Page 87 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

clichés as a falling melody for “fainting” and a dissonance for “pain” are called madrigalisms.
Although the madrigal was born in Italy, popular favor soon carried it over the Alps to Germany, Denmark, the Low Countries, and to the England of Shake- speare’s day. A single madrigal with English text will allow us to explore the “one to one” relationship between music and word.
In 1601 musician Thomas Morley published a collection of twenty-four madrigals in honor of Virgin Queen Elizabeth (1533–1603), which he entitled The Triumphes of Oriana. (Oriana, a legendary British princess and maiden, was a poetic nickname of Queen Elizabeth.) Among these madrigals was As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending (see Listening Cue) composed by royal organist Thomas Weelkes (1576–1623). The text of the madrigal, likely fashioned by Weel- kes himself, is a rather confused mixture of images from classical mythology: the Roman goddess Vesta, descending the Greek mountain of Latmos, spies Oriana (Elizabeth) ascending the hill; the nymphs and shepherds attending the god- dess Diana desert her to sing the praises of Oriana. The sole virtue of this dogger- el is that it provides frequent opportunity for word painting in music. As the text commands, the music descends, ascends, runs, mingles imitatively, and offers “mirthful tunes” to the maiden queen. Elizabeth herself played lute and harpsi- chord, and loved to dance (Figure 4.17). Weelkes saw fit to end his madrigal with cries of “Long live fair Oriana.” Indeed, the fair queen did enjoy a long and glori- ous reign of some forty-five years—thus our term “Elizabethan Age.”
Madrigals such as Weelkes’s As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending were popular because they were fun to sing. Vocal lines were written within a comfort- able range, melodies were often triadic, rhythms were catchy, and the music was full of puns. When Vesta descends the mountain, so, too, her music moves down the scale; when Oriana (Queen Elizabeth) ascends, her music does likewise; when Di- ana, the goddess of virginity, is all alone—you guessed it, we hear a solo voice. With sport like this to be had, no wonder the popularity of the madrigal endured beyond the Renaissance. Although the genre might not appear often on Glee, the madrigal remains today a staple of a cappella singing groups and university glee clubs.
FiguRE 4.17
A painting believed to show Queen Elizabeth dancing
a galliard with the Duke of Leicester. <
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