What´s a Madrigal?

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians defines the word madrigal as “ a poetic and musical form of 14th century Italy; more importantly, a term in general use during the 16th century and 17th century for setting of various types and forms of secular verse. (Sadie, 2001).” The madrigal style started in 14th century Italy. This form of music accomplished much back in the earlier centuries. “It set the pace for stylistic developments that culminated in Baroque period… must be regard as the most important genre of the last Renaissance. (Sadie, 2001). ” Madrigals shaped much of the music in the 14th through 17th century in Europe through the popularity of the music.

Madrigal first appeared in 14th century Italy. “It was mentioned for the first time by Francesco da Barberino in 1313(Sadie, 2001).” The year is still unknown completely when the first madrigals were found, but it is believed that they were around the 1320s. These early madrigals had varying styles. What made this genre different than the other is the way the music was freely moving. “The 14th century madrigal disappeared after about 1415, but instrumental version still appeared. (Sadie, 2001).” This type of music was not a classic hit in the 14th century. The music was very popular and started to really make its mark in the later centuries.

The 16th century was an important time for the genre of music. The music was first of all secular so people loved it. Well-known Dr. Judith Eckelmeyer writes about the popularity of the music. “Simply put, it’s a genre (type) of non-religious (secular) unaccompanied vocal music that became extremely popular in Europe in the 16th century, and continued to be written in most of the first half of the 17th century especially i...

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...t and out of scale notes” is what really makes it sound like bizarre music. It would be an exciting time to see the growth of madrigal. Each composer kept increasing the number of singers in their songs. This is not entirely true because there were so many composers, but it feels that way with all the main composers at the time. Like other composers, Cipriano de Rore’s work influenced many other composers. Madrigals had a strong impact on society, but like all other things in madrigal’s world it varied on the situation of the composer.

In the New Grove Dictionary of Music it discusses how the release of music was different from madrigal to madrigal. “ Some madrigals, such as Willaert’s, may have been performed in an exclusive circle for years before their publication; many other were released to the public as soon as a composer had a collection ready (Sadie 551).”