MADRIGAL • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Madrigal

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noun

Madrigal n.

A little amorous poem, sometimes called a pastoral poem, containing some tender and delicate, though simple, thought. "Whose artful strains have oft delayed The huddling brook to hear his madrigal."

(Mus.) An unaccompanied polyphonic song, in four, five, or more parts, set to secular words, but full of counterpoint and imitation, and adhering to the old church modes. Unlike the freer glee, it is best sung with several voices on a part. See Glee.

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Etymology of 'Madrigal'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Madrigal" Quotes from Famous Books

... thread of an old-fashioned madrigal which he had often heard his mother sing, with quaint words long since gone out of style and hardly to be understood, and between the staves a warbling, wordless refrain which he had learned out on the hills and in the fields, picked up ...

— Master Skylark • John Bennett

... blame the writings, but the men. Of all this servile herd, the worst is he That in proud dulness joins with Quality. A constant critic at the great man's board, To fetch and carry nonsense for my Lord. What woful stuff this madrigal would be, In some starved hackney sonneteer, or me? But let a Lord once own the happy lines, How the wit brightens! how the style refines! Before his sacred name flies every fault, And each exalted stanza teems ...

— English Poets of the Eighteenth Century • Selected and Edited with an Introduction by Ernest Bernbaum

... MADRIGAL, a short lyric containing some pleasant thought or sweet sentiment daintily expressed; applied also to vocal music ...

— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood

... marble set with purple hung with roses and tall sweet lilies—such as the nightingale would summon for us with her wail— (surely only unhappiness could thrill such a rich madrigal!) not she, the nightingale can fill our souls with such a wistful joy ...

— Hymen • Hilda Doolittle

Words linked to "Madrigal" : music, partsong, madrigalist