ABSTRACT
The sixteenth century was the greatest single century in the history of European art. Renaissance neo-platonism and pythagoreanism are linked with the creative activity of the scientific revolution. These notions formed a significant part of the intellectual milieux and mentalities of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Harvey. Baroque music, like Baroque art, had the ability to please at all levels, from the most sophisticated to the most popular. Moreover, in spite of the disapproval of the moralists, the distinction between church and secular music was by no means always observed. German church music was highly traditional and slow, even, to accept Flemish influences. Throughout the century, too, music was composed to harmonize with words. But it was at Catherine de Medici's court that music came to be an integral part of the splendid spectacles which she loved to present and which were deliberately designed as propaganda for her policy of religious and political conciliation.
