What is a madrigal?

A madrigal in its strictest definition is choral music of a period between c.1540-1622 of a secular and polyphonic nature. In a madrigal the words are not merely a vector for the music but are an integral part of it, indeed madrigal composers often indulge in lavish word painting. The tudor period, when many of the English madrigals that we sing were composed, was a golden age of literature and music. The period of the English Madrigal School came after that of the Italian and only lasted a short period of 40 years at most. Despite its brevity, the school produced an enormous quantity of exceptionally high quality music, the like of which was never to be seen again for about 300 years in secular choral music.

Despite what you may think, a song containing fa-la's is most probably not a madrigal but a ballet. Some argue that all secular choral music composed around the period of the madrigalists should be classed as a 'madrigal' but stictly this is not the case. The myth that madrigals contain 'fa-la' refrains was infact perpetuated by one Arthur Sullivan who claimed to have written a 'madrigal' in his Mikado when he had infact written a ballet/part-song.

Martinmas 2011