Medieval Venus
Renaissance Venus
Medieval BVM
Renaissance BVM
Can music
(the sounds themselves)
represent sexuality
or sensuousness?
The Madrigal
=central secular genre of the Renaissance+
celebration of the bodily and sensual
Listen for: form; performing forces; texture(s); text connotatio
Arcadelt, Il bianco e dolce cigno (The White and Sweet Swan)
Il bianco e dolce cigno
Cantando more ed io
Piangendo giung' al fin del viver mio,
Stran' e diversa sorte!
Ch'ei more sconsolato,
Ed io moro beato,
Morte che nel morire
M'empie di gioia tutto e di desire.
Se nel morir, altro dolor non sento,
Di mille mort'il di, sarei contento.
The white and sweet swan,
singing, dies; and I,
crying approach the end of my life
Such a strange and divergent fate!
For yet he dies in despair
and I die content,
To die that death
Fulfills all my joys and desires.
If by dying I feel no other sadness
I'll be content to die a thousand times
a day.
A.
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. No1 fixed rhyme
2
schemes
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
7
7
11
7
7
Arcadelt, “Il bianco e dolce cigno”
Il bianco e dolce cigno
Cantando more ed io
Piangendo giung' al fin del viver mio,
Stran' e diversa sorte!
Ch'ei more sconsolato,
Ed io moro beato,
Morte che nel morire
M'empie di gioia tutto e di desire.
Se nel morir, altro dolor non sento,
Di mille mort'il di, sarei contento.
The white and sweet swan,
singing, dies; and I,
crying approach the end of my life
Such a strange and divergent fate!
For yet he dies in despair
and I die content,
To die that death
Fulfills all my joys and desires.
If by dying I feel no other sadness
I'll be content to die a thousand times
a day.
I. The Renaissance Madrigal:
Texts
A. 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)
II. The Renaissance Madrigal: Music
A. Form = Through-composed*
·Through-composed form maximizes f it between words/music
·Sacrifices musical unity
*immediate repetition for emphasis still=through-composed
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, :||
Stran' e diversa sorte!
Ch'ei more sconsolato,
Ed io moro beato,
Morte che nel morire
M'empie di gioia tutto e di desire.
Se nel morir, altro dolor non sento,
Di mille mort'il di, sarei contento.
crying approach the end of my life
Such a strange and divergent fate!
For yet he dies in despair
and I die content,
To die that death
Fulfills all my joys and desires.
If by dying I feel no other sadness
I'll be content to die a thousand times
a day.
II. The Renaissance Madrigal: Music
A. 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
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
Friday Night at Bowdoin
II. The Renaissance Madrigal: Music
A. 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
Il bianco e dolce cigno
more
Ed io, piangendo
Cantando
giung' al fin del viver
The white and sweet swan,
singing, dies;
and I, crying
mio,
sorte!
Ch'ei more sconsolato,
Ed io moro beato,
Morte che nel morire
Stran' e diversa
i
Se nel morir, altro dolor non sento,
Di mille mort'il di, sarei contento.
M'empie di gioia tutto e di des re.
approach the end of my life
Such a strange and divergent fate!
For yet he dies in despair
and I die content,
To die that death
Fulfills all my joys and desires.
If by dying I feel no other sadness
I'll be content to die a thousand times
a day.
III. Listening To Madrigals
Some Experiments
Il bianco e dolce cigno cantando
Ed io Pian
more
gendo
giung' al fin del viver
The white and sweet swan,
singing, dies; and I,
mio,
sorte!
Ch'ei more sconsolato,
Ed io moro beato,
Morte che nel morire
Stran' e diversa
i
Se nel morir, altro dolor non sento,
Di mille mort'il di, sarei contento.
M'empie di gioia tutto e di des re.
crying approach the end of my life
Such a strange and divergent fate!
For yet he dies in despair
and I die content,
To die that death
Fulfills all my joys and desires.
If by dying I feel no other sadness
I'll be content to die a thousand times
a day.
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 1590s1610s
"As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending"
(publ. 1601 in The Triumphs of Oriana)
composer, Thomas Weelkes (c. 1575-1623)
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!