<P> A madrigal is a secular vocal music composition of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras . Traditionally, polyphonic madrigals are unaccompanied; the number of voices varies from two to eight, and most frequently from three to six . It is quite distinct from the Italian Trecento madrigal of the late 13th and 14th centuries, with which it shares only the name . </P> <P> Madrigals originated in Italy during the 1520s . Unlike many strophic forms of the time, most madrigals were through - composed . In the madrigal, the composer attempted to express the emotion contained in each line, and sometimes individual words, of a celebrated poem . </P>

A madrigal is a renaissance secular composition for four or five voices