How was music used for ritual/social gatherings?

In Italy, music was used for a lot of social gatherings. Examples would be festivals and churches. Music was used for dancing, singing and other entertainment purposes. 

Music was generally used as a symbol of the city's cultural achievements. The Italian festivals were celebrated twice per year. All of the citizens would gather in the streets and participate in processions, singing, dancing and revelry. This indicates that music was highly used for entertainment. The evening festivals were quite elaborative and involved collaborations between artists, poets, composers and musicians. The first thing they had to do was to visualize the concept and text for a particular carnival song and later, presenting their creation on a float with costumes, singers and musicians. Before music was starting to develop in Italy, the instruments used were mostly wind instruments. However, as time passed by, three instrumental ensembles were all in clear formation. These were the pifferi (3 shawm players), trombetti (5-6 trumpet players) and the trombadori (8-10 players), which also includes 6 large trumpet players, 1 drummer and a cenamella player. These were known as the "civic groups".

Opera was also a huge development during the Italian Renaissance. Opera was used for weddings, festivals and even for churches. Opera mostly focused on vocals. This style of music was very dramatic and added twists to it. The churches in Italy also supported music through rewards. Since religion was very essential during the Renaissance, the churches became very powerful. These churches were the Roman Catholic churches. Music for church rituals was very important, as complex masses, motets and hymns were being composed. 

Music, in Italy, was mostly used for cultural and religious purposes. People would either listen, sing or play the instruments for the occasions. Music was very essential during that time, as it was used for concerts, leisure time and religious wise.