English Madrigal School
Part of a series on |
Renaissance music |
---|
Overview |
|
|
The English Madrigal School was the intense flowering of the musical
Style and characteristics
Most likely the impetus for writing madrigals came through the influence of
Musica transalpina was a collection of Italian madrigals, mostly by Ferrabosco and Marenzio, fitted with English words. They were well-loved, and several similar anthologies followed immediately after the success of the first. Yonge himself published a second Musica transalpina in 1597, hoping to duplicate the success of the first collection.
While William Byrd, probably the most famous English composer of the time, experimented with the madrigal form, he never actually called his works madrigals, and shortly after writing some secular songs in madrigalian style returned to writing mostly sacred music.
The most influential composers of madrigals in England, and the ones whose works have survived best to the present day, were
The last line of
- "More Geese than Swans now live, more Fools than Wise."
is often considered to be a lament for the death of the English tradition.
One of the more notable compilations of English madrigals was
Madrigals continued to be composed in England through the 1620s, but the air and "recitative music" rendered the style obsolete; somewhat belatedly, characteristics of the Baroque style finally appeared in England. While the music of the English Madrigal School is of generally high quality and has endured in popularity, it is useful to remember that the total output of the composers was relatively small: Luca Marenzio in Italy alone published more books of madrigals than the entire sum of madrigal publications in England, and Philippe de Monte wrote more madrigals (over 1100) than were written in England during the entire period.
Composers
The following list includes almost all of the composers of the English Madrigal School who published works. Many of these were amateur composers, some known only for a single book of madrigals, and some for an even smaller contribution.
- Thomas Bateson (c 1570–1630)
- John Bennet (c 1575–after 1614)
- John Bull (1562–1628)
- William Byrd (1543–1623)
- Thomas Campion (1567–1620)
- Richard Carlton (c 1558–?1638)
- Michael Cavendish (c 1565–1628)
- John Dowland (1563–1626)
- Michael East (c 1580–c 1648)
- John Farmer(c 1565–1605)
- Giles Farnaby (c 1560–c 1620)
- Alfonso Ferrabosco(1543–1588) (Italian, but worked in England for two decades)
- Ellis Gibbons (1573–1603)
- Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625)
- Thomas Greaves (fl. c 1600)
- William Holborne (fl. 1597)
- John Holmes (d. 1629)
- Edmund Hooper (1553–1621)
- John Jenkins (1592–1678)
- Robert Jones (fl. 1597–1615)
- George Kirbye (c 1565–1634)
- Henry Lichfild (fl. 1613, d. after 1620)
- John Milton (1562–1647)
- Thomas Morley (1557–1603)
- John Mundy (c 1555–1630)
- Peter Philips (c 1560–1628) (lived and published in the Netherlands, but wrote in an English style)
- Francis Pilkington (c 1570–1638)
- Walter Porter (c 1587–1659)
- Thomas Tomkins (1572–1656)
- Thomas Vautor (c 1580-?)
- John Ward (1571–1638)
- Thomas Weelkes (1576–1623)
- John Wilbye (1574–1638)
Further reading
- ISBN 0-19-343664-7 (Issued with recordings of 38 of these madrigals by Pro Cantione Antiqua(augmented) under Philip Ledger - OUP 151/2)
Sources
- ISBN 0-393-09530-4
- Article "Madrigal" in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2