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Mogens Peders�n (a. 1585-1623) is one of the most outstanding danish composers
from the early 17'th century. Like other of his contemporary music talented
fellow country men he travelled to Venice in italy to learn from the famous
Giovanni Gabrieli at the saint Marco Church.
During his sencond visit to Venice a collection of his five part madrigals,
'MADRIGALI A CINQUE VOCI. LIBRO PRIMO' was printed by the venetian music
publisher Angelo Gardano. The madrigals published here are modern editions of
the compositions from this collection.
In English the lyrics of the madrigals means something like:
1. "Ecco la Primavera"
"Her comes the spring which by the presence of the sun gives new life to the
rose and the viol. The loving birds will, with the sweet pain of their hearts,
intensify their singing."
2. "Se nel partir da voi"
"If by leaving you, my dear, I feel torment and pain, I will exult thousand
and thousand times at the day of my happy return. If without you, my sweetest
heart, I live no more, then I will live singing of my life the whole day."
3. "Morir� cor mio"
"I die, my heart, if you do not succour my tired life. Because night and day I
live in pain and misery. My dearest, through which miracle are you doing it?
You want my death, you cruel, for giving me full mercy."
4. "T'amo mia vita!" poem by Battista Guarini
"'I love you, my life', my beloved says sweetly to me, and, with this one most
lovely phrase, she seems serenely to change her heart, to make me master of
it. O sweet and delightful words! Make haste, Love, to imprint them on my
heart! Let my soul breathe through them alone: let 'I love you, my life' be
my whole life."
5. "O che soaue baccio" poem by Battista Guarini
"Oh what a blissful kiss I got from my lady. I do not know if it was a gift
from her or a theft by me. But even if that is theft then let nobody desire
courteousness. Just make a thief of yourself, Cupid, for I forgive you, and
entirely leave the gift for the theft."
6. "Son viuo e non son viuo"
"I am alive and not alive. I am dead and totally deprived of death. Oh cruel
love, oh hard fate, that you keep me in doubt of life and death. Tell me, my
life, if I am alive and which life is mine. And if I live then I will be
living loving you and serving you."
7-8. "Care lagrime mie"
"My dear tears, messengers of my hard pains, alas, since you can't soften the
heart that has no pity for my sorrow; if you [my love] from my weeping have
grown fond of the sea then be so kind as to extinguish my burning fire. Rise
so much that I may sink into my own weeping."
9. "Come esser pu� ch'io viua"
"How comes it that I live when I am deprived of the nourishment that can keep
me alive? And how comes it that I live at the same time as the the hope of
enjoying again lives in me? Just speak it out, you [my] heart, that I am a
living corpse because of love."
10. "S'io rido et scherzo"
"If I laugh and joke and at the sometime sing, then I do it, oh lady, to hide
for others my great sorrow devouring my heart. What shall I do, what is your
advice, Cupid, to put an end to my great pain?"
11-12. "Nell' apparir dell' amorosa Aurora"
"At the sweet dawn Filisto, sitting on his hide, together with Agrio, Mopso
and the great shepherd Negrino began to strike up these words: while the sun
appears from east let us sing in sweet style and greet the new and green
April. Then they all let the air resound with beautiful harmonies. Now that
the winds have been banished together with the white snow and the rime which
used to threaten with so much misery and now that the elements stay quiet let
us sing together and greet the month that renews the land with flowers."
13. "Tra queste verdi fronde"
"Among these green leaves, at the murmur of the billows, among these herbs and
flowers Aminta and Clori gathered the fruits of love. Friendly and courteous
leaves formed hiding places which were the only to know the lovers' sweet and
blessed thefts. Let Heaven guard you gracious like the laurel that preserves
its green from (the time of) Gemini to (the time of) Taurus."
14. "Amor, per tua merc�"
"Have mercy with me, Amor and go to her who is so cruelly refractory to
me. Pierce her heart with an arrow and give me revenge. Say to her: how could
you have the heart to let him die who loves you so much?"
15. "Donna, mentre i' vi miro"
"My lady, while admiring you I change visibly and take your appeareance. And
transformed I expire my soul in one single sigh: O lifegiving beauty, O
deathgiving beauty, as a heart is so rapidly reborn by you and die born by
you".
16. "Non voglio pi� seruire"
"I'll not serve any more that untrustworthy who makes me die, but joyfull I
will sing everywhere, any time: insane is he that falls in love with a lady.
Never more shall a lady torment me."
17. "Dimmi, caro ben mio"
"Tell me, my dear, was the kiss you gave me sign of life or death? It was sign
of life because I breathed out my soul on your lips. It was not sign of death
because joy overwhelmed my heart. You are silent, oh treacher, your kiss was
mortal life, life giving death!"
18. "Io non credea gi� mai"
"I did not imagine one could live in such misery. Now I feel it under pain and
tears alone among the other lovers. For I would never have thought that one
could live without soul and without heart."
19. "Lascia, semplice"
"Permit, you simple, permit your aged lover to burn from love. And don't say
that I'm less faithfull than him because of my young age. You will see a green
tree burning little by little when it has been lit by a prolonged fire. An
arid trunk is consumed and extinct in a moment by a poor flame."
20-21. "Madonn', Amor"
"My lady, Amor and I were singing together one day such that nothing was heard
sung more beautifully. She sang about her arrows and about the beauties and I
sang about both delights. And after a sequence of charming fughettas[1] she
hove a sigh[2] - pause[3]. Then Amor merged her cantus firmus[4] with the
tenor[5] and I joined in with a beautiful cointerpoint[6]. In due time she let
the charming voices sound such that in comparison the song of the Muses was
just fluttering[7] notes. Gentle accents[8], passages[9], ties[10] long and
short meters[11] made the harmony[12] so delightful that she at that time left
the song as far as one could hear. Tired she ceased her song and said:
silence. And for me she performed both cadences[13] in blissed kisses".
The Italian text of "Madonn', Amor" is interspersed with words from (17th
century) Italian music terminology reflected in the musical composition:
[1] fughetta - short fugue
[2] sospiro - short rest
[3] pausa - rest
[4] canto fermo - cantus firmus, plainsong
[5] tenore - tenor voice, tenor part
[6] contrapunto - counterpoint, rhythmically independant melody
[7] confuse - fusa: mensural notation duration corresponding to an 8th note,
semifusa: 16th note
[8] accenti - accents, musical ornaments
[9] passagi - passages, figuration
[10] legature - ligatures, ties
[11] misure - relation between note values, meter
[12] armonia - chord
[13] cadenza - cadence, harmonic conclusion
In order to process the M-Tx source of the scores you'll need the macro package
mensural.tex found at the Werner Icking sheet music archive
(http://icking-music-archive.sunsite.dk/scores/ravenscroft/common.zip).