Chief in importance among the English madrigalists was Thomas Morley (1557-about 1602), whose music revels in irrepressible cheerfulness and sweet tunefulness. He showed an especial fondness for the light canzonets and ballets, or fa-las, in which latter form, introduced by him into England, he is unrivalled. His contemporary, John Dowland (1563-1626), was equally successful in his canzonets and ‘Songes or Ayres of foure parts.’ But the inspired pieces of John Wilbye (dates of birth and death unknown) are universally considered to be the best representatives of the English madrigal in its purest and most characteristic and comprehensive form. Other great masters of this form were George Kirbye (died 1634), Thomas Weelkes (about 1575-1623), John Bennet (dates unknown), Michael Este (dates unknown), Thomas Ravenscroft (about 1582-about 1635), and Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625). There can be no doubt that the splendor of this era of madrigal-writing was made more lustrous by the sympathetic interest taken in this popular form by many of the best poets of the brilliant Elizabethan period. The works of many of the inspired makers of these sweet old melodies are still sung with delight and dearly prized by the numerous choral societies and clubs that zealously cultivate unaccompanied vocal part-music. Since madrigal-writing has experienced somewhat of a revival in recent years, it will be of interest to enumerate some of the most beautiful and most famous of these old compositions which still retain an imperishable charm and undying appeal. Among such will be found the following: Dowland’s ‘Awake, sweet Love,’ ‘Come again,’ and ‘Now, oh! now, I needs must part’; Weelkes’ ‘In pride of May,’ ‘The Nightingale,’ and the bold ‘Like two proud armies’; Wilbye’s ‘The Lady Oriana’ (in praise of Queen Elizabeth), ‘Flora gave me fairest flowers,’ ‘Lady, when I behold,’ ‘Down in a valley,’ ‘Draw on, sweet Night,’ and ‘But Sweet take heed’; and Bateson’s ‘In Heaven lives Oriana.’ Some of the English madrigalists of this period, as Edwards and Gibbons, were close kin to the Netherlanders in style and feeling. Many of the madrigals of Byrd, Weelkes, Wilbye, and Kirbye are elaborate in design and display ingenious and delightful imitation, but in general there is discoverable a clear tendency to discard the burdensome rules of ecclesiastical writing. With the development of this tendency the passing of the madrigal proper began, for the prime essentials of a true madrigal, no matter what it may be called, are that it must conform to the general feeling of some ecclesiastical mode and must be written in accordance with contrapuntal procedure. Without these qualities the madrigal flavor is lost. After 1620 it began to merge into the simpler and lighter glee and part-song, which forms will be considered in Chapter IV. FOOTNOTES: [14] Dickinson, ‘Music in the History of the Western Church,’ p. 83.