Musical Form
Madrigal
Poems set for a small group of voices - the pop songs of the Renaissance.
Vocal / Secular
A madrigal is a secular song for a small group of voices - usually four to six singers, one on each part - setting a poem, most often about love. It was the most popular form of secular music in the Renaissance, sung for pleasure by educated amateurs at home as much as by professionals at court.
Where it came from
The madrigal flourished in 16th-century Italy, where composers set the finest poetry of the day, especially the love sonnets of the 14th-century poet Petrarch and his imitators. One of the most famous early madrigals, Jacques Arcadelt's "Il bianco e dolce cigno" ("The white and gentle swan," 1539), was a bestseller. Printed collections spread the form across Europe.
Painting the words
The madrigal's defining feature is word-painting: making the music illustrate the words. A line about rising might climb upward; "sighing" might be broken by rests, like a gasp; a word such as "death" or "pain" might bring a sudden, piercing dissonance; and a rushing passage might depict running or flight. These effects became so typical that they are still called "madrigalisms." See our art song page for how later composers continued the idea.
The great madrigalists
Late in the century, Italian composers pushed the madrigal to extremes of expression. Luca Marenzio was celebrated for his refined word-painting, and Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, wrote madrigals full of startling, chromatic harmony that still sound strange today. Gesualdo is almost as famous for his life as his music: he murdered his wife and her lover. Claudio Monteverdi published eight books of madrigals over half a century, charting the whole journey from Renaissance polyphony to the dramatic, accompanied style of the Baroque.
The English madrigal
In 1588 a collection of Italian madrigals translated into English, Musica transalpina, set off a craze in Elizabethan England. English composers such as Thomas Morley, Thomas Weelkes, John Wilbye, and Orlando Gibbons wrote madrigals of their own, often lighter and more cheerful than the Italian models. Many include "fa-la-la" refrains - a lighter form called the ballett. In 1601 Morley published The Triumphs of Oriana, a collection of madrigals by different composers in honor of Queen Elizabeth I.
Famous madrigals
- Arcadelt - "Il bianco e dolce cigno" (1539).
- Monteverdi - "Cruda Amarilli" and "Lasciatemi morire."
- Gesualdo - "Moro, lasso, al mio duolo."
- Morley - "Now is the month of maying."
- Weelkes - "As Vesta was from Latmos Hill descending," from The Triumphs of Oriana.
- Gibbons - "The Silver Swan" (1612).
Where to start listening: Morley's "Now is the month of maying" is short, bouncy, and full of "fa-la-las" - a perfect first taste. Then try Gibbons's "The Silver Swan" for the madrigal's tender side, and Gesualdo for its strangest. Small professional vocal ensembles specialize in this repertoire. See also choral music.