Jacques Arcadelt

Jacques Arcadelt (born c. 1504, Liège? [now in Belgium]—died October 14, 1568, Paris?, France) was a composer of madrigals whose early style—characterized by sonorous homophony and combined with the texts of such poets as Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Jacopo Sannazzaro, Pietro Bembo, and Michelangelo—helped establish that musical form as a serious art form. Arcadelt produced several volumes of madrigals, as well as a variety of chansons, masses, motets, and other works.

Arcadelt probably was born in what is now Belgium, though his origins are uncertain. He became a singer as well as a leading composer. During the 1530s he was in Florence and possibly also in Rome. His first known compositions, published in Germany in 1531, were a group of motets in the Florentine style, and he also wrote several madrigals during this period. His first book of madrigals (now lost) was published in 1538 and reprinted in 1539, in which year three additional volumes of his madrigals appeared. A total of five volumes were published, and his work also appeared in anthologies of the period.

In 1540 he entered the service of Pope Paul III as choirmaster in the papal chapel in Rome. Paul died in 1549, and two years later Arcadelt moved to France. In the early 1550s he entered the service of Charles de Lorraine, 2nd cardinal de Lorraine. Apparently following the taste of his patron, after moving to France Arcadelt virtually stopped writing madrigals and concentrated instead on the writing of chansons. He is credited with having written some 126 pieces in this form. In 1557 he was choirmaster of the French royal chapel.

Arcadelt’s reputation rests largely on the work he produced early in his career, his more than 200 madrigals. With two of his contemporaries, Costanzo Festa and Philippe Verdelot, Arcadelt set the style for a generation of madrigal composers. He favoured four-voiced composition, and his secular music owes much to the simple declamation and tuneful treble melody of the frottola, a popular Italian song genre. The simple clarity of his style influenced composers Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Cipriano de Rore. In addition to his shorter works, Arcadelt also published more than 20 motets and 3 masses.