The Daily Book of Classical Music

DAY 192

COMPOSITIONAL FORMS

Madrigal

COUNTERPOINT WITHOUT ALL THAT RELIGION

In the 16th century, Italian musicians began to reuse madrigal, songs that had fallen out of fashion 100 years earlier. These new pieces had little in common with the 14th-century madrigal other than being texts in Italian. The famous poet Petrarch wrote a series of lyrics that were very in rhythmic effect because he alternated between 7-syllable and 11-syllable lines. In the 1500s his poems became very much in fashion, encouraging musicians to set his verse and those of his followers in a related free style.

Madrigals became known as secular verse set for three ...