Es tan grave mi dolor

This secular madrigal for SATTBB voices sets a poignant Spanish text expressing the composer's profound suffering and torment in love. The lyrics describe a pain so severe and a torment so strange that mere suffering is insufficient to convey the depth of feeling. The speaker laments a lover's broken promise of favor, which has instead led to a loss of contentment and an increase in ardour. The relentless rigor of the beloved leaves the speaker without spirit or breath, feeling a thousand deaths each hour. The poem concludes with a plea to experience death once, as the pain is so great. Pietro Vinci's setting likely reflects the dramatic emotional arc of the text.