Sing We at Pleasure Thomas Weelkes

An English madrigal is a musical setting of a poem for several solo voices, usually unaccompanied but sometimes supported by a plucked string instrument such as a lute. This type of work originated in 16th century Italy but soon spread to other countries, notably England where Italian culture was fashionable in the late 16th. For example, Romeo and Juliet, published in 1507 (a year before this piece was composed) was set in Italy. Madrigal singing in the home became an important social accomplishment for educated Elizabethans, as the following quotation from 1597 indicates
But supper ended, and the Musicke books, according to the custome being brought to the table: the mistress of the house presented mee with a part, earnestly requesting mee song. But when after maine excuses, I protested unfainedly I could not: everie one began to wonder, yea some whispered to others, how demaunding I was brought up.

The popularity of such amateur music-making was helped by the invention of music printing earlier on in the century. Collections of madrigals were usually published as a set of part books, each containing the music for just one voice part. Others were printed with the parts at right angles to each other so that the book could be put on a table with all the singers sitting or standing around. The first collections were mainly translations of Italien madrigals, such as the appropriately named Musica Transalpina (Music from across the Alps) published in London in 1588 and Italian Madrigalls Englished. However, the English composers soon started to produce great quantities of their own music for the domestic vocal music market, resulting in a brief but glorious age of English madrigals in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Thomas Weelkes was one of the greatest English madrigalists. His settings range from intensely serious works full of poignant dissonances to the carefree jollity of Sing We at Pleasure, first published in 1598. This type of Madrigal is known as a ballet and is characterised by a light dance-like style and fa-la-la refrains. It developed from the balletto, an Italian instrumental or voice dance of the 16th century. Sing We at Pleasure has a binary structure, consisting of two repeated sections, each ending in a fala-la refrain.

Section A (bars 1-22) which is repeated unchanged Section B (bars 22-53) which is then repeated in varied form in bars 53-85. The second section is longer because it contains four lines of text before the refrain rather than two. Its repeat is written out in full because the two sopranos exchange parts for the second time through this section. The dance style is brought out by word setting that is almost entirely syllabic and lively triple-time rhythms. Most of these are dotted and immediately repeated in another voice part.

The rhythm is given added spice with syncopation (alto bars 7 and 12) and hemiola (bars 20-21). The latter gives the effect of the music moving into duple metre, as shown below:

The style is consonant and all of the chords are root-position or first inversion triads, most of the major. The only on-beat discords are: Suspensions some written in crotchets (see example below) and some in quavers (bar 7/3). Both are associated with syncopation and give impetus to the dancing rhythms that prevail throughout the ballet.

Unprepared tritons between the outer parts (end of bars 10/13/16 these are fingerprints of Weelkes style)

Despite the lack of key signatures, these chords, both consonant and dissonant, clearly define the key of G major and suggest passing modulations to D (Bars 9-11/2) and C (bars 15/3 17). However, the idea of using related key centres was still relatively new at this time, and the lingering influence of the modal system is apparent when Weelkes uses a triad of F major on the last beat of bar 14. The ballet divides into a number of sections that correspond with phrases of text. Each verbal phrase has its own characteristic melodic shape which is either treated in imitation of used as the top part of a brief homophonic passage (bars 22-25, 30-35 and 61-65). Sometimes these sections overlap, as when Sing We at Pleasure overlaps with content is our treasure on the third beat of bar 3. Every sections ends with a perfect cadence in G major, except for All shepherds in a ring which ends with an imperfect cadence in the same key. Some of these cadences mark a break in the flow of the music and a change of texture (as in bar 22, where the counterpoint of the refrain ends and the first homophonic texture begins). Weelkes textures are very fluid. The opening is treated imitatively in the soprano parts whilst the other parts provide homophonic support. After less than four bars a second imitative point begins (content is our treasure). It is announced by soprano 2 and tenor in 10ths, and imitated by soprano

1 and bass also in 10ths. When the fa-la-la refrain starts in bar 8 the imitation is shared between three parts; bass and both sopranos, while alto and tenor have contrapuntal but non-imitative ideas. Weelkes unites the voices in homophony for the start of Sweet love shall keep the ground, but this is immediately followed by very close imitation for Whilst we his praises sound where the entries tumble in only one beat apart. The voices again come together in homophony and simple root position triads at All shepherds in a ring. The word underlay of dancing places the second syllable on an unstressed quaver, giving a syncopated effect, and this tripping dotted rhythm accompanies the word wherever it appears. Notice how the sopranos ascend a seven-note scale to top G as they ever sing in imitation with one another. Bars 45-53 introduce another new texture. The most remarkable feature of this refrain is the canon between the top two parts. The second soprano sings the same notes as the first soprano but one bar later until the end of bar 51. The almost continuous quavers shared between the tenor and bass propel the joyful counterpoint forward, but the alto has to be satisfied with an inner tonic pedal lasting 7 bars.