CHAPTER 15
Singing in Friendship: The Renaissance Madrigal
OVERVIEW
The sixteenth-century French chanson and the Italian and English madrigal are the subjects of
Chapter 15. This chapter presents singing in secular contexts as an opportunity for social
gathering and friendship as well as for hearing the performances of mixed amateur and
professional singers. These genres reflect a stylistic break with their medieval predecessors and
exemplify the Renaissance concern of linking music with poetry.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To understand Renaissance secular vocal music as providing opportunities for the growing
market of singing amateurs to interact socially through music
2. To recognize the important link between text and music in the chanson and madrigal, with
special emphasis on the incorporation of word-painting
3. To recognize Farmer’s Fair Phyllis as a representative example of the English madrigal
LECTURE SUGGESTIONS
1. Discuss with your class the standard techniques of madrigal text painting (homophony vs.
polyphony, unexpected dissonance, melisma, repetition, etc.). Then display the text of
Arcadelt’s Il bianco e dolce cigno to your class, highlighting the words or phrases that are
emphasized by word-painting: piangendo (“weeping”), io moro beato (“I die happy”), di
mille mort’ il dì (“of a thousand deaths a day”), and contento (“content”). As you play the
example, pause after each statement and ask the class to describe which word-painting
gesture Arcadelt has employed to set the word or phrase in question.
2. Divide the class into small groups. Before playing an instrumental version of Farmer’s Fair
Phyllis, inform students that the groups will discuss the ways in which music conveys
meaning. Tell them you will first play an instrumental version of the madrigal and the
groups then will discuss the possible meanings the music might be conveying. (You can
find a public domain MIDI/instrumental version of Fair Phyllis here:
http://imslp.org/wiki/Fair_Phyllis_(Farmer,_John.) After playing the instrumental version,
have the groups convene for about five minutes; ask them to share their findings with the
rest of the class. Next, play a recording of the madrigal with words and have the groups
discuss how the music conveys the meaning of the text (display the text on the board).
Reconvene after five minutes and again invite the groups to share their ideas. How did the
musical meaning of the original text match up with the groups’ ideas of the musical
meaning without the text? What does this word-painting add to the performance of this
madrigal from the experience of both the performers and audiences?
ASSIGNMENT SUGGESTIONS
1. The role of music in the social activities of the Renaissance courts receives particular
attention in Baldassare Castiglione’s Il libro del cortegiano (The Book of the Courtier), a
highly influential etiquette guide to courtly life. It was first published in 1528 and
subsequently translated into all of the major European languages. Read the excerpts on
music from Castiglione’s book from Strunk and Treitler’s Source Readings in Music
History (W. W. Norton; see the “Supplemental Bibliography”) and answer the following
questions:
▶ What is the social relevance of music in this environment?
▶ What is valued in musical performances among these courtiers? Why?
▶ How does gender fit into this discussion of music?
2. Gutenberg’s printing press was a significant agent of change in the prevalence of literacy
in the West. One could make similar claims about the Internet. What role do you see the
Internet playing not only in the spread of literacy but also in the dispersal of information
(including music) around the globe? What effects might this role have on the future of
music production and music-making?
TEACHING CHALLENGES
Some review of texture (Chapter 5) may be necessary before addressing the connections between
text setting and texture in Fair Phyllis.
SUPPLEMENTAL REPERTORY
Weelkes: As Vesta was from Latmos hill descending (English madrigal)
Gesualdo: Moro, lasso, al mio duolo (Italian madrigal)
Sermisy: Tant que vivray (chanson)
SUPPLEMENTAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Einstein, Alfred. The Italian Madrigal. 2nd ed. 3 vols. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
1971. A comprehensive and authoritative monograph on the sixteenth-century Italian
madrigal, with an accompanying volume of musical examples and transcriptions.
Kerman, Joseph. The Elizabethan Madrigal. New York: American Musicological Society, 1963.
A study of the English madrigal school associated with the court and patronage of Elizabeth
I. Among the composers covered are Weelkes, Morley, Wilbye, Byrd, Gibbons, and Farmer.
Strunk, William Oliver, and Leo Treitler. Source Readings in Music History. Rev. ed. New York:
W. W. Norton, 1998. The excerpts dealing with music in Il libro del cortegiano mentioned
in “Assignment Suggestions” appear on pp. 325–29.
Van Orden, Kate. Music, Authorship, and the Book in the First Century of Print. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2013. A fascinating analysis of music’s relationship to print
in the sixteenth century, with special emphasis on the chanson repertory.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
Singing in Friendship: The Renaissance Madrigal (Chapter 15)
I. Social Music-Making in the Renaissance
A. Amateurs: music-making in the home
1. vocal and instrumental
2. prosperous homes: lute or keyboard instrument
B. Women in music
1. music education: well-bred women
2. women achieved fame as professional singers (later 16th century)
C. Union of poetry and music
1. French chanson
2. Italian madrigal
3. poetry shaped musical forms
II. The Madrigal: Linking Music and Poetry
A. Most important secular genre of the era
1. secular vocal composition for three to eight voices
2. aristocratic form, poetry and music clearly linked
3. flourished at Italian courts
4. diversion of cultivated amateurs
5. text: short poems, lyric or reflective character
a. word-painting: music directly reflects meaning of words, (e.g., harsh dissonance,
“death”)
b. expressive device, enhance emotional content
7. topics: love, unrequited love, humor and satire, politics, scenes of city and country
life
B. Claudio Monteverdi: later Italian madrigalist
1. artful and influential composer
2. music served expressive power of text
C. English madrigal
1. flourished during Elizabethan era (1559–1603)
2. developed Italian madrigals into native form
3. simpler texts, lighter in style
4. refrain syllables: “fa la la”
D. Farmer’s Fair Phyllis
1. John Farmer (c. 1570–1603)
a. English composer, organist
b. active in Dublin, Ireland; moved to London
c. published collection of four-voice madrigals
d. clever word painting, lighthearted works
2. LG 4: Farmer, Fair Phyllis (published 1599)
a. four-voice, a cappella madrigal
b. lighthearted, pastoral English text
c. dancelike, lively rhythms
d. varied textures
e. word painting: “all alone,” and “up and down”