Note nere (English: black note) was a style of

madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the number o ...

composition, which used shorter note values than usual and had more black note-heads. The style was introduced around 1540, and had a short vogue among composers publishing in Venice including Costanzo Festa, Giaches de Wert, Cipriano di Rore and many minor composers, such as in the First Book (1548) of

Giandomenico Martoretta Giandomenico Martoretta (also ''Giandominico'', ''La Martoretta'', ''Il Martoretta''; Mileto 1515–1560s?) was an Italian Renaissance composer. Little is known of his life, but the style of the dedication of the "master of theology" Giovanfrances ...

. The first note nere madrigals had appeared, unannounced, in 1538, in the music for the wedding of

Cosimo de Medici Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici (27 September 1389 – 1 August 1464) was an Italian banker and politician who established the Medici family as effective rulers of Florence during much of the Italian Renaissance. His power derived from his wealth ...

, where four of seven canzone by Corteccia are note nere, and 1539 with two of the madrigals in

Arcadelt Jacques Arcadelt (also Jacob Arcadelt; 14 October 1568) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance, active in both Italy and France, and principally known as a composer of secular vocal music. Although he also wrote sacred vocal music, he wa ...

's Fourth Book. The first publication to establish the pattern that title pages of the collections were often marked as ''madrigali a note nere'', in contrast to conventional but unstated ''note bianche'', was Claudio Veggio's book of 1540 - which was marked ''misura a breve''; the same idea.

Alfred Einstein Alfred Einstein (December 30, 1880February 13, 1952) was a German-American musicologist and music editor. He was born in Munich and fled Nazi Germany after Hitler's ''Machtergreifung'', arriving in the United States by 1939. He is best known for b ...

interpreted this as "short measure". The

time signature The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...

of note nere madrigals was rather than (now the sign for alla breve). Pietro Aron, in his ''Lucidario'' (1545), states what would appear evident - that shorter black notes in should have evened out to longer white notes in , making the change in the notation merely cosmetic, but

Glareanus Heinrich Glarean also styled Glareanus (born as Heinrich Loriti on 28 February or 3 June 1488 – 28 March 1563) was a Swiss music theorist, poet and humanist. He was born in Mollis (in the canton of Glarus, hence his name) and died in Freiburg i ...

noted that there was no strict proportion between C and C with a vertical slash. The common conclusion of scholars is that the notation was meant to signal contrast between very fast and very slow beats as part of the

chromatic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, ...

style.James Haar,Paul Edward Corneilson ''The science and art of Renaissance music'' Chapter 9 The Note Nere Madrigal.

References

Madrigals {{music-stub