Anima mea liquefacta est

Giovanni Croce's motet Anima mea liquefacta est sets a poignant Latin text expressing the soul's intense longing for its beloved. The words describe a desperate search, met with silence, and a painful encounter with guards who wound the narrator and steal their cloak. The text pleads with the daughters of Jerusalem to carry the message of love-sickness to the absent beloved. This setting for double choir (SATB.SATB) creates rich textural possibilities, allowing Croce to explore the dramatic narrative of the text through antiphonal effects and contrapuntal interplay between the two choirs. The ecstatic, almost overwhelming nature of the text is mirrored in the elaborate vocal writing.