Di coralli e di perle

Giovanni de Macque paints a vivid, perilous scene in Di coralli e di perle. Love, personified as a craftsman, has fashioned a small passage of coral and pearls, from which he speaks and laughs. Yet, this alluring entrance gently slays those who approach. The narrator, drawn by ardour, rushed towards this trap, losing his soul and heart. This secular Italian madrigal for SSATTB voices captures the bittersweet danger of desire, a common theme in Renaissance polyphony, with the text moving from playful personification to a lament of utter loss. The intricate vocal writing would have been characteristic of the genre.