I tuoi capelli

In this secular Italian madrigal for SATB choir, Ruggiero Giovannelli sets lines from Jacopo Sannazaro’s Egloga Duodecima. The text expresses the lover’s deep sorrow at the absence of his beloved, Filli. He treasures her hair, which he carefully binds and then loosens, weeping over it and drying his tears with sighs. He laments that his verses are humble, yet hopes his constant weeping will move death itself. The music would reflect the intense personal grief and pleading of the text, a poignant expression of unrequited love from the Renaissance period.