Concise History of Western Music
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Chapter Index Chapter 1: Music in Ancient Greece and Early Christian Rome Chapter 2: Chant and Secular Song in the Middle Ages, 400Ð1450 Chapter 3: Polyphonic Music from Its Beginnings through the Thirteenth Century Chapter 4: French and Italian Music in the Fourteenth Century Chapter 5: England and Burgundian Lands in the Fifteenth Century: The Beginnings of an International Style Chapter 6: The Age of the Renaissance: Music of the Low Countries Chapter 7: The Age of the Renaissance: New Currents in the Sixteenth Century Chapter 8: Church Music of the Late Renaissance and Reformation Chapter 9: Church Music of the Late Renaissance and Reformation Chapter 10: Opera and Vocal Music in the Late Seventeenth Century Chapter 11: Instrumental Music in the Late Baroque Chapter 12: Music in the Early Eighteenth Century Chapter 13: The Early Classic Period: Opera and Instrumental Music in the Eighteenth Century Chapter 14: The Late Eighteenth Century: Haydn and Mozart Chapter 15: Ludwig van Beethoven Chapter 16: Romanticism and Nineteenth-Century Orchestral Music Chapter 17: Solo, Chamber, and Vocal Music in the Nineteenth Century Chapter 18: Opera, Music Drama, and Church Music in the Nineteenth Century Chapter 19: European Music from the 1870s to World War I Chapter 20: The European Mainstream in the Twentieth Century Chapter 21: Atonality, Serialism, and Recent Developments in Twentieth-Century Europe Chapter 22: The American Twentieth Century
 

Outlines:
  - Generation Post–Josquin 1520–1550
  - Secular Song in Italy
  - Secular Song Outside of Italy
  - The Rise of Instrumental Music
  Quiz
  Listening Guide
Chapter 7: The Age of the Renaissance: New Currents in the Sixteenth Century
Secular Song in Italy
Composers and singers working in noble courts cultivated the frottola, a deliberately simple and folklike genre, but soon found inspiration in the sonnets and other poetry of Petrarch. The "Petrarchan" movement created a new genre, the madrigal, which carefully matched musical settings to the structure and meaning of the poem. By the end of the sixteenth century, madrigal composers began expanding the harmonic vocabulary to express the texts more forcefully.
  1. Italian secular song

    1. Frottola
      1. Sung at noble courts
      2. Four-part strophic songs
      3. Syllabic text-setting style
      4. Homophonic
      5. Melody in the top voice
      6. Simple diatonic harmonies
      7. Example: NAWM 35, Io non compro più speranza

    2. Lauda
      1. Religious counterpart of the frottola
      2. Performed at semi-public gatherings

  2. Madrigal

    1. Most important genre of Italian secular music in the sixteenth century

    2. Not related to the trecento madrigal

    3. Texts
      1. More elevated and serious than frottola texts
      2. Sometimes written by major poets
      3. Sentimental or erotic subjects, sometimes from pastoral poetry, with an epigrammatic ending

    4. Musical style
      1. Composers tried to make the music as elevated as the poetry.
      2. Text setting was through-composed: each line has its own music.

    5. Performance contexts
      1. Madrigals were performed at academies (literary gatherings) and in courtly settings.
      2. After ca. 1570, virtuosic professional singers performed madrigals. (see vignette in CHWM)
      3. Theatrical productions included madrigals.

    6. Two thousand collections published

  3. Early Madrigal Style (ca. 1520–1550)

    1. Composed for four voices (or instruments)

    2. Jacques Arcadelt (ca. 1505–1568, example: NAWM 36, Il bianco e dolce cigno).
      1. Transitional style
      2. Mainly homophonic
      3. Square rhythms, reminiscent of frottola
      4. Cadences mirror the meaning of the text instead of the poetic lines.

  4. Cipriano de Rore (1516–1565)

    1. Flemish, student of Willaert

    2. Leading madrigalist of his generation.

    3. His style influenced future generations.

    4. Example: CHWM 7.4 and NAWM 38, Da le belle contrade d'oriente
      1. Text is a sonnet by Petrarch, whom Rore admired.
      2. Texture varies from homophonic to imitative depending on the text.
      3. Contrasts depict clashing sentiments in the poem.

    5. Zaarlino admired Rore's text setting style (see vignette in CHWM).

  5. Northern composers working in Italy

    1. Orlando di Lasso (1532–1594) composed in many secular genres.

    2. Philippe de Monte (1521–1603) composed madrigals even after leaving Italy for Vienna and Prague.

    3. Giaches de Wert (1535–1596)
      1. Lived in Italy for most of his life.
      2. Continued to develop Rore's style.
      3. His late works influenced Monteverdi.

  6. Luca Marenzio (1553–1599)

    1. Example: NAWM 39, Solo e pensoso

    2. Text is a sonnet by Petrarch, whom he admired.

    3. Slow-rising chromatic scale in the top voice represents the poet's footsteps.

    4. Descending arpeggios in the other voices portray a desolate landscape.

  7. Carlo Gesualdo, prince of Venosa (ca. 1561–1613)

    1. Background
      1. Murdered his wife and her lover but did not go to jail
      2. Second marriage to the niece of Alfonso d'Este of Ferrara

    2. Style
      1. He composed chromatic music to portray the text.
      2. Example: NAWM 40, Io parto (late 1590s)
        1. "Dunque ai dolori resto" (Hence I remain in suffering) portrayed with half-step motion and ambiguous harmony
        2. Poetic line is fragmented but Gesualdo avoids cadences to preserve continuity.
        3. The main cadences preserve the sense of mode.

  8. Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643)

    1. Background
      1. Born in Cremona
      2. Employed by the duke of Mantua (Vincenzo Gonzaga (1590–1613)
      3. Choirmaster at St. Marks' in Venice (1613–1643)

    2. Madrigals
      1. His first five books of madrigals published 1587–1605
      2. 2 Expressive without being as extreme as Gesualdo's
      3. Used chromaticism and dissonance freely to express text (see vignette in CHWM)
      4. Declamatory text setting (like later recitative)
      5. The bass line more supportive, not equal to the other voices
      6. Ornaments and embellishments written in rather than improvised
      7. Example: NAWM 53, Cruda Amarilli

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