This week in music history, we were talking about madrigals. We talked about Josquin Des Prez, one of the most well-known composers of the 15th/16th centuries. Josquin is Italian, and composed a huge number of pieces, both secular and sacred. I wanted to hear an example of one of his pieces, so I chose the secular piece “El Grillo,” or “The Cricket.” “El Grillo” is a silly a cappella number written in Italian. Below are (one interpretation of) the lyrics.
The cricket is a good singer
Who can hold a long note
Of drinking the cricket sings
The cricket is a good singer
But he doesn’t do what birds do,
After they’ve sung a bit,
They go somewhere else,
The cricket always stays put
And when the weather is hottest
He sings solely for love
The cricket is a good singer
Who can hold a long note
Of drinking the cricket sings
The cricket is a good singer
As you can see, this is not a serious piece. So right away, this makes it fun. What I really enjoyed about “El Grillo” was Des Prez’ use of text painting. Text-painting was big in this time, as the madrigal became popular. Text painting is basically when the music matches the word. A few examples from today’s music would include when John Mayer sings “free falling” and the notes descend. Or in Up Where We Belong when they say “love lifts us up where we belong” and it ascends to the word “up.” So text painting, something that started in the 14th or 15th century, still happens today…pretty cool. But anyway, Des Prez uses it often. On the line “who can hold a long note,” the word “long” is extended. Also, the whole song is basically an extended example of text painting because the light tone, bouncy melody, and whimsical repetition make the listener think of a cricket. All in all, this is a really fun ditty! And I like seeing the way music has evolved. Pretty cool.
I remember learning about madrigals in my music theory class in high school, and I think I remember El Grillo being one of the examples we looked it. I agree that text painting is a very powerful tool in music, and I think that it’s used more often than people realize. The most effective music is when it matches its text (both in overall style and programatically), and El Grillo is an excellent example, especially since it shows how long this technique has been in use.