to the mother church or from the postclassical Latin matricalis (maternal, simple, primitive). Other sources note that the word "madrigal" comes from the Hebrew word "madriga" meaning "step" (the "-al" suffix of the word also is Hebrew, in this case meaning "in the style of") and describes the step-like progression of the tune.

Artistically, the madrigal was the most important form of secular music in Renaissance Italy, and reached its formal and historical zenith in the later-16th century,