Au dieu d'amours

Jean de Castro sets a poignant French text in this chanson for three voices. The music opens with a direct, almost declarative statement, the voices moving in close imitation, reflecting the lover's surrender to Cupid. The texture shifts, however, as the text moves from the renunciation of love's power to the enduring pain of unrequited affection. Castro employs a polyphonic style characteristic of Renaissance secular part-music, allowing the distinct vocal lines to weave together to express the singer's melancholy and suffering. The simplicity of the SST voicing lends an intimate, almost plaintive quality to the lament.