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
