Verse Types in The Early Madrigal

Verse Types in the Early Madrigal
Author(s): Don Harran

Source: Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Spring, 1969), pp. 27-53
Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Musicological Society
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Verse Types In The EarlyMadrigal
BY DON HARRAN
THE POETRY OFTHEEARLY i6th-century madrigal includes a wide va-

riety of verse types. Sonnets, ballate, canzoni, the ottava rima, the
madrigale, occasional prose extracts-all are known by the name "mad-
rigal." A distinction ought to be drawn then between "madrigal" as a
general term of reference and "madrigal," or madrigale, as a specific
poetic form. Such a distinction is not new to Italian music. The term
"frottola" presents an analogous case: it can be taken as a generic desig-
nation for a number of different verse types-oda, strambotto, capitolo,
sonnet, and frottola-or, more specifically, as a reference to the last,
the frottola proper, otherwise known as the barzelletta.1 The analogy
ends there though, for where the verse forms of the frottola are usually
kept separate, their dissimilarities serving in fact as a basis for musical
classification, the verses of the madrigal, however varied their prosody,
are studied less for their form than for their content. There is reason for
an approach of this sort, to be sure. The music of the madrigal often
emphasizes the affective or semantic qualities of its poetry; it tends to
blur distinctions between a sonnet and a ballata, or between the somewhat
fixed prosody of a canzone and the freely ordered madrigale-distinc-
tions which impinge indirectly, if at all, on the form of the music.
Furthermore, the poetry of the early madrigal, so varied in form, appears
to congeal in its middle and later developments into three main types-
the sonnet, the canzone, and the free madrigal-and of these the first
two lost all meaningful identity as verse forms by being treated in the
manner of the last. Yet the arguments for a "non-prosodic" approach to
the music of the madrigal are less convincing when applied to its early
development. The very fact that it is possible to single out divergent verse
types in the early stages of the madrigal argues against an approach
grouping together all poetry, more or less indiscriminately, under the
heading "madrigal."
The madrigale was one of several forms of the early madrigal; and of
these, not by any means the leading form. Indeed, any notion that the
madrigale prevails as the leading verse form of the 530o's and thereafter
is dispelled by a survey of the madrigals themselves. In Verdelot's rep-
ertory, for example, the ballata and canzone are represented by some 23
and 22 pieces respectively, thus standing on almost equal terms with the
xSee W. Rubsamen, "Frottola,"MGG, vol. IV, cols. o1015,021-22.
28 JOURNAL OF THE AMIERICANMUSICOLOGICALSOCIETY
madrigal proper (some 30 pieces).2 The ranks of the former swell, more-
over, with the inclusion of forms located midway, it would seem, between
the ballata and canzone on the one hand, and the madrigal on the other.
The forms in question have been overlooked or passed off as madri-
gali. For want of a better designation, one might call them ballata-madri-
gals and canzone-madrigals. Among Verdelot's madrigals alone, they
number some 15 (or more) and 20 examples respectively. They appear
to be firmly entrenched in the works of Arcadelt, Festa, and others as
well."
One other form not often mentioned in this connection, the Trecento
madrigal, is revived in the I6th century. Interestingly enough, this form,
like the ballata and canzone, paved the way for a derivative type joining
traits of the older and newer madrigale. Examples of this type will be
referred to as Trecento-like madrigals. The three derivative forms-
ballata-madrigal,Trecento-like madrigal, and canzone-madrigal-together
with their progenitors the ballata, madrigal, and canzone, constitute the
basis of the following discussion.
I
The ballata has a long history dating back to the Dugento. Its earliest
examples are preserved in the form of monophonic laude sung by peni-
tential flagellants, worshippers of Mary, and followers of St. Francis. It
was associated, apparently from its very inception, with musical per-
formance. "These ballate (or songs)," the 14th-century theorist Ghidino
da Sommacampagna writes, "are sung by people observing the words [?]
and melody given them" ("E queste ballate o sia canzone sono cantate da le
persone, secondo lo s6no e canto dato a quelle").4 Dante remarks that
2 W. Klefisch called attention to the
large number of canzoni and ballate among
Arcadelt's madrigals in Arcadelt als Madrigalist (Cologne, 1938), p. 47. About Al-
fonso della Viola's first two books of four-voice madrigals (1539, 1540) and "their
astonishing number of texts in the form of ballate," see A. Einstein, The Italian
Madrigal (Princeton, 1949), vol. I, p. 302.
The sonnet plays a secondary role to the above, temporarily at least. Among
Verdelot's 140 or so madrigals, there figure some thirteen sonnets or sonnet frag-
ments; among Arcadelt's reputed 250 madrigals, some twelve, a small percentage
indeed (cf. Klefisch, op. cit., p. 48). The tables are turned, of course, from 1540 on
when the sonnet leaps into prominence in the madrigals of Rore and Willaert. Rore's
Book I a 5 (1542), for example, contains seventeen sonnets out of a total of 21 pieces;
Willaert's Musica Nova (published in 1559 but written, perhaps printed, much earlier)
bases all 25 of its madrigals on sonnets.
3 Numerous examples of canzone- and ballata-madrigals can be found well into the
I540'S. They appear in collections of madrigali cromatici and in (misura comune)
madrigals by Gero, Corteccia, and others. For a detailed discussion of the two forms,
see D. Hersh (alias Harran), "Verdelot and the Early Madrigal" (unpublished dis-
sertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1963), pp- 70-74, 87-91.
4Trattato de li rithimi volgari, ed. C. Giuliari (Scelta di curiositd letterarie
inedite o rare ... no. io5; Bologna, 1870), p. 70.
Sommacampagna's Trattato, written about 1350, is one of the earliest treatises to
discuss Italian prosody. It yields priority, though, to a similar work completed some
VERSE TYPES IN THE EARLY MADRIGAL 29
whatever difference there is between the canzone and the ballata is to be

ascribed chiefly to the difference in their degree of self-sufficiency as
poetry: where the canzone can stand as poetry alone, the ballata requires
performers and an audience for its realization-"sed Cantiones per se
totum quod debent, efficiunt, quod Ballatae non faciunt (indigent enim
plausoribus, ad quos editae sunt). . . The "canzoni," actually ballate,
that close each giornata of Boccaccio's .". Decameron were, typically
enough, given a twofold projection as song and dance. (An interesting
hint to their choreography is supplied by the poet's designation "car61la,"
or chain dance.)6 Even as late as 1562, the poetic theorist Minturno de-
fines the terminology that applies to the ballata in musical terms.
The ballata comprises three parts: ripresa, a pair of mutazioni (other-
wise known as piedi), and volta.7 The three parts are linked together as
a single strophe which, in turn, could be followed by one or more
strophes each modeled structurally on the first.8 It goes without saying
that i6th-century madrigal composers favored the monostrophic over
the polystrophic ballata. Even when the poetry exceeded a single stanza,
as in Machiavelli's Amor io sento l'almra9or in the ballate from the De-
cameron (lo mi son giovinetta, Lagrimando dimostro, Io son sA vaga
della mia bellezza, and others, set repeatedly throughout the century),
only the first stanza received a musical elaboration. Of the several types
of ballata described by the theorists, three have practical significance,
the ballata grande, ballata mezzana, and ballata minore. The terms grande,
mezzana, and minore refer to the size of the ripresa, regardless of the
size or structure of the mutazioni or volta: the ballata grande, for ex-
ample, has a ripresa of four lines; the ballata mezzana, a three-line ripresa;
the ballata minore, a two-line ripresa.
The arrangement of rhymes and verse lengths in the ripresa follows
twenty years before by Antonio da Tempo, his Summa artis rythmici vulgaris dicta-
minis. The latter was composed in Latin (with examples in the volgare), whereas
Sommacampagna'streatise holds the distinction of being the first of its kind written
throughout in Italian.
5 De vulgari eloquentia, Bk. II, chap. iii.
6 A. Bonaventura, "Il Boccaccio e la musica," Rivista musicale italiana XXI (1914),
pp. 407-408.
7 According to Minturno, the ripresawas so called because at the end of the poem
it is repeated by the singers: "perciocche nel fine da quei, che cantano, si riprende
a cantare."The mutazioni derive their name from the "mutated"tune which differs
from the tune of the ripresa: "perciocche in lei si muta il Canto." The volta, from
the verb volgere or voltare, meaning "to turn," returns to the music of the ripresa:
"perciocche torna al canto della Represa." See L'Arte poetica del signor Antonio
Minturno. [ist ed., 1563] (Naples, 735), P. 247.
8 Bembo describes the ballata as "non vestita" (or "unadorned")when it is limited
to a single strophe, and "vestita"when it comprises several strophes (Le prose della
volgar lingua, ed. C. Dionisotti [Bembo: Prose e Rime, Turin, 1960], p. '53). The
"non vestita" ballata may be illustrated by Petrarch's seven ballate; the "vestita,"by
the eleven "canzoni"in the Decameron, which range from three to six stanzas.
9 Machiavelli,Opere (Milan, 1954), p. 1079.
30 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
no one set pattern, except that in the ballata minore the two verses will
always terminate with the same rhyme, and in all three types the num-
ber of rhymes seldom exceeds two. The following examples illustrate
various combinations of rhyme and verse lengths in the ripresa:
ballata minore: aa or aA or AA, etc.,0
ballata mezzana: AbB or aBB or abB or aBA or aAB, etc.
ballata grande: abba or aBbA or ABBA or ABbA, etc.
The mutazioni (or piedi), like the piedi of the canzone (see below,
section III), are built from two segments equal in number of lines (from
two to four),"1 in terminal endings, and in location of seven- and eleven-
syllable verses. The following schemes are typical: 12
Ripresa Mutazioni
I) aA bC/bC
2) abA cd/cd
3) aBB CdE/DcE
4) ABBA CDE/DCE
Volta and mutazioni are often conjoined by means of a linking
rhyme, or "concatenazione" (Trissino), that pairs together the last verse
of the second mutazione and the first verse of the volta:13
Ripresa Mutazioni Volta

abB cd/cd dbB
I I
That the concatenazione was not a requisite feature, though, may be in-
ferred from an example such as Cino da Pistoia's Quanto piz? fiso miro
(aBbA CdE/CdE fGgA). In fact, it is not so much its connection with
the mutazioni that marks the volta, as its connection with the ripresa to
which it returns in one or more terminal rhymes or terminal words (and
often in music): "la quale ee de uno medesimo s6no, e de uno medesimo
canto, come ee la resposa o sia represa" (Sommacampagna).14 The i6th-
10 In these
rhyme schemes (and in all succeeding examples), capital letters are
used to indicate eleven-syllable verses, lower case letters, seven-syllable verses.
11When the ripresa is grande, a two-, three-, or four-line mutazione may follow,
though the three-line type seems to be favored; when mezzana, a two- or three-line
mutazione; when minore, generally a two-line mutazione.
12
In order of appearance, (i) II fior che'l valor perde (Boccaccio: Rime, ed. A.
Massera [Bologna, i914], LXXVII); (2) Un di lieto giamai (L. de' Medici), in II
secondo libro de li madrigali de diversi eccellentissimi autori a misura di breve ...
a quatro voci . . . Venice, A. Gardane, 1543 [RISM p. 8 (Corteccia); (3)
i54318],
Quando mia pastorella, in [Madrigali de diversi musici libro primo de la Serena.
Rome, V. da Brescia, i530 (RISM i5302)], fol. 9 (lac. de Tho.); (4) Cantai mentre
ch'i' arsi (Giovanni Brevio) in Di Cipriano di Rore il primo libro de madrigali a
cinque voci ... Venice, A. Gardane, I544, p. 5 (Rore).
13 Amor io sento l'alma (Machiavelli, see fn. 9) in 1120 lib. de li mad. (see fn. I2),
p. 29 (Gero).
14 Op. cit. (see fn. 4),
p. 71.
century theorist Trissino even conceives of the volta as the other half
or continuation of the ripresa which has been interrupted by the muta-
zioni.'5 The following ballate drawn from the poetry of the early mad-
rigal illustrate this rhyme relationship between ripresa and volta; they
may serve as typical examples of ballate as well."' In many cases, a double
bar or fermata in the music marks off the ripresa from the mutazioni-a
remnant of the ubiquitous structural divisions of the frottola:17
I) AbB [fermata] Ac/Ac CbB
2) abB II Cde/Cde ebB
3) AbB cdE/cdE EaA
4) ABbC II DEF/EDF FGgA
I take the liberty of quoting the third example, a ballata mezzana, in full:
Rhyme scheme:
Ripresa: I' son talvolta, Donna, per morire A
Se non m'aita il sguardo b
Onde mi struggo et mi consumo et ardo. B
Mutazioni: Gli occhi soavi et belli c
Che mi dan fiamma et ghiaccio- d
Dolce contrario in me fuor di natura- E
Et li dorati snelli c
Capei, del mio cor laccio, d
Mi prometton soccorso et dan pastura. Econcatenazone
Volta: Soccorrime, perh6, non esser dura; E
Fammi di te gioire a
Ch'i' son talvolta, Donna, per morire. A
15 "Ma le Ballate hanno nel primo luogo la meth de la prima loro combinazione, la
quale si chiama Ripresa; dietro a la qual subito vien la seconda loro combinazione
integra, e congiunta, la quale si chiama Mutazioni; dopo le quali seguita I'altrameti
de la prima combinazione, la quale si dimanda Volta": Arte poetica (1529), ed. J.
Vallarsi in Tutte le opere di Giovan Giorgio Trissino gentiluomo vicentino non piuz
raccolte (Verona, 1729), vol. II, p. 50.
16 (I) Donna che sete (L. Martelli), in II primo libro de madrigali di Verdelotto
... Venice, O. Scotto, 1537 [RISM 15379], no. 9 (Verdelot); (2) Troppo scarsa, in
II primo libro d'i madrigali de diversi eccellentissimi autori a misura di breve ...
quatuor vocum. Venice, A. Gardane, 1542 [RISM 154217], p. 23 (Yvo); (3) 1' son
talvolta, in 11 secondo libro de madrigali di Verdelotto ... Venice, O. Scotto, 1537
[RISM 153710], no. 7 (C. Festa); (4) Donna gentile, in II 0Imo lib. d'i mad. (ut supra),
1548 ed. [RISM 15486], p. 19 (anon.).
17Though the fermata or double bar, taken together with other more specific
characteristics,generally serves to implement our conception of form, it may on oc-
casion disguise the form, as in the ballata-madrigalby Tolomei (Molza?), Deh
quanto e dolce amor, in II primo libro dei madrigali di Maistre Ibhan. . . Venice,
A. Gardane, 1541 [RISM 154115 ], p. 13 (M. Ihan): ABB//A Cd/Dc etc. Here the
ripresa, despite the double bar, suggests the form of a ballatagrande.
Structural divisions of this sort are indigenous to the ballata alone. At first sight
the poems Chi non fa prova Amore (Machiavelli; in Chicago, Newberry Library,
MS Ry 14, no. io [anon.]) and Far la vendetta bramo (Madrigali a cinque libro
primo [Venice, O. Scotto, ca. 1535], P. 5 [anon.]) present the semblance of ballata-
madrigals:
32 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICALSOCIETY
Occasionallythe i6th-centuryballatadepartsin structurefrom its

classicprototype.The pairingof mutazioniin order of rhymes and
verselengthswasfarfromscrupulously observed:sometimesnew rhymes
were introducedin the second piede, sometimesthe order of verse
lengths was disrupted.'8Such libertiesmay owe their origin to the
gradual disassociationof the ballatafrom the dance where symmetrical
repetitions,as providedby identicalmutazioni,are basicto choreogra-
phic design.Minturnohints at this possibility,at any rate, when he
answersBernardino Rota'squestionwhy the mutazioneis repeatedwith
the words:"becauseit is sungas an accompaniment to the dancewhere
thereis neverany mutazionethat is not repeated,and the shorterit is,
the more often it could be repeated."'9Yet for all their irregularitiesof
construction,forms of this kind revealthemselves,in most instances,
as "true"ballate.Examplesmay be found in two poems written by
Bembo and entitled ballate, poems whose stanza (i.e., mutazioni and
volta) resistsseparation
intoregularmutazioni:
Ripresa Mutazioni? Volta
Comesi converria (XVIII): ABB CDEE fCDF DBB
La mia leggiadra (XVI): ABBA cDdE EcFf cAA
Yet thanks to the returning end rhymes of the ripresa in the volta, these
poems may be recognized as a ballata mezzana and a ballata grande re-
spectively. Other examples, less audacious though, may be turned up
among the verses set by the early madrigalists:"
I) aa BBbCCCD daa
2) aBB cDDcE EBB
3) aBB CDcDE cEbB
4) aBB CDEDFEf gBB
5) aBbA CdEDCE EFfA
Chi non fa prova Amore: aBbA [fermatal ACddCEE

Far la vendetta bramo: abCC 11AadDbB.
Their true form is disguised by these divisions; they are a canzone stanza and a free
madrigal respectively.
18
Another departure from the norm, though occurring less frequently, is the ex-
tension of the volta by the insertion of new rhymes, as in Willaert's setting of Cosi
vincett'in terra (in 11 20 lib. de mad. di Verd.): aBB Cd/Cd EfefEGG.
19Arte poetica,
p. 255: "Per qual cagione la Mutazione e ripetita?" "Perciocch?
si canta nel ballo, nel quale non si fa mai Mutazione che ripetita non sia; e quanto
pid ella fosse breve, tanto pili volte ripeter si potrebbe."
20
(I) Amor mi fa morire (Dragonetto Bonifazio), in II 20 lib. de mad. di Verd.
(Willaert); (2) Amor ben puo' tu hormai, in Le dotte et eccellente compositioni
dei madrigalia cinque voci da diversi perfettissimimusici fatte ... Venice, G. Scotto,
1541 [RISM 154117] (C. Festa); (3) Vostra merce, in II imo lib. d'i mad., p. 32
(Arcadelt); (4) Tanto piz?grato, in II 2 lib. de ii mad., p. 23 (anon.); (5) Madonna
io me pensava,in [Mad. de div. mus.], fol. 5 (Carlo).
As a fairly typical example of such an "altered" ballata,2l the following
may be cited:22
Rhymes:
Se l'ardor foss'equale a
Ben posto sari'amor in donna tale. I A
Ma io peno per voi et voi godete B
Dell'aspra pena mia, c
Et s'io ve'l dico, voi non lo credete, B
N? so quel che mi far per v'aggradire. D
Non mi val ben servir non pura fede, E
Ch6 l'alterezza vostra a nulla cede. E
Ma vi vo dir la chiara mente mia: C
Se voi farete che l'amor sia equale, A
Dir6 ch'amor sta ben in donna tale. A
There is another class of ballate, however, examples of which de-
part even more radically from the classic ballata prototype. As we have
seen, the true ballata, even in its "altered" form, may be distinguished by
its return to one or more rhymes of the ripresa. Many texts do not dis-
play this feature, yet may be so similar to the ballata in other respects-
structure of mutazioni, linking rhyme, etc.-as to suggest an indubitable
relation between the two:2
Ripresa Mutazioni "Volta"24
I) aBB cd/dc cEE
2) aBB CdE/DcE eFF
They are not to be classified as "true" ballate. One must recognize them,
21 Regarding such ballate, the possibility must not be ruled out that the verses
survive in a form different from the poet's original version. In the course of time,
new rhymes or new verses could have been added or substituted in such a way as
to destroy an essentially regular form. On the other hand, one or more verses could
have been omitted from the musical setting of the poetry. This latter possibility is
concretely illustrated by Molza's (or Guidetti's) ballata grande, S'io pensasse Ma-
donna. A comparison of the poetry as it appearsin II lib. de mad. di Verd. with
the version printed in Frati's anthology Rime ineditetmodel Cinquecento (Bologna,
9x18),p. I8, reveals that four lines, four crucial lines, were omitted from the Ver-
delot madrigal. When these lines are supplied, they constitute the second mutazione:
II mo lib. de mad.: ABbA CddE EFfA
Frati's Rime: ABbA CddE/CddE EFfA
Either the composer worked from a truncated version, or he exercised his own pre-
rogative of artistic license. For further examples, the reader is referred to Hersh
[alias Harran], op. cit., pp. 86-87. How many other ballate (and canzoni), one may
ask, were subjected to similar distortions?
22Setting by Verdelot in [Mad. de div. mus.], fol. to'.
23 (I) Come posso dir'io, in Libro terzo de d[iversi] autori eccellentissimi li ma-
drigali a quatro voci a notte negre ... Venice, G. Scotto, 1549 [RISM 154930],p. 30
(Schaffen); (2) Quel si grave dolor, in II Imo lib. d'i mad., p. 8 (Arcadelt).
24 Volta appears in
quotes, for in lieu of a return to the rhymes of the ripresa,
the word denotes merely the third or final section of the ballata.
nevertheless,as strongly ballata-inspired.

Since they waver between
the ballata,on the onehand,andsomethingapproachingthe free prosody
of the madrigal,on the other,the termballata-madrigal
is proposedas a
usefuldesignation.
The relationshipof the ballata-madrigal to the ballatavaries consider-
ably. When all features of the ballataare present,save the return to the
rhymesof the ripresa(as in the aboveexamples,and in many others),
thereis no questionabouttheirkinship.However,still furtherchanges
may occur,looseningby degreesthe bondsbetweenthe two. In the fol-
lowingexamples,the voltais extendedby additionalrhymes,thoughthe
pairing of mutazioni and the coupling of volta and mutazioni through a
linking rhyme remain as characteristic features:25
Ripresa Mutazioni " Volta"
I) aBB I CD/CD deeFF
2) ABA I CD/CD DEFEFGG
The linking rhyme may be omitted and the "volta," in some in-
stances, extended by additional rhymes:26
Ripresa Mutazioni "Volta"
I) abA I bC/cB dDcC

2) aBB CDE/CED FF
3) aBB cDE/cDE fgfHH
4) ABBA CDE/CDE DFF
Sometimes the symmetrical division of the mutazioni is disrupted by
the free disposition of seven- and eleven-syllable verses in each segment.
When the linking rhyme remains, the forms are still recognizable as
would-be ballate. Note that in no. 3 below the volta is extended by ad-
ditional rhymes:27

1) Aa bc/BC cdd
2) aBBII ecd/DC cEE
3) ABb CD/dC CeeEFf
4) aBBa cDE/CdE eFF
25
(I) Gloriarmi poss'io, in II imo lib. de mad. di Verd., no. 17 (Verdelot); (2)
Ne per gratia giamai,in II 20 lib. de mad. di Verd., no. 15 (Verdelot).
26
(I) Cosl mi guid'amore (Cassola),in II i"m lib. d'i mad.,p. 9 (Arcadelt);(2)
Se la presentia vostra, ibid., p. 17 (anon.); (3) Amanti il servir vostro, in Di Ver-
delotto tutti li madrigali del primo et secondo libro a quatro voci . . . Venice, G.
Scotto, 1540 [RISM 154020] (C. Festa); (4) Da quei bei lumi (Giovanni Brevio), in
Di Cip. di Rore il Imo lib. de mad., p. 14 (Rore).
27 (I) Perchbpiangealma (Sannazaro),in Mad. a y lib. imo, p. 18 (anon.); (2)
Dhe percbh si veloce in II imo lib. de mad. di Verd., no. 22 (Verdelot); (3) Qual
fia'l dolor in II imo lib. d'i mad., p. 22 (Ubert N[aich]); (4) BencWhla donna mia,
ibid., p. 14 (Ubert N[aich]).
With the omission of the linking rhyme, however, the connection with
the ballata is even further loosened:28
I) AbB i cd/CD EE
2) ABB CD/cD EEFF
3) AbB [ cdE/cDe FfGG
4) Abba [I Cd/cD eE
The connection is almost severed when different terminal rhymes are
introduced into each segment of the mutazioni, already free in their
arrangement of verse lengths and, sometimes, lacking the concatenazione.
Now the idea of the mutazioni as equal segments has lost all significance.
Poems of this sort bear only a vague resemblance to the ballata:29
Ripresa Mutazioni? "Volta"?
i) AbA H CdC Ee
2) aBB CDD eFF
3) aBB I CDCcD DEFE
4) aBB II CDdCeF FGG
5) aBB cDDCEE FFGG
6) aBB CDEDEF fGGHH
What remains of the ballata, if anything, is the hypothetical division into
ripresa and stanza. The division is suggested, at any rate, by the presence
in many examples of a double bar (or fermata).
One cannot speak of a "typical" ballata-madrigal, for the relationship
between ballata-madrigal and its parent forms differs in degree and kind
from one poem to the next. The following might be cited as a "rep-
resentative" example, rather close to the ballata in"structure:3?
Rhymes:
Ripresa: Amor, quanto piiu lieto a
Mi stavo et givo di speranz'altero, B
Tant'hor son post'in doglia et manco spero. B
Mutazioni: Mia benigna fortuna in piant'e volta, C
Che da quei lumi vaghi d
Ond'io vivea, et lei n'era contenta, E
Piacer non sento pidi ch'un dol m'appaghi; D
N? pur mia prece ascolta, c
28
(1) L'alta speranza,in Lib. 30 de d. aut. ecc., p. ii (Ruffo); (z) Cesareagentil,
mo lib. d'i
in 11 mad., p. 20 (Ubert [Naich]); (3) lo no'l dissi giamai, in Le dotte et.
ecc. comp., p. 38 (anon.); (4) Qual vista, in II Imo lib. di mad., 1548 ed., p. 2 (anon.).
29
(i) Deggio sempre pennar, in Lib. 30 de div. aut. ecc., p. 9 (Ruffo); (2) lo non
so dir parole, in II imo lib. d'i mad., p. 35 (Ferabosco); (3) Madonna io vi confesso,
in II 20 lib. de li mad., p. 30 (Gero); (4) lo mi credea scemare, ibid., p. 14 (Gero);
(5) Purpurei e bianchi flori, ibid., p. 20 (Gero); (6) Mentr'il pensier vivea, in Lib.
30 de div. aut. ecc., p. io (Ruffo).
30Setting by Verdelot in [Mad. de div. mus.], fol. IIv.
Anci tutta crudel mi s'appresenta. E) concatenazione

"Volta": Po' esser mai che spenta e
Sia'n lei pietA, per cui m'accesi in modo F
Che quanto m'odia pidid'amarla godo? F
Here is another example more deviant still:31
Rhymes:
Ripresa: Ardenti miei sospiri a
Ch'al ciel volando dal bel nome carchi, B
Lasciat'il cor in pred'ai suoi martiri. A
Mutazioni: Gitene ove si posa c
La bella Tulia nostra, d
Sopr'il bel Tebro a guisa d'una rosa. C
Ditegli che'l cor manca, et se vi mostra D
Qualche pietade, aprit'il vostro seno E) concatenazione?
"Volta": Et con un suono ameno e
Fate l'onde honorate e i colli e'l mare F
E'l ciel del sacro nome risonare. F
II
The I6th-century madrigal is as formless a kind of poetry as is pos-
sible within the conventions of Italian verse. Cardinal Bembo does not
say much about it-few theorists do, they seem to be taken aback by its
structural freedom-but his remarks are telling. He classifies madrigals
among the "rime libere,"32and goes on to remark that the poet may form
them as he sees fit ("ma ciascuno, si come ad esso piace, cosi le forma").
This freedom has its limits, to be sure. The madrigal is confined, with-
out exception, to iambic meter and to verse lengths of seven and eleven
syllables. Bembo took it for granted that poets would stay within the
bounds of these conventions.
What is meant, then, by the structural freedom of the madrigal? First
of all, it is unfettered by restrictions on overall length. The madrigal
may run anywhere from five to fifteen verses or more. The poet and
theorist Girolamo Ruscelli (d. 1566) sets its normative length at twelve
lines,33 yet in practice most examples seem to fall into patterns of seven,
eight, nine, or eleven lines.
Secondly, seven- and eleven-syllable verses may alternate ad libitum
or, if so desired, the one verse length may appear to the exclusion of the
other. In practice, the eleven-syllable verse, with its greater breadth,
seems to be preferred over the shorter settenario, and the alternation
31 Setting by Verdelot in Verdelot la pil divina et piuzbella musica ... a sei voci
... Venice, A. Gardane, I541 [RISM 154116], 9.
32
By these he means forms which follow p.no prescribed rules for the number of
verses or their rhyme scheme. "Non hanno alcuna legge o nel numero de' versi, o
nella manieradel rimargli":Le prose della volgar lingua, p. I52.
33Trattato del modo di comporre in versi nella lingua italianapremesso al Rimario
[Ist ed., ca. i56o] (Venice, i68o), p. 86.
of the two, over the totally septenaric or hendecasyllabic types. The only
convention in general use is the tendency to construct the final distich
as two eleven-syllable verses (with the same rhyme), though many ex-
amples may be cited to the contrary.
Thirdly, the madrigal is free in the number and arrangement of its
terminal rhymes. Their number varies from between three (abBCcAA-
bbC)34 to eight or nine (aBAcdeDFFgghhjj);35 the number of un-
rhymed endings, from one to three or more. (Very often it is the initial
line that remains unpaired, as in aBbCcdDeE.)3' The arrangement of
rhymes takes one of three forms: an almost uninterrupted succession of
different endings partly in rhyme (AbACBDEcEdfF);37 or groups of
paired couplets (aa bB CC dD EE F GG);38 or, more often, a form
mediating between these two extremes, with some verses unrhymed,
some verses rhymed consecutively, and some rhymed obliquely, as in
ABCCbDDEDEFF.39
To summarize, then, the freedom of the madrigal pertains to its
length, to its alternation of. seven- and eleven-syllable verses or its ex-
clusive adherence to one or the other, as the case may be, and to its ar-
rangement of terminal rhymes. The following verses by Luigi Cassola
may be taken as a typical example:40
Rhymes:
Madonna,io v'amo et taccio; a
Ve'l pu6 giurarAmore b
Che tanto foco 6 in me quanto6 in voi g[h]iaccio. A
Et s'io non oso dire c
L'intensomio martire, c
Non f6 per salvar me, ma il vostro honore. B
Io vi porto nel core; b
Da voi vien l'alta spemee'l grandesire. C
Et merc6vostra io vivo in fiamm'acceso; D
Vorreisenza parlaresser inteso. D
The Trecento madrigal is as far removed from the later type in

structure as it is in time. According to the theorist Sommacampagna,
the (Trecento) madrigal falls into two classes, depending on the ab-
sence or presence of a "ritornello": the simple madrigal ("marigale
comune") and the ritornello madrigal ("marigale con retornello").41 The
34Hor credetemi amanti, in Verd. la piuzdivina, p. 27 (anon.).
35Ardenti mei desiri, in Mad. a 5 lib. Imo, p. 16 (anon.).
36 Chi vuol veder fra noi, in Lib. 30 de div. aut. ecc., p. i8 (C. Festa).
37 Fu pur fero destino, in Lib. 30de div. aut. ecc., p. 2i (Arcadelt).
38 Madonna io vi vo
dire, in 11 terzo libro de madrigali di Verdelotto ... Venice,
O. Scotto, '537 [RISM 153711], no. 19 (anon.).
39 Se per honesti preghi, in II 20 lib. de li mad., p. 12 (Corteccia).
40Set to music in Mad. a 5 lib. Imo, p. 15 (Verdelot). Cf. Einstein, op. cit., I,
p. 186.
41 Trattato,pp. 132-i46.
main body was constructed as two or three tercets;42 to these the

ritornello added an extra couplet or quatrain:43
I) Simplemadrigal: ABB ACC CDD

2) Madrigalwith ritornello: ABB CDD DEE FF
The number of verses varies from eight to eleven, yet most seem to ad-
here to the eight-verse scheme as a norm. Sacchetti's madrigals are typical
in this respect, nearly all of them (23 out of 29) being built on the pat-
tern ABB CDD EE or slight variations thereof.
Of the two verse lengths, the settenario (or verso rotto) and the
endecasillabo, the latter claimed almost exclusive favor. True, com-
mentators-Sommacampagna, for one-admit of additional possibilities
of combination, even a wholly septenaric type,44 yet these remain, for
the most part, more in the realm of theory than of practice. Petrarch's
and Sacchetti's madrigals are wholly hendecasyllabic.45
As to the rhymes and their arrangement, the following generalizations
may be made: each tercet consists of three or, more frequently, two
rhymes; when three rhymes, the (first two) tercets are often ordered
similarly (ABC ABC), when two, differently (ABB CDD). The duplica-
tion of the initial rhyme (of each tercet) tends to be avoided (i.e., not
AAB, but ABB). Petrarch's four madrigals illustrate four different
schemes:46
Non al suo amante: ABA BCB CC
Nuova angioletta: ABC ABC DD
Or vedi Amore: ABB ACC CDD
Perch'al viso d'Amor: ABA CBC DBDB
I cite his Nuova angioletta, a poem much favored for musical setting
by I6th-century madrigalists,47as a typical example:
Rhymes:
Terzetti: Nuova angioletta sovra l'al'accorta A
Scese dal ciel insi' la frescha riva B
Ond'io passava sol per mio destino. C
Poiche senza compagni et senza scorta A
Mi vidd', un laccio, che di sete ordiva, B
Tese fra l'herba onde verd'e'l camino. C
42 Inpractice, though, two tercets seem always to be followed by a ritornello.
43 (I) Petrarch's Or vedi Amor (Canzoniere:CXXI); (2) Sacchetti'sRivolto avea
il zapator la terra (Rime: L).
44 Sommacampagna, op. cit., p. 141.
45The 16th-century theorist Minturno notes that a perusal of the canzonieri of
Trecento poets yields no evidence-Sommacampagna's treatise notwithstanding-of
the use of septenaric verses: "E discorrendo per li Canzonieri degli antichi, non tro-
varete nel Madrigaleverso rotto": Arte poetica, p. 262.
46
Canzoniere,nos. LII, CVI, CXXI, LIV respectively.
47Examples are an anonymous setting in II ima lib. d'i mad., p. 21, and a setting
by Ruffo in Lib. 30 de div. aut. ecc., p. 6.
Ritornello: Alhorfui presoet non mi spiacquepoi, D
Si dolce lum'usciadagli occhi suoi. D
On the face of it, i4th- and I6th-century madrigals appear as re-
mote from each other as, say, a Gabrieli sonata from a sonata by Galuppi.
Their only point of contact, it would seem, and an inconsequential one
at that, is their common name. Yet the earlier type was not forgotten in
later times; how could it be, with the attention it received in the writ-
ings of the humanists (Dolce, Trissino, Minturno, and their kind) and
the cult of veneration that they and the madrigal poets instituted around
the person and poetry of Petrarch. Whether out of reverence for
Petrarch or not, the 14th-century madrigal was revived, in fact, in sev-
eral madrigals of the Cinquecento. This "revival" took any one of five
possible forms, each illustrating varying degrees of correspondence to
the model type. First, there are madrigals whose texts date from the
i4th century, as in the case of Petrarch's Nuova angioletta cited above,
or, more frequently still, new poetry fashioned according to the prosody
of the 14th-century madrigal. Here is a sampling of I6th-century mad-
rigals based, presumably, on the earlier model:48
i) ABC ABC DD
2) ABC BCA DD
3) ABB ACC CDD
4) ABC CAB DDEE
A second type is that of madrigals imitating the 14th-century form in
all respects, save the undivided adherence to hendecasyllabic verses. The
admixture of the two verse lengths, as mentioned, was given theoretical
recognition. That 16th-century "imitations" alternated both verse
lengths proves one of two things: either the later poets were well ac-
quainted with the theoretical writings of their time49 or, more likely,
they strove to refashion the earlier type in accordance with their own
poetic feeling-meaning, of course, a feeling for greater flexibility in verse
construction. Whatever the case, such verses clearly illustrate their af-
finity with, if not derivation from, the earlier model. I propose to call
them Trecento-like madrigals. Here are some examples:50
48 (I) Se amor qualche rimedio, in [Mad. de div. mus.], fol. iz2 (Seb. Festa); (2)
Per folti boschi, in II 20 lib. de Ii mad., p. 2 (Arcadelt); (3) Altro non d'l mio amor
... inferno (Cassola), in Dei madrigali di Verdelotto et de altri eccellentissimiautori
a cinque voci, libro secondo, Venice, O. Scotto, 1538 [RISM 153821], no. 2 (Verde-
lot); (4) Dur'd il partito, in 2nd ed., 1534 [RISM 153415] of [Mad. de div. mus.],
fol. 14 (C. Festa).
49If they were humanisticallyinclined, they would certainly have informed them-
selves of what the theorists had to say in matters of prosody and, therefore, might
well have cultivated forms given sanction in theory, even if these forms seem to be
unbacked by 14th-centurypractice.
50 (i) Lasso prima ch'io spiri, in Lib. 30 de div. aut. ecc., p. 8 (Ruffo); (2) Chi
potrebbe stimar, ibid., p. 20 (Schaffen); (3) Quant'il mio mal, ibid., p. i6 (Schaffen);
(4) Quando Madonna amor, in II 20 lib. de mad. di Verd., no. i6 (Verdelot).
I) abB acC dD
2) Abc Abc cDD
3) ABc CBa aDD
4) AbB AcC DdEE
Third,thereare madrigalslike the above,builtfrom two verselengths,
but lackinga thirdtercet or a
ritornello.:
I) Abb Acc
2) aBB aCC
Theseareabbreviated Trecento-likemadrigals,
possibly.It may be forc-
ing the issueto relatethem to the earliertype; their similarity,at any
rate,deserves notice.52Thoughtotalling linesin all, they are not to
six
be confused with the sestina, rhymed consecutively (ABCDEF) and
built from endecasillabialone, nor with the piedi of the ballataor the
canzone (see below), which adheredto identical rhymes in each section
(e.g., ABB ABB).
Fourth: some madrigals break away from the archetype not only in
their admixture of different verse lengths, but also in their alteration of
the order established in the first tercet. "Free Trecento-like madrigals,"
if you will, or the Trecento madrigal pushed one step further in the
direction of the free Cinquecento madrigal. Here are two examples:53
I) ABC abc ddEE

2) ABB Acc DdEE
Fifth, and finally, there are true-blue i6th-century madrigals whose
syntactical division into groups of three lines recalls, however hazily,
the tercet structure of the earlier type:54
I) Abb, CDE, EFF

2) aAB, ccb, BDD
3) ABB, cDD, cEE, DFF
51 (1) Amor se d'hor in hor (M. Bandello), in II imo lib. de mad. di Verd., no. 8
(Verdelot); (2) Madonna io sol vorrei, ibid., no. 23 (Verdelot).
52The 14th-century madrigal of two tercets was, still and all, a form
recognized
by the theorists. Sommacampagnawrites (op. cit., p. 141) that "madrigalsmay be
built from as many parts as one so desires" ("nota che zaschadunomarighale se pub
compillare de quante parte piace a l'omo"). Trissino says much the same in his treatise
on poetics (Tutte le opere, II, 78): "La onde possiamo dire, che i Mandrialisono di
una combinazione di dui, overo di tre terzetti ... dopo la quale combinazione talora
non v'hanno nulla, ma molto pi" frequentemente v'hanno or uno; or dui tornelli"
("madrigals,one may say, are built from a combination of two or three tercets ...
after which there is either nothing or, more often, [an additional segment of] one or
two ritornelli").
53 (i) Hor che serd, in Lib. 3g de div. aut. ecc., p. 24 (Ferro); (2) Madonna io
son un medico, in II imo lib. d'i mad., 1548 ed., p. ii (Ubert [Naich]).
54 (1) Vivace fiamma, in II imo lib. di mad., p. 30 (Corteccia); (2) Ben si convien,
in Di Cip. di Rore il Im lib. de mad., p. 6 (Rore); (3) Donna per amarv'io, in Le
dotte et ecc. comp. (Arcadelt).
It is clear that the further removed the Cinquecento "imitations"
from their model, the more difficult it is to determine whether their
structural affinity is deliberate or merely fortuitous. One has to allow,
then, for a margin of speculation. For that matter, everything after the
second category outlined above belongs increasingly to the speculative
realm. The evidence of the first two categories suffices, nevertheless, to
indicate-and this is the important point-the existence of a real relation-
ship between the i4th- and 16th-century madrigal on grounds of pros-
ody. In other words, the older type, generally considered irrelevant
to any discussion of the Cinquecento madrigal, comes to life as a
vitalizing formal principle two centuries later. The i6th-century madri-
gal, as we have seen, does not always bind itself to the dead letter of its
model. It altered this model by the interchange of different verse lengths
and, perhaps, by modifications more far-reaching still (categories three
to five). It is important to view the relationship between old and new in
evolutionary terms, to emphasize the continuity of the madrigale' as a
structural type: the Trecento madrigal, existing at an earlier period in
time, resuscitated at a later date, changes in conformity with the chang-
ing times. It adapts itself perforce to a new literary situation, to the
growing taste for freedom from prosodic strictures. Trecento-like mad-
rigals are then later essays in an earlier structural form; I conclude by
citing an example:55
Rhymes:
Terzetti: lo piangoche'l dolore a
Pianger mi fa, perch'io b
Non trov'altrorimedioa l'ardormio. B
Cosi m'ha con ci6 amore a
Ch'ognor viv'in tormento, c
Ma quanto piango piit, men doglia sento. C
Ritornello: Sorte fierae inaudita d
Che'l tacer mi da morte,e'l pianger,vita. D
III
The decisive importance of the canzone in the poetry of the early
madrigal is often overlooked. The canzone long earned a reputation as
the noblest of poetic forms. Dante ranked it above the sonnet and bal-
lata in literary excellence ("Horum autem modorum Cantionum modum
excellentissimum esse pensamus").56 Later theorists-Trissino, Dolce,
Minturno, and others-introduce their discussion of the form by reiterating
Dante's words "noblilissimum aliorum." The canzone lived on into the
I6th century not only in the examples by Petrarch, but also in many
55Setting by Ruffo in Lib. 30 de div. aut. ecc., p. 7.
56De vulgari eloquentia,Bk II, ch. iii.
original poems based on its prosody. Later examples are distinguished

by the tendency-in the early madrigal, at any rate-to abbreviate the
multi-strophic canzone to a single stanza. (The multistrophic variety was
later to be reinstated in the many canzone cycles written from the mid-
dle of the century on).57 Reduced to a single stanza, the poetry has
often been mistaken for a free madrigal. Yet the canzone, even in such
abbreviated form, was governed by a structural canon of its own, quite
unlike the free prosody of the madrigal. The theorists go to no little
trouble to fix this canon in minute detail. Our description of the canzone
is based in large part on Trissino, who gives it ample coverage in his
Arte Poetica.58
The canzone, or more correctly, the single canzone stanza, consists
of two parts, the first called piedi, the second, sirima. Piedi are two short
sections identical in number of verses, rhyme scheme, and verse lengths.
The number of verses in each piede runs from two to four. Their rhymes
are grouped, accordingly, in pairs of couplets (AB/AB), tercets (ABC/
ABC), or quatrains (ABCD/ABCD).59 Verses of seven and eleven syl-
lables freely intermingle, falling, nevertheless, in parallel places in each
piede (ABbC/ABbC; aBC/bAC; etc.). Here is the piedi section of
Machiavelli's 0 dolce notte (from La Mandragola, end of Act IV):'60
Rhymes:
O dolce notte, o sante a
Hore nocturn'equiete b
Che i desiosi amanti acompagniate: C
In voi s'adunan tante a
Leticie, onde voi sete b
Sole cagion di far l'alme beate. C
The sirima evidences greater flexibility of form. It is built as a suc-
cession of rhymed couplets with or without extra (unrhymed) verse
interpolations, as in the scheme cc D eE.61 No restrictions are put on the
number of verses or the order of verse lengths. The very idea of rhymed
couplets interspersed with unrhymed verses admits of considerable lee-
57Important early collections are Mattio Rampollini's Primo Libro de la musica
. : sopra di alcune canzoni del Petrarca .. .Lyons, J. Moderne [ca. 1540] (see Ein-
stein, op. cit., I, p. 288) and the Vergini settings of Rore (Musica di Cipriano Rore
sopra le stanze del Petrarca ... a cinque voci . . . Venice, A. Gardane, 1548). The
second half of the i6th century can boast a plethora of such canzone cycles.
58 Tutte le opere, II, pp. 60-78. It should be mentioned that Trissino borrows
heavily from the literary tract written in the i4th century by Antonio da Tempo
and published for the first time in 1505 as Trattado de le rime volgari. Their ex-
amples are culled from Petrarch,Dante, Cino da Pistoia, and others.
59The rhymes were arrangedeither consecutively (as above) or obliquely ("rime
baciate,"as AB/BA, ABC/CAB, etc.).
60 Set by Verdelot in II 3 lib. de mad. di Verd., no. 6.
c' These single-verse interpolations
usually agree with a rhyme in the piedi. (Thus
the above example, cc D eE, might more aptly read cc A [or B] dD.)
way in construction.62 One notable feature of the canzone is the linking
together of piedi and sirima through a common rhyme, called unitd.
(The procedure is already familiar from the ballata where mutazioni and
volta are linked similarly, though Trissino uses a different term, "con-
catenazione.") Generally the last verse of the piedi is paired with the
first of the sirima, as in the scheme abC/abCcDdeE.63 Here are a number
of canzoni illustrating several of the (theoretically unlimited) possibili-
ties of sirima construction. All of them, by the way, demonstrate the
linking of piedi and sirima:61
Piedi Sirima
i) AB/BA aCCADD
aB/bA
2) aCCDEeDfGG
3) abC/abC cdeeDfF
4) aBC/bAC CDEeDfDFF
5) AbbC/BaaC cddEeDFF
Two formal principles are at work in the canzone, splitting the form
into two: the rigidly ordered rhymes and verse lengths of the piedi, on
the one hand, and the free prosody of the sirima, on the other. It is for
this reason, perhaps, that the form was called by the theorists canzone
(or stanza) divisa.65 The tendency to prosodic freedom was enhanced
by further structural licenses, such as the omission, occasionally, of the
linking rhyme6e-an omission also sanctioned in the ballata:7
Piedi Sirima
i) AB/BA CDCDD
aB/bA2) CcDefF
or the shifting of this same rhyme to a verse other than the first verse of
the sirima:68
62 The theorist Dolce
goes so far as to leave it up to the poet to determine the
number of verses and their arrangement,as he sees fit: "Perciocchec in arbitrio dello
scrittore di elegger quel numero di versi, e quell'ordine di corrispondenze che piii
gli piace": I quattro libri delle osservationi di M. Lodovico Dolce ... [Ist ed., 1550o]
(Venice, Salicato, 1585), p. 215-
63 This scheme is exemplified by Machiavelli'sQuanto sia liet'il giorno (from the
prologue to his comedy Ctizia).
64 (i) Che giova saettar (Bembo), in II imo lib. d'i mad., p. 25 (Ubert N[aich]);
(2) Nasce fra l'herb'un fiore, ibid., 1548 ed.,p. 9 (anon.); (3) Da bei rami scendea
(Petrarch), ibid. (original I542 ed.), p. 5 (Arcadelt); (4) Dolor perchb mi meni
(Petrarch) in I 20 lib. de li mad., p. 36 (Gero); (5) Novo piacer (Petrarch) in
II zmo lib. d'i mad., p. 26 (Arcadelt).
65 Trissino, op. cit., p. 6i et seq.
66Petrarch set a precedent for this kind of omission in Mai non vo' pi' cantar
(Canzoniere: CL): ABC/ABC DEDdEFGgF. Omission of the linking rhyme was
apparently condoned by the theorists. Trissino, for one, quotes a canzone by Cino
da Pistoia whose rhymes are the following: AbC/AbC DEeDfF (op. cit., p. 77).
67 (i) Altro non d'l mi'amor . . . paradiso, in Mad. a 5 lib. imo, ca. 1535, p. 12
(anon.); (2) Quando benigna stella, in Verd. la pizddivina, p. I2 (anon).
68 In me cresce
l'ardore, in Verd. la pizi divina, p. 3 (anon.).
Piedi Sirima
AB/BA ccADD
I I
or the use of different rhymes in each piede, retaining all the while the
order of verse lengths and the linking rhyme with the sirima:69
Piedi Sirima
aBbC/cDdA aBEeBFA
All this goes to prove the flexibility and variability of the canzone as a
structural type. It is not to be grouped with the formes fixes of the
frottola, nor is it to be grouped with the free madrigal. It stands some-
where between the two, allowing for freedom within an overall frame-
work of regularity. Here is a typical example: 10
Rhymes:
Piedi: Con l'angelicoriso a
A me negasti i dolci basci santi, B
Et coi penosi pianti b
Benignamente mi basciasti il viso. un
Sirima: Sola, il cor lieto da pietA diviso Auni
A
Havete a vostra voglia, et sola pia C
Seta nell'aspra noia. d
Dalle lagrime gioia d
Hebbi, dal riso acerba pena ria. C
O lassi, o lassi amanti, insieme prema E
Sempre a voi il cor, hoim6, speranza e tema. E
No wonder the canzone flourished during the interim period between
frottola and madrigal, a period in which composers, loath to relinquish
the achievements of the past, sought for a compromise between the heri-
tage of the formes fixes and their urge for a new kind of poetry re-
leased from prosodic bounds (as exemplified by the madrigal).71 The
canzone was suited by nature to mediate between past and future, be-
tween traditional form and the demands of this "new" structural feeling.
In a number of examples, canzone form, I suggest, was altered still

further to bring it into accord with the freer prosody of the madrigal.
69 Qual piuZdiversa et nova cosa
(Petrarch, Canzoniere:CXXXV). (Note that it
is Petrarch again who establishes a precedent for this license.) The poem was set by
Willaert in Madrigali a quatro voci di Geronimo Scotto ... Venice, G. Scotto, 1542
[RISM I54219], fol. I7v.
70 A (contemporary) translation of Giovanni Pontano's Latin
poem Cum rides
mihi basium negasti (from his Hendecasyllabi, Bk. I, no. 15). Composed by Verdelot
in II I"'o lib. de mad. di Verd., no. 19.
71 have in mind such collections as Musica de messer Bernardo Pisano
sopra le
canzone del Petrarcha; Motetti e canzone libro primo; Fior de motetti e canzoni
novi de diversi excellentissimi musici; Canzoni frottole et capitoli . .. Libro primo
de la Croce; and others. The importance of the canzone as a transitional link be-
tween frottola and madrigal has been underscored by Einstein, op. cit., I, p. z28f.
Because of their proximity to the two structural types, canzone and
madrigal, such examples might well be called canzone-madrigals; they
preserve specific features of the canzone while adopting others more
typical of the madrigal. A study of these examples reveals that canzone-
madrigals deviate from the "true" canzone, basically, in any one of four
ways. First, the order of seven- and eleven-syllable verses, established in
the first piede, is disrupted in the second. Such traits of syntax, however,
as the division into piedi, the marking off of piedi from sirima, and
the presence of the concatenazione remain untouched: 2
Piedi Sirima
I) aB/BA ACddCEE
2) Ab/bA AcDDCCEE
3) AB/ab bCddCdEE
Second, to the freedom in the order of verse lengths is added the omission
of the linking rhyme-which removes these examples even further from
the "true" canzone:73
Piedi Sirima
I) AB/bA CCdD
2) Ab/BA CdCDD
3) Ab/bA CDDEE
Third, a new rhyme is introduced in the second piede without, however,
affecting the order of verse lengths or the linking rhyme:74
Piedi Sirima
I) aB/aC cDD
2) aB/bC cAddEd
Fourth, and perhaps furthest removed from the "true" canzone, are
verses in which a new rhyme is introduced in the second piede and the
72 (1) Sl vivo, in Lib. 30 de div. aut. ecc., p. 28 (anon.); (2) Nasce bella sovente,
in II Imo lib. d'i mad., p. 19 (Yvo); (3) Lieta e Madonna (Bonaccorsi), in II 20 lib.
de mad. di Verd., no. 6 (Verdelot).
For some early examples of the same, see L'ultimo di di maggio, in MS Florence,
Magl. XIX. 164-167, no. 44 (S. Festa?): Ab/AB bcCcDD; and Donna benchi di
rado, ibid., no. 7 (Pisano): AB/bA aCcDdEE.
73
(i) Quando gionse per gli occbi, in II 20 lib. de mad. di Verd., no. 5 (Willaert);
(2) Amar un sol amante, in II imo lib. d'i mad., 1548 ed., p. 29 (Berchem); (3)
Quando fia mai, in II 20 lib. de Ii mad., p. 16 (Lamberto).
4 This is to be distinguishedfrom a similar type mentioned above. There the new
rhymes formed the inner verses of each quatrain (aBbC/CDdA); so much may be
inferred, at any rate, from Petrarch's one essay in this genre. Here the new rhymes
jut out as the first or last rhymes of a two-line couplet, a license without precedent
in theoretical or practical sources of the canzone.
The examples are as follows: (i) Hor vedete Madonna, in [Mad. de div. mus.],
fol. 4v (M. Ian); (2) La bella man mi porse, in II ,mo lib. de mad. di Verd., no. 22
(Verdelot). Perhaps one should distinguish between canzone- and "canzonetta"-
madrigal. The first poem, due to its brevity, would be an example of the latter.
order of verse lengths is disrupted as well. What is retained of the can-

zone is the linking rhyme and the syntactical division into two sections
akin to piedi and sirima-a tenuous connection at best:75
Piedi? Sirima?
ab/Bc cDdeeff
Most examples of the canzone-madrigal seem to fall into the first and
second categories outlined. The first presents one deviation from the
norm, the second, two. Needless to say, the greater the number of devia-
tions in a single example, the closer its assimilation to the free madrigal.
Yet even in the highly madrigal-like poetry of category two, enough
features are retained-the division into piedi and sirima, the equivalence
of rhymes in both piedi-to posit a derivation, more or less unequivo-
cally, from the canzone. The following might be taken as a representa-
tive example of the canzone-madrigal (category one):76
Rhymes:
Piedi: Fedele et bel cagnuol che tanto spesso A
Scherzi nel gremio di Madonna mia, B
Poiche venirle adpresso a
Non posso (qual fai tu) come io vorria,
B)
Sirima: Mostra, per cortesia, b unitc
Col dolze mugolar, co' salti et cenni, C
Che el di che al mondo io venni c
Nacqui suo fido amante. d
Et sar6 sempre et teco vigilante D
Che altri non furi sua bellezanuova; E
Onde, di gratia, pruova e
Di far ch'ela mi chiami et tenga teco F
A scherzar et saltar talvolta seco. F
Here is another example (now drawn from category two):77
Rhymes:
Piedi: Non ved'hoggi'l mio sole a
Splender nel luogo usato, b
Ne sento le dolcissime parole A
Che mi pon far beato. b
Sirima: Come, dunque, poss'io tenermi in vita C
Senza l'usat'aita? c
Ov'e I'alma mia luce, ov'e sparita? C
Seguirl'6 forza, et dove'l pi6 mi porta D
Gli occhi sarano al cor fidata scorta, D
Cercando la mia dea ch'io adoro in terra E
Per dar o pace o tregu'a la mia guerra. E
75Occhi pi'U che sereni (P. Aretino), in Mad. a 5 lib. Imo, p. 6 (anon.).
76
Setting by Verdelot in Altus libro primo de la fortuna [Venice, Giunta?], ca.
1530 [RISM 15302], fol.
9v.in
77Setting by Corteccia II Imo lib. d'i mad., p. 29.
Before taking up the question of the structural relationship often
claimed between canzone and free madrigal, it is worth mentioning
another kind of canzone given attention by the theorists, the so-called
canzone continua (or distesa).78 In distinction to the canzone divisa
which falls into two recognizable sections, the canzone continua consists
of a "continuous" sequence of unrhymed verses, six to eight in number,
as in the scheme ABCDEFG. Their endings are duplicated in each suc-
cessive stanza, thus ABCDEFG / ABCDEFG etc. (It will be noticed
that the six-line version, in its first stanza at least, is identical with the
sestina.) The canzone continua depends for its symmetry, then, on
repetitions between strophes and not on repetitions within a single
strophe, as in the case of the canzone divisa. Single out one strophe, any
strophe, of a canzone divisa; it remains, nonetheless, a canzone divisa.
Single out one strophe of a canzone continua; what do you have?-per-
haps a sestina, perhaps a free madrigal-it is hard to say.
The canzone continua was frequent in Provenqal poetry. By the 14th
century, though, it seems to have fallen into disuse. Petrarch's single
poem in this form, Verdi panni (Canzoniere: XXIX)-eight stanzas
constructed on the rhyme scheme AbCDEFG-stands out as a lone
remnant of an earlier art. Two centuries later, poets tried their hand
again at writing canzoni continue, spurred on as they were by their
reverence for tradition. Trissino, who headed a humanistic academy,
invented a stanzaic canzone on the rhymes AbCDeFGH.79 The canzone
is unique, for it is one of the first, if not the sole example of a canzone
continua to have been set to music by the early madrigalists.A0(The writer
knows of no other.) Its first stanza, the only one of the seven composed,
reads as follows:
Rhymes:
La bella donnaa cui donasti il core, A
La qual fu sl cortese b
Che per si caro don vide si stessa, C
Hor che novellament'alciel 6 gita, D
Sciolta da questa spoglia e
Che fu refugiosol agli occhi nostri, F
Si volge a drieto e sent'il duro pianto G
Che si fa in terr'ondesospirain cielo. H
The poetry could easily be mistaken for a free madrigal. Indeed, one
may question whether the distinction between madrigal and canzone
continua, as abbreviated here to a single stanza, ever occurred to the
composer. It is difficult to say. Since the musical structure of the early
78
Dolce, op. cit., p. 224; Trissino, op. cit., II, pp. 6o-6i; Sommacampagna,op. cit.,
pp. 105-122.
7 Tutte le opere, I,
pp. 369-370.
8011 20 lib. de mad.di Verd., no. 20 (Verdelot).
madrigal is conditioned so often by repetitions and parallelisms in rhyme

scheme, it seems reasonable to assume that the composer was aware of, if
not influenced by the rhymeless verses he composed.
This brings us to the question of whether there is a relationship
between the forms of the canzone (divisa and continua) and the madri-
gal. Ever since the literary theorist Massini wrote to the effect that a
single stanza of a canzone is indistinguishable from a madrigal,81 it has
been customary to equate madrigals with canzoni, to pass off the former,
in fact, as something of a structural derivative from the latter. Massini's
remarks about the equivalence of the two forms-first reported by
Cesari,g2later taken up by Einstein ("for the madrigal is, as regards its
poetic form, no other than the canzone stanza,"83 and paid lip service by
most students of the madrigal-deserve closer attention. He writes, first
of all, that "it is impossible to construct a canzone of a single stanza that
is not a madrigal" ("Impossibil cosa e' di far canzone d'una sola stanza
che non sia madrigale"). If I understand him rightly, he means by this
two things: (i) a canzone of a single strophe is a madrigal, and, by
implication, (2) a multistrophic canzone is a canzone (and, therefore,
not a madrigal). The first point, then, denies the existence of the mono-
strophic canzone as poetry in its own right; the very fact that it is mono-
strophic makes it, apparently, into a madrigal. The second point need
not detain us long; it is clear that a multistrophic canzone, that is, a can-
zone in which all strophes are present, is, ipso facto, a canzone, and no
other form. Actually the understanding of Massini's statement hinges
on the meaning he assigns to the words madrigale and canzone. Is he
referring here to the madrigal and canzone as poetic forms or as musical
forms?
Suppose he had in mind their poetic forms. We would then reinterpret
his statement to read: (i) a (poetic) canzone of a single strophe is a
(poetic) madrigal, and, by implication, (2) a (poetic) multistrophic
canzone is not a (poetic) madrigal, but a (poetic) canzone (-a self-evi-
dent truth!). As we have seen from our discussion of the canzone, the
canzone (divisa) cannot be equated, by any stretch of the imagination,
with the poetry of the madrigal. The one divides into piedi and sirima;
it is governed by rules fixing the number of verses, rhymes, and verse
lengths of the piedi, and prescribing the linking of piedi and sirima
through a concatenazione. The other is largely free of such prosodic
controls. If there is any connection between canzone divisa and madri-
gal, it resides in the more or less freely built sirima section. Yet the con-
81Filippo Massini, Del madrigale, lettione dell'estatico insensato, recitata . . i

di 28 Aprile 1588, p. 171.
82 Die Entstehung des Madrigals im z6.
Jahrhundert (Cremona, 90o8), pp. 9-1o.
83 "ItalianMadrigalVerse," Proceedings of the Musical Association,vol. 63 (March,
1937), PP. 83-84.
nection is invalid, for it rests on the equivalence of part of a canzone
(divisa) stanza with the madrigal considered as a whole.
A far better case can be made for the equivalence of the madrigal with
(a single stanza of) the canzone continua. From a prosodic standpoint,
the two are identical, though this should be qualified by recalling that the
canzone continua (single stanza) runs from six to eight lines and is
rhymed continuously, that is, non-repetitively, whereas the free madri-
gal, theoretically unlimited in length, falls largely into combinations of
paired and unpaired rhymes. Still, there is nothing to prevent the struc-
ture of a single stanza of a canzone continua from functioning as the
structure of a madrigal as well, which, of course, only confirms Massini's
statement about the indistinguishability of the two forms. The sole flaw
in this line of reasoning, a serious flaw, is the assumption that the can-
zone continua played an influential role in the development of the I6th-
century madrigal. How is this possible? The canzone continua, as noted
above, was already obsolescent by the 14th century. Petrarch paid it
homage in one of his 29 canzoni. Trissino, and doubtless other human-
ists, fashioned some later examples on the old pattern, but these were
isolated examples, too sporadic, too much like archeological relics, to
set a precedent. In theory, yes, the madrigal is identical with a single
stanza of a canzone continua. In practice, though, it was the canzone
divisa, not the continua, that the poets cultivated, and it was to Petrarch
that they looked for their structural models. The only way the canzone
continua could have engendered the prosody, or more aptly, the lack of
prosody, of the free madrigal would be through its perpetuation as a
living tradition into the i6th century. Where are these later-day can-
zoni continue?
That Massini had the poetic form of the canzone in mind, and not its
musical form, is evident from his next statement. He notes that the sin-
gle stanza of a canzone serves as the formal and conceptual prototype for
the madrigal: "the madrigal, equivalent to the first stanza of the can-
zone, takes the latter for its guide in subject matter, form, meter, and
verse lengths" ("per la proportione ch'a con la prima stanza della can-
zone, prende regola da quella quanto alla materia, forma, qualit', et
quantit' di versi").84 Each of Massini's claims will be considered sep-
arately.
84 Massini,Del madrigale,p. 171.
Suppose, for the sake of argument, that the madrigale and canzone were equated
musically; it is interesting to follow through the logical implications of such an equa-
tion. We would then have to reinterpret Massini'soriginal statement to read:
(i) a
(musical) canzone of a single strophe is a (musical) madrigal, and, by implication,
(2) a (musical) multistrophic canzone is a (musical) canzone (and, therefore, not
a madrigal). Considering statement one, it is true that, musically speaking, little dif-
ference obtains between the musical forms of canzone and madrigal.The music may
reflect some of the idiosyncrasies of poetic form, if a canzone, the characteristic
traits of a canzone (divisa), if a madrigal, syntactical divisions, rhyme repetitions,
First, subject matter: that of the canzone is largely (need it be said?)

amorous. So is, for that matter, that of almost all the forms--ballata,
madrigale, sonnet, ottava rima-appearing in the Petrarchan Canzoniere.
The madrigal draws its themes then not from canzoni in particular, but
shares with the camnone that same preoccupation with res libidinosae
common to Italian lyric poetry in general.
Second, form: as we have seen, the canzone and (free) madrigal
constitute two structural types as different in their prosody as, perhaps,
Trecento and (free) I6th-century madrigals. The madrigal has been
compared above, more favorably, with the canzone continua. Yet it
should be stressed again that any attempt to derive the prosody of the
one from the other must face up to the hard fact that the canzone con-
tinua, relegated as it was to an inconsequential role in the literature of the
14th to i6th centuries, could hardly have directly influenced madrigal
prosody. From all available evidence, Massini's claim that the madrigal
looked to the first stanza of the canzone for its form appears untenable.
Third, meter: the madrigal is written in iambic meter. The poetry in
Petrarch's Canzoniere and, as a general rule, all higher forms of the
Italian lyric, be they sonnets, stanze (i.e., the ottava rima), ballate, or
canzoni, are written in iambic meter. Clearly, the madrigal had little to
learn from the canzone alone about the qualitative ordering of verses.
Fourth, verse lengths: here Massini stands on safer ground. The idea
of the alternation of seven- and eleven-syllable verses, fundamental to
the madrigal, was already worked out long before in the canzone. Son-
nets and stanze, it will be remembered, adhered exclusively to the en-
decasillabo. Yet the canzone was not the only form to alternate the two
verse lengths. The ballata, likewise built from a combination of the
two, could have furnished the madrigal with a prototype of its own.
To summarize, then, the canzone as a poetic form (of one stanza)-
Massini's claims notwithstanding--cannot be identified with the I6th-
century madrigal. True, in subject matter, meter, and length of verses,
the madrigal shares much with the earlier form. Yet the fact it shares
these same features with other forms as well means that the madrigal
was not directly indebted to the canzone, but to influences of the tra-
dition of Italian poetry at large. In form, as we have constantly stressed,
and the like. Yet very rarely are canzoni set as AAB, though such an ordering would
seem implicit in the build of the canzone divisa as two equal piedi and sirima; gen-
erally, the form of the canzone, as in the madrigal, is reflected on a lower structural
level-phrase repetition for rhyme repetition, rests for syntactical divisions, and so
forth. From the standpoint of overall (musical) structure, then, madrigal and can-
zone are well-nigh indistinguishable.Nobody, I am sure, would claim such prowess
as the ability to discriminate (by ear alone) between an Arcadelt setting of a canzone
(of one stanza) and the same composer's setting of a madrigal.In view of the musical
equivalence of canzone and madrigal, statement two must be modified to read: a
(musical) multistrophic canzone is not only a (musical) canzone, but a group of
separate canzoni (= madrigals), one for each strophe, joined together as a cycle.
the madrigal and canzone represent two separate verse types distin-
guishable in their prosody. In other words, the statement that "it is im-
possible to construct a canzone of a single stanza which is not a madri-
gal" is, for all intents and purposes, as inaccurate as it is misleading. A
madrigal is a madrigal. A canzone is a canzone. And never the twain
shall meet. (That there were attempts to bridge the gap between the
two forms, however, has been pointed out in the discussion of canzone-
madrigals..)
One final point, before leaving the subject. Who is this Massini, this
theorist who succeeded so admirably in sowing a basic falsehood into
the history of the Italian madrigal? No one seems to know much about
him; he is so shadowy a figure, in fact, as to be excluded from the com-
prehensive Enciclopedia Italiana. One may ask, quite justifiably, why so
much credence has been given to the comments of a man who, in his own
time, seems to have been pretty much of a literary nonentity! (The
writings of Bembo, Trissino, Dolce, Minturno, and other such "authori-
tative" figures, are conspicuously devoid of structural analogies between
the madrigal and the canznme.) One may ask, too, why Massini's "let-
tione dell'estatico insensato," written in 1588, that is, at a time when its
author was apt to know or remember very little about the origins of the
free madrigale, has been taken as documentary evidence for the deriva-
tion of the madrigal from the canzone stanza, a development which, if it
did take place, would have occurred some sixty years or so earlier!
The purpose of this study was not to cover all the poetic forms of the
early madrigal. Two important forms have been omitted: the sonnet
and the ottava rima. Of the several verse types of the madrigal, the son-
net and ottava rima are, structurally, the clearest; their strict laws of
prosody-Burckhardt called the sonnet a "vierzehnzeiliges Prokrustes-
bett"-preclude the possibility of tectonic change. Static forms they are
then, static in prosody and development.s5 The verses to which we have
turned our attention-the ballata, madrigal, and canzone-are, by com-
parison, more elusive, more difficult of description. Their prosody runs
from the very free (16th-century madrigal) at one extreme, to the semi-
fixed (ballata, Trecento-madrigal, canzone) at the other; their suscepti-
bility to change, as reflected by the ballata-madrigal, Trecento-like
madrigal, and canzone-madrigal, is, perhaps, to be accounted for by the
intrinsic flexibility of their form. Pliable to start with, the ballata, mad-
s5 The early madrigalists did not really know how to handle the sonnet to its
advantage;their settings reflect in many cases the prosodic schematicismof this form
without penetrating its affective core. It took composers like Rore and Willaert,
deliberately indifferent as they were to rhymes, verse lengths, and such, to render
the sonnet its full emotional due.
rigal, and canzone submit to further change in the course of their de-
velopment.
The main points of the discussion may be summarized as follows:
(r) The poetry of the early madrigal covers a number of types which
may be, and ought to be, distinguished in their prosody. What was
formerly lumped together under the heading "madrigal" breaks down,
at closer inspection, into a heterogeneous medley of madrigals, ballate,
canzoni, and their hybrid varieties, not to mention sonnets, the ottava
rima, and others still.
(2) The term madrigal is to be assigned two meanings, then: one col-
lective, taking in all the forms just mentioned; another specific, referring
to the structure of the I6th-century madrigal. The failure to distinguish
between the two meanings can only bring confusion into an area which,
otherwise, allows of fairly lucid description.
(3) The Trecento madrigal perpetuated itself into the i6th century in
the guise of direct or altered imitations. Stress should be placed on the
continuity of its development as well as on its potential for generating
new prosodic types. The barriers seem to have broken down between
two forms-Trecento madrigal, Cinquecento madrigal-thought to be
circumscribed by their own time. The possibility of comparing them in
terms of their prosody opens up a new and fruitful line of investigation.
(4) The ballata and canzone have been described as forms whose prosody
is neither as fixed as the formes fixes of the frottola, nor as free as the
"free" Cinquecento madrigal. Pliant forms they were, susceptible to
modification (see above). Perhaps this is the reason why composers of
the early madrigal were attracted to them, allotting them such a sizeable
place in their repertory.
(5) The popular notion that the madrigal is none other than the can-
zone reduced to a single stanza does not hold up to critical examination.
To demonstrate the incompatibility of the two, it was necessary to
burden the reader with detailed descriptions of the prosody of the mad-
rigal, on the one hand, and of the two kinds of canzone (divisa, con-
tinua), on the other. The upshot of the discussion: madrigals and can-
zoni represent two separate verse types, structurally irreconcilable.
(6) A picture of the poetry of the early madrigal gradually emerges as
wavering between extremes of freedom and schematicism. Whether the
form be the ballata, the Trecento madrigal, or the canzone, it had to
come up against a countercurrent pulling it, irresistibly, in the direction
of the i6th-century madrigal. In each case, derivative forms evolved-
ballata-madrigals, Trecento-like madrigals, canzone-madrigals-forms
born of the urge to compromise between contrary impulses. These forms
should properly be set in the broader context of the struggling forces of
past and present, of antiquity and Renaissance, which left their mark on
the literature of the 16th century. The Renaissance poets were drawn to
the past through their reverence for tradition, their humanist inclina-
tions. Yet they were forced to reconcile in some way the conflicting in-
terests of past and present, of an antiquarianism and the striving for
originality of form and expression. Hence the revival of older forms-
ballate, Trecento madrigals, canzoni; hence their inevitable modification.
Ballate, Trecento madrigals, canzoni (apart from sonnets and stanze)
constitute the immediate cisalpine background for the poetry and music
of the madrigal. Between them and the madrigale intervened the hy-
brid forms of the ballata-madrigal, the Trecento-like madrigal, the can-
zone-madrigal, poetry born of the urge to refurbish the past, to adjust
it to newly felt artistic promptings for textual and musical license. It
might be suggested, in closing, that the development has a parallel of
sorts in the visual arts where naturalism yields in time to more emo-
tional and imaginative modes of representation; or in the theatre where
the rhymed drama often gives way to an unrhymed variety.86 In all
three instances there is a trend away from the rigors of schematic forms
toward a new-found structural freedom.
Hebrew University (Jerusalem)
8s First introduced by Trissino in his tragedy Sofonisba

(5151).

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Verse Types in The Early Madrigal

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Verse Types in the Early Madrigal

Author(s): Don Harran

THE POETRY OFTHEEARLY i6th-century madrigal includes a wide va-

xSee W. Rubsamen, "Frottola,"MGG, vol. IV, cols. o1015,021-22.

whatever difference there is between the canzone and the ballata is to be

Ripresa Mutazioni Volta

Occasionallythe i6th-centuryballatadepartsin structurefrom its

Chi non fa prova Amore: aBbA [fermatal ACddCEE

nevertheless,as strongly ballata-inspired.

I) abA I bC/cB dDcC

Ripresa Mutazioni "Volta"

Anci tutta crudel mi s'appresenta. E) concatenazione

The Trecento madrigal is as far removed from the later type in

main body was constructed as two or three tercets;42 to these the

I) Simplemadrigal: ABB ACC CDD

I) ABC abc ddEE

I) Abb, CDE, EFF

original poems based on its prosody. Later examples are distinguished

In a number of examples, canzone form, I suggest, was altered still

order of verse lengths is disrupted as well. What is retained of the can-

madrigal is conditioned so often by repetitions and parallelisms in rhyme

81Filippo Massini, Del madrigale, lettione dell'estatico insensato, recitata . . i

First, subject matter: that of the canzone is largely (need it be said?)

8s First introduced by Trissino in his tragedy Sofonisba

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