1. Renaissance Sensuality:
The Madrigal

4. Medieval Venus

5. Renaissance Venus

6. Medieval BVM

7. Renaissance BVM

10. (the sounds themselves) Represent sensuousness or sexuality?
Can music
(the sounds themselves)
Represent sensuousness or
sexuality?

11. The Madrigal =central secular genre of the Renaissance+
celebration of the bodily and sensual
Listen for: form; performing forces; texture(s); text connotations
Arcadelt, Il bianco e dolce cigno (The White and Sweet Swan)
Il bianco e dolce cigno The white and sweet swan,
Cantando more ed io singing, dies; and I,
Piangendo giung' al fin del viver mio, crying approach the end of my life
Stran' e diversa sorte! Such a strange and divergent fate!
Ch'ei more sconsolato, For yet he dies in despair
Ed io moro beato, and I die content,
Morte che nel morire To die that death
M'empie di gioia tutto e di desire. Fulfills all my joys and desires.
Se nel morir, altro dolor non sento, If by dying I feel no other sadness
Di mille mort'il di, sarei contento. I'll be content to die a thousand times
a day.

12. I. The Renaissance Madrigal: Texts
Setting of Italian Secular Poetry
(erotic, pastoral, or sentimental)
B. Poems Short (8-16 lines typical)
C. Each line 7 or 11 Syllables
D. No fixed rhyme schemes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7 7 11 7 7

13. Arcadelt, “Il bianco e dolce cigno”
Il bianco e dolce cigno The white and sweet swan,
Cantando more ed io singing, dies; and I,
Piangendo giung' al fin del viver mio, crying approach the end of my life
Stran' e diversa sorte! Such a strange and divergent fate!
Ch'ei more sconsolato, For yet he dies in despair
Ed io moro beato, and I die content,
Morte che nel morire To die that death
M'empie di gioia tutto e di desire. Fulfills all my joys and desires.
Se nel morir, altro dolor non sento, If by dying I feel no other sadness
Di mille mort'il di, sarei contento. I'll be content to die a thousand times
a day.

14. I. The Renaissance Madrigal: Texts
Setting of Italian Secular Poetry
(erotic, pastoral, or sentimental)
B. Poems Short (8-16 lines typical)
C. Each line 7 or 11 Syllables
D. No fixed rhyme schemes
E. No refrain (recurring text)

15. II. The Renaissance Madrigal: Music
Form = Through-composed*
ABCDE . . .
Through-composed form maximizes f it between words/music
Sacrifices musical unity
*immediate repetition for emphasis still=through-composed

16. Arcadelt, “Il bianco e dolce cigno”
Il bianco e dolce cigno The white and sweet swan,
Cantando more || :ed io singing, dies; and I,
Piangendo giung' al fin del viver mio, :|| crying approach the end of my life
Stran' e diversa sorte! Such a strange and divergent fate!
Ch'ei more sconsolato, For yet he dies in despair
Ed io moro beato, and I die content,
Morte che nel morire To die that death
M'empie di gioia tutto e di desire. Fulfills all my joys and desires.
Se nel morir, altro dolor non sento, If by dying I feel no other sadness
Di mille mort'il di, sarei contento. I'll be content to die a thousand times
a day.

17. II. The Renaissance Madrigal: Music
Form = Through-composed*
M aximizes fi t between words/music
Sacrifices musical unity
*immediate repetition for emphasis still=through-composed
B. Close Text/Music Correspondences
Reflects Sound of the words (speech r hythm; elision)
Reflects Stress/Accent (on penultimate syllable)
Reflects meaning of words
C. Each poetic line becomes 1 section of music (marked by cadence)
Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana (homophonic)
Long live fair Oriana (imitative polyphonic)
D. A cappella (4, later 5 voices = norm)
E. Word-Painting or Madrigalism

18. Examples of Madrigalism or Word-Painting
To whom Diana’s darlings came running down amain
First two by two, then three by three together,
Leaving their goddess all alone, hasted thither;
And birdsong and the flowers of the field and the
sweet sincerity of lovely women
Are now to me as a desert
And as pitiless as wild beasts

20. II. The Renaissance Madrigal: Music
Form = Through-composed
B. Close Text/Music Correspondences
C. Each poetic line becomes 1 section of music (marked by cadence)
D. A cappella
E. Word-Painting or Madrigalism

22. Friday Night at Bowdoin

25. II. The Renaissance Madrigal: Music
Form = Through-composed
B. Close Text/Music Correspondences
C. Each poetic line becomes 1 section of music (marked by cadence)
D. A cappella
E. Word-Painting or Madrigalism
F. Veiled Sexual Allusions

26. Il bianco e dolce cigno The white and sweet swan,
Cantando more singing, dies;
Ed io, piangendo and I, crying
giung' al fin del viver mio, approach the end of my life
Stran' e diversa sorte! Such a strange and divergent fate!
Ch'ei more sconsolato, For yet he dies in despair
Ed io moro beato, and I die content,
Morte che nel morire To die that death
M'empie di gioia tutto e di desire. Fulfills all my joys and desires.
Se nel morir, altro dolor non sento, If by dying I feel no other sadness
Di mille mort'il di, sarei contento. I'll be content to die a thousand times
a day.

27. III. Listening To Madrigals
Some Experiments

28. Il bianco e dolce cigno cantando more The white and sweet swan,
Ed io Piangendo singing, dies; and I,
giung' al fin del viver mio, crying approach the end of my life
Stran' e diversa sorte! Such a strange and divergent fate!
Ch'ei more sconsolato, For yet he dies in despair
Ed io moro beato, and I die content,
Morte che nel morire To die that death
M'empie di gioia tutto e di desire. Fulfills all my joys and desires.
Se nel morir, altro dolor non sento, If by dying I feel no other sadness
Di mille mort'il di, sarei contento. I'll be content to die a thousand times
a day.

30. IV. The English Madrigal
A. Musica transalpina (1588) ed. Thomas Younge First Italian Madrigals published in England
B. Two Phases in Reception of Italian Madrigals
Italian Madrigals “Englished”
Original Madrigals by English Composers
C. English Madrigal Flourishes 1590s-1610s

31. "As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending"
(publ in The Triumphs of Oriana)
composer, Thomas Weelkes (c )
As Vesta was from Latmos Hill descending,
She spied a maiden Queen the same ascending,
Attended on by all the shepherd's swain;
To whom Diana's darlings came running down amain
First two by two, then three by three together
Leaving their Goddess all alone, hasted thither;
And mingling with the shepherds of her train,
With mirthful tunes her presence did entertain.
Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana:
Long live fair Oriana!