Renaissance Sensuality The Madrigal Medieval Venus Renaissance Venus

Renaissance Sensuality: The Madrigal

Medieval Venus

Renaissance Venus

Medieval BVM

Renaissance BVM

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

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 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. No 1 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* ABCDE. . . ·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

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

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 1590 s 1610 s

"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!