What musical, cultural and financial circumstances caused the madrigal to

develop at Italian courts during the early sixteenth century?

During the early 1500s French music was very popular in Italy. However, by the middle
of the sixteenth century the madrigal had become the most important secular form of
music at the time. The development of the madrigal is curious as it does not seem to
follow easily from one musical style straight to another, nor does there seem to be a
single cultural or financial issue that provoked its development. There was a vast
quantity of madrigals printed: over 1,200 madrigal volumes were printed between 1520
and 1630.1 Though it is not simply the quantity and popularity of madrigals that is
extraordinary, they were a crucible of experimentation for style and expression
influencing all genres of music.2
The madrigal has many musical influences including Florentine carnival songs and
frottole. Frottole were primarily written for solo voice with a lute or other instrumental
accompaniment, though a few were written for four-part voice; such as El Grillo by
Josquin des Prez (published by Petrucci in 1505). A madrigal, on the other hand, was
primarily vocal polyphony for a small group of voices.3 During the early 1500s there
was a transition in Italian music from solo to four part writing and more serious poems
began to appear in the last few published books of frottole. This new serious style (set
to be the start of the madrigal) with a polyphonic texture, part chordal and part imitative
counterpoint, yet declamatory in style, was cultivated by composers in Florence and
Rome.4 The frottola, the Florentine carnival song and other Italian secular genres were
only some of the influences to the madrigal; French music, such as the chanson and
the motet were also influences.

Lorenzo Biaconi, Music in the Seventeenth Century [1982] trans. David Bryant (Cambridge: 1987)

James Haar, European Music 1520-1640 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2006) p225

James Haar, Madrigal, Grove Music Online www.oxfordmusiconline.com

James Haar, Madrigal, Grove Music Online www.oxfordmusiconline.com

During the early sixteenth century there were many franco-flemish composers working
in Italy known as the Oltremontani (those from over the mountains). The oltremontani
were primarily employed by the church to write sacred music for services. This music
was characterised by polyphony, used to imitate the music of the angels. Polyphony
creates the illusion of seamlessness because the breathing of the performers is hidden
by the other parts. Though earthly music was regarded as merely a pale reflection of
celestial music, polyphony was thought to be close to the music of angels as, without
bodies, angels would have no need to breathe. As a result the music would be an
unbroken stream of sound. The oltremontani adapted this sacred style to secular
songs such as the chanson. They fused the serene polyphonic style from north of the
Alps with the more expressive, improvised style of native Italian song. The musical
birth of the madrigal owes to Verdelot and Arcadelt, both franco-flemish composers
who were working in Italy in the 1520s.5 Relying on their experience of setting French
chansons and Latin motets, they set music to through-composed text in a way that
reflected the sophistication of the courts.
During the renaissance period there was a spread of humanism and a preoccupation
with the rediscovery of the classical past. Music was no longer thought of as a
mathematical and exact science but as an art that was closely linked to classical ideals
and the art of rhetoric. Emphasis was put on the words and emotional meaning rather
than just simply the number sound. The discovery of classical sources inspired
composers. However, the few known classical musical sources were unintelligible to
the sixteenth century scholars; so composers had to rely on classical writings about
music and endeavor to compose music that conformed to the guidelines set out in
these texts. In Platos Republic, he says

And the melody and rhythm will be in

conformity with the words? Certainly. From this the composers started to use the text
as inspiration for the music. Thus, conveying the emotion of the text became more

H. Colin Slim, A Gift of Madrigals and Motets (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972)

important than the music itself. 6 This opened up more expressive possibilities in the
madrigal, as can be seen by Verdelots Ultimi miei sospiri where the text
representation is clear and important words are emphasised by the music.
Another important factor in the birth of the madrigal is the fashion of literary
Petrarchism in the early sixteenth century. Pietro Bembo, an influential Italian scholar,
wrote Prose della volgar lingua in 1525: a book which advocated the works of the
renaissance poet, Petrarch as the perfect model for Italian prose. Consequently,
Petrachan verse was studied and emulated by a group of enthusiasts. According to
Bembo, the way in which a poem was written could affect the listener, producing
different emotions such as grief and joy.7 This work was highly important in the
development of the Italian madrigal as it was these poems, carefully written according
to Bembo's ideas, that were to be the primary texts for the music.8 Musicians began to
set Petrarch and the poetry of his imitators. The poetic madrigal is unrelated in style
and language to the poems used by frottolists in northern Italy, though they are both
intended to be set to music. There is a clear distinction between to two types of poem,
just as there is between the two genres of music.9
The advent of the printing press was undoubtably one of the most important financial
factors in the development of the Italian madrigal. The effects were twofold: the printed
poetry was more readily available for composers to set to music and the printed music
was more available to the middle-class public. Musical styles, once confined to their
region, could travel to other cities and countries. The success of the printing press also
had a profound affect on the way society thought about music. Classical sources were
being translated and printed, for example Carlo Valgulios translation of Plutarchs De

The Dialogues of Plato, trans. Benjamin Jowett, ed. M Hare & DA Russell, The Republic, Volume Four, (London:
Sphere Books Ltd, 1970) Book III
7

Alan W. Atlas, Renaissance Music: music in western Europe, 1400-1600 (NY: Norton, 1998) p.433

James Haar, Bembo, Pietro, Grove Music Online www.oxfordmusiconline.com

James Haar, Madrigal, Grove Music Online www.oxfordmusiconline.com

Musica was printed in 1507 and was reprinted numerous times.10 The rediscovery of
classical writings about the arts kindled a greater enthusiasm in secular music.
During the fifteenth century, courtly society had dominated and acted as the behavioral
ideal for the rest of society. However, the rise of the middle classes at the turn of the
century provided a new audience for a new genre of music. The wide audience for
madrigals is clearly shown by the appearance of the books: from single sheets of
paper for merchants to finely bound, embossed, hardback copies for the nobility.11 The
new merchant class had, as a result of their newfound wealth, more time to enjoy
music and art which, until this time, had been rather private and elitist. This new
bourgeois helped with the spread of the madrigal. Merchants were traveling along
trade routes around Europe and inevitably the music and ideas travelled with them,
though this owes a great deal to the invention of the printing press.
The Church was incredibly wealthy in the early sixteenth century. People would buy
indulgences from the church which granted them time off purgatory. This meant the
church had plenty of money to spend on the arts and could afford to employ the best
composers, even if this meant importing them from the north. With Italy being a major
trade centre in the early 1500s, the courts were also wealthy enough able to employ
the best composers. The promise of employment brought composers to the cities in
northern Italy where they were influenced by the native music of the area resulting in a
fusion of genres.
Patronage and cultivation of the arts is important in the development of the madrigal.
Isabella dEste is a particularly significant patron. Born in Ferrara in 1474, Isabella
dEste received a good musical training and grew to love the arts. Through agents in
all the major cities she acquired a rather impressive collection of classical antiquities,
though it was music that was her true passion. Her initial efforts were directed towards

10

Iain Fenlon, Man and Music: The Renaissance (London: Macmillan, 1989)

11

Iain Fenlon, Man and Music: The Renaissance (London: Macmillan, 1989)

funding the composition and performance of native Italian styles such as frottole, but
the cultivation of these styles inevitably influenced the madrigal. She viewed music as
a secular social activity: what once was a mere frivolity was now regarded as an
integral part of a courtiers education.12 This change of view on music is important to
the development of the madrigal as, being a secular genre, the interest and support of
the public was needed for the madrigal to be a success without the funding of the
church.
At first glance it may seem to be obvious that the musical factors are the most
important in the genesis of the madrigal. However, the musical factors are intrinsically
linked to the finance and culture of sixteenth century Italy. Although the oltremontani
had a huge musical influence on the development of the madrigal, they would not have
been in Italy without the patronage of the arts. They were willing to travel to find
employment so, as Italian courts had the funds to pay the wages, composers such as
Arcadelt ended up in Florence, Venice and Rome bringing their musical influences with
them and in turn affecting the culture. The financial factors are the root of the origins of
the madrigal as finance affects who has power and influence on society. The culture
then, in turn, affects the environment in which the composers work and the music they
write.

12

Iain Fenlon, Man and Music: The Renaissance (London: Macmillan, 1989) p.30

Bibliography
Atlas, Alan W. Renaissance Music: music in western Europe, 1400-1600. NY: Norton, 1998
Biaconi, Lorenzo. Music in the Seventeenth Century [1982] trans. David Bryant. Cambridge, 1987
Brown, H.M. Music in the Renaissance. London, 1990
Cummings, Anthony M. The Maecenas and The Madrigalist:Patrons, Patronage and the Origins of the
Italian Madrigal. Amer Philosophical Society, 2004
Fenlon, Iain. Man and Music: The Renaissance. London: Macmillan, 1989
Haar, James. European Music 1520-1640. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2006
!

Madrigal, Grove Music Online www.oxfordmusiconline.com

Bembo, Pietro, Grove Music Online www.oxfordmusiconline.com

Plato, trans. Benjamin Jowett, ed. M Hare & DA Russell. The Republic, Volume Four. London: Sphere
Books Ltd, 1970
Slim, H. Colin. A Gift of Madrigals and Motets. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972