Sources used for collation: AnGa-1594; AnGa-1603; Ma-Ga-1614
Other sources: –
Measures | Sources – Voices | Variants | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
directive | AnGa-1594 – B2 |
rubric "Secondo choro. A 8." missing in B2 |
||
61 | Ma-Ga-1614 – T1 |
last note (g2) M instead of SM |
||
90 |
|
first M c2 instead of b1 (corrected ope ingenii) |
Lines | Sources – Voices | Variants |
---|---|---|
3 | altier'e | |
3 | vist' | |
7 | leggiadr'e | |
10 | splende |
Cantiam la bella Clori
Adapted from Battista Guarini’s Dimmi, gentil pastore
Madrigal: aABBaaCDEdaa
Cantiam la bella Clori! | Let us sing of fair Chloris! | |
Clori cantiam, che dai celesti cori | Let us sing of Chloris, who from the celestial choirs | |
Portò l’altiero e non più visto essempio | brought a lofty and unprecedented example | |
Di beltà, di valor, degna di tempio | of beauty and virtue, worthy of a temple | |
5 | E d’immortali onori. | and of immortal honors. |
Cantiam la bella Clori! | Let us sing of fair Chloris! | |
Cantiamo la leggiadra e vaga Ninfa, | Let us sing of the graceful and beautiful Nymph, | |
Nostro ben, nostra gloria e nostra duce, | our blessing, our glory, and our leader, | |
In cui tanta dal Cielo e sì divina | in whom so much divine grace | |
10 | Grazia splend’e riluce | shines from Heaven and radiates, |
Ch’infiamma i nostri cori. | that it inflames our hearts. | |
Viva la bella Clori! | Long live fair Chloris! |
English translations of madrigal texts based with permission on those by Kathryn Bosi, The complete five voice madrigals: for mixed voices / IV, The sixth and seventh books. New York: Gaudia Music and Arts, 1996.
Delle rime, et prose del sig. Torquato Tasso. Parte quarta, Venice: G. Vasalini, 1586 (attributed to Tasso).
The text is an adaptation from lines 60–72 of the pastoral dialogue Dimmi, gentil pastore. Written for the wedding of Margherita Gonzaga with Alfonso II d’Este in 1579, the dialogue is ascribed to Tasso in some contemporary editions, but is in all likelihood by Guarini, as suggested by Angelo Solerti. (See Angelo Solerti, Le rime di Torquato Tasso, I: Bibliografia (Bologna: Romagnoli-Dall’Acqua, 1898), 502–503. Luigi Fassò has included the work in his edition of Guarini’s Opere (Turin: UTET, 1950), 466–469.) Tasso wrote a companion poem with a similar incipit for the same occasion, Dimmi, mesto pastore (also known as the first of his Eclogues).
The excerpt from Guarini’s dialogue, as printed in his Opere (tome II, Verona: G.A. Tumermani, 1737, 176–179), is reproduced below for comparison (the parts changed or omitted in the text set by Marenzio are printed in bold):
“Per Madama Margherita Gonzaga, Duchessa di Ferrara”
Dialogo (Licori, Dafne & Aminta)
[. . .] | ||
AMINTA | Cantiam la nostra Dea. | 60 |
D. & L. | Cantiam la Dea che dai celesti cori | |
Portò l’altero e non più visto esempio | ||
Di beltà, di valor, degna di tempio | ||
E d’immortali onori | ||
Assai più di Minerva e Citerea. | 65 | |
AMINTA | Cantiam la nostra Dea. | |
A. & D. | Cantiam l’alma Reina, | |
Nostro ben, nostra gloria e nostra duce, | ||
In cui tanta del Ciel e sì divina | ||
Grazia splende e riluce; | 70 | |
Che a Dio ne scorge in lei mirando, e bea. | ||
AMINTA | Cantiam la nostra Dea. | |
[. . .] |
Interestingly, Marenzio set the lines that immediately follow this excerpt (73–85) in a madrigal (Lucida perla a cui fu conca il cielo) included in his Book VI a 6 (1595), dedicated to Margherita herself. See Chater, “Fonti poetiche per i madrigali di Luca Marenzio,” 78, and the Introduction to this edition.