called fioritura. To the once prevalent custom of Machicotage in France are to be attributed many of the corruptions observable in Gallican Office Books before the late careful revisions. The Processionale Parisiense (Paris 1787) directs that the melodies shall be machicotée by the Clergy, and continued by the Choir 'sine macicotatico': and, in former times, the Ecclesiastics entrusted with the duty of so singing them, were called Maceconiei, or Machicots.
[ W. S. R. ]
MACKENZIE, Alexander Campbell, son of a favourite Edinburgh musician, was born in Edinburgh, 1847, was sent to Germany at the age of 10 to study music at Schwarzburg-Sondershausen under Ulrich Eduard Stein. He entered the ducal orchestra as violinist at the age of 14, and remained in Germany until 1862, when he came to London in order to study the violin under M. Sainton, and was elected King's Scholar of the Royal Academy of Music in 1862.
In 1865 he returned to Edinburgh, established a position as pianoforte teacher, and has since remained in Scotland, with the view of devoting himself entirely to composition. His principal works are 'Cervantes, an overture for orchestra'; a Scherzo for ditto; Overture to a Comedy; a String Quintet, and many other pieces in MS.; Pianoforte Quartet in B♭ (Leipzig, Kahnt), op. 11; Trois Morceaux pour Piano, op. 15; two Songs, op. 12; besides songs, part-songs, anthems, and pieces for the piano.
[ G. ]
MACKINTOSH, John, born 1767, an eminent performer on the bassoon, who from 1821 to 1835 held the first place in all the principal London and provincial orchestras. He produced a full, rich, and powerful, but somewhat coarse, tone. He is believed to have died in 1840. His son Alphonso was a violinist.
[ W. H. H. ]
McMURDIE, Joseph, Mus. Bac., born in 1792 in the parish of St. Bride, London, graduated at Oxford in 1814. He composed many glees (principally for the Concentores Sodales) and songs, and made numerous arrangements for the pianoforte. He was for some time a director of the Philharmonic Society. He died at Merton, Surrey, Dec. 23, 1878.
[ W. H. H. ]
MAÇON, LE. Opéra-comique in 3 acts; words by Scribe and Delavigne, music by Auber. Produced at the Opera Comique, May 3, 1825; in England at St. James's, March 13, 1850.
[ G. ]
MADRIGAL (Ital. Madrigale, Madriale, Mandriale). The derivation of the word, Madrigal, has so hopelessly perplexed all who have attempted to trace it to its source, that, until some new light shall be thrown upon the subject, further discussion would seem to be useless. We must, therefore, leave our readers to form their own judgment upon the four theories which have been most generally accepted: namely, (1) that the word is derived from the Italian, madre, (mother), and signifies a Poem, addressed—as is said to have been the case with the first Madrigals—to Our Lady; (2) that it comes from the Greek word, μάνδρα, (Lat. and Ital. mandra, a sheep-fold), and was suggested by the generally pastoral character of the composition; (3) that it is a corruption of the Spanish word, madrugada, (the dawn), and is used, in Italian as the equivalent of Mattinata, (a Morning Song); (4) that it owes its origin to the name of a town situated in a delightful valley in Old Castile. On one point, however, all authorities are agreed: viz. that the name was first given to a certain kind of Poem, and afterwards transferred to the music to which it was sung—which music was always, during the best periods of Art, written for three or more Voices, in the antient Ecclesiastical Modes, and without instrumental accompaniment.
Our actual knowledge of the condition of the Madrigal, before the invention of printing, is sadly imperfect: but, in the absence of positive evidence, analogy leaves us little cause to doubt that its earlier phases must have corresponded, as closely as we know its later ones to have done, with those of the Motet—for, the application of Discant to Sæcular Melody must have suggested the one no less surely than its association with Plain Chaunt gave birth to the other. The originators of this process were, in all probability, the Troubadours, and Minnesingers, who so strongly influenced the progress of popular music in the Middle Ages: and there is reason to believe that the rarity of early MS. records is due to the fact that they were accustomed to sing their Discant extempore—or, as it was formerly called, alla mente. But, long before this first glimmering of Science resulted in the invention of Counterpoint, the Age of Chivalry had passed away, and the Minstrels, as a corporate body, had ceased to exist. Hence, the farther development of the Madrigal devolved upon the Ecclesiastical Musicians, who cherished it tenderly, and brought all the resources of their Art to bear upon it; treating it, technically, exactly as they treated their compositions for the Church, though, in the æsthetic character of the two styles—founded on an instinctive perception of the contrast between Sacred and Profane Poetry—they observed a marked difference. This we may readily understand, from the description left us by Thomas Morley, who, writing in 1597, tells us, that, 'As for the Musicke, it is next unto the Motet, the most artificiall and to men of Vnderstanding the most delightfull. If therefore you will compose in this Kind you must possesse your selfe with an amorus humor (for in no cõposition shall you proũe admirable except you put on, and possesse your selfe wholy with that vaine wherein you compose) so that you must in your Musicke be waũering like the wind, sometime wanton, sometime drooping, sometime graũe and staide, otherwhile effeminat, you may maintaine points and reũert them, vse triplaes, and shew the uttermost of your varietie, and the more varietie you show the better shall you please.' In the 16th century, these directions were observed to the letter—so closely, that it would be difficult to give a more graphic sketch of Polyphonic Music, in its sæcular dress, than
