Ecco il dardo
Staff Notation • Secular, Madrigals
3 editions of this piece
Different typesettings and voicings of the same work. This page shows the main edition; the others are below.
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Ecco il dardo by Luca Marenzio — Lyrics
About Ecco il dardo
Luca Marenzio's Ecco il dardo is a secular Italian madrigal for treble, treble, and tenor voices. The music opens with the 'dart' of love, expressed through agile melodic lines and imitative entries across the three parts. The text, a poem of unrequited love and suffering, describes how Cupid's arrow has wounded the speaker. The music vividly portrays the pain of this wound, with dissonances and expressive melodic contours reflecting the text's themes of betrayal, death, and a heart of stone. The interplay between the voices captures the speaker's desperate plea to Love for mercy, even as his life ebbs away.