셰익스피어 시대의 엘리자베스 마드리갈

Abstract

Dealing with the English madrigal of the late Renaissance, the current paper focuses on illuminating the difference that separates it from the Italian vocal music of the same name. The most significant distinction is found in the text set to music. The Italian composers sought the poems of the most distinguished poets of the contemporary as well as the past such as Francesco Petrarch, Giovanni Battista Guarini, and Torquato Tasso. Their primary goal was to deliver the poetic meaning and feeling through musical notes. In contrast, the English composers were more free to selecting the poems, resulting in the neglect of their distinguished men of letters even like William Shakespeare. It was due to their tendency to focus more on music itself full of lightness and wit. The present work also surveys the historical background of the English madrigal during the reign of the Queen Elizabeth, by whose name it is dubbed. One thing of note underlying its birth is the optimism that prevailed the Queen’s reign and reached highest with the defeat of the Spanish Armada in August 8, 1588. The Italian composer named Alfonso Ferrabosco played the most significant role in initially importing the madrigal from Italy in England, while Thomas Morley was the most important native composer and publisher in cultivating and distributing the madrigal with English text.