John Dowland (1563 - 1626) is one of my favourite Renaissance composers. (OK, I'll come clean. I like Renaissance and Early music)

Strangely enough, Sting has a reasonably authentic Renaissance voice. If you want to know how Elizabeth I (Born 1533) or Shakespeare (born 1564) sounded, think Hagrid from Harry Potter.  Too many Renaissance music singers put on this pretentious English accent which is not in the least bit authentic.

Here is Sting singing "Can she excuse my wrongs"



Can she excuse my wrongs? (The Earl of Essex's Galliard)
=================

Can she excuse my wrongs with Virtue’s cloak?
Shall I call her good when she proves unkind?
Are those clear fires which vanish into smoke?
Must I praise the leaves where no fruit I find?
No, no; where shadows do for bodies stand,
That may’st be abus’d if thy sight be dim.
Cold love is like to words written on sand,
Or to bubbles which on the water swim.
Wilt thou be thus abused still,
Seeing that she will right thee never?
If thou canst not o’ercome her will,
Thy love will be thus fruitless ever.
Was I so base, that I might not aspire
Unto those high joys which she holds from me?
As they are high, so high is my desire,
If she this deny, what can granted be?
If she will yield to that which reason is,
It is reason’s will that love should be just.
Dear, make me happy still by granting this,
Or cut off delays if that I die must.
Better a thousand times to die
Than for to love thus still tormented:
Dear, but remember it was I
Who for thy sake did die contented.

Excellent music. We have difficulty today recreating the sound of Renaissance songs, or any play of that time, as the accent and delivery of the English language has changed over the centuries.  As you say, the 'BBC Accent' used to recreate Shakespeare today is not what the crowd at The Globe would have heard. I did read somewhere that the closest accent today to how Shakespeare probably spoke would be in the New England region of the US, given that's where the English settlers arrived around his time.

I once asked my niece, who studied English literature at uni, how far back in time we could go and understand the English language. She reckoned with increasing difficulty we could go back to around the 14th century ( think The Canterbury Tales). Before that it would be effectively a different language.

Simon Armitage, the poet laureate, 'translated' Sir Gawain . Get a copy if you are interested in language.

Alliteration came long before rhyme, in English.
A taster
https://m.facebook.com/thetodayprogramme/videos/simon-armitage-reads-from-sir-ga...

https://archive.org/details/sir.-gawain.and.the.-green.-knight.

Armitage is on the panel here.
https://youtu.be/8LUVdXzXuWg

😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳

"Generally described as taking place from the 14th century to the 17th century, the Renaissance promoted the rediscovery of classical philosophy, literature and art."

Music must surely fit in somewhere there 👆 

My very first introduction to Renaissance music will forever remain etched in my memory banks. It was a defining moment for me.

As a 3 yr old toddler wearing a red pinafore (which my mother had sewn for me) and matching red sandals I will never forget the moment my tender ears were introduced to Greensleeves. I fell under the power of its hypnotic trance and I immediately stopped playing with my skipping rope to embark on a quest to discover the source of this amazing and alluring music. It was from a pink Mr Whippy ice cream van which had parked outside our home.

The experience was to change me forever. How? Pink became my favourite colour and renaissance music was my genre for life.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensleeves

John_Taverner wrote on Sep 14^th, 2022 at 9:27am:


Do you know the music of Marin Marais and Sainte Colombe ( as heard in Tous Les Matins du Monde (sont sans retour))? It is from the next period, the Baroque. Jordie Savall played the soundtrack.



Twenty years later Bach composed his six cello suites.

random wrote on Sep 14^th, 2022 at 10:04am:



Good question. Apart from the fact that linguists actually described how the language was spoken back then, there was the great vowel shift, which you can read up about. With the original pronunciation some of Shakespeare's puns and jokes suddenly make sense.

It's more of a lengthy explanation than I'm prepared to give, but  there are a lot of good references on the web.

http://facweb.furman.edu/~mmenzer/gvs/what.htm

https://www.wnyc.org/story/olivier-had-wrong-shakespeare-original-pronunciation/

Google Ben and David Crystal.

Frank wrote on Sep 14^th, 2022 at 10:21am:


Tous les matins du monde (all the mornings of the world)

Yes, I grew up playing baroque organ music.  If you listen to Bach's Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor you'll hear the music of the spheres. (especially in just intonation)  Bach's music is very mathematical. Do you know that J S Bach was one of the first composers to be able to write in every key, because the mathematicians of the day found a better way to calculate the 12th root of 2?

One of his  works is called the "Well Tempered Clavier". The way that the musical scale is "tempered" affects the harmony.

Nowadays, we use equal temperament. It's a compromise.



For Lisa, this is a synthesised (sorry!) version of Pachelbel's canon played in just intonation.  The perfect harmony should give you goosepimples even if the sound is digital.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6ecVMK4hFA

John_Taverner wrote on Sep 14^th, 2022 at 10:49am:


It's far worse than that.

Pachelbel's Canon in D Major has influenced music through its simplicity and repeated bass line. Here are some examples:


In My Life - Remastered 2009
The Beatles


Whatever - Remastered
Oasis


Basket Case
Green Day


Don't Sleep in the Subway
Petula Clark


All the Young Dudes
David Bowie


Life Goes On
2Pac


Don't Matter
Akon


No Woman No Cry
Bob Marley & The Wailers


Cryin'
Aerosmith


Sk8er Boi
Avril Lavigne


Pictures Of Lily
The Who


Spicks and Specks - 2012 Remaster
Bee Gees


Rain And Tears
Aphrodite's Child


Streets of London
Ralph McTell


Changes - 2015 Remaster
David Bowie


Goodbye To Romance - 2002 Version
Ozzy Osbourne


Eyes of the World - 2016 Remaster
Fleetwood Mac


Go West - 2003 Remaster
Pet Shop Boys


It's Not Too Late
The Monkees


Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying
Belle and Sebastian


Walking On The Milky Way - Remastered 2019
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark


I Should Be so Lucky
Kylie Minogue


All Together Now
The Farm


Welcome to the Black Parade
My Chemical Romance


C U When U Get There
Coolio, 40 Thevz


Sunday Morning
Procol Harum


Step
Vampire Weekend


Hook
Blues Traveler


Skeleton Move
Master KG, Zanda Zakuza


Memories
Maroon 5


Under Pressure - Remastered 2011
Queen, David Bowie


Graduation (Friends Forever)
Vitamin C


Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space
Spiritualized


I Got To Tell You
Dr. Octagon


He's Not Real - Intro
Fat Joe