Between the Barlines

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I am your host, Dr. Maeve Berry! We are more than halfway through season 3’s episodes! I am excited for the next few episodes because we are getting into one of our first musicians that everyone knows at least one thing about! Can you guess who that might be? I’ll let you think on that! Today’s episode will take us to German-speaking lands, where music wasn’t just a form of art—it was theology made audible. We’ll explore how Lutheran theology shaped musical practice, how the organ became the thunderous a...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I am your host, Dr. Maeve Berry. Today we’re shining a spotlight on a remarkable composer, virtuoso harpsichordist, and trailblazing woman in music history: Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre. This is the story of talent, patronage, and persistence—a woman who stood at the intersection of genius and history during one of the most lavish cultural moments in France.

Pieces mentioned:

Pièces de Clavecin (1687): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9kJj0DnEGw

Céphale et Procris: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! And welcome to our first Music Theory Friday of the season! I am your host, Dr. Maeve Berry! Get ready for today’s episode, because we are going to spend some time dissecting the forms of several different instrumental pieces that were being composed in the 17th century! We’re going to explore three major musical forms that defined Baroque instrumental music: the ricercar, the fugue, and the dance suite. We’ve heard some of these terms thrown around earlier in this season, but I wanted to take a chance to explain each of the...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I am your host, Dr. Maeve Berry. Today, we are going to talk about an important French composer in the mid-17th century named Jean-Baptiste Lully! We spoke briefly about him in the last episode when we discovered different new forms of instrumental music being composed in the 17th century. Let’s dive in a little deeper, and find out a little more about our friend Lully.

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I am your host, Dr. Maeve Berry! I hope you have been enjoying the third season of this podcast! I am enjoying sharing this information with you! You might be wondering why we are all over the timeline this season, but there is a method for this madness! I felt that it was important to hear about the last two composers, Henry Purcell and François Couprin, albeit they were both composers in the late 17th century. We’ve spent so much time speaking about vocal music that we needed to hear about the...

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://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf_84OQgZSg

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 to talk about a few composers who were monumental in creating music during this time.

Music metioned in this episode:

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 the rise of the basso continuo, type of instruments are typically involved in these chamber ensembles, the difference between the sonata da chiesa and the sonata...

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=bKTQQ28sSNo&feature=youtu.be

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 history!

In this episode, we’ll explore all of the defining traits of Baroque music—from its dramatic expression and rhythmic drive to the elegance of counterpoint and orname...

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 Te lucis ante terminum (Festal Tone): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y75c3aIg3nI

Victoria O...

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 was a turning point for purely instrumental composition and performance. So today, we’ll explore the instruments, forms, social contexts, and innovations that shaped this transitional time — and paved the way for the Baroqu...

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 in episode:

Palestrina Missa Papae Marcelli (full): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRfF7W4El60

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 were occurring, and I will also rope music back into the picture later in the episode.

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, loss, or pastoral life. But by the late 1500s and early 1600s, the madrigal had evolved into something far more experimental and expressive. Today, we’re going to look at three key figu...

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 in the early 16th century, with masters like Luca Marenzio and Carlo Gesualdo pushing the form into emotionally expressive and harmonically adventurous territory. However, in the 1580s, Italian ma...

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: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9d1fXAlB6w

The Bells: https...

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 the last episode! There are several secular songs I would like to talk about today: villanella, canzonetta, balletto, lyric and narrative chansons, and consort songs.

Williaert...

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 music take off! Today’s topic, the Italian madrigal, would not have come to fruition had it not been for the compos...

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 L’homme Armé: ​​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn0SF3O1raY

El Grillo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI-bQ0RkArA

Mille regretz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=107gP...

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 would be good to have them all in one place where we could easily dissect the differences among the varying masses.

Ockeghem’s Missa Ecce Ancilla Domini: https://www.yo...

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’Homme Armé https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM_e29li_qY

Obrecht Missa Fortuna desperata https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzLgQ4ixHxc

Isaac fro...

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 polyphonic mass.

Dufay Missa Se la face ay pale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DicJE1my1p8

Information taken from personal notes, Burkholder’s History of W...

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 century. The Burgundian School was a defining force in 15th-century music, and at its heart were composers like Guillaume DuFay and Gilles Binchois.<...

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 various aurally cited websites.

Welcome to back to season 2 of Between the Barlines! I'm your host, Dr. Maeve Berry, and in the first episode of season 2, we're diving back into our studies of music history and theory with one of the most revolutionary periods in history—the Renaissance. A time of rebirth, innovation, and exploration, the Renaissance redefined human thought and expanded the boundaries of science, art, and music. Today, we are going to talk about some new ideas, their formations, and how they affected change and expansion in and during the renaissance.

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I’m your host, Dr. Maeve Berry

https://earlymusicmuse.com/

Articles on performing medieval music:

https://earlymusicmuse.com/performingmedievalmusic1of3/

https://earlymusicmuse.com/performingmedievalmusic2of3/

https://earlymusicmuse.com/performingmedievalmusic3of3/

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I’m your host, Dr. Maeve Berry, and today, we’re diving headfirst into the tying up the loose ends of our first season! We are going to explore the Ars Subtilior, Italian Trecento music, and the 14th-century madrigal.

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! Today we are going to learn about one of the last concepts in medieval music that ultimately helps us transition to the Renaissance. This episode is all about the French “formes fixes.” The formes fixes—which translates from French as "fixed forms"—were a set of structured poetic and musical forms popular in France between the 13th and 15th centuries. These forms include the ballade, virelai, and rondeau.

Links to examples of formes fixes:

Ballade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyGhW9JKOz8

Virelai: https://www.youtube.com/watc...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines AND another episode of Music Theory Friday!! We’re diving into a concept that might not be on your radar 24/7 when we are talking about analyzing music in general, but this concept has played a vital role in the evolution of Western music. This concept is called isorhythm.

Scores for Machaut isorhythmic motet:

unedited: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QhfZ71iZE8l6DMDLdWMMiJ9f2GbcoC64/view?usp=sharing

edited: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dedeZeNYLUvrhdJCrrs28BHk3U8O5yIc/view?usp=sharing

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! Today, we’re diving into the world of 14th-century music. We will talk about Ars Nova and some contributing composers to this new movement.

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I am your host, Dr. Maeve Berry, and I am thrilled that you’ve tuned into today’s episode! We are approaching the end of the medieval era, so before we dive into the renaissance era, I want to take the next three or so episodes to tie up all of the loose ends. In today’s episode, we’re talking about the origins of the motet—one of the most significant musical forms of the medieval and Renaissance periods.

Links to videos:

Factum est salutare/Domine: https://www.youtube.co...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! This is our third installment of music theory Fridays! This is a little bit of a mini episode because we only have one major thing to talk about. Our topic today deals with one of the earliest forms of Western polyphony: organum.

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! I have a very exciting episode for you today because we’re taking a deep dive into one of the most pivotal developments in Western music: the rise of polyphony in the 13th century! We have been so focused on monophonic songs, including a trip to the church for Gregorian chant and a trip to places like France for the songs of the troubadours and trouvères and Germany for the Minnesingers! By the 13th century, something extraordinary was happening: melodies started weaving together, creating a tapestry of sound that would forever change the...

Welcome back to Between the Barlines! Today we are going to explore different types of songs prior to the renaissance era in western classical music! If you haven’t listened to any of the previous episodes from this season, please give those a listen because many of the aforementioned topics help us understand how the music we are going to start talking about today developed.

Information taken from personal notes, Burkholder’s History of Western Music, and various aurally cited websites.