Top Results for Amorous

Cipriano de Rore’s “Da le belle contrade d'oriente” is a complex five-voice madrigal from the Renaissance period. The work showcases de Rore’s innovative use of chromatic harmony and his skill in depicting vivid imagery through musical expression. Primarily intended for advanced choral ensembles, it...

Flemish-Italian composer Cipriano de Rore (1515–1565), one of the most influential madrigalists of the 16th century, served as maestro di cappella at St. Mark's Basilica, Venice.

Five-voice madrigal from Monteverdi's fourth book (1603), one of his most sensually charged works, built on the erotic conceit of the beloved's kiss as a little death.

Sfogava con le stelle is a five-voice Italian madrigal by Claudio Monteverdi, published in his fourth book of madrigals in 1603. The text depicts a lover addressing the stars and is set with bold harmonic and declamatory writing. The piece is one of several in Book IV that illustrate Monteverdi's tr...

'Take here my heart' is an English madrigal by Thomas Weelkes (c.1576–1623), one of the most inventive and harmonically adventurous madrigalists of the Elizabethan era.

Italian madrigal by Luca Marenzio (1553–1599), one of the most influential late Renaissance composers, celebrated for refined text expression and expressive chromatic harmony.

"Mein G'müt ist mir verwirret" is a secular German lied composed by Hans Leo Hassler, first published in his 1601 collection titled *Lustgarten neuer teutscher Gesänge*. The piece is structured as a five-part madrigal and features amorous text characteristic of the late Renaissance period. Its most...

"Dolcissima mia vita" is an Italian madrigal by the late Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo, published in his fifth book of madrigals in 1611. The piece is heavily celebrated for its lush chromaticism, extreme dissonances, and affective text-setting, which are the hallmarks of Gesualdo's mature com...

"Io son ferito, ahi lasso" is a secular madrigal composed by the Italian Renaissance composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, first published in 1555. Written for four voices, the piece was included in his first book of madrigals, representing a comparatively rare venture into secular music for a...

"A un giro sol" is a five-voice madrigal by Claudio Monteverdi, included in his Fourth Book of Madrigals published in 1603. The piece sets a verse from Giovanni Battista Guarini's dramatic pastorals, a common source of inspiration for the composer's early secular vocal works. It is distinguished by...

"Cor mio, mentre vi miro" is a five-voice madrigal by Claudio Monteverdi, published in his Fourth Book of Madrigals in 1603. A setting of a contemplative love poem, it demonstrates the expressive use of dissonance and harmonic tension that Monteverdi and his brother defended in the preface to the Sc...

“Love Me Not for Comely Grace” is an English madrigal by John Wilbye, published in his First Set of Madrigals in 1598. Its text asks that love be based neither on physical beauty nor on qualities that can fade or change, but on love itself. Wilbye treats the reflective argument through balanced voca...

“Luci serene e chiare” is an Italian madrigal by Carlo Gesualdo, published in his Fourth Book of Madrigals in 1596. The poem addresses the beloved’s serene, bright eyes and describes their power over the speaker through paired images of pleasure, pain, life, and death. Gesualdo emphasizes these emot...

“Oimè, se tanto amate” is an Italian madrigal by Claudio Monteverdi included in his Fourth Book of Madrigals, published in Venice in 1603. The work sets an amorous text in which emotional pain and desire are closely intertwined, using changes in harmony, dissonance, and vocal texture to emphasize in...

“Fire, Fire” is an English madrigal by Thomas Morley that treats the conventional Renaissance image of love as a consuming flame. Its short exclamations and amorous language are reflected in animated imitation, quick exchanges among the voices, and shifts between contrapuntal and more chordal textur...

“Era l'anima mia” is a five-voice Italian madrigal by Claudio Monteverdi, published in his Fifth Book of Madrigals in 1605. It sets poetry by Giovanni Battista Guarini in which a lover's soul seems near death before being revived by the beloved's response. Monteverdi shapes the scene through contras...

"Luci serene e chiare" is a five-voice madrigal composed by Claudio Monteverdi, published in his fourth book of madrigals in 1603. The piece is distinguished by its refined harmonic language, smooth polyphony, and expressive use of chromaticism to capture the imagery of the beloved's "bright and ser...

"Troppo ben può questo tiranno Amore" is a madrigal composed by Claudio Monteverdi, included in his Fourth Book of Madrigals published in Venice in 1603. The piece is written for five voices and demonstrates Monteverdi's application of the *seconda prattica*, a theory prioritizing the expression of...

Resta di darmi noia is the fourth madrigal in Carlo Gesualdo's Libro sesto, a collection of 23 Italian madrigals for five voices published in 1611. Its six-line text addresses a cruel, deceptive thought, declares joy dead, and rejects hope of future happiness, while the vocal writing belongs to the...

I Thought That Love Had Been a Boy is an English five-voice madrigal by William Byrd, one of the major composers of the English Renaissance. Its text treats Love as a changeable pastoral figure, using a witty conceit to describe the instability and caprices of affection. The piece belongs to Byrd's...

O dolcezze amarissime d'amore is an Italian madrigal by Sigismondo d'India, whose music stands at the transition from late Renaissance polyphony to the early Baroque. Its title expresses the madrigal's central paradox, the bitter sweetness of love, and the work uses harmonic contrast to project that...

Fair Is the Rose is a five-voice madrigal by Orlando Gibbons, published in his First Set of Madrigals and Motets in 1612. The text uses the rose as a pastoral image for feminine beauty, contrasting the flower's attractiveness with the greater beauty of the woman being praised. The work belongs to th...

Perfidissimo volto is a five-voice madrigal from Claudio Monteverdi's Third Book of Madrigals, published in 1592. Its text addresses an unfaithful or deceptive beloved, and the music treats the complaint through strongly declamatory vocal writing and unsettled harmonic movement. The piece belongs to...

O felic'occhi miei is a four-voice madrigal by Jacques Arcadelt, a Franco-Flemish composer active in Italy during the sixteenth century. Published in the early Italian madrigal collections of the 1530s and 1540s, it explores the mixed emotional experience of amorous longing, including pleasure and d...

Itene, o miei sospiri is a five-voice Italian madrigal by Carlo Gesualdo, not a work by Luca Marenzio. It appears as the third madrigal in Gesualdo's Fifth Book, published in 1611, and sets a text in which the speaker sends his sighs to a beloved who has caused him pain. The poem moves from a plea f...

Arde il mio cor, ed è sì dolce il foco is a five-voice Italian madrigal by Carlo Gesualdo, published in his Fourth Book of Madrigals in 1596. Its text describes a heart burning with a sweet fire and presents love's painful intensity as a paradoxical source of joy. The work belongs to Gesualdo's late...

Donna, nel mio ritorno is a five-voice Italian madrigal by Claudio Monteverdi, first published in his Second Book of Madrigals in Venice in 1590. The collection belongs to Monteverdi's early career and was written during his association with the Gonzaga court at Mantua. The piece is intended for an...

Madonna mia gentil, ringrazio Amore is a five-voice Italian madrigal by Luca Marenzio, first published in his First Book of Madrigals for Five Voices in Venice in 1580. The work sets an Italian amorous text and belongs to the late-Renaissance madrigal repertory, in which vocal counterpoint and close...

“Cara la vita mia” is an Italian madrigal by Giaches de Wert, a composer born in the Low Countries who spent much of his career in Italy. Wert served the Gonzaga court in Mantua, where his work connected northern European polyphonic practice with the developing Italian madrigal style. The piece belo...