Chiuder gl'occhi vorrei

This appealing Italian madrigal for SATTB voices would suit a concert program of Renaissance secular part-music. The text, by Gasparo Murtola, explores the pain of sleeplessness and unrequited love. The poet wishes to close his eyes and find sweet rest for his sorrowful heart, but cannot because his thoughts are fixed on his beloved. He spends his nights and days awake, bemoaning his miserable state and questioning whether sleep itself is merely a shadow of death. He asks what greater torment exists than to long for death but be unable to find it.