WHY ARE WE CALLED MADRIGAL COMMUNICATIONS?

One of my clients asked me recently about how I chose the name Madrigal Communications for the business. Because of lockdown I thought that a long answer might pass some time for both of us. So I wrote the full version. They found it of interest so I thought I might share the story here as well as on Linked IN.

When I first started the business in 2007 I was aiming to be more generalist and work in corporate communications. Corporate communications is managing an organisation’s brand or image by making sure everyone within the organisation is giving the same messages. All aspects of organisational communications should be consistent (that was my last role working in government). So this objective is referred to as “getting everybody to sing from the same song sheet”.

But then the story got more practical … when it came to choosing a business name, I wanted to get a single word URL. I didn’t want an extended business name for a URL. So, of course, most common music words had gone by then. But in my searching I found that “madrigal” was still available. (I purchased the .net.au as well—I think I beat the Sydney University Madrigal Society to them by months).

What is a madrigal?

I was really quite happy with madrigal because I listen to a lot of early music (and I did know that most people wouldn’t know what it was).

A madrigal is a secular song popular before and during the renaissance, often about love. So although music at the time was dominated by the patronage of the church, madrigals were the pop music of their day. The experts suggest the Italian version is more beautiful than the English ones. I am more inclined to the English ones, as I can understand the words.

There are a few on Youtube (they are very short). Perhaps my favourite …
https://lnkd.in/gzKJJ3Dx

And probably the most famous English Madrigal of all, the Silver Swanne by Orlando Gibbons (pictured) …
https://lnkd.in/gWzXJMjh

Madrigal got a little bit more pop culture credibility from Breaking Bad. It was used as the parent company name of Los Pollos Hermanos in the Madrigal episode of Breaking Bad (2nd episode fifth series).

So that is the story of how Madrigal Communications got its name. Always happy to talk about madrigals with anyone who is interested.

By Tim Entwisle, the founder of Madrigal. We specialise in tender writing and technical writing.