Care dolci mammelle

Ruggiero Giovannelli's Care dolci mammelle is a secular Italian madrigal for SATTB voices. The text explores a series of intense, contrasting emotions and states: sweet breasts are addressed, described as a seat of love's frost or fire, an object of lovers' desire or stars. The poet questions whether this is bitter death or life, sweet food for the eyes or poison for the heart. Love declares that food and poison must attend one's fate, and the poem concludes with a powerful list of opposites: frost, fire, shade, stars, life, and death. Giovannelli sets these dramatic and paradoxical sentiments with the rich colours of the five-part madrigal tradition.