The Evolution of the Sixteenth Century Madrigal:  Arcadelt to Gesualdo.

An analysis of two madrigals.

The madrigal was the most popular secular vocal music in Italy in the sixteenth century.  The beginning of the madrigal can be seen in the early, sonorous works of Jacques Arcadelt, while the chromatic works of Don Carlo Gesualdo demonstrate the extremes the madrigal reached at the zenith of its popularity.

The Renaissance reached its height in Rome and Florence in art, literature, and music.  Scientific discoveries provided valuable insights into the workings of the human body, and astronomers began to discover the secrets of the universe.   Politically, Italy was a mess:  it had been divided into many city-states, each of which was ruled by a powerful family.  In 1527 the Florentine ruling family, the Medici, were driven from Florence.  In that same year, Rome was sacked, and more than thirty thousand citizens were killed.  The Italian Wars between the Hapsburgs and the Valois raged from the beginning of the fifteenth century through 1559 and caused a decline in the prosperity and autonomy of the Italian City-States.  However, by the 1560s The Gonzaga family had taken power in Mantua and the Este family ruled in Ferrara.  The salons of Domenico Venier in Venice became an intellectual and artistic meeting place, while the printers of Venice made it the music printing capital of the western world. 

During the first two decades of the sixteenth century the standard polyphonic frottola (which was structured with a verse and refrain) evolved into two new musical forms, the madrigal and the villanesca.  .The more serious and academic form of the frottola developed into the madrigal, and the lighter form developed into the villanesca.  The Italian madrigal evolved more quickly than any previous European musical style.  The introduction of movable music type, which caused the madrigal to develop more quickly than any musical form before it, was also the technology which facilitated its introduction to the rest of Europe and ultimately began the most popular secular musical form of the Renaissance.  (New Grove, v. 11, 463) 

The first sixteenth century madrigals were written by composers in Italy, most of whom were Oltremontani.  The Oltremontani style, also known as Ars Perfecta, was beautiful polyphony in which each of the voices was as melodious as the next.  The  main composers of this genre were the Flemish composer Verdelot, who worked in Venice and Florence, Jacques Arcadelt(whose origin is unknown and was either French or Flemish), and Adrian Willaert, and Cipriano da Rore, who were Flemish.  The only native Italian composer who wrote in this style was Costanzo Festa, who lived in Rome.  The first book of madrigals, Madrigali de diversi musici libro primo, was published in 1530 and included works by Philippe Verdelot, Costanza and Festa.

The madrigal was considered to be serious music and was set to intellectual poetry.  Madrigals required a literary movement in the aristocracy and upper middle class. (Roche, 18) The form, style, and vocabulary of the Italian madrigal may have been inspired by the humanistic poetry of the fourteenth century Italian poet Petrarch, whose works were rediscovered and revived after 1501. Petrarch's sixteenth century imitators, now called the Petrarchian poets, were numerous and their poetry was often set by madrigalists in the first half of the century.  In addition to poems by Petrarch himself, the poems of Machiavelli, Lodovico Martelli and Luigi Cassola were often set in madrigals[1].  Most madrigals were intended for performance by a small group for the enjoyment of the participants, while others were intended to be performed by professionals for the entertainment of a group of people. (NEW GROVE, V. 11, 463)  

The text of the madrigal is a short, non-strophic poem without refrain, with a free rhyme scheme which usually consists of seven and eleven syllable lines.  These free-form texts were a good partner to the madrigal style because the vocal lines overlap.  Vocal declamation was terribly important and composers worked to produce music which supported the text well. (NEW GROVE, V. 11, 465) 

The first madrigals were composed for four voices.  It was not until the form had been established that the voicings grew to five and six parts. (New Grove, v. 11, 465)  The early madrigal was through-composed and homophonic.  At times counterpoint was used to express textual meaning or to individualize a voice.  The cantus was the most important line,  all cadential suspensions or deviations from the counterpoint were usually in this part.  At times the cantus line was set much higher than the rest of the voices.  (Roche, 19)  The early madrigal was composed with harmonies which were homophonic and sonorous, much like those of the chanson. (For example, Sermisy's Tant que vivray and Arcadelt's Il bianco e dolce cigno).  The influence of Des Préz is most probably a factor here. 

One of the best composers of this early madrigal style was Jacques Arcadelt.  It is believed that Arcadelt was born in 1504 in Flanders.  However, the information upon which this theory is based is very speculative and it is very possible that he was French.  Arcadelt appears to have been greatly influenced by the Flemish composer Philippe Verdelot in his youth.  Both composers wrote madrigals that were printed by Scotto in Venice in 1537 and a second set which Gardane printed in the following year in Venice.. 

Arcadelt, who became the leading madrigal composer in Florence, entered the service of Pope Paul III in 1540, where he sang in the choir at the Sistine Chapel.  In 1544 he entered the service of Charles of Lorraine, who later became the Archbishop of Rheims.  Arcadelt received prebends at St Barthe'lemy and St Pierre, LIe'ge, from Pope Paul III in 1545.  He became the choirmaster of the royal chapel in 1557.  Arcadelt began his career writing motets. (NEW GROVE, 546)  Around 1531 he wrote six motets in the Florentine style which are preserved in the Valliceliana manuscript  These motets showed the influence of Des Préz through imitation and motivic development  (New Grove, 546-7) These were soon published in Germany and affected sacred music there.  Arcadelt also wrote two parody masses: Missa Noe Noe, based on a motet by Mouton, and Missa Ave Regina caelorum, which was based on a motet by de Silva.  He wrote over two hundred madrigals, which were published between 1539 and 1544 in five books for four and three voices.  After Arcadelt moved to France in 1551 he practically abandoned the madrigal to compose chansons.  126 of his chansons (some of which have not survived) were published in 1565.  Much of his work, like Verdalot's was written using note nere, the new notational style that enabled composers to write in many different rhythmic patterns within the same tempo. (New Grove, V. 11, 466 and New Grove, 546)

Arcadelt, who was referred to as "Most excellent and divine" (New Grove, 546), often set the poetry of Petrarch, Bembo, Sannazaro, and Michelangelo.  Because the vocal declamation was so important, Arcadelt's madrigal settings usually used simple polyphony alternated with declamatory chordal passages.  His music is pure and sonorous with obvious cadences.  Imitative counterpoint is often found in Arcadelt's music. The opening phrases and important lines of text were often set in declamatory chordal fashion by Arcadelt, and he often used repetition, imitation, and overlapping phrases to connect alternating lines (New Grove, v. 11, 465)  He often used a long, held out note in the Cantus  at the end of the madrigal with a coda-like extension in the other voices.(New Grove, 548)  In his madrigals the lower voices are subordinate accompaniment while the Cantus  carries the predominant melody.  He often borrowed from other styles.  He didn't use much word painting but references to sadness or death were solemnized with passages of long homophony (New Grove, 548)

Arcadelt's most successful madrigal was Il bianco e dolce cigno, which was published in First book of Madrigals, 1539.  It appeared in many collections and in a variety of arrangements, most commonly for four voices (or by one voice with three accompanying instruments) or for voice and lute.  It is a simple song to learn to sing and most amateur singers would not have had difficulty sight-reading it from part books.  Il bianco was used as a model for parody masses, and Orazio Vecci based his madrigal Il bianco e dolce cigno(published 1589) on Arcadelt's setting.  He retained the key and the theme of the last section(albeit diminished). (New Grove, 548) It is sometimes stated that this song was the model for the Elizabethan part-song The Silver Swan, however, The Silver Swan has a different rhyme scheme and pattern, and it is homophonic in nature.  The text is only related in that each song discusses a dying swan singing.  Certainly the poets of England were aware of the myths of Leda and the swan and of Cygnus, and it is suspect that The Silver Swan was based on Il bianco e dolce cigno.

The poet of Il bianco e dolce cigno is unknown, however, it is sometimes attributed to Alfonso d'Avolos.  The poem (Atlas, Anthology 314-315) and my translation follow:

Il bianco e dolce cigno                                         The gentle white swan

Cantando more, ed io                                           Singing dies, and I

Piangendo, giung' al fin del viver mio.                 I while weeping, I reach the end of my life
Stran' e diversa sorte,                                           Strange and different fate,

Ch'ei more sconsolato,                                         That he dies unconsoled,

Ed io moro beato.                                                And I die blessed.

Morte che nel morire                                            Death that in the dying

M'empie di gioia tutt' e di desire;                         Fills me with all joy and desire

Se nel morir' altro dolor non sento,                      If in dying no other pain I sense,

Di mille mort' il di sarei contendo                        A thousand deaths a day would content me.

Rhyme scheme: a(7)b(7)b(11)  c(7)d(7)d(7)  e(7)e(11) f(11) f(11).

This poem is full of double entendre and each of the voices participates in the florid passages which declare a longing to have sex a thousand times a day.  The voice ranges of this song are quite narrow and low.  The largest range required is for the bass, which is an octave and a third, and the cantus  line encompasses less than one octave. 

The word painting in this song is obvious.  The voices progress in a largely homophonic fashion until stran' e diversa sorte (strange and different fate) at which point the voices break off independently with imitation between the soprano and the tenor on ch'ei more sconsolato, et io moro. (He dies unconsoled, and I die).  The cantus  line has beautifully ornamented melisma in measures 21-24, which act as a pedal point while the lower voices move toward the cadence.  At measure 25 (morte che nel morire) the voices again join polyphonically until the section(measure 34) which proclaims "I would die a thousand times a day", at which point the voices separate into imitation with a jump of a fourth and a downward scale.  The cantus  holds a sustained F (the tonic) while the accompanying parts work between F major and B flat major.

Around the middle of the century the Italian students of the early madrigalists began writing their own pieces.  The pieces which emerged have been labled "classical madrigal".  Often, the number of parts increased from four to five or six.  The style of the works, which until this time had been homophonic, became more polyphonic and imitative.  Word painting was used much more often and much less subtly.  The spiritual madrigal was developed.

The late madrigal was elaborate and experimental, and often used significant amounts of text-painting, chromaticism, monody, and dramatic effects which required a greater level of virtuosity from the singers.  The late Italian madrigalists achieved lush overlays of sensuous sounds.  The dimensions enlarged and the text was handled much more freely.  The poems of Petrarch were used less often and the melancholy texts of Tasso began to be used.  The madrigal, serious poetry set to serious music, reached England in 1588 through the publication of Nicholas Yonge's Musica Transalpina which was a collection of Italian madrigals with English lyrics.  The emergence of the Italian madrigal into English and German music heavily influenced the English madrigal and German polyphonic lied.

Don Carlo Gesualdo, a major composer of the late madrigal style, remains controversial almost four hundred years after his death.  Gesualdo was born in Naples in 1561.  The year before, Phillip II granted his father, Fabrizio Gesualdo, the principality of Venosa and Fabrizio's brother Alfonso was made Cardinal. Carlo Gesualdo enjoyed few things in his life apart from his music.  He played the lute and was a major patron of the arts in Naples.  As it was not befitting a prince to publish music, he published his compositions under the pen name of Gioseppe Pilonij (although they were soon published without his knowledge in Ferrara under his name).  He was influenced by Luzzaschi and Nenna, the musicians he heard in 1585 at Fabrizio Gesualdo's house, and by Felis and Macque.In 1574 he visited Ferrara and was very influenced by the music at that court. (New Grove, 313)

In Naples in 1586 Gesualdo married his cousin Maria d' Avalos, but it was not a happy marriage.  Four years after their marriage, Don Carlo kille Maria and her lover, Fabrizio Carata, when he found them in flagrante delicto di fragrante peccato.  He then murdered his own son, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Carafa.  When his father-in law came to avenge the death, Don Carlo killed him as well.  Surprisingly, he remarried in 1594 to Leonora d'Este.  After the marriage he dedicated his time to composition and his mistreated wife was often left alone.  He was melancholic and psychopathic and he often avoided social contact.  In 1595 he attempted to establish a group of musicians at his court similar to the one at the court in Ferrara.  Regardless of the troubles which haunted his personal life, he was a prolific composer.  He wrote more than a hundred and fifty madrigals, published in seven books (one posthumously), two books of motets, and a volume of responsorial.  His printers included Gardane, Baldini, Constantino Vitale and his own palace printer, G. G. Carlino.  (New Grove, 313,314,319)

Gesualdo was the most radical member of the chromatic school, which included Rore and Vincentino.  His music was not an Nuovo Musica, but rather an innovative artifice.  His writing encompassed the entire range of chromaticism (with the exception of F flat).  Often influenced by Greek musical theory, his writing showed understanding of the tetrachord (four notes, descending, with separations of tone, tone, semitone).  Gesualdo had probably heard the Arcicembalo, which was a harpsichord in which each octave had 31 keys, each being a quarter-step apart, which gave all the tones of ancient Greek theory in any tonality without having to deviate from Pythagorean tuning.  The strange and new harmonies produced by this instrument probably gave Gesualdo an indication of the lengths to which he could stretch the boundaries of conventional composition.  Standard fretted clavichords and other keyboard instruments did not allow such chromaticism so he could not have tried his pieces out at the keyboard.  (New Grove,316)  Gesualdo's harmonic style often included consecutive unrelated triads producing cross relations and chromaticism and his later madrigals have strong contrasts, innovative harmonic progressions and skillful use of dissonance.. 

Io Parto was first published two years before Gesualdo's death in 161 as part of the sixth book of madrigals.

The poem(Palisca, NAWM,264 ) and my translation follow:

"Io parto" e non più dissi, che il dolore                       "I leave" and no more I said, for the grief

Privò di vita il core.                                                     Deprived the life from my heart

Allor proruppe in pianto e disse Clori                          It cried in sobs and it said

Con interrotti omèi:  "Dunque ai dolori                      With intermittent sobs:  "Therefore to the pains

Io resto.  Ah, non fia mai                                             I remain.  Ah, I will never stop

Ch'io non languisca, in dolorosi lai."                           Languishing, in sorrowful songs."

Morto fui, vivo son, che i spirti spenti                         I was dead, now I live, for the dead spirits

Tornaro in vita a sì pietosi accenti                              Return to living at piteous accents.

 Rhyme scheme:  a(12)a(7) b(12)b(12) c(7)c(12) d(12)d(12)

Io Parto is full of irony.  The spirit dies because it is sad, and its sadness forces it to live.  Gesualdo preferred the poets Guarini, Gatti, Alberti, Celiano, Grillo, Ferrarese, and Tasso.  (New Grove, 315)  The poet of Io Parto is unknown. 

Rather than word-paint, Gesualdo preferred to set the atmosphere for his madrigals with tonality and harmonic progressions.  His setting of Io Parto gives no indication of the typical madrigalisms used by Arcadelt and the early madrigal composers.  Io Parto is a grouping of eleven small phrases separated by rests.  Each phrase has its own cadence.  Ironically, the continuity which binds this piece together is the rests which break up the small phrases.

Gesualdo implements imitation in this piece in measures 3-6 (che il dolore), measures 8-10(di vita), 12-15 (proruppe in pianto), where the altus line deviates to provide harmonic and rhythmic dissonance), 17-19 (Con interroti omèi)has "false" imitation, 24 (Ch'io non languisca), 29-31(vivo son), and 32-36 (che i spiriti spenti).  Imitation is not found again in this piece.  However, in measures 44 and 45 there is a grouping of four ascending sixteenth notes which is repeated in four of the parts in extended melisma above the bass who is holding an E.  These imitative sections are balanced with chordal sections. Even though the vocal lines of Io Parto are not difficult to sing, there is no resemblance to the melodic vocal lines in the polyphonic imitation of the Oltremonati.

The most dramatic moment in this song is in measures 28-31: Morto Fui, which is a cadence in thirds, from E flat major to C minor to E major.  Vivo son  marks the return to 4/4 and the quarter note pulse.  This is only one of several tempo changes.  Thereare tempo changesfrom 4/4 to 4/2 at measure 11, and measure 28 is in 6/2.  Measure 29 (as stated previously)returns to 4/4, measure s40-2 are 4/2, and Gesualdo returns to 4/4 in measure 43.

Largely due to the harmonic trends set by Claudio Monteverdi, Gesualdo had no contemporary followers and few protégés within the two centuries following his death (Bartoli, d'India, and Cifra).  However, his chromatic harmonic progressions have often been compared to those of Richard Wagner, and his harmonies meshed well with those of Igor Stravinsky, as can be seen in the twentieth century composer's setting of Belta, poi che t'assenti. (New Grove, 318)

The compositions of Jaques Arcadelt and Don Carlo Gesualdo have few similarities but are both very representative of the diverse changes the madrigal went through during the century. 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Harr, James.  Madrigal.  In New Harvard Dictionary of Music, Don Michael Randel ed.  (Cambridge, MA:  Harvard University Press, 1986), pp. 462-464.

Harr, James.  Madrigal, II.  Italy,  In New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Stanley Sadie ed.  (London:  Macmilan, 1980), vol 11, pp. 462-474.

Roche, Jerome.  Madrigal, IV. England.  In New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Stanley Sadie ed.  (London:  Macmilan, 1980), vol 11, pp. 478-482.

Atlas, Allan W.  Renaissance Music:  Music in Western Europe, 1400-1600 (New York:  Norton, 1998), pp. 428-443 and pp. 634-651.

Roche, Jerome.  The Madrigal (New York:  Scribner, 192), pp.120-137

Gesualdo, Carlo.  "Io Parto" in Norton Anthology of Western Music Claude V. Palisca, ed.  (New York:  Norton 1980) vol. I, p. 260-264

Arcadelt, Jaques.  Io bianco e dolce cigno in Anthology of Renaissance Music: Atlas, Allan W.  ed.  (New York:  Norton, 1998)

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