Ich armer Mann

This setting of a German Lieder text for SATTB voices by Orlando di Lasso might be programmed for a concert of Renaissance secular music. The composer's skill is evident in his sympathetic musical setting of the text, which laments the burdens of marriage. The opening line, 'I poor man, what have I done', sets a tone of regret and frustration that permeates the entire song. The lyrics describe a constant state of marital strife, extending even to the domestic sphere of the bed and the table. Lasso's music would have been intended for performance by skilled amateur or professional singers in aristocratic or domestic settings of the late 16th century.