Hor ch’e ̀ tempo di dormire

Tarquinio Merula’s Hor ch’è tempo di dormire is a secular aria for solo voice, sung in Italian. The text is a tender lullaby from a mother to her child, imbuing a simple domestic scene with profound spiritual meaning. It gently urges the infant to sleep, contrasting the child’s innocent present with the foretold suffering and sacrifice of Christ. The mother compares the child’s eyes to divine lights, soon to be obscured, and offers her breast milk as sustenance, though she knows a crueler fate awaits. She calls her own body a soft bed for her beloved, all before the soul is returned to God on the cross. The piece moves from gentle comfort to poignant prophecy, offering a moving meditation on love, sacrifice, and the divine.