Early Madrigal (jan 1, 1520 – jan 1, 1540)

Description:

Madrigal is a secular musical setting of Italian poetry. There are 7-11 syllables per line and it i through composed (no musical or textual repeats). The subject matter tends to be sensual or romantic, and it promotes amusement, entertainment, and charm. The final two lines usually satisfyingly and resolutely conclude the madrigal.

Early madrigals tend to be for four voices rather than five or six and are in general more homophonic than later madrigals. At this time, the Petrarchan movement was occuring in Venice, and many early madrigals used Petrarchan sonnets for their madrigal's text. This makes sense as early madrigals were quite confined to Italy, thus explaining how general Italian sentiments seeped so pervasively into early madrigals. Additionally, at this time major was generally perceived to be harsh and minor perceived to be sweet.

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