Page:Pratt - The history of music (1907).djvu/153

 CHAPTER IX

SECULAR MUSIC. INSTRUMENTS. THEORY

69. The Madrigal and Part-Song.—The early indebtedness of the Netherlanders to secular music has already been noted (sec. 43), and the number of chansons that they produced side by side with more pretentious works. This aspect of early counterpoint was never lost. But it was reserved for their disciples in the 16th century to lift it into prominence and thus to transform the spirit of all composition. In the hands of certain Italian masters both the French chanson and its analogue, the Italian frottola, passed over into the madrigal, which steadily advanced into a distinct and brilliant history of its own.

The word 'madrigal' came from the Troubadours and meant originally a pastoral song, but in later usage it was applied to any lyric poem of decided artistic value. Its musical sense followed when  such poems were taken as texts for vocal treatment.

The madrigal was simply the lighter and gayer type of standard part-writing. Its spirit came from secular poetry, which, especially in Italy, was learning how to set forth topics of sentiment, wit or passion in the language of common life with delicacy and charm. The lyric beauty of the words called for lyric music, but this, in the absence of any due recognition of the artistic solo, could only be supplied contrapuntally, though, to match the sparkle and play of the words, evidently there needed to be some departure from the ponderous style of the motet. It was natural that the Italians should lead in developing this lighter style.

No strict definition of the madrigal-form is possible, simply because in all the older counterpoint what is now called 'form' was either lacking or extremely irregular. The laying out of the music was governed by the flow and balance of the text, though without any close adherence to the mere syllables or lines. Indeed, though occasionally the advance of the voices might be checked and then begin again, real strophe-like divisions were usually avoided. The counterpoint was sometimes developed about a borrowed 'subject,' but usually passed from theme to theme, specially devised for the phrases of the words as they came, each then