The Renaissance: Italian Madrigals

MUS 4
Winter 2022
Outline of material

1. Consider the development of the printing press in relation to the creation of new
contexts for secular music during the Renaissance.
2. Examine the changing social context of notation as a result of the printing press.
3. Interrogate the influence of these developments on the popularity, and style, of the
madrigal genre during the early 16th century.
4. Analyze the relationship between the music and the poetic text in Arcadelt’s madrigal Il
bianco e dolce cigno, including approaches to text-depiction and text expression.
5. Briefly discuss Zarlino’s treatise “Suiting the Music to the Words.”
Learning objectives

With this unit, students should aim to:

1. Understand and be able to trace the developments in the reproduction of written musical
notation from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance.
2. Be able to discuss the influence of the printing press on the development of the genre of
the madrigal
3. Identify the musical texture of homophony, and distinguish it from monophony and
polyphony.
4. Analyze the relationship between music and text in the madrigal genre, focusing on
techniques of text-depiction and text expression.
Review: (Some) characteristics of Renaissance music

-Focus on textures other than monophony

Polyphony: Music consisting of two or more simultaneous
lines of independent melody.
Homophony: Musical texture in which all voices move together in essentially the
same rhythm, but not the same pitches.

-Influence of Humanism, which focused on subjects related to human knowledge and

experience, and sought to revive ancient learning including grammar, rhetoric, poetry,
history and moral philosophy
-The development of new contexts for the creation and performance of secular music
New contexts for music-making

-Employment of musicians at court

-Musicians would perform as necessary in church services, but mainly served to provide secular
entertainment in the court and accompany rulers as they traveled
-Patronage for music from rulers
-Rulers actively competed to employ the best musicians and composers in their court
-Music was seen not just as an act of leisure and enjoyment but as a way to display wealth and
power.
-Development of music printing
-Printing from moveable type was first used for music printing in 1470, making it much easier to
print, and sell, notation
-Increased popularity of amateur music-making
The printing press

-In the 15th century, woodblock printing

developed
-Johannes Gutenberg credited with inventing
the printing press around 1436
-Woodblock printing in China dates back to
the 9th century
-Korean bookmakers were printing with
moveable metal type a century before
Gutenberg.

Johannes Gutenberg’s first printing press.

Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
 Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one.”
-Martin Luther

Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses on the door of Wittenberg castle church. Credit: Ipsumpix/Corbis/Getty
Images
“By 1519, this unknown monk [Luther] had become Europe’s most published author, his 45
original [written] compositions republished in nearly 300 editions…. Three years later,
Luther had produced some 160 writings, the majority addressed to the Christian people of
Germany in their own language, even though many of them had never before owned a
printed work. ‘They responded with an interest and enthusiasm unprecedented in recent
history,’ driving the production of 828 editions, the printing, sale and distribution of which
capitalized and transformed the German print industry.”

-Colin Woodward
 “…Luther nailed his “95 Theses” to the church door in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517.
Palmer says that broadsheet copies of Luther’s document were being printed in London as
quickly as 17 days later.

Thanks to the printing press and the timely power of his message, Luther became the
world’s first best-selling author. Luther’s translation of the New Testament into German sold
5,000 copies in just two weeks. From 1518 to 1525, Luther’s writings accounted for a third
of all books sold in Germany and his German Bible went through more than 430 editions.”

Source: https://www.history.com/news/printing-press-renaissance
Music printing

-During the Middle Ages, music was notated and reproduced by hand
-In the 15th century, woodblock printing developed
-Printing from moveable type in the 16th century made it much easier, and more affordable,
to print, and sell, notation
-Music became a “commodity”
-A new market around music emerged
An example of an illuminated
manuscript, made by hand, from
the Middle Ages.
Woodblock used in the printing of
Opusculum Musices by Nicolaus
Burtius
Published by Ottaviano Petrucci in 1501
From “Music Printing
History” online
 Performing from printed music
From Silvestro Ganassi’s Opera intitulata Fontegara
The changing social context of notation

-Early notation of the Middle Ages was used primarily in the context of the Catholic church and
was rarely used among the general population
-Amateur music-making was generally not notated
-The Middle Ages were a time of general illiteracy, and much of the population outside of the
Catholic Church was illiterate
-In the Renaissance, literacy increased, rising especially after the invention of the printing press
-The ability to “read” musical notation, and perform from it, became a status symbol in society,
first among the upper classes and then among the literate urban middle classes as well
An anonymous sixteenth-century painting, showing a vocal quartet
performing from published notated music books. The style of dress suggests
that these are aristocratic amateur musicians performing for their own
enjoyment.) Source: Norton Anthology
Early Madrigals (16th century)

-Musical settings of Italian poetry of various types

-The most important secular genre of music in sixteenth century Italy and one of the most
important musical genres of the entire Renaissance.
-Subject matter was usually sentimental, romantic or erotic
-Intended for performance by amateur musicians of mixed groups of men and women in social
gatherings
-Light-hearted, and entertaining
-Performed with one singer per vocal part
NOTE: Although intended for amateur performance by both men and women, most of the poets
and composers were male, and most madrigals were written from the male perspective
“An astounding 72 per cent of the music editions issued by Venetian printers from 1550 to
1570 were madrigals; production of sacred music books accounted for only 21 per cent of
the total. In contrast, madrigal editions made up 53 per cent of Roman publications, with 30
percent of sacred prints.

These figures reveal that the madrigal was the most commercially viable music genre for
printers throughout Renaissance Italy.”

-Bernstein, “Publish or Perish”

Poetry and music

-The relationship between poetry and music was central to the composition of madrigals
-Composers aimed to enhance the meaning of the text through their music
-The focus of the music was to reflect the text, in relation to declamation, as well as
expressing and depicting the text
-Most poetic texts used were a single stanza, with 7 to 11 lines
-The work of notable poets such as Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), were frequently set to
music
 Jacques Arcadelt (1507-1568)

-Franco-Flemish composer who was active in Florence and

Rome
-One of the most important composers of early madrigals
-His first book of madrigals was published in 1538 and was
reprinted in 58 editions
-First book of madrigals included the work Il bianco e dolce
cigno, the most popular of Arcadelt’s madrigals
 Guided Listening: Arcadelt, Il bianco e dolce cigno (ca. 1538)

How would you characterize the primary musical texture of this piece?
Homophony: Musical texture in which all voices move together in essentially the same
rhythm, but not the same pitches.

How would you characterize the form of this piece?

Musical form: The shape or structure (organization) of a composition.
Madrigals were through-composed: No large-scale repetition of musical material. Each
new line of text is set to new musical material.
Madrigals and text-setting
-Every aspect of madrigal composition reflected the nature of the text
-Depiction and expression of the text in the music

Text depiction: Using musical gestures to reinforce or suggest images in the text. For
example using a rising musical melody on the word "ascent."

Text-expression: Conveying or suggesting the emotional component of a text through

musical material. For example, the use of dissonant harmonies to convey sadness.
-Changes in musical texture: The combination of elements in a piece or passage, such as
the number and relationship of independent parts (ex: monophonic, homophonic,
polyphonic)

-Madrigalisms: A technique for text depiction, using musical

sounds to evoke the text almost literally.

-Dissonance: Two or more notes sounding together to produce a

discord or tension.
Listen again: Il bianco e dolce cigno

Can you identify any examples of text depiction or text expression?

-At “stran’ e diversa sorte” (strange and different fate), Arcadelt breaks from the consistently
homophonic texture to depict “difference”
-At di mille mort’ il di” (With a thousand deaths a day), twelve vocal entrances occur in
imitative entrances, depicting the idea of “many”
-Use of slight dissonance on “more” (death) throughout the song
Text expression: Conveying or suggesting the emotional component of a text
through musical material. For example, the use of dissonant harmonies to
convey sadness.
Late(r) madrigals

-Beginning the mid-16th century, composers began writing increasingly complex madrigals
-Works for five voices, or even six voices were common (rather than four)
-As the century progressed, madrigals featured increasingly complex polyphony, more
dissonance and more extensive use of “madrigalisms”
-More complex madrigals were less accessible to amateur musicians
-These madrigals were targeted more to professional musicians
-Performed for audiences in the courts of political rulers and in other contexts of
employment for professional singers
Dissonance in context

-The use of dissonance, especially the use of the semitone (half step/minor second), was
innovative in the music of the Renaissance
-Interest in the use of dissonance came from renewed interest in Greek music theory, which
included the use of such intervals
-As a result, by the mid-sixteenth century, composers and music theorists had begun using
dissonance in madrigal composition as a form of text depiction
-Conventions emerged around the use of dissonant harmonies in music
“Suiting the Music to the Words” by Gioseffo Zarlino (1558)

-Presents “rules” for the use of dissonance in text-setting:

“… when a composer wishes to express effects of grief and sorrow, he should (observing the
rules given) use movements which proceed through the semitone [half step/minor second],
the semiditone [minor third], and similar intervals…”

-Dissonance should only be used in these contexts, and should always resolve immediately
to consonance
-Zarlino’s “rules” were accepted as the conventions of the time period