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Music

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

AnGa-1594

AnGa-1603

Ma-Ga-1614

B1

first M c2 instead of b1 (corrected ope ingenii)

AnGa-1594 – rubric "Secondo choro. A 8." missing in B2
Ma-Ga-1614 – last note (g2) M instead of SM
AnGa-1594 – AnGa-1603 – Ma-Ga-1614 – first M c2 instead of b1 (corrected ope ingenii)
Text
Lines Sources – Voices Variants
3

AnGa-1594 – A1

AnGa-1603 – A1

Ma-Ga-1614 – A1

altier'e
3

Ma-Ga-1614 – C1A1B1

vist'
7

AnGa-1594 – A2

AnGa-1603 – A2

Ma-Ga-1614 – A2

leggiadr'e
10

AnGa-1594 – T1B1A2

splende
altier'e (AnGa-1594 – A1)
altier'e (AnGa-1603 – A1)
altier'e (Ma-Ga-1614 – A1)
vist' (Ma-Ga-1614 – C1A1B1)
leggiadr'e (AnGa-1594 – A2)
leggiadr'e (AnGa-1603 – A2)
leggiadr'e (Ma-Ga-1614 – A2)
splende (AnGa-1594 – T1B1A2)

Edition and commentary

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 coriLet us sing of Chloris, who from the celestial choirs
Portò l’altiero e non più visto essempiobrought a lofty and unprecedented example
Di beltà, di valor, degna di tempioof beauty and virtue, worthy of a temple
5E 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 divinain whom so much divine grace
10Grazia splend’e riluceshines 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.

Contemporary editions

Delle rime, et prose del sig. Torquato Tasso. Parte quarta, Venice: G. Vasalini, 1586 (attributed to Tasso).

Notes

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)

[. . .]
AMINTACantiam 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
AMINTACantiam 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.
AMINTACantiam 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.