madrigal

[ mad-ri-guhl ]

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.

madrigal

/ 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

Derived Forms

• madrigalian, adjective
• ˈmadrigalˌesque, adjective
• ˈmadrigalist, noun

Other Words From

• madri·gal·esque adjective
• mad·ri·gal·i·an [mad-r, uh, -, gal, -ee-, uh, n, -, gal, -y, uh, n, -, gey, -lee-, uh, n], adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of madrigal¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of madrigal¹

C16: from Italian, from Medieval Latin mātricāle primitive, apparently from Latin mātrīcālis of the womb, from matrīx womb

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

Are Gesualdo’s madrigals and Caravaggio’s masterpieces any less beautiful because the composer and the painter were murderers?

From Washington Post

The poems that make up the first third of Spaar’s career overview are cast as madrigals: brief odes to everything from spring onions to 1970s New Jersey, with surprising notes of eros.

From New York Times

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

From Los Angeles Times