Short answers, pulled from the story.
Renaissance music traditionally covers European music of the 15th and 16th centuries. The period begins with the rise of triadic harmony and the spread of the contenance angloise style, and its end is marked by the adoption of basso continuo at the beginning of the Baroque period.
The contenance angloise, or English countenance, was a style identified by the poet Martin le Franc in his Le Champion des Dames, associated with composer John Dunstaple. It referred primarily to the use of full triadic harmony and a preference for the intervals of the third and sixth, which had previously been treated as dissonances in medieval music. The Flemish theorist Tinctoris, writing around 1476, called Dunstaple the fons et origo, the wellspring and origin, of the style.
Key Renaissance composers include Guillaume Du Fay (c. 1397-1474), regarded by contemporaries as the leading composer in Europe during the mid-15th century; Josquin des Prez (c. 1450/1455-1521), whose mastery was praised by figures including Martin Luther and Baldassare Castiglione; and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525-1594), the most famous composer of the Roman School. John Dunstaple (c. 1390-1453) and Leonel Power were foundational figures of the early period.
The invention of the printing press in 1439 made it cheaper and easier to distribute music and music theory texts across a wider geographic area. Before printing, written music had to be hand-copied, which was both time-consuming and expensive. Printing enabled the widespread dissemination of chansons, motets, and masses throughout Europe and fueled demand from a growing bourgeois class of educated amateur musicians.
Polyphony is the simultaneous performance of four or more independent melodic lines, and it is one of the defining features of Renaissance music. Renaissance polyphony favored blending rather than contrasting melodic lines, with a greater concern for the smooth flow of harmony. The development of polyphony also drove changes in instrument-building, encouraging larger ensembles and sets of instruments that could blend across the full vocal range.
Liturgical forms included the Mass and the motet, while secular vocal genres included the Italian madrigal, the French chanson, the German Lied, the Spanish villancico, and many others such as the caccia, rondeau, and virelai. Purely instrumental music included consort music for recorders or viols, and dances such as the pavane, galliard, and saltarello. Solo arrangements for lute, vihuela, harp, or keyboard, known as intabulations, were also common.