University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

Literature and Styles in Music I

1. Settings for 4 voices until 1550, thereafter 5 or 6 voices are common (instruments may double or replace voices)
2. Known for experimentation with chromatic harmony and word-painting
3. In some later madrigals, texture changes from equal voices to "solo against harmonic background" concept with the bass serving primarily harmonic function

1. early texts not remarkable as poetry
2. Later, major Italian poets write texts to be set as madrigals, e.g., Petrarch, Ariosto, Tasso

• One of few Italians in Papal Chapel in the early 16th century and considered one of the first great Italian madrigalists

• holds position as head of Pope's Chapel; later a member of Royal Chapel at Paris
  • use of primarily homophonic texture in his works suggests that resemblance to frottola and chanson is still strong
  • but Arcadelt known for daring use of chromaticism and graphic word-painting

1. successor to Willaert at St. Mark's (Venice)
2. composes 5 books of madrigals for 5 voices, 3 books for 4 voices
3. specializes in setting the poetry of Petrarch (including madrigals on sacred texts, i.e., madrigali spirituali)
4. musical style:
   • polyphonic texture in which all lines are equal
   • continuous, non-strophic style
   • use of dramatic chromaticism to depict emotions of text (including root progressions of major or minor third)
   • text treated freely, not necessarily a separate section of music for each line of text

1. known for encouraging musical experimentation with this treatise "Ancient Music Adapted to the Modern Practice"
   • inspired by Greek music (including the Greek microtonal tetrachord), he designs instruments capable of playing microtones

1. Philippe de Monte (1521-1603)
   • serves under Hapsburg Emperors
   • produces 32 books of secular madrigals and 4 books of "Madrigali Spirituali" (Over 1,200 madrigals total)
2. Giaches de Wert (ca. 1535-1596)
   • works primarily in Italy; important as an influence on Claudio Monteverdi
3. Orlando di Lasso (Roland de Lassus) (1532-94)
   • one of most versatile Renaissance composers: composes madrigals, chansons, lieder and miscellaneous sacred music, including motets (over 1,000), 53 Masses, Passions etc.
   • famous as a singer as a boy (The "Belgian Orpheus"); kidnaped 3 times because of his beautiful voice
   • knighted by both Emperor Maximillian and the Pope
   • more dramatic and harmonically experimental than Da Monte (who influences him)

• outstanding reputation as a composer: referred to as "the Divine Composer," and "the Sweetest Swan in Italy"
• Composes 17 books of madrigals, mostly for 5 voices
• master of imitative counterpoint and homophony, but uses imitation less frequently than some madrigalists
  • puts more emphasis on vertical alignment
  • uses chromaticism frequently; known for his expressive, dramatic style in which word-painting is prominent

• Prince of Venosa, minor principality in southern Italy
• Gains notoriety for murder of his first wife
• Takes up residence with his second wife in the more cosmopolitan Court of Ferrara
• In Ferrara, influenced by Luzzasco Luzzaschi, who had himself been influenced by his exposure to Vicentino's "enharmonic" cembalo toward a highly chromatic style
• This influences Gesualdo toward unusual chromatic harmonies and sudden modulations
• musical continuity suggests improvisation
  • phrases generally short
  • generally a homophonic texture with some exchange of motives; seldom any sustained imitation
  • violent changes of tempo and key

• Initially works for Duke of Mantua; after 1613, works as choirmaster at St. Mark's (Venice)
• First five books of madrigals consider to be in Monteverdi's "First Practice," i.e., following conventions of late Renaissance madrigal style
  • but some conservative theorists (e.g., Giovanni Maria Artusi) criticize him for voice-leading liberties in fifth book of madrigals
  • madrigals increasingly characterized by expressive harmonies reflecting text
  • some characteristics look ahead to Baroque style, e.g., declamatory rhythms and emphasis on bass and soprano parts

• known mostly for polychoral compositions written for St. Mark's Cathedral, but also composes madrigals

• emerges in Naples in the 1540'a
• usually 3 part; homophonic texture, often with parallel 5ths
• strophic form

• both homophonic, clearly tonal
• balletti feature "fa-la-la" refrain

• Borrowed folk melody no longer set in a web of counterpoint; texture becomes more like madrigal, e.g., equal voices with alternating sections of homophony and counterpoint
  • Examples:
    • Orlando di Lasso (Netherlands Composer)
    • Paul Peuerl
• Popularity of Italian style in Germany seen in popular publication of Netherlands composer Jacob Regnart (1540-99) titled "Entertaining German Songs for 3 Voices in the Manner of the Neapolitan or Italian Villanelle"
• Hans Leo Hassler: German composer also influenced by Italian style
  • studies with St. Mark's composers Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli
  • composes both madrigals and lieder as well as Latin motets and Masses, Lutheran church music and instrumental music
  • short, clear phrases (often with varied repetition) and clear harmonies suggest Italian style

• Later chansons are influenced by madrigal, but avoid extreme chromatic experimentation
  • Major composers:
    • Claude Le Jeune (1528-1600
    • Guillaume Costeley (1531-1606)
    • Orlando de Lasso
    • Jan Sweelinck (1562-1621) (Continues older polyphonic tradition)
  • Musique Mesuree (technique rather than genre)
    • refers to experiments of poets and composers who form an Academie de Poesie et de Musique in 1570 with the assistance of King Charles IX
    • Their experiments influenced a new style of chanson (emerging around 1550) that was completely homophonic with its musical meter derived from the meter of the text
      • This was in part an attempt to recapture the effect of the metric effects associated with Greek Antiquity
      • Musical result of having rhythms following the text in long-short note values was a free alternation of duple and triple meter
    • new type of chanson first called Vaudeville, later called Air de Cour
    • new chanson often in form of song for solo voice and lute accompaniment
  VI The Madrigal in England
  A. Madrigal flourishes in England later than on the Continent
  B. With 1588 publication of "Musica Transalpina" (a translation of a number of Italian madrigal texts), numerous English composers began writing madrigals, balletti and canzonets
  C. English madrigal emphasizes a smoother continuity and a more integrated overall formal shape and mood than Italian madrigal
  • Italian madrigal puts more emphasis on phrase by phrase setting of text
  • English madrigals rarely use extensive chromaticism but often demonstrate a blend of modality and tonality
  D. Principal Composers (many published in famous 1601 collection, "Triumphes of Oriana")
  1. William Byrd (1543? - 1623)
  2. Thomas Morley (1557-1602)
     • also composer of "A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music"
  3. Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)
  4. Thomas Weelkes (1575-1623)
  5. John Wilbye (1574-1638)
  6. Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656)
  7. John Bennet (fl. 1599-1614)
  8. John Dowland (1563-1626)
  9. Francis Pilkington (1565-1638)
  10. Thomas Bateson (1570?-1630)

Lute Songs

1. John Dowland
2. Thomas Campion (1567-1620)

Consort Songs

• Major composers:
  1. William Byrd
  2. Orlando Gibbons
  3. Robert Parsons (1530-1570)