Stephenson:Neal:Quicksilver:383:Merry madrigal tunes (Jeffrey Radcliffe)

From the Quicksilver Metaweb.

It is likely that Jack is singing a madrigal, a popular form of music in the 16th century, in English. The typical English madrigal tends to have a line of text followed by a string of nonsense syllables, usually "fa la la," (for example. the Christmas tune Deck The Halls) regardless of subject matter.

Continental madrigals tended to be just as fanciful, albeit a bit less light-hearted. The techniques they employed led directly to the development of opera in the beginning of the 17th century. By 1683, however, the madrigal had all but died out, both in England and Italy.