Chiamo la morte

Teodoro Riccio was a composer of the late Renaissance. Chiamo la morte is a secular canzona for SSATB choir, sung in Italian. The text expresses a plea to death to end the singer's suffering at the hands of an ungrateful beloved, a theme of unrequited love common in the period's secular music. The composer frames this lament with a passionate call for death to release him from his pain and to deliver his heart, which he has given to his cruel lover, from further anguish.