Altro non è'l mio amor

Jacquet de Berchem was a Franco-Flemish composer active in Italy during the Renaissance, known for his madrigals. This secular SATB setting in Italian explores the intense suffering of unrequited love. The text compares the lover's state to hell, where the greatest torment is the absence of divine contemplation. The poet argues that his love is his own personal inferno, a state of perpetual deprivation from the longed-for beloved. The final lines lament the powerful grip of love, which brings the experience of hell even before death. Berchem's music vividly captures the passionate and dramatic sentiments of the poem.