Ruijun Liu

Friday 12:30PM Emma

Paper #2
Madrigal is the genre of secular music in Renaissance Ages from 1450 to 1600. One of
the examples at that time is Il bianco e dolce cigno by Jacques Arcadelt. There are many
musical
elements, such as instruments, dynamics, tempo and texture are different in different musics.
Word painting is the first time to be used in madrigal. I will comared another piece of muisic
Waltz #1 by Elliot Smith which also use the word painting to Il bianco e dolce cigno in
terms of
some difference of its theme and musical elements.
Il bianco e dolce cigno is the song by Jacques Arcadelt who is an Italian. He is
famous
for his secular song in Renaissance Ages. The first place madrigal appeared was in Italy and then
spread to England. It is very short that it lasts 2 to 3 minutes and often contains jokes without
religion. This song alternates with triple meters and duple meters. The medium is usually
cappella which means no insturment and there are four voices sang by both men and women. It
firstly begins with homophonic texture and is clearly marked with rhyms. At the end, Arcadelt
uses imitative polyphony in texture which is an example of word painting that remarkable in
madrigal. The words Di mille mortil di sarei contento means a thousand deaths a day.
Arcadelt
use this as sarcasm that if he could die without any pain.

Another piece of music with word painting is Waltz #1 by Elliot Smith. Compared to Il
bianco e dolce cigno, there are many differences between them. This song has keyboard
instruments in triple meter and it has very soft dynamics and low tempo. It has up and low
pitches in some words. The overall form is intro A A B B coda. He used harmonic textures
combined with rhythmic off-beating constantly. He sang in a sad atmosphere about consequence
of a relationship. He began with every time of day darkens down and goes away to express his
feeling of his failed relationship and to dress him day and night but without any answers. When
he sang the word silence, he used the light voice which is an example of word painting. Anther
example is when he sang What was I supposed to say, he was in a slowly form of question that
blames himself for failing to find the answer. Then he sang hopelessly that now I never leave
my zone, we're both alone, I am going home and he puts himself in an enclosed space that
nobody can get into it. At the end, he gave up and went home alone. I wish i'd never seen you
faaaaaaaa-aaaaaaaaa-aaaaaaaceeee. He was so desperate that he repeated face again and again
to express he had lost all in this relationship and never want to think her again. This song uses
lots of word painting to reflect the meaning of the text.
Secular music is one of the archetypes in Renaissance Ages. One of the famous songs of
genre madrigal is Il bianco e dolce cigno by Jacques Arcadelt. The remarkable thing is that
it is
the first time using word painting. Another piece of music that uses word painting is Waltz #1
by

Elliot Smith in contemporary music. Even though they have many differences in musical
elements such as instrument and texture. They are both archetypes using word painting to
express artists feeling.