Amor, se pur degg'io

Salamone Rossi's Amor, se pur degg'io is a secular Italian madrigal for SATB choir. The music opens with a declamatory statement, with the voices entering in close imitation before unfolding into more complex polyphony. The text expresses a lover's plea to Cupid, asking why his beloved's cruelty causes him such pain. He questions the justice of his suffering, begging Cupid to strike the cruel beloved and, failing that, to at least have pity on his great suffering. The composer skilfully employs the texture of the ensemble to highlight the dramatic ebb and flow of the text, moving between moments of intense homophony and contrapuntal interplay.