(2) In Music.—As a definite musical art-form, the madrigal was known in the Netherlands by the middle of the 15th century; like the motet, it obviously originated in the treatment of counterpoint on a canto fermo, some early examples even combining an ecclesiastical canto fermo in the tenor with secular counterpoint in the other parts. Thus Josquin’s Déploration de Jehan Okenheim (see [Music]) might equally well be called a madrigal or motet, if the word “madrigal” were used for compositions to French texts at all. But by the middle of the 16th century the Italian supremacy in music had developed the madrigal into the greatest of secular musical forms, and made it independent of the form of the words; and thus when Lasso sets Marot’s madrigals to appropriately witty and tuneful music he calls the result a “chanson”; while when Palestrina composes Petrarca’s Sonnets to the Virgin in memory of Laura, the result appears as a volume of Madrigali spirituali. Elegiac madrigals, whether spiritual or secular, were thus as common as any other kind; so that when the Musica transalpina brought the word “madrigal” to England it brought a precedent for the poet Drummond’s melancholy type of madrigal poetry.
Italian madrigals, however, are by no means always elegiac; but the term always means a highly organized and flowing polyphonic piece, often as developed as the motet, though, in the mature classical period, distinct in style. Yet masses were often founded on the themes of madrigals, just as they were on the themes of motets (see [Mass]; [Motet]); and it is interesting, in such beautiful cases as Palestrina’s Missa gia fu chi m’ebbe cara, to detect the slight strain the mildly scandalous origin of the themes puts upon the ecclesiastical style.
The breaking strain was put on the madrigal style at the end of the 16th century, in one way by the new discords of Monteverde and (with more musical invention) Schütz; and in another way by the brilliant musical character-drawing of Vecchi, whose Amfiparnasso is a veritable comic opera in the form of a set of fourteen madrigals, all riotously witty in the purest and most masterly polyphonic style. It was probably meant, or at least made use of, to laugh down the earliest pioneers of opera (q.v.); but it is the beginning of the end for the madrigal as a living art. Long afterwards we occasionally meet with the word again, when a 17th or 18th century composer sets to some kind of accompanied singing a poem of madrigalesque character. But this does not indicate any continuation of the true musical history of the madrigal. The strict meaning of the word in its musical sense is, then, a musical setting of an Italian or English non-ecclesiastical poem (typically a canzone) for unaccompanied chorus, in a 16th-century style less ecclesiastical than the motet, but as like it in organization as the form and sentiment of the words admit. The greatest classics in the madrigal style are those of Italy; and but little, if at all, below them come the English. The form, though not the name, of course, exists in the 16th-century music of other languages whenever the poetry is not too light for it.
It is important but easy to distinguish the madrigal from the lighter 16th-century forms, such as the Italian villanella and the English ballet, these being very homophonic and distinguished by the strong lilt of their rhythm.
The madrigal has been very successfully revived in modern English music with a more or less strict adherence to the 16th century principles; the compositions of De Pearsall being of high artistic merit, while the Madrigale spirituale in Stanford’s oratorio Eden is a movement of rare beauty.
(D. F. T.)
MADURA (Dutch Madoera), an island of the Dutch East Indies, separated by the shallow Strait of Madura from the N.E. coast of Java. Pop. (1897), 1,652,580, of whom 1,646,071 were natives, 4252 Chinese and 558 Europeans. It extends from about 112° 32′ to 114° 7′ E., and is divided into two nearly equal portions by the parallel of 7° S.; the area is estimated at 1725 sq. m. It is a plateau-like prolongation of the limestone range of northern Java, with hills (1300 to 1600 ft. high) and dales. The formation of the coast and plains is Tertiary and recent alluvium. Hot springs are not infrequent; and in the valley between Gunong Geger and Banjar lies the mud volcano of Banju Ening. The coasts are clothed with tropical vegetation; but the soil is better fitted for pastoral than agricultural purposes. Fishing and cattle-rearing are the chief means of subsistence. Besides rice and maize, Madura yields coco-nut oil and jati. The manufacture of salt for the government, abolished in other places, continues in Madura. Hence perhaps the name is derived (Sansk. mandura, salt). Petroleum is found in small quantities.
The principal town is Sumenep; and there are populous Malay, Arab and Chinese villages between the town and the European settlement of Maringan. On a hill in the neighbourhood lies Asta, the burial-place of the Sumenep princes. Pamekasan is the seat of government. Bangkalang is a large town with the old palace of the sultan of Madura and the residences of the princes of the blood; the mosque is adorned with the first three suras of the Koran, thus differing from nearly all the mosques in Java and Madura, though resembling those of western Islam. In the vicinity once stood the Erfprins fort. Arisbaya (less correctly Arosbaya) is the place where the first mosque was built in Madura, and where the Dutch sailors first made acquaintance with the natives. The once excellent harbour is now silted up. Sampang is the seat of an important market. The Kangean and Sapudi islands, belonging to Madura, yield timber, trepang, turtle, pisang and other products.
Madura formerly consisted of three native states—Madura or Bangkalang, Pamekasan and Sumenep. The whole island was considered part of the Java residency of Surabaya. The separate residency of Madura was constituted in 1857; it now consists of four “departments”—Pamekasan, Madura, Sumenep and Sampang.