History II: Late Renaissance and Baroque
Assignment 2: Italian Madrigal
The Renaissance was an era worth it’s French definition of “rebirth”. Arts, literature, politics, and of course music were forever changed by the new ideas and values of the people of Europe. With the refreshed interests in old Greek and Roman culture, the Renaissance shaped a new era of the Fine Arts with both old and new styles. The music was not shaped by a single style but by multiple genres such as the sonata. Older genres were elaborated on and multiple languages were used as text to give each nation their own style. This was made possible by the growing Middle Class. With the invention of the printing press mass amounts of music were able to be produced and distributed to the people. So much so that it became common knowledge to have some kind of musical literacy or ability. To keep up with the demands for songs composers purposely made simple music because despite the spread of music literacy and the demand for it there was still a distinction between the musically trained and amateur musicians. Composers also travelled and held positions in courts usually outside their communal nations. Due to this composer span there needed to be some order of style to create an international unity with the musical community. These rules controlled polyphony, counterpoint and dissonance. Textures, styles and rhythms may have changed but still followed the rules marking a huge difference between previous era’s. Some other developments of Renaissance were the increased importance of instruments, text-painting/expression and the composers being able to create their own
personalized styles.
The term mandrialis comes from mandra a flock of sheep attended by shepherds, since we first had this manner of singing songs from shepherds. The music of the madrigalis according to modern practice should be beautiful, and should contain certain rustic or mandriales parts, so that the music agrees with the words.1
The composers who created madrigals often used the texts from accomplished poets as the subject or the beginning of their pieces. They did this because the subject matter of the poetry could be erotic, formed vivid imagery and could symbolized human emotions (love, surprise, amusement, sorrow, ect.). By using this expressive poetry, composers were able to convey these ideas to their performers and listeners. One of the most commonly quoted poets by many
composers was Francesco Petrarch. He was an Italian poet and humanist whose family had originated in Florence though he himself never lived there. In 1312 when he was still a young boy, his family settled in Avignon where he was educated at Carpentras. It was later in 1316 that he travelled to Montpellier to study law. As he continued to further his studies he travelled rather frequently between Italy and Provence between the years of 1320 to 1353. A very significant time for him was in 1330, after his father’s death in 1326, he entered the service of two ecclesiastical – Relating to the church, or clergy – members of the Roman Colonna family. Although he performed tonsure and received many benefits of the canonries (such as money), and depended very much on the graces of the family and he never acted on his responsibilities as a canonical. During his life he never married but did write about love interests in his sonnets. His earliest sonnets in 1327 were about a woman named Laura. These editions later became part of his Canzoniere in 1342, a book of 366 poems. Most of these poems were written in Latin
because, despite popular preference, Francesco did not like vernacular poetry. After travelling to Europe for the first time in 1336/37, he accepted King Roberto of Naples request for him to be a candidate in a poetic coronation. It was this coronation that made his name famous and was often requested to be an ambassador or orator for Italy, France and imperial domains. His connection with music was through both his fondness of it and his mass amount of powerful friends. Even rulers of Milan, Verona, Ferrara and Mantua all paid court to him2. Some of his most musically talented friends were Ludovicus da Beeringhen (called ‘Socrates’), a Ferrarese musician named
1Antonio da Tempo, quoted in Dom Anselm, Gerald Abraham, New Oxford History of Music: Ars Nova and the Renaissance(Oxford University Press: Amen House, 1964), 53.
Tommaso Bambasio, Boccaccio3. Despite the amount of poetry Petrarch gave to his friends the madrigal Non al suo amante is the one surviving piece of that has remained in a polyphonic setting. Even though he was literary famous and had a mass amount of works, singers did not set them into madrigals or ballatas very often. Putting his poetry into musical settings was later named the Petrarchan movement but did not happen until much later in the Rennaissance. In the 15th century Boiardo and Lorenzo de' Medici’s piece Benedetto Gareth sighted the original thoughts of Petrarch which in turn started a trend with composers. Other poets such as Tebaldeo, Sasso, and Serafino de' Ciminelli dall'Aquila all sighted and used Petrarch to create their own works. It was in the 16th century that Pietro Bembo edited the Canzoniere that was produced and sold making the practice known. His views on Petrarch’s poetry inspired many generations of composers. This whole development of Petrarch’s poetry spread through Europe and France later during the Renaissance and even as new styles were produced Petrarch’s poetry still succeeded into the next era.
With all the new genres created in the Renaissance the madrigal was most notably split into three generations. The first generation madrigal should never be confused with the later 16th century madrigals. Anthony Newcomb describes the 14th century madrigals with the connection to the 16th century madrigal as the “breeding ground” of the development of the style4It was originally called structured poetry and the term madrigal wasn’t used until much later in 1530. It was in Italy where the genre first began to flourish then spread outward later on. These early madrigals were songs created for two to three voices that sung the same lines of music following either ABB CDD EE or ABA CDC EE song form. The lower voice was thought to have originally meant to support the higher voice not harmonize it. Madrigals were through composed making the composition simple and predictable for the performers and the listeners. The subject matter could vary from sentimental, erotic, or even both. Originally the music was used as a socializing technique for young upper/middle class adults to meet. They were more so sung by men but women also participated allowing for interaction in a polite setting. One contributor to this generation was Jacques Arcadelt. Although not much is known about his early life his life as a
3James Haar, Petrarch, (Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web.) 12 Feb. 2015
4 Anthony Newcomb, “The Ballata and the “Free” Madrigal in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century,” Journal of AMS Vol. 63, No. 3 (Fall 2010): 4,
composer seemed to have started in the late 1520’s where his earliest madrigal composition was in a Vallicelliana manuscript. He stayed in Italy till about 1538 when he moved to Rome after the death of the Duke he was serving. His madrigal Il bianco e dolce cigno was a part of his first very popular book of madrigals. Unlike other madrigals, this one was not strophic and did not use refrains. With eight to eleven syllables this madrigal has a free rhyme scheme and consists of an erotic poetic imagery. Despite his early popularity with his madrigals they did not last as long as his chansons were simple, with some having syllabic style and repetition.
The second generation of madrigals were marked by the addition of the fourth and fifth voice settings. Importance was still placed on the relation between the music and the text while the rhythm and use of polyphony were explored and manipulated to create more variety in composer’s styles. Composers often used quatrains, sestets and octaves to clearly map out and introduce texture and style to their pieces. Cipriano de Rore was a very well-known composer of his time for creating a dramatic style with expressive text which helped with later developments in the madrigal5. He was born in Ronse (Renaix), Flanders in 1515. Although there is a lot of controversy about where he was musically trained he became famous very dramatically in Italy in 1542. In 1546 he was put in one of the leading musical and artistic centures in Italy. It was in the court of Duke Ercole II d’Este in Ferrara where he remained for most of his life (1546-1558). He was one of many who used Petrarch’s sonnets to set the emotion in his music. It was his bold use of the chromatic scales and rhythms in his Calami sonum ferentes that earned him his
popularity though. With this reputation he ended up performing and composing for much of Europe’s upper class and nobility. During his lifetime he composed 107 madrigals that were all eventually published.
Following suit of the previous generations, the third generation added yet another voice to its texts. Composers would go farther into detail in their word painting to create more complex pieces thus resulting in a larger variety of works. It was also the third generation where the chromatic scale was used more acceptingly by the composers. One of the biggest names known from this generation and arguably the most important was Claudio Monteverdi. He was an Italian
5 Jessie Ann Owens. "Rore, Cipriano de." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.
composer with a vast amount of experience in many of the genres of his time, and most
prominently renowned for his nine books of madrigals. Like all protégé’s he started composing at a young age and already had his first collection of three-voice madrigal Sacrae cantiunculae published at age 15. It is suspected that he was born in Cremona where he was baptized in 1567 as the eldest son of Baldassare who was a pharmacist, doctor and surgeon. Monteverdi’s early books of madrigals all related to the teachings of Marc’Antonio Ingegneri, the maestro di cappella of Cremona Cathedral who he appeared to idolize. He first went to Verona seeking
work in 1587 where his first book of five-voice madrigals materialized dedicated to patron Count Marco Verità. Then in 1590 he travelled to Milan where his second book of madrigals was published and dedicated to Giacomo Ricardi in 1590. After this he was appointed as ‘suonatore di vivuola’ to Vincenzo I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. The pieces he composed were usually either honoring or criticizing political figures, royalty or famous figures. His piece Era l’anima mia was a five-voice Italian and Latin madrigal was published in 1607. It was a strophic, homophonic piece with the bass voice holds double and triple whole notes as the low tenor duet moves above in thirds. The captivating tension isn't relaxed throughout the piece keeping listeners on the edges of their seats with hardly recognizable cadences right to the end of the piece.Monteverdi's unique music was greeted by equal astonishment and misunderstanding. One man in particular criticized him very harshly on his non conservative music. This was Canon Artusi. It was
because of his harsh words against the modern music of the time that Monteverdi’s name was so popular. He saw Monteverdi’s works as contrapuntal and unacceptable. Instead of replying with harsh words, Monteverdi replied with the explanation that there was two specifically different ways to write music. Tied to the diversity of musical taste that came to characterize the times. He referred to the older style of composition, in which the traditional rules of counterpoint
characterized by such works as Crudi Amarilli, sought to put music in the servitude of the text by whatever means necessary-including "incorrect" counterpoint-to vividly express the text6. The
Second practice used the oration as the lead and most important part of the music. Anthony Newcomb describes the 14th century madrigals with the connection to the 16th century madrigal as the “breeding ground” of the development of the style.
The Renaissance’s madrigal truly set the standards for composers and musicians alike. From the 16th century to the beginning of the Baroque period it was thanks to the madrigal that Opera was created. Who better than Monteverdi to publish the first one? With each era new developments and unique rhythms and patterns were added and the madrigal flourished, though going out of style this particular genre lasted and was used in learning new practices for
musicians and composers alike. It was the madrigal that forever changed the way people perceived and received music.
Bibliography
Burkholder, J. Peter and Palisca, Claude V.. Norton Anthology of Western Musi. 7th ed. NY: Norton and
Company, 2014
Anselm, Dom and Abraham, Gerald. New Oxford History of Music: Ars Nova and the Renaissance. 9th ed.
NY: Oxford University Press: Amen House, 1964.
James Haar. "Petrarch." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. (Oxford University Press.) Web. 12 Feb. 2015
Jessie Ann Owens. "Rore, Cipriano de." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. (Oxford University Press.) Web. 13 Feb. 2015. <http://0-www.oxfordmusiconline.com.darius.uleth.ca/subscriber/article/ grove/music/23815>.
Newcomb, Anthony. “The Ballata and the “Free” Madrigal in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century,”
Journal of AMS 63, no. 3 (Fall 2010): 4,
http://0-www.jstor.org.darius.uleth.ca/stable/10.1525/jams.2010.63.3.427
Carter, Tim and Chew, Geoffrey. Monteverdi, Claudio. (Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online).
Oxford University Press. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.
http://0-www.oxfordmusiconline.com.darius.uleth.ca/subscriber/article/grove/music/44352.
Harr, James and Glozer, Letitia. Arcadelt, Jacques. (Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online). Oxford University Press. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.
http://0-www.oxfordmusiconline.com.darius.uleth.ca/subscriber/article/grove/music/01165.
