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  • Deep Dives
    • 2024-2025 Concerts >
      • William Byrd: Angelical and Divine
      • Heinrich Schütz: The Orpheus of the 17th Century
      • George Frideric Handel: Messiah
      • Samuel Scheidt: The Art of Variation
      • Ludwig Senfl: A Gifted Imagination
      • Claudio Monteverdi: A New Manner of Composing
      • J.S. Bach: Bach Around Thirty
    • Donate today!
  • Tickets
    • Tickets
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  • Who we are and What we do
    • Board of Directors and Staff
    • Mission Statement
  • Our Ensembles
    • Sonoma Bach Choir
    • Circa 1600
    • Green Mountain Consort
    • Live Oak Baroque Orchestra
  • Support
    • Donate
    • Sponsor a Singer!
    • Escrip & Amazon Smile
  • Resources
    • Virtual Offerings - Archive >
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      • Motet Fridays
      • Virtual Recording Projects
      • Virtual Concerts >
        • Live Oak Baroque Orchestra
        • Music for these Distracted Times - Barefoot All-Stars
        • Agave Baroque American Originals
        • Bach's Long Walk to Lübeck - Anne Laver, organ
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Vedi le Valle by Luca Marenzio
Today's piece is by Luca Marenzio, from his ultra-productive year of 1585. The madrigal is called 'Vedi le valli', on a poem by Jacopo Sannazaro. The poet was known for his pastoral plays and poems, often using a special kind of poetic meter called sdrucciola, in which each line ends with a word whose accent is on the third-to-last syllable.
Our piece is in this form. 

The narrator (no doubt a shepherd) is trying to console a friend who has been unlucky in love, and to do so he calls attention to all the pleasures of nature and good weather. Of course Marenzio makes hay of all this; the 4-part madrigal is one of my favorites among his light pieces. Should you happen to be feeling down,
this piece will act as an effective tonic. 

All the usual materials are herewith attached, along with an article about Marenzio and Sannazaro.
Click here to download learning materials
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