Consumando mi vo

Luca Marenzio paints a vivid scene of unrequited love in this secular Italian madrigal for SATTB voices. The text describes a lover consumed by sorrow, wandering from shore to shore by day and weeping through the night. His only solace, or perhaps his only companion in misery, is the moon. As evening falls, his sighs erupt from his chest, and his tears flow so abundantly that they seem to water the earth and shake the very woods. Marenzio's setting captures the intense emotion of the poetry, with lush harmonies and expressive melodic lines characteristic of the late Renaissance madrigal tradition.