madrigal

American  

[mad-ri-guhl] / ˈmæd rɪ gəl /

noun

1. a secular part song without instrumental accompaniment, usually for four to six voices, making abundant use of contrapuntal imitation, popular especially in the 16th and 17th centuries.

2. a lyric poem suitable for being set to music, usually short and often of amatory character, especially fashionable in the 16th century and later, in Italy, France, England, etc.

3. any part song.

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madrigal British  

/ ˌmædrɪˈɡælɪən, ˈmædrɪɡəl, -ˈɡeɪ- /

noun

1. music a type of 16th- or 17th-century part song for unaccompanied voices with an amatory or pastoral text Compare glee

2. a 14th-century Italian song, related to a pastoral stanzaic verse form

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Other Word Forms

• madrigalesque adjective
• madrigalian adjective
• madrigalist noun

Etymology

Origin of madrigal

1580–90; < Italian madrigale < Medieval Latin mātricāle something simple, noun use of neuter of Late Latin mātricālis literally, of the womb. See matrix, -al ¹

Example Sentences

And her works go about answering them studiously but sensuously — with earnestness, wit, whimsy, self-awareness and music that ranges freely among, for a start, Baroque madrigals, power ballads and barbed modernism.

From New York Times

She had a good musical upbringing with piano lessons, doing things like madrigal singing when she was young.

From Washington Post

At best, Gidden’s singing and arrangement of a Monteverdi madrigal achieve remarkable eloquence.

From Los Angeles Times

The first concentrates on Monteverdi’s madrigals of love and war; the second, on works by French composers like Marais, Rameau and Rebel.

From New York Times

Her recordings of Monteverdi’s madrigals were a landmark in the early music movement.

From New York Times