madrigal

American  

[mad-ri-guhl] / ˈmæd rɪ gəl /

noun

madrigals plural

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

Derived Forms

• madrigalist
  noun
• madrigalesque
  adjective
• madrigalian
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• madrigals
  plural

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

Explanation

A madrigal is a specific kind of song, one that you won't often hear on the radio. The madrigal developed in 16th-century Italy and is sung in musical counterpoint, by several singers at once. You're only likely to sing a madrigal if you're in a club or musical group that has an interest in old choral music that is sung a capella (without instruments), with several intertwining voices at once and following a strict poetic form. If you enjoy going to the Renaissance Fair, you'll hear lots of madrigals, because the madrigal form was most popular during the Renaissance. Even though few people sing them today, some of the musical forms and structures from madrigals can be heard in contemporary pop songs.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

madrigal madrigals

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

From Washington Post ● Sep. 15, 2022

She is shadowed by a quartet of look-alikes in candy-colored coats, who form a kind of madrigal ensemble, singing in cool tones without vibrato.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 29, 2018

It was also enjoyed in chamber concerts at Queen Elizabeth I’s court, in madrigal recitals, religious gatherings and in informal settings and street performances.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 7, 2018

The 15th madrigal begins by Peter asking life to leave him.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2016

And now there was an acrimonious madrigal, with parts sung in all quarters of the car.

From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut

But a startling number of pieces—symphonies, sonatas, madrigals, sonnets, even ambitious operas—were composed to the highest standards of professional musicianship.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026

The Middle Ages and Renaissance produced a body of “pestilential music”:motets, madrigals and other compositions responding to the horrific plagues of those times.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2020

It opened with a reworking of “Incenerite spoglie,” from Monteverdi’s sixth book of madrigals, set to an intense poem of grief for a dead lover.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 7, 2019

He found a way to combine the techniques he had evolved in writing madrigals, four- or five-minute pieces, with what he learned from the new music of the Florentine Camerata, the earliest experiments in opera.

From New York Times ● Oct. 12, 2017

What Monteverdi did in his madrigals was to take the idea of triads and chords, and start to mess with their chemistry.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall