Renaissance means rebirth. This period saw a rebirth in knowledge. The Renaissance was turning from God to man. Science was becoming more important during this time. Columbus discovered America during the Renaissance in 1492 and Michelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel. Music was also changing. Melodies became richer. Harmony, known as homophony, began to appear (This means there is a clear difference between the melody and accompaniment). This was the golden age of the a cappella style. That means that choirs sang without instruments. Perhaps the greatest development for the expansion of ordinary music was the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in 1454. Now music could be reproduced quickly, before this it had had to be copied by hand. But this was also a growth in instrumental music. The Renaissance saw many new instruments as well as old ones remaining popular. The most popular instrument during the renaissance was the lute.
             The lute is the ancestor of the modern day guitar. It held the highest respect of all instruments during the Renaissance, both as an accompaniment and as a solo instrument. Although the greatest repertoire (compositions) for the lute is from England, the best makers were Germans who lived in Italy. Its belly is made of pine, only one-sixteenth inch thick, with a carved sound-hole in the middle. Wooden bars glued underneath the belly strengthen it and add to the resonance. The pear shaped back is constructed from several ribs, shaped and bent over a mold, and then glued together edge-to-edge. These ribs may be made of sycamore, cedar, yew, or cypress, and are no more than 1/32 of an inch in thickness.
             It is unknown when the first sackbut was created but by 1500 it is mentioned and illustrated regularly. The sackbut is simply a slide trumpet, or tromba da tirasi. The word sackbut literally means 'push-pull'. There were four principle s
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