I vidi in terra

Perissone Cambio was a composer of secular Italian madrigals in the Renaissance. This SATTB setting of a sonnet by an unknown poet describes a vision of angelic beauty on earth, so radiant that it eclipses the sun. The imagery evokes a dreamlike state, with the poet recounting both joy and sorrow at the memory of such perfection. The poem's emotional intensity and profound beauty are mirrored in the music, with personified virtues weeping and sighing, creating a 'sweet harmony' that stills the natural world into rapt attention.