This article calls attention to madrigals by Luca Marenzio; the interpretation of musical form of the pieces is based on metrotectonism theory of Georgy Conus. His analytical approach is adapted to research vocal polyphony. The authors focus on the correlation between poetical and musical structures of madrigals. The article shows that poetical stanzas are transformed into symmetrical musical structures. Units of these musical structures are of equal size, which often include non-equal number of poetic lines; musical symmetry is usually combined with asymmetrical allocation of poetic text. Symmetrical structure can be considered as a typical feature of Marenzio’s madrigals. 24 of 25 analyzed examples are based on symmetrical structure. The only exception is the madrigal La bella man vi stringo (text by G. B. Guarini): this piece lacks both symmetrical structure and detailed musical form sectioning. Apparently, the unusual compositional decision corresponds to the poetic motive of squeezing (“I squeeze Your beautiful hand…”), reproduced by concentration of derivatives from stringere (stringo, stringete, stretto, stringendo).
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