Renaissance - Genres

Ayre: Genre of solo song with lute accompaniment that flourished in England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries

Example of an Ayre:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkRrzAo9Wl4
Composer: John Dowland "Flow my tears"

Galliard: (gaillarde in French; gagliarda in Italian) was a form of Renaissance dance and music popular all over Europe in the 16th century. It is mentioned in dance manuals from England, France, Spain, Germany and Italy among others

Example of a Galliard Dance:
.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lDCxv3Hv2g

The gigue (French pronunciation: ​[ʒiɡ]) or giga (Italian: [ˈdʒiːɡa]) is a lively baroque dance originating from the British jig. It was imported into France in the mid-17th century^[2] and usually appears at the end of a suite. The gigue was probably never a court dance, but it was danced by nobility on social occasions and several court composers wrote gigues.^[3]

Examples of a Gigue:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaytWDL0M0k
Renaissance Music - Fantasia; Gavotte; Gigue and Minuet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0REW87k_FYs

Kemp'S Gigue - English Renaissance Music

Toccata (from Italian toccare, "to touch") is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers.

Examples of a prelude and toccata: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgTjToj3U18

Theorbo: Kapsberger; Toccata #6 (1626)

In music, variation is a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve harmony, melody,counterpoint, rhythm, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these.

Examples of variations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXCaJfu8moU


The fantasia (from Italian: fantasia; also English: fantasy, fancy, phantasy, German: Fantasie, Phantasie, French: fantaisie) is a musical composition with its roots in the art of improvisation. Because of this, it seldom approximates the textbook rules of any strict musical form 

Examples of a Fantasia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS4ii1iy9p0