Brianna Williams
Blackburn
Music
October 14, 2013
Madrigal
During the Renaissance era, secular vocal music became more and more popular. Throughout Europe, music was being set to poems. These poems typically had two or three stanzas of three lines and the form was "aba bcb dd, abb cdd ee". Madrigal is defined as a piece for several solo voices set to a short poem. Madrigals were mainly about love. They are about attraction, heart-break, seduction, and infidelity. Whatever comes to mind when you hear or think of love is. This piece became well known in Italy that’s where madrigal was originated. It varies from the motet in that it uses a vernacular instead of Latin text. Madrigal it is often used word painting and unusual harmonies. The development of the English Madrigal can be traced to 1588. It was first publication was in London around the translation of Italian madrigal. Madrigal Proper is form that the madrigal was through-composed. It used quite of word-painting, which when the music match to the words in the text. Next form of madrigal is ballet, which is a piece in which dancers tell a story through their body movements and the music. Lastly, ayre is the next form of madrigal, which is implemented in a variety of different ways including with or without instruments. One most the most popular collection in the English madrigal was The Triumphes of Oriana was a book that written in honor Queen Elizabeth I by Thomas Morley. It had 25 English madrigals and 23 different composers. The most loved English madrigal was “As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending” by Thomas Weelkes is notable for its word painting, which is known as madrigal proper. A ballet that was popular was “fa-la-la” refrain. It was like applause to the audience. I think the fa la la la la was a code for something dirty that wasn’t respectful to say out loud. Madrigal seems to be a fun time period. How composer made the music sound like the word being sung. Their complicatedly constructed melodic play and counterpoint greatly influenced composers through the early 18th Century and were certainly one of the foundations upon which the Baroque period was established. This is why madrigal went out of style in the 1680’s.