madrigal

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“
The high tone with which the tune started died away in a quaver of consternation on finding himself so near one whose character he supposed to be little less suspicious than that of the hero of his madrigal, and he remained silent, with a mouth gaping as if I had brought the Gorgon's head in my hand.

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Definitions (11)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun A song for two or three unaccompanied voices, developed in Italy in the late 13th and early 14th centuries.
  2. noun A short poem, often about love, suitable for being set to music.
  3. noun A polyphonic song using a vernacular text and written for four to six voices, developed in Italy in the 16th century and popular in England in the 16th and early 17th centuries.
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Examples (50)

  • But I must content myself now with a little madrigal, the only one fit for my purpose. —  England's Antiphon
  • A frottola thus ennobled would become a madrigal, while a madrigal, all too scantily treated, would sink to a frottola." —  Some Forerunners of Italian Opera
  • The madrigal was a musical Mediterranean. —  Some Forerunners of Italian Opera
  • At the same time the evidence is conclusive that the madrigal was acquiring general popularity as a form of dramatic music, and the madrigal drama reached the zenith of its glory at the very moment when its fate was preparing in the experiments of Galilei and others in the new monodic style destined to become the basis of modern Italian opera CHAPTER XII Influence of the Taste for Comedy An illuminative fact in the history of the madrigal drama is the growth of the comic element. —  Some Forerunners of Italian Opera
  • The music of the madrigal was composed by Signor Archilei. —  Some Forerunners of Italian Opera
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Italian madrigale, probably from dialectal madregal, simple, from Late Latin mātrīcālis, invented, original, from Latin, of the womb, from mātrīx, mātrīc-, womb, from māter, mātr-, mother; see mater.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from French madrigal = Spanish madrigal, Old Spanish mandrial, mandrigal = Portuguese madrigal = German madrigal, from Italian madrigale, Old Italian madriale, mandriale, also mandriano, a short poem, a pastoral ditty (later Middle Latin matriale), from mandra, aherd, flock, from Latin mandra, a stall, a herd, from Greek μάνδρα a fold, an inclosed space, the bed on which the stone of a ring is set, a monastery. Cf. archimandrite, mandrel, from the same Greek source.
 

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/ˈmædrɪgəl/
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