Scroll down for complete track listing and artist information. Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) Madrigals, Book 5 ARTEK, Gwendolyn Toth, director & harpsichord Laura Heimes, soprano • Jessica Tranzillo, soprano • Barbara Hollinshead, mezzo-soprano • Drew Minter, countertenor • Ryland Angel, tenor & countertenor • Philip Anderson, tenor • Michael Brown, tenor • Peter Becker, bass-baritone • Charles Weaver, baritone, theorbo & guitar • Grant Herreid, lute & theorbo • Daniel Swenberg, theorbo • Christa Patton, harp • Robert Mealy, violin • Vita Wallace, violin & lira da braccio • Rosamund Morley, viola da gamba • Jessica Powell, viola da gamba • Motomi Igarashi, lirone & viola da gamba 1. T’amo mia vita (Giovanni Battista Guarini, Rime 66) Heimes, Hollinshead, Minter, Brown, Becker, Weaver, Herreid, Swenberg, Patton, Wallace, Igarashi 2. Ecco Silvio (Guarini, Il Pastor Fido, IV: ix 1237-1250) Heimes, Hollinshead, Minter, Brown, Becker 3. Ma se con la pietà (Guarini, Il Pastor Fido, IV: ix 1251-1259) Heimes, Hollinshead, Minter, Brown, Becker 4. Dorinda ah dirò (Guarini, Il Pastor Fido, IV: ix 1260-1267) Heimes, Hollinshead, Minter, Brown, Becker 5. Ecco piegando (Guarini, Il Pastor Fido, IV: ix 1275-1285) Heimes, Hollinshead, Minter, Brown, Becker 6. Ferir quel petto (Guarini, Il Pastor Fido, IV: ix 1286-1305) Heimes, Hollinshead, Minter, Brown, Becker 7. Troppo ben può (Guarini, Rime 100) Hollinshead, Angel, Anderson, Brown, Becker, Herreid, Swenberg, Weaver, Patton, Toth 8. Ahi come a un vago sol (Guarini, Rime 102) Heimes, Hollinshead, Anderson, Brown, Becker, Herreid, Swenberg, Weaver, Patton, Wallace, Igarashi, Toth 9. Ch’io t’ami (Guarini, Il Pastor Fido, III: iii 296-303) Heimes, Hollinshead, Angel, Anderson, Becker 10. Deh bella e cara (Guarini, Il Pastor Fido, III: iii 332-346) Heimes, Hollinshead, Angel, Anderson, Becker 11. Ma tu più che mai (Guarini, Il Pastor Fido, III: iii 347-362) Heimes, Hollinshead, Angel, Anderson, Becker 12. E cosi à poco à poco (Guarini, Rime 104) Heimes, Hollinshead, Angel, Anderson, Brown, Becker, Herreid, Swenberg, Weaver, Patton, Igarashi, Toth 13. Cruda Amarilli (Guarini, Il Pastor Fido, I: ii 272-279) Heimes, Angel, Anderson, Brown, Becker 14. O Mirtillo anima mia (Guarini, Il Pastor Fido, III: iv 506-518) Heimes, Hollinshead, Anderson, Brown, Becker 15. Era l’anima mia (Guarini, Rime 65) Heimes, Hollinshead, Angel, Anderson, Becker 16. Amor se giusto sei (anonymous poet) Heimes, Hollinshead, Angel, Brown, Becker, Herreid, Swenberg, Weaver, Patton, Igarashi, Toth 17. Che dar più vi poss’io (anonymous poet) Heimes, Hollinshead, Angel, Brown, Becker 18. M’è più dolce il penar (Guarini, Il Pastor Fido, III: vi 930-943) Heimes, Hollinshead, Angel, Anderson, Becker 19. Questi vaghi (anonymous poet) Heimes, Tranzillo, Hollinshead, Minter, Angel, Anderson, Brown, Weaver, Becker, Herreid, Swenberg, Patton, Mealy, Wallace, Morley, Powell, Igarashi, Toth Recorded in The Concert Hall at Drew University, Madison, NJ in August, 2010 Concert Hall Manager: Ellis Hilton Pitch: a’=440; temperament: quarter-comma meantone Recording Producer & Engineer: Dongsok Shin Cover photo of the Ducal Palace, Mantua, Italy: Dongsok Shin © 2010 Back cover photo: David Tayler © 2010 Session photo: Dongsok Shin © 2010 Photo of Ms. Toth: Melanie Einzig © 2010 Notes: Jeffrey Kurtzman Translations: Grant Herreid Booklet design: Saliad Designs © 2010 The Art of the Early Keyboard, Inc. Monteverdi’s Fifth Book of Madrigals, published in 1605 and dedicated to his employer, Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga of Mantua, marks a turning point in the composer’s career. Some of the madrigals actually preceded their publication by more than five years, as indicated by the inclusion of three of them, Cruda Amarilli, O Mirtillo and Era l’anima mia as well as the second madrigal of the five-part cycle Ecco Silvio in Giovanni Maria Artusi’s 1600 and 1603 treatises condemning their modern style for unconventional dissonances and irregularity in the use of the modal scales. Monteverdi’s dedication declares that the duke had heard the music many times in manuscript, and now through their publication seeks the protection of the duke’s name and their “eternal life” in opposition to “those tongues that try to kill the works of others.” Monteverdi’s defiance of Artusi is manifest in placing the disputed madrigals at the very beginning of his collection, especially by opening the set with the striking dissonances of Cruda Amarilli about which Artusi had so vehemently objected. The Fifth Book also contains an even more direct response to Artusi in the form of a letter to its readers announcing a forthcoming treatise of the composer’s own on what he calls the “Second Practice, or the Perfections of Modern Music” (Artusi’s first treatise had been titled “Artusi, or the Imperfections of Modern Music”). Monteverdi claims his duties have so far denied him the time it would take to publish such a treatise, but that he intends to show that he doesn’t compose “by chance” and that there is another practice besides the contrapuntal one championed by Gioseffo Zarlino (Artusi’s teacher and former chapel master at St. Mark’s in Venice), based on the contrapuntal style of Zarlino’s own teacher, Adrian Willaert. A more complete exposition of the second practice, penned by the composer’s brother Giulio Cesare, appeared in his next publication, the Scherzi musicali of 1607, but the actual treatise was never written, even though Monteverdi was still discussing it in letters with the theorist Giovanni Battista Doni in 1633-34. The crux of the second practice was the organization of the music to express the meaning of the words in contrast to the traditional 16th-century approach of subordinating the text to the rules of the contrapuntal style. The texts of the Fifth Book had themselves been the subject of controversy, since the majority were drawn from scenes in Giovanni Battista Guarini’s pastoral drama, Il Pastor Fido, produced by Duke Vincenzo at Mantua in 1598 after many frustrating and lengthy delays. Guarini’s tragi-comedy had drawn the ire of literary theorists for its own unprecedented mixing of genres, and Guarini’s defense of his work had contrasted the genre distinctions of the ancients with his own new, more noble mixture—a posture loosely analogous to Monteverdi’s contrast of first and second practices. Although there is no reason to believe Monteverdi’s madrigals were used in Guarini’s play itself, their style reflects the dramatic and emotionally charged nature of Guarini’s verse. In addition to highlighting emotional extremes with unorthodox dissonances and ambivalent or conflicted emotions with shifts in modal underpinning as well as between the soft (flat) and hard (natural) hexachords, these madrigals feature a high degree of chordal declamation to convey the rhetorical and theatrical character of their texts, sometimes alternating with short passages of imitative polyphony. Rhetorical gestures in Guarini’s poetry receive parallel rhetorical treatment in Monteverdi’s music. Repetition becomes a matter of rhetorical heightening rather than serving a primarily structural function. Rapid shifts in texture, harmony and style illuminate Guarini’s witticisms, clever similes and sharply drawn juxtapositions. In Monteverdi’s new approach to madrigal writing, the performers of these pieces musically act out the rhetorical drama of Guarini’s texts. Another innovative aspect of Monteverdi’s Fifth Book is announced on the title page: “with a basso continuo for cembalo, chitarrone [theorbo] or other similar instrument for the six final [madrigals] and for the others ad libitum.” These last six madrigals include four texts known to be by Guarini (the authors of the other two are unknown), but as independent poems rather than drawn from Il Pastor Fido. The need for the basso continuo derives from these madrigals’ concertato style, wherein the sometimes lacerated textures of the first part of the book, in which quick imitations fleetingly move from one voice to another, become extended passages for solo voice, pairs of voices, or trios, the latter two in imitation, parallel thirds or homophony. The dramatic, rapid juxtaposition of diverse techniques in the first thirteen madrigals of the book now become structural contrasts on a much lengthier time scale, with all five voices singing simultaneously less frequently. Thus the basso continuo is not only essential to provide full harmony for the thinner textures, but also gives space for pairs of voices to engage in extended ornamentation over slow-moving or sustained basses and supports a dialogue-like treatment of the first two sentences of Amor, se giusto sei. The structural diversity of several of the concertato madrigals is unified by extracting a key phrase of text and repeating it multiple times as a refrain, functioning both as a central textual idea and a musical repetitive device. But this device, too, is adumbrated in Ma se con la pietà, the second part of the Ecco Silvio cycle. The final madrigal, Questi vaghi concenti, crowns the Fifth Book with an introductory instrumental sinfonia, and a monumental nine-voice, double-choir rendition of a text by an unknown author. The madrigal is divided into two sections, with the second half following a repetition of the middle portion of the sinfonia. It is only in this second half that the ninth voice, an extra soprano, first enters with a lengthy solo. In Questi vaghi concenti the two choirs frequently sing simultaneously, whether in imitation or homophony, producing an impressive sound, contrasting, especially in the second half, with pas- sages for solo voice, two voices, or the first choir alone. The duality of style between the first twelve madrigals and the last six is not as stark as Monteverdi draws it with his basso continuo. The earlier madrigals contain in short bursts the shifts of texture, especially the use of trios, that are more extended in the last six, while these latter madrigals also incorporate substantial sections that are quite similar in character to the earlier ones. The thirteenth madrigal in particular, M’è piu dolce il penar, serves as a transition from one style to the other in its mixture of five-voice homophonic and fewer-voiced concertato textures. Despite this interpenetration of styles, the Fifth Book’s duality between homophonic rhetorical style on the one hand, and the concertato style on the other, not only laid the foundations for Monteverdi’s subsequent madrigal books, with the concertato style increasingly predominating, but also for his forthcoming new ventures in opera and dramatic ballets, beginning with Orfeo in 1607 and his sacred music beginning with the Vespro della Beata Vergine of 1610. This duality is distinct from the duality of the first and second practices, frequently crossing the boundary between the two, sometimes by direct contrast, but often mediated by imitation, which is equally at home in full five-voice or larger textures and in concertato duets or trios, as already demonstrated in the Fifth Book. Jeffrey Kurtzman © 2010 About the ensemble Audiences love ARTEK concerts for their compelling musical settings of beautiful poetry and infectious dance rhythms that infuse the performances with vitality and spirit. Founded by director Gwendolyn Toth in 1986, ARTEK’s singers and instrumentalists are all recognized virtuosos with a love for music of the early baroque that is ARTEK’s signature repertoire. ARTEK has toured extensively to American and European festivals and worldwide with the Mark Morris Dance Group, and has mounted staged performances of early baroque operas and its own musical theater show, I’ll Never See the Starts Again (set to music of Monteverdi) in New York City and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2005. In 2010, ARTEK celebrated its 25th anniversary season with gala performances of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 in New York City and the National Gallery in Washington, DC; and made its Lincoln Center debut. ARTEK’s previous recordings include Monteverdi’s opera, Orfeo; Monteverdi madrigals as heard with the Mark Morris Dance Group, I Don’t Want to Love; and early Italian songs and arias with countertenor Drew Minter in Loveletters from Italy. Director Gwendolyn Toth is recognized as one of America’s leading early music artists, performing with equal ease on the harpsichord, organ, and fortepiano. She has recorded Renaissance and baroque organ music on historical organs in Holland, and Bach’s Goldberg Variations on the lautenwerk. Opera News honored Ms. Toth as an “Outstanding Young Conductor” in 1989, and in 2001, she received the “Newell Jenkins Prize” for excellence in early music performance. Praised for her “sparkle and humor, radiance and magnetism”, soprano Laura Heimes is widely regarded as an artist of great versatility, with repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to the 21st century. She has collaborated and recorded with many of the leading figures in early music, including Andrew Lawrence King, Julianne Baird, Tempesta di Mare, The King’s Noyse, Paul O’Dette, Chatham Baroque, Apollo’s Fire, The New York Collegium, Brandywine Baroque, Trinity Consort, Magnificat, and Piffaro. During the past 20 years, soprano Jessica Tranzillo has gained critical acclaim in performances of opera and early music with ARTEK in festivals in Holland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland and Regensburg, Germany. She has appeared with ARTEK at the Boston Early Music Festival and the first New York Early Music Festival. Ms. Tranzillo can also be heard singing Gregorian chant on Gwendolyn Toth’s CD, Organ Music of Heinrich Scheidemann. The Washington Post described mezzo-soprano Barbara Hollinshead as singing with “an artful simplicity that illuminated the text and beguiled the ear.” She studied in the Netherlands and has since appeared with many of the finest early music ensembles in eastern North America, and has been a member of ARTEK since 1995. Ms. Hollinshead has made numerous recordings in genres from Sephardic song to Bach masses to music of Mrs. H.H.A. Beach. An internationally known countertenor for nearly three decades, Drew Minter has sung leading roles at the opera houses of Brussels, Toulouse, Boston, Washington, Santa Fe, Wolf Trap, Glimmerglass, and Nice, as well as the Halle, Karlsruhe, Maryland, and Göttingen Handel Festivals. He has sung with many of the world’s foremost period instrument ensembles and recorded extensively. An active opera stage director, Minter is the artistic director of Boston Midsummer Opera. He writes regularly for Opera News and is music lecturer at Vassar College. Ryland Angel began his singing career as a chorister in Bristol cathedral. After moving to Paris, he became a sought-after classical vocal soloist. In 2005 he also began a successful career as a pop singer. He now lives in New York City and splits his career between both genres. He has appeared on major opera stages worldwide (English National Opera, Opera Garnier, New York City Opera), on film soundtracks, and on over 30 recordings for EMI, Sony, Universal, and others. Tenor Philip Anderson has been a soloist with many of the finest early music ensembles in the United States including Chatham Baroque, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and Piffaro. He sings regularly with ARTEK, My Lord Chamberlain’s Consort, and TENET. In 2007 he appeared on Broadway in Coram Boy. His many recordings include the Grammy Award nominated O Magnum Mysterium with The Tiffany Consort. Michael Brown, whose voice has been described by Opera Quarterly as “mellow, musicianly”, received his first music lessons from his father and served as a chorister in Bethlehem, PA. Inspired by the singing of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, he has a love for both the lieder repertoire and contemporary music. He tours to Japan regularly to give workshops on ensemble singing with his wife, Phyllis Clark. Peter Becker is an avid performer of repertoire ranging from medieval to Broadway shows. He performs baroque music regularly with ARTEK and Magnificat, and music of the Comedian Harmonists (20th c. German) as a founding member of Hudson Shad. He has performed throughout the United States and in Europe, South America and Asia in varied venues including tiny cabarets, cathedrals, opera houses, theatres and circus tents. Charles Weaver has performed with Early Music New York, Hesperus, Piffaro, Parthenia, Folger Consort, ARTEK, Repast, Dryden Ensemble, Musica Pacifica, and Clarion Society. The Washington Post has called his performances “captivating” and “splendid.” He has accompanied early operas with Juilliard Opera, University of Maryland, Peabody Conservatory, Wooster Group, and Yale School of Music. Grant Herreid is a versatile musician and director/teacher on the early music scene. As a multi-instrumentalist and singer he performs frequently with Ex Umbris, Ensemble Viscera, Hesperus, Piffaro, My Lord Chamberlain’s Consort and the Folger Consort. A noted early music educator, Mr. Herreid conducts classes in Renaissance music and 17th-century song at Mannes College of Music in New York, and directs the New York Continuo Collective. Daniel Swenberg concentrates on Renaissance and baroque performance practices on the theorbo/chitaronne, renaissance and baroque lutes, early guitars, and the gallizona/callichon. Among the ensembles in which he performs are: ARTEK, Rebel, The New York Collegium, The Metropolitan Opera, Staatstheater Stuttgart, New York City Opera, the Mark Morris Dance Group, Stadtstheater Klagenfurt, Tafelmusik, Opera Atelier, Les Violons du Roy, Piffaro, and Spiritus. Christa Patton specializes in early wind instruments as well as historical harps and has toured the Americas, Europe and Japan with Early Music New York, Ex Umbris and Piffaro the Renaissance Band. As a baroque harpist Christa has appeared with Apollo’s Fire, The King’s Noyse, The Toronto Consort, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, La Nef, Parthenia, Tafelmusik, New York City Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, and Opera Atelier. One of America’s leading historical string players, Robert Mealy has been praised for his “imagination, taste, subtlety, and daring” (Boston Globe); the New Yorker called him “New York’s world-class early music violinist.” He has recorded over 50 CDs on most major labels. He is on the faculties of Yale University, where he directs the Yale Collegium, and Juilliard School of Music. Vita Wallace, violin and lira da braccio, is known as a powerful, sensitive, and versatile musician. She has performed and recorded extensively with her brother as the Orfeo Duo, as well as with numerous early-music groups including Anima, ARTEK, the Dryden Ensemble, and Foundling Orchestra. Rosamund Morley, viola da gamba, is a member of Parthenia, New York’s premiere consort of viols, and the Elizabethan group, My Lord Chamberlain’s Consort. She has also performed with ARTEK, Boston Camerata, Catacoustic Consort, Waverly Consort, Lionheart, Piffaro and Sequentia. Jessica Powell performs on double bass, violone and viola da gamba, freelancing with the Washington Bach Consort, the National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra, and the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra. She completed her doctorate at Stony Brook, SUNY in 2010 and teaches cello, bass and piano. Motomi Igarashi plays viola da gamba, lirone, violone, and double bass with ARTEK, Anima, the American Classical Orchestra, the Concert Royal, BEMF, Foundling Orchestra, Handel & Haydn Society, and Bach Collegium Japan. She appeared as a soloist with the NY Philharmonic in Brandenburg Concerto No. 6. Texts and translations: 1. T’amo mia vita T’amo mia vita la mia cara vita Dolcemente mi dice e’n questa sola Si soave parola Par che trasformi lietamente il core Per farmene signore. O voce di dolcezza e di diletto Prendila tosto Amore Stampala nel mio petto. Spiri solo per lei l’anima mia T’amo mia vita la mia vita sia. “I love you, my life,” my dear life sweetly says to me, and with this single most sweet phrase my heart seems happily transformed to make me master of it. O words of sweetness and delight! Take them quickly, Love, imprint them on my breast! Let my soul breathe for her alone: “I love you, my life; be my life.” 2. Ecco Silvio Ecco Silvio colei che ‘n odio hai tanto Eccola in quella guisa Che la volevi a punto. Bramastila ferir ferita l’hai Bramastila tua preda Eccola preda Bramastila alfin morta Eccola a morte. Che vuoi tu più da lei che ti può dare Più di questo Dorinda ah garzon crudo Ah cor senza pietà Tu non credesti La piaga che per te mi fece Amore Puoi questa or tu negar de la tua mano Non hai creduto il sangue che versava Per gl’occhi crederai Questo che’l mio fianco versa. Behold her, Sylvius, whom you hate so much, behold her in the guise in which you wished to see her. You yearned to wound her: you have wounded her; you wanted her your prey: behold her your prey; you wished to see her dead: behold her at death’s door. What more do you want of her, what more than this can Dorinda give you? Ah, cruel boy! Ah, pitiless heart! You did not believe the wound that Love gave me on your account; can you now deny this one struck by your hand? You did not believe the blood that I shed as tears from my eyes; will you believe this blood that flows from my side? 3. Ma se con la pieta Ma se con la pietà non è in te spenta Gentilezza e valor che teco nacque Non mi negar ti prego Anima cruda si ma però bella Non mi negar a l’ultimo sospiro Un tuo solo sospir beata morte Se l’adolcissi tu con questa sola Dolcissima parola Voce cortese e pia Va in pace anima mia. But if the nobility and worth with which you were born have not, along with pity, left you, do not refuse me, I pray you, cruel soul, but still beautiful, do not refuse me at my last sigh a single sigh of yours. Happy my death, were you to sweeten it with this one most sweet phrase, a courteous and pious utterance: “Depart in peace, my love!” 4. Dorinda ah dirò Dorinda ah dirò mia Se mia non sei Se non quando ti perdo E quando morte da me ricevi E mia non fosti allora Che ti potei dar vita Pur mia dirò che mia Sarai malgrado di mia dura sorte E se mia non sarai con la tua vita Sarai con la mia morte. Dorinda, ah! shall I say “mine” if you are not mine until I lose you, and when you receive death from me, and since you were not mine when I was able to give you life? Still, I shall say “mine,” for mine you will be in spite of my harsh fate; and, if you will not be mine while you live, you will be mine when I die. 5. Ecco piegando Ecco piegando le ginocchie a terra Riverente t’adoro E ti chieggio perdon ma non già vita. Ecco gli strali e l’arco Ma non ferir già tu gli occhi o le mani Colpevoli ministri D’innocente voler ferisci il petto Ferisci questo mostro Di pietade e d’amore aspro nemico Ferisci questo cor che ti fu crudo Eccoti il petto ignudo. Behold, bending my knees to the ground, I worship you reverently, and I beg you for forgiveness, but not for life. Here are arrows and the bow; but do not wound my eyes or my hands, guilty ministers of an innocent will; strike my breast, strike this monster, the harsh enemy of compassion and love; strike this heart that was cruel to you: here before you I lay bare my breast. 6. Ferir quel petto Ferir quel petto Silvio Non bisognava agli occhi miei scovrirlo S’avevi pur desio ch’io te’l ferisci O bellissimo scoglio Già da l’onda e dal vento De le lagrime mie de’ miei sospiri Si spesso invan percosso E pur ver che tu spiri E che senti pietate ò pur m’inganno Ma si tu pure ò petto molle o marmo Già non vo’ che m’inganni D’un candido allabastro il bel sembiante Come quel d’una fera Hoggi ingannato ha il tuo signore e mio Ferir io te pur ferisca Amore Che vendetta maggiore Non so bramar che di vederti amante Sia benedetto il dì che da prim’arsi Benedette le lagrime e i martiri Di voi lodar non vendicar mi voglio. Wound that breast, Sylvius? You should not have uncovered it to my sight if you really wished me to wound it. O loveliest cliff, against which in vain my tears and sighs dashed their waves and wind: is it then true that you live and breathe, that you feel pity? Or do I deceive myself? But whether you are a soft or a marble-hearted breast, I no longer wish to be deluded by the fair appearance of white alabaster, as that of a wild beast has today deluded your master and mine. I should wound you? Let Love wound you, rather, for I could not desire greater revenge than to see you a lover. Blessed be the day I first burned with passion, blessed be my tears and suffering! I want to praise you, not to be avenged upon you. 7. Troppo ben può Troppo ben può questo tirann’ Amore Poichè non val fuggire A chi no’l può soffrire Quand’io penso talor com’arde e punge Io dico Ah core stolto Non l’aspettar che fai Fuggilo sì che non ti prenda mai Ma non so com’il lusingher mi gionge Ch’io dico Ah core sciolto Perchè fuggito l’hai Prendilo si che non ti fugga mai. This tyrant Love can do too much, for running away does no good for anyone who cannot abide him. When I think sometimes how he burns and stings, I say: “Ah, foolish heart, don’t wait for him; what are you doing? Fly from him so he can never seize you!” But, somehow the flatterer gets to me, so that I say: “Ah, shattered heart, why have you run from him? Seize him, so he can never flee from you!” 8. Ahi come a un vago sol Ahi come a un vago sol cortese giro De due belli occhi ond’io Soffersi il primo dolce stral d’Amore Pien d’un novo desio Si pronto al sospirar torna’l mio core Lasso non val ascondersi ch’omai Conosc’i segni che’l mio cor addita De l’antica ferita Et è gran tempo pur che la saldai Ah che piaga d’amor non sana mai. Ah, how at a single kind and desirous glance of two beautiful eyes, from which I suffered the first sweet arrow of love, full of a new desire, my heart turns back again, so ready to sigh! Alas, it does no good to hide, for by now I know the signs by which my heart points out that previous wound, and I cured it so long ago: Ah, a love wound never heals! 9. Ch’io t’ami Ch’io t’ami e t’ami più de la mia vita Se tu no’l sai crudele Chiedilo à queste selve Che tel diranno e tel diran con esse Le fere lor e’i duri sterpi e sassi Di questi alpestri monti Chi ho si spesse volte Intenerito al suon de miei lamenti. If you do not know, cruel one, that I love you, and love you more than my own life, ask these forests; for they will tell you, as will the beasts dwelling there, the hard stumps and stones of these craggy mountains, which I have so often softened with the sound of my lamenting. 10. Deh bella e cara Deh bella e cara e si soave un tempo Cagion del viver mio mentre al ciel piacque Volg’una volta Volgi quelle stelle amorose Come le vidi mai così tranquille E piene di pietà prima ch’i’ moia Che’l morir mi sia dolce E dritt’è ben che se mi furo un tempo Dolci segni di vita hor sien di morte Quei bell’occhi amorosi e quel soave sguardo Chi mi scorse ad amare Mi scorga anco a morire E chi fu l’alba mia Del mio cadente di l’espero hor sia. Ah, my reason for living, beautiful and dear, and once so kind to me, while it pleased heaven, turn, just once, in my direction those love-filled, starry eyes as I never see them, so serene and full of compassion, just once before I die, so that my death may be sweet to me. And it is just, since they were once sweet signs of life, that they should now signal death, those beautiful, love-filled eyes; and that kind glance, which guided me to love, should also lead me on to death; and that she who was my dawn should now be the evening star of my declining day. 11. Ma tu più che mai Ma tu più che mai dura Favilla di pietà non senti ancora Anzi t’inaspri più quanto più prego Cosi senza parlar dunque m’ascolti? A chi parlo infelice a un muto marmo sasso? S’altro non mi vuoi dir dimmi almen mori E morir mi vedrai Quest’è ben empio Amor miseria estrema Che si rigida Ninfa non mi risponda E l’armi d’una sola Sdegnosa e cruda voce Sdegni di proferire al mio morir. But you, more obdurate than ever, still you do not feel a spark of compassion; indeed, you become more rigid the more I beg you. Thus, speaking not, you listen to me? To whom do I speak, unhappy me, to mute marble? Though you can say nothing else to me, at least say “Die!” Wicked love, this is truly the height of misery, and you will see me die. that a maiden so merciless does not answer, and armed with a single disdainful, cruel word, she disdains to proffer it to cause my death. 12. E cosi à poco à poco E cosi à poco à poco Torno Farfalla semplicetta al foco E nel fallace sguardo Un’altra volta mi consumm’e ardo Ah che piaga d’amore Quanto si cura più tanto men sana Ch’ogni fatica è vana Quando fu punto un giovinetto core Dal primo e dolce strale Chi spegne antico incendio il fa immortale. And so little by little, I return, a foolish moth, to the flame, and in those deceitful eyes once again I burn and am consumed. Ah, a love wound: the more it is treated the less it heals. For all labor is in vain once a young heart is stricken by the first sweet arrow; whoever puts out an old flame makes it eternal. 13. Cruda Amarilli Cruda Amarilli che col nome ancora D’amar ahi lasso amaramente insegni Amarilli del candido ligustro Più candida e più bella Ma de l’aspido sordo E più sorda e più fera e più fugace Poi che col dir t’offendo I mi morrò tacendo. Cruel Amaryllis, who with your very name alas, you teach me bitterly to love; Amaryllis, whiter and lovelier than the white lily, but more deaf, more fierce and fleeing than the deaf asp; since by speaking I offend you, I shall die in silence. 14. O Mirtillo anima mia O Mirtillo anima mia Se vedesti qui dentro Come sta il cor di questa Che chiami crudelissima Amarilli So ben che tu di lei Quella pietà che da lei chiedi havresti. O anime in amor troppo infelici Che giova a te cor mio l’esser amato Che giova a me l’aver si caro amante Perche crudo destino Ne disunissi tu s’Amor ne stringe E tu perchè ne stringe Se ne parte il destin perfido Amore. O Myrtillus, Myrtillus, my love, if only you could see into the heart of her whom you call most cruel Amaryllis, I know that you would feel for her that pity that you ask of her. O souls too unhappy in love! What good is it to you, my love, to be loved, what good is it to me to have such a dear lover? Why, cruel destiny, do you part those whom Love unites? and you, why do you unite us, treacherous Love, if destiny separates us? 15. Era l’anima mia Era l’anima mia Già presso a l’ultim’hore E languia come langue alma che more Quand’anima più bella più gradita Volse lo sguard’in si pietoso giro Che mi manten’ in vita Parean dir que’ bei lumi Deh perchè ti consumi Non m’è si caro il cor ond’io respiro Come se’ tu cor mio Se mori ohimè non mori tu mor’io. My life was already near its last hour and was languishing as a dying soul languishes, when a most beautiful and most pleasing soul turned its gaze with so much pity that it kept me alive. Those beautiful eyes seemed to say: “Ah, why are you wasting away? The heart which with I breath is not as dear to me as you are, my heart; If you die, alas, you do not die: I die.” 16. Amor se giusto sei Amor se giusto sei Fa che la donna mia Anch’ella giusta sia Io t’amo tu il conosci e ella il vede Ma più mi strazia e mi traffigge il core E per più mio dolore E per dispreggio tuo non mi dà fede. Non sostener Amor che nel tuo regno La dov’io ho sparta fede mieta sdegno Ma fa giusto signore Ch’in premio del amor io colga amore. Love, if you are just, make my lady also be just. I love you, you know it, and she sees it, but she tortures me more, and pierces my heart, and to make my sorrow greater, and your disgrace, she will not pledge her faith to me. In your kingdom, Love, don’t let me reap disdain where I sowed faithfulness, but let me, just Lord, as a reward for love, receive love. 17. Che dar più vi poss’io Che dar più vi poss’io Caro mio ben prendete eccovi il core Pegno della mia fede e del mio amore E se per darli vita a voi l’invio No’l lasciate morire Nudritel’ di dolcissimo gioire Che vostr’il fece amor natura mio Non vedete mia vita Che l’imagine vostr’é in lui scolpita. What more can I give you? My dear, take this, here is my heart, a pledge of my fidelity and my love. And if to give it life I send it to you, do not let it die; nourish it with sweetest joys, for though Nature made it mine, Love made it yours. Do you not see, my darling, that your image is engraved upon it? 18. M’è più dolce il penar M’è più dolce il penar per Amarilli Che’l gioir di mill’altre E se gioir di lei Mi vieta il mio destino Hoggi si moia Per me pur ogni gioia Viver io fortunato Per altra Donna mai per altr’ Amore Ne volendo il potrei Ne potendo il vorrei E s’esser può che’n alcun tempo mai Ciò voglia il mio volere O possa il mio potere Prego il cielo ed Amor che tolto pria Ogni voler ogni poter mi sia. It is sweeter to me to suffer for Amaryllis than to enjoy a thousand other women; and if enjoyment of her is forbidden me by my fate, then today may every other joy die for me. Can I ever live happily with another woman, another love? If I could, I would not If I would, I could not And were it to come to pass that my will would wish it or my strength would be equal to it I pray to heaven, and to Love, that before that time every wish and every strength be taken from me. 19. Questi vaghi Questi vaghi concenti Che gl’augellett’intorno Vanno temprando a l’apparir del giorno Sono cred’io d’Amor desiri ardenti Sono pene e tormenti E pur fanno le selv’e’l ciel gioire Al lor dolce languire Deh se potessi anch’io Cosi dolce dolermi Per questi poggi solitari e ermi Che quell’a cui piacer sola desio Gradiss’il pianger mio Io bramerei Sol per piacer a lei Eterni i pianti miei. The delightful harmonies that the songbirds roundabout sing together at the break of day are, I believe , the burning passions of love; they are pains and torments, and yet they make the woods and sky rejoice with their sweet languishing. Ah, if I too were able to lament so sweetly on these solitary and deserted hills, so that the one woman whose pleasure I desire took delight in my weeping if only to give pleasure to her I would wish my sorrows were eternal. 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