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courtier’s most important asset,” an asset that could be improved and reinforced through
“scripted” practice with madrigal texts. 46 Macy writes, “Madrigals had all the necessary features
for the teaching of gracious wit. Their texts were a resource of conceits and clever phrases to be
memorized, used, and incorporated into future conversations.” 47 Part of this “witty repartee”
included the use of allegories and metaphors commonly associated with matters sexual in nature.
Madrigal texts often served as the dramatizing of erotic literature, whose “metaphors and musical
gestures mirrored common sexual innuendoes, graphically describing physical intimacy in ways
that were clearly understood by contemporary readers.” 48 Madrigals were often performed by
small groups of men, enjoying the shared activity of singing and the intellectual jokes of sexual
innuendo held within the verses. Speaking plainly of matters sexual in nature did not befit a
courtier, so madrigal texts provided a proper and safe environment for these men to engage in
sexual discourse.
Throughout the sixteenth century however, the madrigal’s role expanded to include more
public and formal ceremonies. As the concerti delle donne gained more prominence, the role of
the madrigal effectively shifted from courtly situation of directing and shaping courtly
conversations to acting as spectacle, removing court members from the actual music-making and
placing the poetic voices in another’s mouth. LaMay outlines how the madrigal texts shifted
Author&ste=11&af=BN&ae=T144309&tiPG=1&dd=0&dc=flc&docNum=CW113879566&vrsn
=1.0&srchtp=a&d4=0.33&n=10&SU=0LRK&locID=upitt_main (accessed March 21, 2009).
46 Laura Macy, “Speaking of Sex: Metaphor and Performance in the Italian Madrigal,” Journal
of Musicology 14, no. 1 (Winter 1996): 6.
47 Ibid, 7.
48 Thomasin LaMay, “Madalena Casulana: my body knows unheard of songs,” in Gender,
Sexuality, and Early Music, ed. Todd M. Borgerding (New York: Routledge, 2002), 53.
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