El grillo, song for 4 parts by Josquin Desprez
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About This Work
Secular composition in sixteenth century Italy was dominated by the madrigal; the musical ancestors of this genre include two other vernacular genres, the lauda and the frottola. Italian popular religion fostered the growth of the lauda, which paired simple texts in Latin or Italian with similarly simple musical textures; the frottola served as its secular counterpart. In the hands of Bartolomeo Tromboncino, the most prolific fifteenth century composer of frottole, common features of the repertory included closed refrain forms, a simple, often homophonic texture, and lighthearted vernacular text. Josquin Desprez, who spent many years working in Italy, produced three frottole, of which El Grillo is today the best known (though there is still some question as to the accuracy of the attribution).
The jovial text speaks of the "splendid singer," the Cricket; this has sometimes been supposed to refer to one of Josquin's musical colleagues, the singer Carlo Grillo (whose last name translates as "cricket"). Josquin's musical setting is often illustrative, as in the instance in which two voices literally "hold a long note" as suggested by the text. (Other works in Ottaviano Petrucci's printed collection of frottole, in which El Grillo appears, imitate the cat, the swan, and the crane.) Pairs of voices playfully alternate their calls for the Cricket to "laugh, sing, and drink." The verses of the poem, set primarily chordally, are richly endowed with double entendres that describe the Cricket's erotic prowess.
~ All Music Guide
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