Amor mi strugge'l cor

This SSATB madrigal by Orlando di Lasso opens with a rich, imitative texture, the voices weaving together to express the text's distress. The composer masterfully depicts the torment of love and fortune, with the text lamenting how the mind, deprived of all comfort, rages and weeps, compelled to live in constant struggle. Lasso's setting vividly captures the emotional turmoil, employing contrapuntal skill and harmonic colour to convey the speaker's deep suffering and despair. It is a powerful example of secular Renaissance part-music, ideal for choirs seeking to explore the expressive capabilities of the madrigal form and the dramatic intensity of Italian text setting.