Come viva il mio core

This Italian madrigal by Luzzasco Luzzaschi paints a scene of intense longing and despair. The text speaks of a heart that longs to live and a soul that yearns to breathe, pleading with Love to reveal the secret. However, the speaker already knows the painful truth: their life is sustained by the very things that cause torment, a constant nourishment of harsh suffering that leaves the soul withered and drained, especially after losing sight of their beloved. The SATTB voicing allows for rich harmonic interplay, ideal for conveying the dramatic emotional shifts of the text. Luzzaschi, a significant composer of the late Renaissance, masterfully captures the pathos and rhetorical intensity characteristic of the madrigal tradition.