Dunque potra il piu forte

The composer Giaches de Wert sets a deeply emotional Italian text in this secular SATB madrigal. The words question whether even the strongest bonds of love can be undone by scorn, and whether lovers are subject to laws of anger or reason. The speaker insists that this cannot be true, preferring eternal torment, sighs, and death to ever turning their eyes elsewhere or being touched by another love. Wert's musical setting reflects the text's anguish and dramatic rhetorical questions, making it a compelling example of Renaissance part-music.