Renaissance heralded a breakthrough in new ideas and techniques in Western music and brought innovations faster than ever before.

 

The printing press made the reproduction and distribution of music and musical tracts easier, and music study became more general not just for members of the Church.

 

Composers began to regard music as an art of expression rather than science. They developed and codified the conventions of musical notation, began to write four-part polyphony, and began to regularly use imitations as a stylistic device in their compositions.

 

At the end of the Renaissance, composers had mastered the art of counterpoint. Instrumental music gained in importance compared to vocal music, and the entire mass was set to music.