Al marmo del mio core

Tomaso Cecchino was a composer of Italian madrigals in the early Baroque period. This sacred madrigal for two voices (soprano and bass) sets a devotional Italian text. The lyrics express intense personal sorrow and regret, envisioning Jesus bound and scourged, with the singer's own impure desires depicted as the very whips that lash him. The singer laments that his heart remains like marble, unmoved by Christ's suffering, yet acknowledges a single pain that emanates from Christ's wounds, a pain that should, in turn, melt the singer's hardened heart.