Ahi ch'io mi

Enrico Radesca composed this secular Italian madrigal for two voices, soprano and bass. The text expresses the composer's lament upon waking from a dream that seemed so real and so pleasurable. In his dream, all past troubles had vanished, replaced by joy. He laments the loss of this blissful state and the departure of the beautiful face and breast he saw in his sleep, questioning who has taken his sweet slumber away. Radesca sets this poignant text with a musical sensitivity that captures the emotional arc from delight to bitter disappointment.