Listening To Madrigals

Thomas Morley - April is in my Mistress' Face

This is a very short English madrigal, at only around a minute and a half. It has a canon-like structure, and has four lines of text:

April is in my mistress' face,
And July in her eyes hath place;
Within her bosom is September,

But in her heart a cold December.

This is clearly secular, and very poetic. The music is very lyrical, with some decoration of the individual melody lines. There is no instrumental accompaniment in this madrigal.

Thomas Morley - Now is the Month of Maying

This is a very bright, lively pleasant sounding madrigal. It is a lighter type of madrigal, called a ballet. It starts with a simple drum rhythm, followed by a flute/whistle-type instrument. Each verse has the same melody, and the refrain features 'nonsense words' - fa-la. The apparent 'spring dancing' theme of the lyrics is actually double-entendre - the madrigal is actually referring to sex.

Thomas Morley - Phyllis, I Fain Would Die Now

This madrigal has a much more somber disposition than the two previous ones, and is also longer, at around four minutes. It consists of a dialogue between two people - Phyllis and her lover Amintas, wherein Amintas professes his love for Phyliss, and his anguish at being turned down. The words of Phyllis are sung by three women in ballett-style, while Amintas is represented by four men in sacred polyphonic style. Only at the conclusion of the madrigal do all seven voices sing together.

John Farmer - Fair Phyllis I Saw Sitting All Alone

A very light and nimble madrigal, on a similar theme to the Thomas Morley madrigal 'Now is the Month of Maying'. The music is polyphonic, and written for four voices, using occasional imitation. It has a quick tempo, and clever use of word painting, the texture of the voices often matching the lyrics, for example a lone soprano singing the first line - Fair Phyllis I saw sitting all alone with the rest of the voices joining in for the next line Feeding her flock near to the mountain side representing the flock.

John Farmer - A Little Pretty Bonny Lass

This madrigal is a simple story of the one that got away. The melody is fairly upbeat, which suggests the rejection was not too upsetting! This light-hearted madrigal features some elements of canon, and some strong examples of imitation between the voices, but the voices sing together more than some of the other madrigals looked at previously.