Susan McClary is Professor of Music at Case Western University. She is the author of many books, including Conventional Wisdom: The Content of Musical Form and Desire and Pleasure in Seventeenth-Century Music, both published by University of California Press. This book, first published in 2004, won the Otto Kinkeldey Award from the American Musicological Society.

• List of ExamplesAcknowledgments1 Introduction: The Cultural Work of the Madrigal2 Night and Deceit: Verdelot’s Machiavelli3 The Desiring Subject, or Subject to Desire: Arcadelt4 Radical Inwardness: Willaert’s Musica nova5 The Prisonhouse of Mode: Cipriano de Rore6 The Coney Island of the Madrigal: Wert and Marenzio7 The Luxury of Solipsism: Gesualdo8 The Mirtillo/Amarilli Controversy: Monteverdi9 I modiAppendix: ExamplesIndex

"...the book's engaging style, bold premise, and persuasive argument will reward and gratify the reader who possesses a modicum of music literacy and a general interest in Renaissance poetics, regardless of discipline."

Susan McClary is Professor of Music at Case Western University. She is the author of many books, including Conventional Wisdom: The Content of Musical Form and Desire and Pleasure in Seventeenth-Century Music, both published by University of California Press. This book, first published in 2004, won the Otto Kinkeldey Award from the American Musicological Society.

• List of ExamplesAcknowledgments1 Introduction: The Cultural Work of the Madrigal2 Night and Deceit: Verdelot’s Machiavelli3 The Desiring Subject, or Subject to Desire: Arcadelt4 Radical Inwardness: Willaert’s Musica nova5 The Prisonhouse of Mode: Cipriano de Rore6 The Coney Island of the Madrigal: Wert and Marenzio7 The Luxury of Solipsism: Gesualdo8 The Mirtillo/Amarilli Controversy: Monteverdi9 I modiAppendix: ExamplesIndex

"...the book's engaging style, bold premise, and persuasive argument will reward and gratify the reader who possesses a modicum of music literacy and a general interest in Renaissance poetics, regardless of discipline."

Susan McClary is Professor of Music at Case Western University. She is the author of many books, including Conventional Wisdom: The Content of Musical Form and Desire and Pleasure in Seventeenth-Century Music, both published by University of California Press. This book, first published in 2004, won the Otto Kinkeldey Award from the American Musicological Society.

• List of ExamplesAcknowledgments1 Introduction: The Cultural Work of the Madrigal2 Night and Deceit: Verdelot’s Machiavelli3 The Desiring Subject, or Subject to Desire: Arcadelt4 Radical Inwardness: Willaert’s Musica nova5 The Prisonhouse of Mode: Cipriano de Rore6 The Coney Island of the Madrigal: Wert and Marenzio7 The Luxury of Solipsism: Gesualdo8 The Mirtillo/Amarilli Controversy: Monteverdi9 I modiAppendix: ExamplesIndex

"...the book's engaging style, bold premise, and persuasive argument will reward and gratify the reader who possesses a modicum of music literacy and a general interest in Renaissance poetics, regardless of discipline."