Dove vai miser core

This charming Italian canzonetta from the late Renaissance opens with a lively interplay between the TTB and SSA voices, setting a playful mood. The music directly addresses the listener's heart, asking where it is going, so full of troubles and pain. It questions what the miserable heart will say to explain its torments and woes, and what if its beloved wishes to know the cause of its pain? The music then turns to a more reflective, though still energetic, response, describing a journey to Love's tribunal to complain of suffering. The text speaks of injustice, of being torn apart for another's pleasure, and of a plea to Love's anger for greater power.