Madrigal and Secular Song in the Sixteenth Century (Chapter 11)

I. The First Market for Music

A. Development of music printing, 1501
1. wider dissemination
2. changed economics of music
a. music sold as a commodity
B. Amateur music-making and musical literacy
1. amateurs: growing demand for notated music
2. 16th century: first among upper classes
a. ability to read notation, perform from printed music: expected social grace
b. Baldassarre Castiglione’s influential Book of Courtier (1528)
c. paintings show singers, instrumentalists, reading from published music
C. Printing and demand creates market
1. elite to more popular genres
2. professional musicians for own use
3. music for amateur performance sold well
a. vocal music: amateurs sing in vernacular
b. trend toward diverse national genres and styles
II. Spain
A. Villancico
1. Ferdinand and other Spanish courts encouraged development of Spanish music
2. especially cultivated the villancico
a. most important form of secular polyphonic song in Renaissance Spain
b. texts usually rustic or popular subjects
c. preference for simplicity: short, strophic, syllabic, mostly homophonic
d. composed for aristocracy
3. villancico form
a. always includes refrain (estribillo) and one or more stanzas (coplas)
i. stanzas begins with new section (mudanza, “change”), 2 statements
ii. concludes with refrain (vuelta)
iii. stanzas follow AAB structure
b. principal melody always in top voice
c. other voices sung or performed on instruments
d. 16th century publications of arrangements, solo voice with lute
B. Juan del Encina (1468-1529)
1. leading composer of villancicos, first Spanish playwright
2. pastoral themes borrowed from ancient Greek and Roman literature
a. depicts idealized world of shepherds, other rustic figures, beautiful rural landscapes
3. eclogues: one-act pastoral plays
a. beginning of Spanish secular drama
b. villancicos at midpoint and end
c. Oy comamos y bebamos (NAWM 54)
III. Italy
A. Frottola
1. Italian counterpart to the villancico
a. 4-part strophic song
b. syllabic, homophonic
c. melody in upper voice
d. marked rhythmic patterns, simple diatonic harmonies
e. featured simple music; earthy, satirical texts

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 f. top-voice sung, other parts sung or played on instruments
2. composed exclusively by Italian composers
3. mock-popular songs, for amusement of courtly elite
a. Isabella d’Este: especially important patron
i. encouraged development of frottole
ii. corresponded with Italian poets, spurred musicians at her court
4. Petrucci published 13 collections between 1504 and 1514
5. 1509: Francisco Bossinensis, frottole collections for voice and lute
6. Marchetto Cara (ca. 1465-1525), best-known composer of frottole
a. Mal un muta per effecto (NAWM 55)
IV. The Italian Madrigal
A. Madrigal: most important secular genre of the 16th century
1. emphasis on enriching meaning and impact of text through musical setting
a. new effects of declamation, imagery, expressivity, characterization
2. through madrigal, Italy became leader in European music
3. texts
a. single stanza, 7 or 11 syllables, free rhyme scheme
b. no refrains or repeated lines
4. poetry
a. texts by major poets
b. scenes and allusions borrowed from pastoral poetry
c. form of social play; vivid imagery interwoven with themes of love and sex
d. poems often end with epigram
5. composers dealt freely with poetry
a. variety of homophonic and contrapuntal textures
b. typically through-composed
c. aimed to match artfulness of poetry; convey images and emotions
d. early madrigals 1520-1540
e. 4 voices, later 5 voices; added voices labeled in Latin
f. one singer to a part
i. instruments often doubled voices, or took their place
6. written for enjoyment of singers
a. mixed groups of women and men
b. social gatherings, after meals, meetings of academies
c. great demand for madrigals
d. 2,000 collections published between 1530 and 1600
B. Early madrigal composers
1. Philippe Verdelot (ca. 1480/85-?1530), most important early madrigalist
a. French composer active in Rome and Florence
b. 4-voice madrigals, mostly homophonic
c. 5-6 voice madrigals more motetlike
2. Jacques Arcadelt (ca. 1507-1568)
a. Franco-Flemish composer, worked in Rome and Florence
b. Il bianco e dolce cigno (1538) (NAWM 56)
i. among most famous of early madrigals
ii. text alludes to sexual climax, “a little death”
iii. “death that in dying fills me full with joy and desire”
iv. death depicted with plaintive rising and falling half-step
C. The Petrarchan movement
1. development of madrigal linked to currents in Italian poetry
2. movement influential in Venice

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 3. led by Cardinal Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), poet and scholar
a. 1501, edited Petrach’s Canzoniere
b. identified opposing qualities: piacevolezza (pleasingness) and gravità (severity)
4. Adrian Willaert
a. Aspro core e selvaggio, Petrarch sonnet
b. “harsh and savage heart”
i. Petrarch: severe line, double consonants
ii. Willaert: harsh intervals in melody and harmony, major 3rds and 6ths
c. “sweet, humble, angelic face”
i. Petrarch: pleasing line, liquid, resonant, sweet sounds
ii. Willaert: semitones and m3rds in melody, minor 3rds and 6ths in harmonies
D. Midcentury madrigalists
1. by midcentury, most madrigals were 5 voices, frequent change of texture
2. Cipriano de Rore (1516-1565)
a. leading midcentury madrigalist
b. Flemish by birth, worked in Italy
c. succeeded Willaert as music director at St. Mark’s in Venice
d. Da le belle contrade d’oriente (NAWM 57)
i. musical details match rhythm, sense, and feeling of poem
ii. accented syllables, longer notes; syncopations “dolce,” “lasci”
iii. grief and sorrow: changing combination of voices, semitones and m3rds
3. chromaticism
a. direct chromatic motion not possible in Guidonian system
b. forbidden in polyphony before Rore’s generation
c. transgression against norms: powerful means of expressing grief
d. Zarlino approved chromatic motion to express sorrow
e. usage provided link to ancient Greeks
4. Nicola Vicentino (1511-ca. 1576)
a. L’antica musica ridotta alla moderna prattica (Ancient Music Adapted to Modern Practice,
1555)
b. proposed reviving chromatic and enharmonic genera of ancient Greeks
c. L’aura che ‘l verde lauro, madrigal on a Petrarch sonnet (1572)
i. incorporated Greek chromatic tetrachord
ii. chromatic motion evokes classical antiquity, idyllic pastoral scene
E. Women as composers and performers
1. poets and composers were mostly male
2. professional opportunities closed to most women
3. Maddalena Casulana (ca. 1544-ca. 1590s)
a. first woman whose music was published, regarded herself as professional composer
b. First Book of Madrigals (1568)
c. madrigals show inventive use of midcentury devices
4. women’s vocal ensembles
a. daughters, wives of nobility: sang in private concerts, some professionals
b. Concerto delle donne, established by Duke Alfonso d’Este
i. group of trained singers
ii. performed at court, alone or with male singers
iii. attracted attention and praise
iv. rival ensembles established at other courts
5. madrigal transformed from social to concert music
F. Later madrigalists
1. Orlando de Lassus and Philippe de Monte (1521-1603), northerners

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 a. both wrote madrigals while in Italy
b. continued to write madrigals at northern courts
c. Lassus’s madrigal collections published in Antwerp, Nuremberg, Munich, Rome and Venice
2. leading madrigalists were native Italians
3. Luca Marenzio (1553-1599)
b. depicted contrasting feelings and visual details
c. Solo e pensoso (1599) (NAWM 58), based on Petrarch sonnet
i. image of pensive poet walking alone: top voice, slow chromatic ascent
ii. “flee and escape”: quickly moving figures, close imitation
d. madrigalisms: striking musical images evoke text almost literally
4. Carlo Gesualdo, prince of Venosa (ca. 1561-1613)
a. aristocrat and murderer
b. preferred modern poems, strong images
c. sharp contrasts: diatonic and chromatic passages, dissonance and consonance, chordal and
imitative textures, slow-moving and active rhythms
d. breaks up poetic lines to isolate striking words
e. “Io parto” e non più dissi (1611) (NAWM 59)
i. slow, chromatic, mostly chordal
ii. dissonance portrays laments
G. Villanella, canzonetta, and balletto
1. villanella
a. lively strophic piece, homophonic style, usually 3 voices
b. parallel 5ths suggest rustic character
c. mocked more sophisticated madrigals
2. canzonetta (little song) and balletto (little dance)
a. end of 16th century, light genres
b. vivacious, homophonic style, simple harmonies
c. balletti: dancing as well as singing or playing
i. dancelike rhythms, “fa-la-la” refrains
d. both genres imitated by German and English composers
H. The legacy of the madrigal
1. lighter genres continued tradition of social singing
2. purposes widened over the century
a. private concerts or theatrical productions
b. increasing virtuosity and dramatization
3. techniques developed by madrigal composers led directly to opera
V. France
A. New type of chansons developed during reign of Francis I (r. 1515-47)
1. 4 voices, light, fast, strongly rhythmic
2. pleasant, amorous situations
3. syllabic text setting, repeated notes, duple meter
4. principal melody in highest voice, homophonic
5. strophic repetitive forms, no word-painting
6. focus on tuneful melodies, pleasing rhythms
7. composed for amateurs, published in numerous collections
a. Pierre Attaingnant (ca. 1494-ca. 1552), first French music printer: more than 50 collections,
1,500 pieces
8. Claudin de Sermisy (ca. 1490-1562) and Clément Janequin (ca. 1485-ca. 1560)
a. principal composers in Attaingant’s early chanson collections
b. Sermisy’s Tant que vivray (NAWM 60)
i. typical lighthearted text, optimistic love poem

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 ii. melody in top voice, harmony of 3rds, 5ths, occasional 6th above the bass
iii. accented dissonances rather than syncopated suspension before a cadence
iv. opening long-short-short rhythm common
c. Janequin: lyrical love songs, narrative songs, bawdy songs
i. celebrated for descriptive chansons
ii. imitations of bird calls, hunting calls, street cries, sounds of war
iii. e.g., La guerre (War), Le chant des oiseaux (The Song of the Birds)
B. The later Franco-Flemish chanson
1. contrapuntal chanson of Franco-Flemish tradition maintained
2. Orlando de Lassus mixed traditions
a. some in new homophonic style
b. others show influence of Italian madrigal or Franco Flemish tradition
c. wide range of subject matters
d. acutely attuned to text, music fit its rhythm
e. La nuict froid et sombre (NAWM 61)
C. Musique mesurée
1. musique mesurée (measured music): imitates rhythm of Greek poetry
a. Académie de Poésie et de Musique (Academy of Poetry and Music), 1570
b. sought to unite poetry and music, revive ethical effects of ancient Greek music
c. hoped to improve society
2. Jean-Antoine de Bäif, co-founder of the Académie
a. wrote strophic French verses in ancient Greek and Latin meters: vers measures l’antique
b. assigned French vowels durations, roughly equating stress accent and length
3. Le Jeune’s Revecy venir du printans (NAWM 62)
a. verse patterns correspond with musical rhythms
b. duple and triple groups alternate freely
4. too artificial to become popular
5. introduced irregular rhythms into air de cour (court air)
a. dominant genre after ca. 1580
VI. Germany
A. Meistersinger preserved tradition of unaccompanied solo song
1. urban merchants and artisans, music as avocation
2. formed guilds; composed according to strict rules
3. poems written to existing ton
a. metric and rhyme scheme with its own melody; töne use bar form
4. Hans Sachs (1494-1576), best-known Meistersinger
B. German polyphonic Lied
1. popular song or melody in tenor or cantus, free counterpoint in other voices
a. e.g., Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen (NAWM 41)
2. after 1550, Lied declined in importance
3. Lassus: leading figure
a. composed 7 collections of German Lieder
VII. England
A. Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn: musicians and composers
1. manuscripts from his reign (1509-47): variety of songs, instrumental pieces
a. reflect facets of court life
2. consort song: distinctively English genre
a. voice accompanied by consort of viols
b. William Byrd: master of the consort song
i. Psalmes, Sonets and Songs (1588), reprinted 4 times
ii. “Lulla lullabye” remained his most famous piece for over a century

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 c. consort songs written into the 17th century
B. English Madrigals
1. late 16th century: Italian culture brought to England
2. 1560s, Italian madrigals circulated England
3. 1588, Italian madrigals translated into English; Musica transalpina
a. spurred English to write their own
i. Thomas Morley (1557/8-1602), Thomas Weelkes (ca. 1575-1623), John Wilbye (1574-1638)
4. Thomas Morley
a. earliest and most prolific
b. also wrote canzonets and balletts
c. My bonny lass she smileth (NAWM 63)
i. borrowed aspects of Gastoldi balletto
ii. sections begin homophonically
iii. contrapuntal “fa-la-la” refrain
d. A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke (1597), Morley
i. treatise aimed at broader public
ii. topics: singing from notation, adding a descant, composing in 3 or more voices
e. The Triumphes of Oriana (1601)
i. collection of 25 madrigals by 23 composers
ii. each madrigal ends with “Long live fair Oriana” referring to Queen Elizabeth
5. Weelke’s As Vesta was (NAWM 64)
a. most famous from Morley’s collection
b. poem by Weelkes, opportunities for musical depiction
c. “ascending” rising scales; “descending” falling scales
d. “Long live fair Oriana” set to motive that enters almost 50 times
6. performance
a. written primarily for unaccompanied solo voices
b. collections printed, “apt for voices and viols”
c. ideal for informal gatherings, suited for amateurs
d. ability to read a vocal or instrument part, expected of educated persons
C. Lute Songs
1. early 1600s, lute song (or air) became prominent
a. solo song with accompaniment
b. John Dowland (1563-1626) and Thomas Campion (1567-1620), leading composers
c. personal genre, more serious literary texts, less word painting
d. lute accompaniments: rhythmic and melodic independence
2. alternate forms
a. appeared in books rather than partbooks
b. voice and lute parts vertically aligned; singers accompany themselves
c. lute part written in tablature
3. Dowland’s Flow, my tears (NAWM 65), from Second Book of Ayres (1600)
a. best known to his contemporaries
b. spawned series of variations and arrangements
c. form of a pavane, aabbCC
d. minimal depiction of individual words; music matches dark mood of the poetry
4. madrigals and lute songs lasted into the 1620s
VIII. The Madrigal and its Impact
A. Madrigal and its offshoots reflect growing influence of humanism on music
1. text and its dramatic expression through music led directly into opera, 1600
2. madrigals introduced idea of music as a dramatic art
3. over next two centuries, concept broadened to include instrumental music

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B. Vogue for social singing declined after 1600
1. 19th century, growth of amateur choral societies helped revival of madrigal singing

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