After viewing and listening to the Renaissance instruments, choose three that you think would work together in a band. Create text for an album cover to describe your band. Cover as many of these points as you can:
--name your band
--name the three instruments
--describe the way each instrument looks
--tell what instrument family each belongs to (woodwind, brass, string, percussion)
--tell what contemporary instrument is similar
--describe the way each instrument sounds
--explain why you selected the instruments you did, using at least three elements of music you studied in Unit 2. (ex: rhythm, tempo, melody, harmony, timbre)
Make your text lively and fun, since this will be an advertisement for your band.
The
Second
Psaltery
The Second Psaltery is band that rocks Renaissance with two psalteries, one transverse flute, and a gamba. The lead instrument, a transverse flute, stirs up the melodic line. This wind instrument will be new to your eyes and ears as well. It has a clear, reedy timbre and its six holes that can span two octaves. The flute is backed up by two psalteries. These medium-sized sound boxes look a lot like dulcimers, and when the second psaltery is added, some serious harmony starts to happen. When they're plucked by hand their guitar-like sound makes a perfect contrast to the opening flute. The back-up instrument, a gamba, looks like a small cello. It sneaks in a mellow rhythm to round off an amazing sound.
Note: This assignment was easy and fun, and sort of a hands-on way to learn about a few Renaissance instruments. I just took a few minutes to re-read the descriptions of all the instruments and picked three that might work together. I liked having the option of of naming the band and picking out a type font that worked with the Renaissance theme. The description felt like it needed an image, so I did an image search for "psaltery" and added that. The most difficult part of this assignment for me was remembering to work in some of the elements of music.
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