s elements which dwelt together in the frottola
separated completely. The purely sentimental and idealistic frottola
became the madrigal; the clearly humorous frottola became the
villanelle. When these two clearly differentiated species were
firmly established, the frottola disappeared.

"The madrigal existed as early as the fourteenth century, but its
general spread dates from the time of Adrian Willaert (1480-1562).
The madrigal was originally a pastoral song, but the form came to be
utilized for the expression of varied sentiments and it was treated
with a musicianship which advanced it toward the more stately
condition of the 'durchcomponirt' motet. In the villanelle the
influence of the strophic folk song is clearly perceptible. The
frottola to a certain extent stood in the middle. It is sung verse
by verse, but its musical scheme is almost always conceived in a
much broader spirit than that of the villanelle and gives to it
almost the appearance of a durchcomponirt work. But the systematic
repetition of certain couplets in the manner of a refrain occasions
the recurrence of whole musical periods. Thus does the frottola
acquire from its text that architectural shape which places it in
marked contrast to the swift-paced and fluid contrapuntal chanson of
the Netherlanders. Its rhythm and accents are arranged not by the
needs of contrapuntal development, but by the meter of the line and
the accent of the Italian tongue. This appears most prominently in
the upper voice part, where often the controlling melody seems ready
to break quite through in pure song style, but only partly succeeds.
In the texture of the voices all kinds of imitations appear, but
only subordinated and in very modest setting.

"All this was a part of the steady progress toward monody, the final
goal of Italian musical art, where, in extreme contrast to the
Netherlandish subordination to school, the emergence and domination
of individuality, the special and significant distinction of the
Renaissance, were taking shape. Hence Castiglione in his
'Cortegiano' gives preference to the one-voiced song ('recitar alla
lira') and it was quite natural that we find in the Petrucci
collection frottole originally composed for four voices now
appearing as soprano solos with lute accompaniment, the latter being
arranged from the other three voices."[26]

[Footnote 26: This passage is n