I vaghi fiori by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
A very fine little piece by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina called 'I vaghi fiori' ('The pretty flowers'), on a short poem by an unknown author.
In her Parliamo Italiano class last week, Cinzia introduced us to this piece, hitherto unknown to me. As I am wont to do, I got excited about it and tracked down the materials and then worked with Cinzia on the translation, which was a bit difficult for me.
The song is an example of a certain vein in Italian Renaissance poetry in which a protagonist declares all the beautiful and pleasurable things there are to see and do; and then a corner is turned, often by means of a caesura whose gist is 'But...'; or 'However...'; or 'Despite all this vain show...'; after which we learn that said protagonist has lost his/her love, and now all is dark, all is empty, and all these lovely things are nothing but a painful remembrance.
We have already had several examples of this model in our madrigal series, including Monteverdi's 'O primavera' and 'Zefiro torna' (both versions). The form gives great opportunities for contrast, as the opening passages are bright and clear, and the closing passage is full of suffering. Quite frankly, I am experiencing something along these lines today, full of sadness about my dad and about Don, but looking outside and seeing a beautiful, clear Sonoma County evening. It seems as though it should be cold and rainy.
The piece has a special feature, which is that the second part is a negation of the first; that is, the very same marvels that are extolled in the first verse are revealed in the second verse as powerless to heal, to assuage, to touch the sufferer. This second verse is like a 'catalog song', simply a list of items; but Palestrina's music has the power to imbue the verse with loss and emptiness.
Attached you'll find the score, a text-translation sheet, and Cinzia's peerless pronunciation guide. Here's a link to a good recording. Special thanks to Cinzia for introducing us to this piece!
A very fine little piece by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina called 'I vaghi fiori' ('The pretty flowers'), on a short poem by an unknown author.
In her Parliamo Italiano class last week, Cinzia introduced us to this piece, hitherto unknown to me. As I am wont to do, I got excited about it and tracked down the materials and then worked with Cinzia on the translation, which was a bit difficult for me.
The song is an example of a certain vein in Italian Renaissance poetry in which a protagonist declares all the beautiful and pleasurable things there are to see and do; and then a corner is turned, often by means of a caesura whose gist is 'But...'; or 'However...'; or 'Despite all this vain show...'; after which we learn that said protagonist has lost his/her love, and now all is dark, all is empty, and all these lovely things are nothing but a painful remembrance.
We have already had several examples of this model in our madrigal series, including Monteverdi's 'O primavera' and 'Zefiro torna' (both versions). The form gives great opportunities for contrast, as the opening passages are bright and clear, and the closing passage is full of suffering. Quite frankly, I am experiencing something along these lines today, full of sadness about my dad and about Don, but looking outside and seeing a beautiful, clear Sonoma County evening. It seems as though it should be cold and rainy.
The piece has a special feature, which is that the second part is a negation of the first; that is, the very same marvels that are extolled in the first verse are revealed in the second verse as powerless to heal, to assuage, to touch the sufferer. This second verse is like a 'catalog song', simply a list of items; but Palestrina's music has the power to imbue the verse with loss and emptiness.
Attached you'll find the score, a text-translation sheet, and Cinzia's peerless pronunciation guide. Here's a link to a good recording. Special thanks to Cinzia for introducing us to this piece!