Parts and partbooks

The format in which most madrigals circulated was one that we have yet to touch upon: partbooks. In a partbook, whether manuscript or printed, each line of the polyphonic piece is separated out into a different book. Typically collections of madrigals were produced together, and one book would be for the canto (or soprano), one for the alto, one for the tenor, etc. This is different from choirbook format, where the separate voice or instrumental parts are arranged on the same page or opening, and from score, where all the parts are lined up so that the texture and harmony at any given moment can be deduced at a glance. We still use partbooks a lot, but almost exclusively for instrumental music and not for vocal music (which madrigals primarily were). This modern change reflects the fact that not all musicians have perfect pitch and that it can be very difficult for a singer to know where to come in after a long rest, if they do not know what pitches the other singers are singing. For an instrumentalist, on the other hand, producing a given pitch (say, a B flat) is typically more mechanical--press this key, on the piano, for example, or these keys on a flute, or put your finger on this fret on a guitar, etc.

Reading vocal music from a partbook is hard! I have had undergraduate music history survey students sing the piece I show below from the original notation, and it took nearly a full class to get through the madrigal even once without falling apart.

Take a look at the four parts of “Il bianco e dolce cigno” (“The white and sweet swan”) by Jacques Arcadelt. This particular piece was first published in 1539 and was one of the best known and widely circulated madrigals of the sixteenth century. It appears in your anthology as no. 58, p. 218. Compare these parts to that score, and take a listen to the recording on our spotify playlist. You’ll notice that the notation is relatively close to modern notation, in that the notes are longer (or seem longer by modern notational standards) but are not completely foreign. I challenge you to sing the voice part that is closest to your own voice both from the facsimile print (attached below) and then from the modern score in the anthology. Which is easier?

Cantus

Altus

Tenore

Bassus

I am copying in here the text and translation pretty much as they appear in the anthology--to understand them, you need only remember that “death” here is a euphemism for “orgasm,” and “weeping” for the secretion of other bodily fluids, also associated with the coital act.

Il bianco e dolce cigno                        The white and sweet swan

Cantando more. Et io                                Dies singing. And I,

Piangendo giung’al fin del viver mio.                Weeping, come to the end of my life.

Stran’e diversa sorte,                                Strange and different fates,

Ch’ei more sconsolato,                        That [the swan] dies disconsolate,

Et io moro beato,                                And I die happy,

Morte che nel morire                                A death that in dying,

M’empie di gioia tutt’e di desio.                Fills me fully with joy and with desire.

Se nel morir’ altro dolor non sento,                If when I die I feel no other pain,

Di mille mort’il dì sarei contento.                I would be happy with a thousand deaths a day!