Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Renaissance music period began in the middle of the 15th century with John Dunstaple introducing la contenance angloise at a Burgundian court. This new style relied heavily on full triadic harmony using three-note chords that were previously considered dissonant in medieval music.
Guillaume Du Fay stood at the center of the Burgundian School during the early 15th century as the greatest composer in Europe according to his contemporaries. He composed seven complete masses, dozens of individual movements, and utilized techniques like fauxbourdon to create a bridge between medieval complexity and Renaissance fluidity.
Renaissance ensembles included haut instruments which were loud and shrill and bas instruments which were quieter and more intimate. The sackbut replaced the slide trumpet by the middle of the 15th century while string families evolved into the viol or viola da gamba and the violin family known as viole da braccio.
The Roman School emphasized florid counterpoint and strict rules regarding dissonance treatment while avoiding parallel octaves and fifths. In contrast the Venetian School developed polychoral styles with multiple choirs occupying different spatial locations within Basilica San Marco di Venezia from about 1530 until around 1600.
The invention of the printing press occurred in 1439 transforming how music reached audiences by eliminating the need for hand-copying written music and theory texts. This innovation allowed relative political stability and prosperity in the Low Countries to support large numbers of trained singers and composers who became highly sought throughout Italy and other European cities.