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| Composers Pages THOMAS BATESON JOHN BENNET WILLIAM BYRD Michael CAVENDISH JOHN DOWLAND MICHAEL EAST GILES FARNABY JOHN FARMER ORLANDO GIBBONS THOMAS GREAVES GEORGE KIRBYE THOMAS MORLEY JOHN MUNDY PETER PHILIPS FRANCIS PILKINGTON RICHARD RAMSEY THOMAS TOMKINS THOMAS VAUTOR JOHN WARD THOMAS WEELKES JOHN WILBYE Miscellaneous Composers LIST OF ALL TUNES IN EXCEL FORMAT (download a free Excel reader) THE TRIUMPH OF ORIANA (compiled 1600 by Thomas Morley) MODERN COMPOSITIONS featuring some of the members of the "Madrigalians Yahoo! Group". Slightly "off-centre" Madrigals by F. L. Dunkin Wedd... FUNNY Stuff! |
| Do YOU sing and love this material? If you have madrigals/authors which I have not listed above that you'd like to see published here, please CONTACT me. |
| Page last modified 2006-09-22 |
| Parts-Songs were most popular from (we assume) the 12th Century ("Sumer Is A-Cumin In") through the mid 17th Centuries, generally accepted as being passe around 1649 due to the establishment of the Commonwealth. Without a doubt, the period of their heyday and fairest flowering was the later 16th Century, the age of Morley, Farmer, Wilby, etc. Their intricately constructed melodic play and counterpoint greatly influenced composers through the early 18th Century and were certainly one of the cornerstones upon which the Baroque period was founded. I find them astoundingly difficult to sing (and I find it even harder to find from three to five other voices!), but - once mastered - infinitely rewarding and eternally fresh and new. In particular, Thomas Morley's "Fyre, Fyre!" with it's carefully constructed finale is among my favourites in the English Madrigal genre. The French, the Italians, the Germans and the Dutch as well wrote magnificent melodic lines and set wonderful poetry to those lines, but I prefer the English... I can (attempt) to speak it and (occasionally) understand it and it is, to my mind, the culmination of the genre. The tunes below are finally available in NWC , MIDI and PDF formats. Having solved the problem of converting NWC to PDF I am now happy to announce that all files have been converted and are being added to the individual pages. While the on-screen resolution is, to say the least, abysmal, the printed versions are quite acceptable. Any hints anyone may have for getting the on-screen verzions more readable will be gladly accepted. For instructions on how to read the music, please go HERE and follow the bouncing words for Noteworthy. Those with MIDI players can simply click the MIDI links but you'll get no words to go along with the tune and the words are half the fun! Free PDF readers are available HERE, HERE or HERE. |
| My deepest thanks to Norman Rowe, Greg Yeutter and Benoit Huwart for their editorial efforts! |
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| Another website with a more eclectic approach to Choral Music (also in NWC and PDF formats) may be found at http://www.cipoo.net/ which featuresVoice and Piano selections as well as Choral from across Europe and from every age. Very nice site from Italy and a pleasure to link to! ............................................................................................................................... Yet another Excellent Site of (Secular) Choral Music ............................................................................................................................... |
| Support for this site provided by: FRAYED KNOT ARTS PLEASE go visit them! |
| Found an error? Have a suggestion? Please remember that I DO NOT READ MUSIC, so telling me that I have a Bb where I should have an R demented is of little use to me: I need to be led by the... nose... to make corrections! Be kind and it SHALL get done! |
| Please help support this site by going HERE and buying the tunes on CD! |
| The aforementioned Norman Rowe has also sent me one of my favourite weather reports for the British Isles and Europe. It's an MP3...CLICK HERE. |