A secular POLYPHONIC composition of Italian parentage that achieved its flowering during the RENAISSANCE. It survived in other forms in the BAROQUE period, but lapsed into obsolescence in the 19th century. The derivation of the word is uncertain.

There are really two types of Italian madrigale, although the poetic form for both arose in the 14th century and was marked by a fairly definite scheme in iambic pentameter. The first type, composed by Francesco Landini and his contemporaries, is written for two or three texted voices, with the lower vocal part commonly doubled instrumentally. The second type arose during the RENAISSANCE, when strict formality of the verses and tunes was abandoned in favor of a more relaxed, imaginative, and individual style. These polyphonic settings increased to four, five, and six parts, rarely with instrumental doubling.

By the beginning of the 17th century, the role of the melodic line became more and more pronounced. The polyphonic style gave way to HOMOPHONY (a single melody line accompanied by a harmony part), forming a natural bridge to OPERA. A dramatic genre of madrigal cycle developed into the MADRIGAL COMEDY. Early examples of MONODY (recited song texts) were still called madrigals (e.g., Monteverdi's Madrigali guerrieri e amorosi, 1638), but the term soon disappeared. Its form survived in the lightweight GLEES of BAROQUE and Classical-era England and America.

Among great (and not necessarily Italian) madrigal composers are Jacob Arcadelt, Andrea Gabrieli, Orlando di Lasso, Luca Marenzio, Carlo Gesualdo, and CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI. GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA PALESTRINA was the greatest writer of spiritual madrigals, as opposed to the more common secular type.

Elizabethan composers in England, among them William Byrd, eagerly followed the Italian model. A great impetus to the development of the English madrigal school was the publication in England of a collection of Italian madrigals in translation, Musica transalpina, in 1588.