Bien podéis corazón mío

Manuel Machado was a Spanish composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. This secular song, Bien podéis corazón mío, is a villancico, a popular form of Spanish polyphonic song. Scored for SATB choir, the text expresses deep sorrow and longing. The singer implores his heart and eyes to weep, so that his suffering and the fire of his fatigue may be extinguished. He describes his life as sad, living and dying in anguish and jealousy, unloved and rejected. The music would have served as entertainment in aristocratic or bourgeois circles, often performed in intimate settings.