I dolci colli

Alessandro Striggio's I dolci colli is a masterful secular madrigal for a large SATTTB choir. The music unfolds with a rich texture, exploring the complex interplay between the numerous voice parts. The text, in Italian, speaks of the pain and bittersweet torment of parting from a beloved place or person. The poet describes himself as carrying a 'dear weight' of love, constantly drawn back to what he has left behind. He compares his predicament to a wounded deer, fleeing with a poisoned arrow in its side, finding that the faster it runs, the more it suffers. Striggio's setting vividly captures this sense of inescapable longing and the paradoxical pleasure found within pain, a hallmark of the high Renaissance madrigal tradition.