, lo...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I am your host, Dr. Maeve Berry. To continue our conversation from last episode, today, we are going to talk about the madrigal in England and some of its important composers. We’ve already learned so much about the madrigal, but this innovation in vocal music brought much change to England, as we will see. We already know that the madrigal was born in Italy i...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I am your host, Dr. Maeve Berry, and today I have a bonus episode for you to talk just about William Byrd! Pieces mentioned in episode: Mass for 3 voices : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Am1PQ0p39w Mass for 4 voices : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXeT2HWpwc4 Mass for 5 voices : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZSB0WTyIrg Though Amaryllis Dance in Green :...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I am your host, Dr. Maeve Berry! I hope you are enjoying season 2, as we only have a couple episodes left talking about the Renaissance! We are going to talk about other 16th century European secular songs and composers today besides the ever popular secular form of the Italian madrigal. If you missed learning about the Italian madrigal, be sure to check out t...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I am your host, Dr. Maeve Berry, and today we’ll be talking about the Reformation , Martin Luther , his love of song, and a technique called contrafactum . Luther Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott : https://youtu.be/uI7QMtXBLgY?si=uE4U_CMBAZSpyaZQ

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I am your host, Dr. Maeve Berry, and I am thrilled that you are here today with me to learn more about the 16th century Italian madrigal! We’ve learned so much already this season -- it really seems like it has flown by! If you haven’t checked out the earlier episodes of the season or even season 1, I suggest you do so, so that you can see the progression of m...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I am your host, Dr. Maeve Berry, and today we are going to talk about a very important composer from the Renaissance era: Josquin Desprez! A true master of Renaissance polyphony, Josquin was celebrated for his expressive melodies, intricate counterpoint, and innovative techniques that changed the course of Western music. Josquin Desprez's mentioned works Missa...

Welcome back to another episode of Season 2 of Between the Barlines! Today is our first music theory Friday of the season! Today we are going to finish talking about masses for a while and address a specific foundational practice that was used during the Renaissance period: creating masses based off of borrowed materials. I began to mention a few of these several episodes ago, but I thought it wou...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! Today we are going to talk about a few more Franco-Flemish composers besides Guillaume Du Fay and Gilles Binchois that helped shape the Renaissance era in the 16th century. We will also dive into the political climate of the time and how it shaped the artistic landscape. Ockeghem Missa Prolationum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWLsLAujZzI Busnoys Missa L’Hom...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines, the podcast where we chat about important events, people, philosophies, and theories in music history! This season, we are focusing on the Renaissance era. If you’ve been listening along chronologically, you might notice that today we are taking a little bit of a step back in order to understand the evolutions of the Mass. Today, we are going to crack into the...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I am your host, Dr. Maeve Berry, and I hope you are enjoying the beginning of season 2 of this podcast! If you are, I would love it if you would rate the podcast on whatever platform you are listening on as well as share it with a friend! Thanks! Today, we are going to talk mostly about the Burgundian School and its main composers of the end of the 15th centur...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! Today, we begin our deep dive into the music and history of the Renaissance! Our focus today will be on the techniques and the specific impact of English and Burgundian music in the late 15th century. John Dunstable “ Quam pulchra es ” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FTw9xl5h-Y Information taken from personal notes, Burkholder’s History of Western Music, and...