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      • Bach Through the Years
    • 2022-23 Educational Events >
      • BachTalks
      • Saturday Sings!
    • 2022-23 Virtual Offerings >
      • The Choir Loft >
        • Feb. 5 - Winter's Chill - Dianna Morgan
        • Feb. 12 - The Heirs of Bach: Charles Ives - Steve Osborn
        • March 12 - The Heirs of Bach: Hugo Distler - Steve Osborn
      • Repertoire Exploration Projects
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    • Circa 1600
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    • Live Oak Baroque Orchestra
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Solo e pensoso by Giaches de Wert
The poem is #35 from Petrarch's 'Canzoniere', and is part of the development of the theme of the famous collection: A fixed focus upon an unattainable love. The poet describes himself as fleeing all human contact, for he knows that his preoccupation and suffering are firmly fixed upon his features and bearing. In the Second Part, he tells us that only the rocks and the mountains and other features of his surroundings know of his pain; yet in the end lets us know that Love--as an emotion and as personified by Cupid, the God of Love--knows and shares his innermost feelings.

Wert's two-part setting begins with one of his most daring and brilliant strokes: A jagged point of imitation based upon a line which begins with two consecutive descending fifths, soon followed by two consecutive ascending sixths! There's nothing like it in the repertoire, and it makes a lasting impression, to say the least. It perfectly expresses and amplifies its text, the words of an alienated soul casting hopelessly about in the wilderness.

This point of imitation is followed by another which is as different as one could imagine: The line 'I go, measuring out slow, hesitant paces' is set to an entirely stepwise ascending line, layered upon itself, augmented and intensified as it approaches its final cadence.

It's hard to overstate the effect of this opening sequence. Here Wert, often thought of as an also-ran forebear of his younger colleague Claudio Monteverdi, is revealed as a brilliant, super-imaginative composer, capable of closely reading a text and then rendering its language in music which truly heightens the effects of both its outer and inner meanings.

This madrigal is right up there with two Wert pieces we have already encountered in this Monday Madrigal series, 'Vezzosi augelli' and 'Crud' Amarilli'. For a fun project this week, drag out those two and listen to them along with 'Solo e pensoso'. You'll be amazed afresh, and mostly likely wanting (like me) to explore this consummate madrigalist further.
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All the usual materials are attached, along with that photo mentioned above. Hope to see many of you at Parliamo Italiano on Thursday evening, which will be all about 'food, glorious food'. I plan to be there, this time with a Mai-Tai at hand in place of the customary glass of Chianti Classico.
Click here to download learning materials
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