The Fixed Poetic Form vs the Musical Form: The Experience of Analyzing Madrigal Settings of Sestina Texts

Abstract

The fixed poetic forms of Petrarch’s Canzoniere and the poetical works of the Petrarchist poets who imitated the great Italian master frequently served as texts for 16th century madrigals. In this connection, the author of the present article poses the question about the possible impact of the fixed poetic form on the form of the respective musical composition. A preliminary familiarization with madrigals composed on the texts of the sonnets, ballatas and sestinas (Italian: sestine) has shown that imitations of the poetic forms is the most discernible in those cases when the composer turns to the sestina to set it to music. The main material for analysis has been formed by the cyclic madrigals: Là ver l’aurora che sì dolce l’aura by Orlando di Lasso and Non fu mai cervo si veloce al corso, Sola angioletta starsi in trecie a l’ombra and Giovane donna sotto un verde lauro by Luca Marenzio, composed on the full texts of sestinas, as well as a few other similar works. The sestina consists of six stanzas each containing six lines, along with a conclusory stanza of three lines. The special rhyme pattern for the sestina, featuring six words defining the rhythms invariably repeated in the six main stanzas following the scheme, ABCDEF    FAEBDC    CFDABE, etc., generates the repetition of the end-word of the previous stanza in the beginning of the first line of the following stanza. As it is shown in the article, it is particularly this feature of the sestina that finds resonance with the form of the madrigal. The end of the previous section of a madrigal and the beginning of the following section have a connection established between them, which, as a rule, is achieved by means of repetitions. This concerns the melodic units and the characteristic details of sound, both the harmonic and the melodic varieties. Along with repetitions, a single harmonic construction is used, which begins at the conclusion of one section of a madrigal and concludes at the beginning of the following section. 

Keywords: fixed poetic forms, sestina, madrigal, repetition of end-words, Orlando di Lasso, Luca Marenzio